Any OCT, or officers who went through OCS already? Some career guidance for sign on .
as regular in Navy as Officer....... willing to take no pay leave for studies..
but i wan to know how much infantry stuffs do i have to do as OCT in Navy...
Tri-service term..... need to pass SOC for Naval OCT?
if so, how tough is e training for navy guys....pros and cons? i intend to take up LSA..
Guess I can answer ur questions.
1) U will not do any infantry stuff as a midshipman. Yes, no more field camps, topo etc.
2) U will do SEOC (SAFTI Endurance Obstacle Course) in clean fatigue during ur time in mids wing and get at least a pass(3.5km in 28 min for guys if I can remember correctly.
The three terms in mids wing are the basic naval term (BNT), Midshipman Sea Training Deployment(MSTD) and the advanced naval term(ANT).
-During BNT, you will be taught all the theoretical stuff. For example, how to read and plot a chart, rules of the road(something like traffic rules at sea), how to operate a navigation radar, astro-navigation, basic navigation, pilotage(navigating in confined waters), basic gunnery (CIS.5, OTO MELARA 76/62 SRGM). The only practical stuff u will be doing are bridgewatchkeeping(some lessons will be conducted at Singapore Poly + 1 or 2 sea sorties onboard a PV or MCMV), SEOC, FFDC(Fire-fighting and damage control which u will do at Civil defence academy for a week) and lots of events which u have to organise. Basically the entire wing is runned by the midshipman. Its not like the army wings or air wing whereby the instructors are still very much involved in the planning. As such, u will have more freedom than other cadets in ocs. BNT will last for ard 15 weeks if I can still remember correctly.
-Next, MSTD. U will be sailing for at least one month.(It used to be 48 days for me...) During this time, u will apply whatever knowledge u have learnt during BNT. U will also have lots and lots of tests and events to organise. As such, u will only sleep for abt 3-4 hours daily for the days u r sailing, depending on how fast u r in completing ur tasks. Sometimes, u will only get 2 hours of sleep. Everyday out at sea is the same. That means so long as u r sailing and not in port, U will wake up at 0530, go for ur EME(Early Morning Exercise which most prob will be running round the tank deck and some static exercises), bathe, go for ur breakfast and at the same time practise ur morse code, attend lessons till 1200, have lunch, attend lessons again till 1600, go for ur Dogwatch(which is prob circuit training cos there will be a PTI attached to u guys during the entire trip), bathe again, go for dinner, practise morse code, attend lessons till 2100 or 2200 depending on whether the instructors are kind enough or not. After all these, u will have some "free time" to do own things.(Preparing AOPs for anchoring, pilotage, kite-flying, karaoke competition, Port presentation and studying for tests) U will be doing bridgewatchkeeping after this or in the wee hours, depending on the luck of ur division(platoon). Each watch will last for 3 hours and pray hard that ur OOW( Officer of the Watch) is a gd guy. During this entire term, u will learn how to sleep with ur eyes opened or sleep while u r standing. During this term, u r still a two-bar cadet.
- Lastly, ANT. U will be "promoted" to ur third bar (ur army and airforce counterparts are prob oreadi sick of theirs.) During this term, the emphasis is on leadership and professional naval knowledge. U will be learning some advanced comms, gunnery(Mistral), going for 5 more sea sorties and organising lots of events. This is also the time u will train very hard for ur IPPT and SEOC.
Training in mids wing is tough mentally.(ie. U have to deal with very minimal sleep) Whether u get ur LSA or not will depend on how big ur batch is. the bigger it is, the more difficult it will be to get it. Hope the above answers ur queries.
