The Only One

Sorry for the lack of posts, but there's just been a lack of information lately. And without any real news to share, there's no real point in posting.

Dig?

But last week I spoke with my recruiter, Sgt. Steve, and he gave me a very tentative board date of Jan 25th... but advised that this date was "penciled in" and was not confirmed. He'd get back to me by the end of the week with some concrete news, he assured me.

So the week went by and no news came forth. Monday was a holiday, so no point in trying him then, and then on Tuesday, I gave him a call.

At the time he was on his way to his Battalion HQ and was looking for an answer from someone directly. He informed me he had sent off a bunch of emails ("one a day") and made a few phone calls, but couldn't get anyone at the BN level to commit. He had other business at the BN that he needed to take care of, so he figured, while there he'd see someone in person.

We agreed that he'd call back within an hour with any news. I went back to doing my laundry.

Roughly forty minutes went by and my phone barked in my pocket. Sgt. Steve stated that since I'm the only candidate in the entire region (which stretches from all of Maine to down to Providence, RI) that's ready for an OCS board, the BN command want to wait another month to see if more candidates shuffle out of the mix.

Sensing the disappointment in my voice, he assured me, again, that we were going to get thru this process together. I thanked him and we said our goodbyes.

I'm somewhat split on this whole information on being the only candidate. On the one side, I think it's slightly advantageous, because there's no one to compare me too, and I'm sure there's not an infinite amount of positions they're looking to fill. With nearly zero competition and as strong of a packet as I have, (knock on wood) things look good for me. Couple that with the Recruiting Office staff having repeatedly told me that candidates out of the Northeast tend to always get selected for OCS, due to higher-than-national-average test scores, I feel confident.

Also, the number of applicants they're taking to OCS is bound to be dropping in the coming year anyway: With a Reduction in Force (RIF) looming as we start our planned stand down in Iraq, and DoD-wide budget cuts, the last thing any of the armed services is looking to do is hire on more officers, who I imagine are more expensive to train than enlisted guys straight out of high school.

At the same time, waiting another month makes Jill and I understandably antsy. We're really getting down to a wire as far as time and finances are concerned. Given that the plan was for me to be enrolled in OCS in say... November at the latest... waiting til February for a board has certainly put the screws to us. This is really the Alamo.. the Omega line. Another delay from the Army and we'll be looking at alternative measures, I'm sure.

As always, we'll keep you posted as the situation develops.