Navy Story #11
Leading a Work Detail at OCS
My time at OCS (Officer Candidate School) spanned the Christmas holiday in 1972, and I didn't have the money to fly home to Virginia, so I stayed at the dorm at OCS. About 15 or
so other Officer Candidates (OC's) also stayed. We had to do some work on some work details in the mornings during that week, but after lunch they cut us loose so we could at least relax a bit during the holiday. That
was nice.
One morning, as we gathered around the door of the Regimental Commander's room (who was also an Officer Candidate who had to stay that week!), he asked me if I would lead the cleaning
detail that morning. (I was an early bird that morning and was the first OC to show up. There could be a lesson here! Just kidding.) I agreed, so he proceeded to give me the instructions. It turned out that we weren't
going to actually clean anything, but we were going to rearrange furniture at the other dorm at OCS, which up to that time had not been used (during the time I was there, I mean) but which was going to be used for some foreign
OC's who were coming in a few weeks to use the facilities. I think it was going to be Thai and French OC's, but I don't remember for sure.
Anyway, we all walked over to the lobby of that dorm building and I had everyone sit down so I could give them our instructions. We sat and laid around on some area rugs that were rolled
up in the lobby, and these rugs turned out to be part of the morning's work. We had two hallways to rearrange furniture in, and to put the rugs into the rooms of. So I split up the OC's into two groups and made one
OC in each group the leader of that hall's work. I also quickly sized up some of the rearranging details and made some suggestions, which I think were something about starting on one end of the hall, rearranging some
furniture, putting rugs into those rooms, and moving on down the hall as each room was complete. It wasn't rocket science, but the suggestion turned out to be a good one. Part of the furniture rearranging involved moving
some beds and closets into different rooms, so it was slightly complicated.
As the two teams of OC's went to work, I circulated around the two hallways. I directed some of the more complicated and confusing bed and closet moves, answered questions, and
gave a few more suggestions. About halfway through the morning, the Regimental Commander came over and jumped into the mix of work that was happening. He did it cheerfully and eagerly. That impressed me a lot.
Shortly before lunch, we finished the rearranging. As we laid around the lobby catching our breath, the Regimental Commander said that the Base Commander (the Commander of Navy Base
Newport) was going to be very surprised -- neither the Base Commander nor the Regimental Commander had expected us to finish that morning. He congratulated me on the organizing and motivating I had done to make it happen
so quickly. I felt pretty good about that.
A few weeks later in OCS, I was made the next Regimental Commander, partly on the recommendation of the outgoing Regimental Commander, who remembered that morning.