Flashback: The Longest 6 Weeks of my Life

Early in our second year of law school, Thomas dragged me to a career presentation by the Navy JAG. I had never considered a career in the military. But, it was something Thomas had always been interested in doing. In fact, he had tried to enlist right after high school but a shoulder surgery kept him from being medically ready. Life took over and he played baseball for a few years, went to college, and then found himself at law school with me. On an unrelated note, if he had gotten into the Navy after high school he would have been in the nuclear program at the same time as my brother. The A-school for that was in Orlando, near where my family lived at the time, and we like to think that we would have met 5 years earlier. But, fate allowed our paths to cross in 2001 at W&L. However, that is not the topic of this Flashback Friday (on a Monday).

Back to the career presentation. I believe Thomas and I were engaged at the time. The presenters were husband and wife JAGs, alumni of W&L. They made it sound so fun: get in the courtroom right away, no billable hours, meaningful work serving your country. I was hooked. We both applied and were fortunate enough to get the job.

Fast forward to summer 2004. We have now graduated, taken the bar and are about to depart for the first step in our military pipeline: Officer Indoctrination School (OIS). OIS is a (greatly) watered down version of Office Candidate School (OCS). Unlike OCS, we have already been commissioned, so it is just a matter of checking the block and surviving for the 5 week period. Or was it 6? I can’t remember. Whatever it was, it was the longest time frame of my life. I remember telling Thomas, “if I am ever terminally ill, I am spending some time here because each day feels like a year.” There were some bootcamp like aspects: waking up at 0430, getting yelled at (a lot), doing push-ups (a lot), running to cadences, plugging holes in a simulated sinking ship, fighting fires, 5-minute showers, etc. But, none of that bothered me. I was in really good shape, I didn’t mind getting up early, and getting yelled at was surprisingly nonthreatening (probably because it was a group and not me individually).

No, what bothered me was the loss of individuality, not knowing people's first names and only being identified as "Wilson". I also had a hard time with the lack of time to process each event. Because you were constantly with people, there was very little time to just think. Perhaps that is the nature of the military--the unit trumps the individual. Anyway, it was tiring for me to always be around people. I was actually very fortunate, I was the only person there to have their own room. This happened because there were an odd number of girls and when asked who wanted to bunk alone, I was the first (only) person to jump up and say “me.” That was nice—I got a former enlisted shipmate to help me make one bed and then slept in the other one for the entire time, hiding a spare blanket in my locker. I passed every room inspection easily. I also enjoyed running the trail around the base. It was incredibly beautiful and I loved seeing the Forrestal and Saratoga (two old, retired aircraft carriers that are docked in Newport) and thinking of all the history. In other words, it could have been so much worse. I had it pretty good.

The worst thing that happened to me at OIS was during a drug test. Somehow we knew it was coming, so I filled up on water. Unfortunately, they took us in alphabetical order and I was literally crying because I had to go so bad. Not very military-like behavior and I did individually get yelled at for that. I think a kind nurse finally took pity and allowed me to go, I also went an additional 2 times before they finally got to the ‘W’s and even then, I had no trouble filling the bottle. Other than that, there was nothing traumatizing. I didn’t even mind the final event: Battlestations. You get to do everything you did over the 5 (or 6) week period over the course of 1 night. The point is to exhaust you and see if you can function. That was the easy stuff.

The difficult part was being told what to do every minute of the day. I hated being timed for eating. You literally stood behind your chair until every person was at the table. Then, you all sat down together and were given 5-minutes to eat and it was done in complete silence. And, you were only allowed to drink water (and juice with breakfast). Fortunately, a few weeks in we were allowed some freetime, but I still remember just feeling emotionally drained at the end of each day and realizing it wasn’t because of the physical rigors of OIS, it was the rigors of constant companionship and the inability to exert control over my circumstances. Thomas and I even talked about trying to resign our commissions. That was probably in the first week or two, before we got the routine down and realized, this too shall pass (plus, it really eased up after week 2. We still got up at 0430, but we could actually talk over a 20-minute timed lunch and on weekends we could even venture off-base).

Thomas had his first legal question while at OIS; his roommate, a dentist actually did try and resign his commission. He was told that he would have to pay the Navy back for his dental degree. He wanted to know if they could do that (answer: yes). We all survived. And, there were actually a fair number of people there who thought the whole thing was fun.

All in all, for me it was not fun. I learned how to salute; I learned some Navy history; and I still sing, “I could go to Iowa… like this, all the way to Iowa just like this” in my head when I get in a jogging groove. Looking back now, I can’t actually justify why I was so miserable. But, I hope I never experience anything like it again!