Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS)

So, after 10 weeks at Fort Benning, GA I was finally on my way to Fort Rucker, AL to become a Warrant Officer.  I was required to report the same day as leaving basic.  The Army transported us via bus to Atlanta (ATL), and we flew to Dothan, AL (DHN).  When we got there, we called a cab and reported to HHC (Headquarters and Headquarters Company) at 1st WOCS.  Since I came straight from BCT, I didn't have any of the "required" documents to in-process, so I had to fill them out when I got there.  I was assigned a room in the "transient housing", which are like dorm rooms, and issued blankets, pillows, a PT belt, and a WOCSOP (Warrant Offficer Candidate Standard Operating Procedure).  Most candidates are prior enlisted or inter-service transfers and are required to report 10 days early.  However street to seat candidates are not, so I only had a weekend to get everything together and get ready for class to start.

Before I get into what exactly happened at WOCS, I am going to explain a few things that might help in understanding the course.  First is the WOCSOP.  This is the bible for the 7 weeks that you are in WOCS.  If possible, I would recommend picking up a copy before you leave for basic and bring it with you.  I had so much free time during basic that I definitely could have read over it a few times before arriving.  Especially since I didn't get the 10 days to study like the other candidates did.  You can get a copy at The Hangar which is a local pilot shop.  The more you know, the better.  For example, when I arrived I was told to do pushups because I didn't have a fresh haircut.  I dropped and started doing pushups.  I probably did about 25 before the TAC (Training, Advising and Counseling [Officer]) asked me what I was doing.  I told him I was told to do pushups, and he asked how many I was supposed to do (Hint: the answer is in the WOCSOP), and I told him I didn't know.  So, needless to say, if you can, read it as much as you can.

WOCS is a "gentleman's course".  There's not usually group punishment if one person screws up.  They don't tell you exactly how to do something, or when to do it.  You are treated like an adult for the most part (at least compared to BCT).  I'm not saying it's easy, but it's definitely not mind numbing like BCT.  I thought it was a nice change of pace, but most of the candidates that were in an operational unit prior to WOCS didn't seem to like it.  That's one of the advantages of being a street to seat candidate I guess.

The rank structure is set up as follows.  When you arrive, you are considered a "Snowbird" and you will wear a white square rank patch on your ACUs.  After you start, you become the junior class, and you will wear black WOCS insignia.  And at some point when the TACs approve it (usually about 2 weeks from graduation), you will become the senior class, and wear gold WOCS insignia.  Snowbirds, and the junior class both salute and render honors to the senior class candidates using the greeting of the day "Strength and Knowledge Sir (or Ma'am)."  Obviously, every candidate will do the same for any Warrant Officer or Commissioned Officer that they interact with.

So, when you first arrive you are a snowbird, and you will in process for the post and for 1st WOCS.  About a week prior to class actually starting, you will "class up".  Your whole class will get together,
and you will receive some briefs and be told what you need to take care of before you start.  You will also move into some HHC barracks.  On the first day of WOCS you will do the "bag drag."  This is nothing like I imagined it to be.  I expected it to be like the shark attack during basic, but it was nothing like that.  You don't get "smoked" but you will probably get yelled at and possibly do some corrective training.  But you will meet your assigned TACs and move into your permanent barracks.

Once you start, WOCS really isn't too bad but it's very detail oriented.  I'm going to cover a few things that I think are important, or things I wish I would have known going into WOCS.

Leadership Positions
Sometime after you class up and before you start WOCS, you will be given a chance to choose an additional duty.  This ranges from S shops (which I knew nothing about, and you won't really learn about until BOLC) to DFO (Dining Facility Officer) Morale Officer, and a bunch of others.  They are outlined in the WOCSOP.  These will help the TACs determine your leadership ability during the course.  Some require more work than others, so read the WOCSOP to determine which might suit you best.  If you don't choose one, and they are all filled, you will be given an additional duty such as helping the DFO seat candidates during meals, or road guard.  I was a road guard the entire time, and it wasn't that bad.

Additionally, you will have a chance to be in some sort of leadership position throughout your time at WOCS.  It could be as a squad leader, platoon leader, class leader, etc.  These positions are not too hard, but you are in charge of accountability for whichever group you are in charge of.

A Typical Day
A typical day looks something like this:

• 5:30 Wake Up - No earlier, no later.  The TACs will probably monitor your rooms to ensure that you don't get up early.  After you wake up you are required to make your bed, put on your PTs (you can sleep in PTs), brush your teeth, and shave.  You have to figure out a way to do this in 7 minutes, because...
• 5:37 Morning Formation - At exactly 5:37, your entire class must have full accountability and be ready to run to the formation area and report.  The earlier in the course you can get this together the better.
• 5:45 Morning PT - PT varies in difficulty depending on your TAC team.  Some like to run a lot, some like to vary it every single day.  My class barely ever did runs, but we definitely got our PT in.  Every morning there will be a different PRTO (Physical Readiness Training Officer) that is required to lead PT sessions.  Be prepared for your turn.  Usually the guys straight from BCT, like myself are a little better because we just did PRT every single day for 10 weeks.  
• 7:00ish - Finish PT, shower, get dressed, get laundry ready for pickup, and secure your books for academics.
• 7:30ish - Accountability in the meeting area
• 8 - March to the DFAC for breakfast.
• 8:30 - March to academics
• 0845-1145 - Academics
• 1145-1230 - Lunch
• 1230-1300 - Small group time with your TAC, or take care of anything you need to take care of (ie going to the soldier center for pay issues, writing a memo).  Also, possibly peek at your room and hallway and see how much of your stuff is thrown around.  The TACs will jack up your room if it isn't set up correctly.
• 1330 - 1630 - Academics
• 1700 - Dinner
• I don't remember the exact times, but in the evening you have 1 hour of MST (Mandatory Study Time), 1 hour of CACU (Common Area Clean Up), and about an hour for personal hygiene/personal time.
• 2220 - Stand against the wall in the hallway, and sing the Army Song, the class song, and recite the soldiers creed.
• 2230 - Lights out

On the weekends it's a little different and every weekend is different depending on what's going on (car wash, holiday weekend, etc)

Having fun during our weekend "Area Beautification"

Spot Reports
During WOCS you are required to carry around a blank "Spot Report" and present to any TAC upon request.  A spot report is basically used if you get in trouble for something, however it can be used if you do something exceptionally well.  They will either deduct points or add points, and if you get a certain amount you will be placed on probation, which prohibits you from certain things during the course until you get off of it by writing a memo or essay correctly.  You can get spot reports for pretty much anything you do not follow in the WOCSOP.  Some examples are not securing your PSA (Personal Storage Area.)...it must be locked at all times, not saluting a TAC, swearing, not being in the correct uniform (forgotten patches, etc).  Try not to get a spot report because finding time to do the memo or essay (usually due the next day) is pretty hard sometimes.  I was one of the lucky few to not get a single spot report during the course.

Rights
When you first start WOCS you won't have any "rights" such as caffeine, phone use, internet use, computer use (which means you have to write essays and memos by hand), dessert at the DFAC, and many other things.  To get these, they have to be approved by the commander in the form of a
correctly written memo.  This is where your morale officer comes in.  The more he submits, the more you will get.  We put in crazy requests, and we were actually granted a few.  We got our phones after a week and a half, we got caffeine around the same time, and we got 2 pizza parties with movies.  However, if your class is doing horribly and not working together, you probably won't get anything approved.

Another way to earn rights is to do well in the WOC Olympics.  Every Saturday, the WOC classes compete against each other in a 4 or 5 relay event WOC Olympics (monkey bars, pull ups, litter carry, and relay race).  The top 2 classes compete in a tug of war event.  If you win the WOC Olympics, your TACs will probably grant you some rights.

Academics
You will have academics every weekday for 4-5 weeks with multiple tests during the course.  They are actually pretty challenging, mostly because you don't have a ton of time to study.  Some instructors will tell you exactly what to study, and some will just give you a class without any idea what is going to be on the test.  If you fail a test, you have one chance to retake it.  You cannot fail more than 2 tests during the course or you will be set back to another class.  We had 3 eliminations due to academics failures.  Most people made flash cards or some sort of study aid (I made Q&A study guides once we got computer privileges).  If you study during MST and free time, you will be fine.

Other Graded Events
Aside from academics there are a number of other graded events.  If you fail one of these events, you will get the chance to retake it if there's time, otherwise you will get set back a class to retake it.

• Land Navigation - The WOCS Land Nav course isn't too hard.  You will receive 4 points to find in a certain amount of time, and 3 of them will probably be within 25 meters of a road.  We had a couple of first time failures, but nobody failed the retest.  Most classes have 1 or 2 land nav failures that get set back to another class.  If you fail after getting set back, you will be eliminated.  The biggest advice I can give is to keep an accurate pace count, and plot water points that are near your points.  I also double checked my points by doing a pace count from a known point to verify it (ie a road or water point).  
• Ruck March - There is a 10k ruck march that is graded based on your time.  Unlike basic, this is an individual ruck.  You can run, walk, crawl, skip, pretty much anything you want to get from start to finish.  I think it was 60lbs, but I can't remember.  Maybe 50.  The route is a little hilly, so that kind of sucks, but I ran downhill, and walked up and got a pretty good time.
• LRC (Leadership Reaction Course) - These are group obstacles that require the team leader to come up with a plan on how to get all of the other candidates from one side to the other based on parameters that are given in the directions.  The score is not based on whether you accomplish your goal or not, but how you execute it.  Every once in awhile there is a setback because of this, but it's pretty rare.  There is a grade sheet that tells you exactly what they will be grading you on, and you get it in advance.  Just look at it to ensure you do everything, and don't be a jerk of a leader and you will be fine.

  

  Leadership Reaction Course

• STX Lanes - This is easy and nobody fails it.  Just get from the road to the village.  You will have to react to contact, call in a 9 line Medevac, and some other "soldier stuff."  Pretty much the same as in basic, but not really as intense.
• PT Test - The pre-WOCS PT test is given before Day 0, and shouldn't be a problem for any street to seat candidate.  If you made it through basic, you will pass.  And if you passed the first one, you should pass the final one because you do PT every day.  A lot of people say that the initial PT test is hard because they grade very strict, but they just grade to standard.  I didn't have any problems, but that's probably because they also graded to standard in basic.

That's all I can think of.  There's probably more.

Pay, PCS, and PTDY
Ok, so before you got to WOCS, you were probably a SPC.  I was a PFC.  When you get to WOCS, you will start getting paid as an E5.  It will take a few weeks, maybe a month for it to kick in, but you will get back paid.  If you have dependents, you will be authorized to move them as well as your household goods AFTER you graduate WOCS.  It's a pain in the ass, but it makes sense in case you don't make it through.  You can go to the travel office the day you graduate to set up your move.  The Army will not pay for you to go anywhere, but they will pay to move your dependents and your stuff.  Also, if you are street to seat, Bravo Company (B Co, 1-145th Avn Bde) - which is where you will be assigned after WOCS - will give you 10 days of PTDY (Permissive TDY), which is not billable leave so that you can move and find a house to live in.

I would recommend living on post if you can.  The housing is really nice, especially for post housing.  Munson Heights (the east side) and Bowden Terrace are the nicest.  Allen Heights isn't bad, but the houses aren't as new as the other two areas.  The biggest advantage to living on post is that when you start flight school and have to get to the bus stop at 4 AM, you are only 5 minutes away.  Also, when you have short breaks (like lunch) you can go home if you'd like to.

One of the things that I wasn't prepared for was the amount of money that you will need to spend before starting WOCS.  The most expensive is your uniform.  You need to buy all new ranks, branch insignia, shoulder boards, stripes for the pants, and a bunch of other things.  In addition you'll need to get everything sewn on, and possibly have your ASUs tailored.  Also, there are some packing list items that you won't have.  When you start the course there are some things you will have to pay for as well, including laundry service, class shirts/hats/memorabilia, and random other things.  I think I spent around $600-$700 so be prepared for that.

Being OPFOR during field week

Well, I know this is a LOOOOONG post, but I wanted to get info out that I thought might be useful.  One last thing about WOCS.  Field week is great.  It's much better than basic.  You stay at a FOB (Forward Operating Base) with bunks and air conditioning, and you have a lot of free time...for naps.  Overall, WOCS was not a bad experience.  It was a little long, but after basic it is a great change of pace.