Navy Story #13
Becoming Regimental Commander
This is one of my Navy "success" stories. I have already told you about how I led a work detail during Christmas break at OCS (Navy Story #11), and I mentioned at the end
of that story how it contributed to my becoming Regimental Commander. Here are the details of how that happened…
I was a good student at OCS, and was getting pretty good grades. My shipmates in Echo Company would occasionally tease me with statements about how I could be the next Regimental Commander.
I brushed them off, but the thought was always in the back of my mind. By the way, the Regimental Commander is the Officer Candidate who interfaces with the actual officers who run OCS, and keeps the lines of communication
going among the various companies there.
When I was a "senior" at OCS (I forget what they called the periods of time that they split OCS into. It wasn't semesters, but shorter time periods. We crammed a lot of
classes into 6 months!), and it was time for the real officers at OCS to select the next Regimental Commander, I decided to go ahead and make a run for it, with my shipmates' encouragement, of course. The officers looked
at grades, performance in other areas like our exercises in damage control (another story, another time!), shooting, physical fitness, getting along with shipmates, etc. But the final decision was based on an interview before
a review board that was composed of the actual officer in command of OCS, other officers, and the current Regimental Commander.
The Regimental Commander candidates were required to march, individually, and at their appointed time, into a large room in one of the class buildings, come to attention in front of
the board, and report in by saying something like, "Officer Candidate Link reporting, sir!" They did allow us to come to "at ease" (which is a more relaxed, although still formal, stance), and then they
asked questions like why I wanted to be Regimental Commander, what problems I saw at OCS that I'd like to solve, what I wanted to accomplish in the Navy, etc. I answered some things about improving communication between
the regiment and the officers in charge, and among the various companies. Then the final test was for the candidate to yell, as loud as he could and to an imaginary regiment, some of the commands that we used at formation
to do some of our collective marching drills. I have a very strong voice, and I put it to good use there. The walls and ceiling rang with my commands.
Anyway, later that same day, in the evening, the officer in charge announced the results over the loudspeaker system in the dorm. When they announced my selection as Regimental Commander,
my shipmates rushed to my room and made quite a commotion congratulating me. It was a fun time. After things settled down a bit, I called my parents in Virginia and told them of my selection. That was a fun call, too.
I didn't accomplish much of what I had told the board that I wanted to accomplish as Regimental Commander! I was still an officer candidate, finishing my studies, and things were
really busy. I concentrated a lot on my studies, and pretty much left the other Regimental officer-candidate "officers" run the regiment. That's sort of how it's supposed to be, but I'm still disappointed,
looking back, that I didn't stay in more effective touch with the OCS officer in charge, and with my regimental officer-candidate staff. I think I learned a lot during that time about what things are really important
to concentrate on. I have made it a priority even in my programming and managing jobs to keep lines of communication open and flowing well.
Anyway, as Regimental Commander and as first in my class grade-wise at graduation, I got to pick my first duty station fairly freely. I was able to choose an east coast ship, and even
was able to ask for a new ship. The USS Pensacola (LSD-38) that I was assigned to was only a few years old when I reported for duty.