Every Ensign is faced with a different situation after they graduate from OCS. This depends on their chosen community. Surface Warfare Officers will usually go to their ships right off the bat. All the other communities require specialized training. Pilots and Naval Flight Officers have a few months to wait before classing up in Pensacola for flight school. Nukes and Intelligence Officers have their own respective schools but I honestly know nothing about them other than rumors and speculation.
Since my community was supply, I was ordered to report to Athens, GA by the beginning of the next week. Seemed like a strange place to have a Naval Training Base but Supply School has been there for over fifty years now. Training at OCS consisted of twelve weeks, Navy Supply Corps School (NSCS) consists of about 4 months of highly specialized Supply Corps instruction. I was "stashed" in Athens for several weeks prior to starting my classes. Many of my classmates, having graduated from earlier OCS classes, had been there for months.
In this environment we are treated like Officers, not recruits in boot camp. Most of us live off base and since there is no chow hall, generally fend for ourselves. Having department (NEX) and grocery (Commissary) stores on base is nice, mostly because they are tax free. We have free access to fitness facilities and a small library. There is also a bank, barber shop and doctor's office on the base, just about everything you could ever need.
I have to say it was nice to get settled in before starting up classes. The anticipation of what was to come did start to build day by day. The class started to fill up and each day I reported in there were a few more friends and otherwise new faces.
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