The National Guard's Officer Candidate School is programmed to teach basic leadership and Soldier tasks, using the Infantry battle drills found in Army Field Manual 3-21.8 as a framework for instruction and evaluation of leadership potential. A total of 71 tasks are taught and tested while at OCS. A candidate should expect to be under constant observation and evaluation by their cadre. Mental and emotional stress is induced through a variety of controlled methods, to test problem solving and moral resolve. Additionally, the course is meant to be physically demanding, with numerous tactical road marches, timed runs of varying distance from 2 miles to 5 miles, and Army Combatives training. Beginning with the first class of FY 2008, the calendar length of OCS was shortened from 14 weeks to 12 weeks, thus allowing for more classes to be conducted each Fiscal Year; thereby raising the maximum capacity of the school to train Second Lieutenants to meet future commissioning needs as the Army grows. The current capacity of each class that is conducted is limited to 172 Officer Candidates.
Officer Candidate School is conducted in two phases: basic phase and senior phase. Students are referred to as either Basic Officer Candidates (BOCs) or Senior Officer Candidates (SOCs) as their classes progress. Initially, upon arrival, the candidates have very few privileges, and enter into a controlled environment similar to BCT, though they are expected to act like leaders and take charge and responsibility immediately. As they progress through the course, they may earn and request privileges. Their bearing, deportment, and behavior individually, and collectively, will affect the return of their privileges.
All candidates are commissioned as Second Lieutenants upon graduation.
**Army National Guard**
The program at the RTI's is offered in two different formats to accommodate the reserved component citizen soldiers. The traditional OCS program is a 16 month course of instruction conducted from April to August of the following year and is broken down into four phases: Phase 0 - is two drill weekends and designed to prepare Officer Candidates for the OCS program. Phase 1 - is a 15 day annual training period held in June. Phase II - is conducted one weekend per month for a period of 13 months. Phase III - is a final 15 day annual training period, culminating with graduation and commissioning. The Army National Guard also offers an "Accelerated" OCS program which is an 8-week, full-time program. Upon successful completion of Army National Guard OCS the candidates are commissioned Second Lieutenants and must complete Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC) II and III within 12 months. The commission received from this version of OCS is the same federally-recognized commission as offered through Fort Benning OCS.
It is interesting to note that in TY 2009 the U.S. Army will begin sending soldiers to the accelerated OCS program conducted by the National Guard RTI's. This was determined to be a more cost efficient way of producing officers compared to expanding the Fort Benning program. !!MUST SEE!! US Army Officer Candidate School !!WOW!!
