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OCS Enhances Curriculum, Increases Class Size

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS100311-19
Release Date: 3/11/2010 4:39:00 PM

From Naval Service Training Command Public Affairs

NEWPORT, R. I. (NNS) -- Constantly seeking methods to improve officer efficiency for the fleet, Navy Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Newport, R.I., has embarked on a new course by making quality improvements to its curriculum and increasing its class sizes.

According to Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), which oversees all Navy accessions training except for the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), OCS initiated changes to its curriculum under the guidance of Rear Adm. Cliff Sharpe, NSTC commander, to ensure OCS training was more parallel to what is currently being taught at the USNA and in Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) units.

Aside from the changing curriculum, the enlargement of OCS classes was designed to move toward a steadier class schedule throughout the year. Larger classes will also allow for senior officer candidates to guide and mentor junior classes. This early leadership experience gives the officer candidates a better grasp on the challenges and opportunities they will have as ensigns in the fleet.

Because of the collaborative efforts of the NSTC headquarters staff at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill., the OCS staff at Naval Station Newport and Officer Development (OD) directorate staff at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., OCS was able to broaden its curriculum and now has a more robust syllabus.

"A thorough review of the OCS military, academic and leadership curriculum was conducted," said Capt. Joseph A. McBrearty, commanding officer of Officer Training Command (OTC). "We drafted and executed a comprehensive revision to the learning matrix to which these officer candidates are exposed, fine-tuning the 12-week schedule to add significant amounts of Naval history, engineering and seamanship topics."

Lt. Michael Brewer, OCS's lead instructor, said the new curriculum is a significant change.

"We are now putting a greater emphasis on academic phases," said Brewer. "Candidates from previous classes indicated in their end-of-school surveys a greater need for more academic classes and Navy history and heritage."

Brewer said OCS is now teaching 30 hours of Navy history and increased class hours in Naval engineering, weapons systems, navigation and Navy doctrine. OCS is also working with USNA to develop a Navy leadership course that is similar to what the academy teaches their corps of midshipmen.

"We teamed with the United States Naval Academy to introduce a more tailored leadership and ethics curriculum into the OCS program," said McBrearty.

"We now have an officer here who is constantly talking with and sharing ideas with the academy," Brewer said.

This is an on-going project, and NSTC will continue to refine the curriculum, with the ultimate goal of developing better prepared ensigns and Naval officers. In the past, OCS graduated an average of 50 candidates each week. Sixty-four candidates were commissioned as ensigns Feb. 12. In the future OCS is hoping the class size will increase to an average of 90 candidates.

"The increase in candidates in each class will level-load the schedule across the fiscal year," said Cmdr. Sean Higgins, operations officer for OCS. "This means better staffing and a steadier schedule. We'll be starting a new class every three weeks and have four classes and approximately 400 candidates on deck at any given time."

For the staff of 10 officers, 14 senior chiefs and chiefs, and nine Marine Corps drill instructors, the challenge has been handling the larger classes and at the same time incorporating the changes in the academic phases of OCS.

"The larger classes can be more demanding," said Brewer. "The first class had some struggles balancing their time and the instructors and facilitators had to get used to dealing with larger numbers. But in the end, we were able to meet all of our goals, and it should become easier as we move forward."

OCS Newport had a total of 633 officer candidates in 2007. For fiscal year (FY) 2008, the numbers jumped to 890 and 1,009 for FY 2009. Officials predict the number leveling off to just below 1,100 for the next five years.

"We are looking at having 100 candidates in each of our classes at the start, which should equate to 90 candidates in future graduating classes," said Brewer.

The demanding 12-week OCS course is designed to educate young men and women on the many military norms and skill sets to prepare them to survive in the fleet as officers and leaders of Sailors.

"The results have been overwhelmingly positive, and I strongly believe that these future Naval officers are much better prepared to solve the challenges of the world which they are about to face as leaders," said McBrearty. "This has been a total team effort between Naval Service Training Command, the United States Naval Academy and Officer Training Command."

Navy OCS was established in 1951. The Navy previously operated two officer candidate programs, OCS in Newport and Aviation Officer Candidate School (AOCS) at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Fla. AOCS trained prospective naval aviators, naval flight officers, aviation maintenance duty officers and air intelligence officers, while OCS trained all other officer communities. The original Navy OCS in Newport was closed down in April 1994 when the programs were merged as a single OCS at NAS Pensacola. Subsequently, in 2007 the consolidated Navy OCS curriculum was relocated back to Newport by direction of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission of 2005.