Remember how I told you how to address people? Well now we are going to make things more complicated.
At OCS, you are a candidate, and you will refer to yourself as such, plus your last name, IN THE THIRD PERSON. It's funky.
You will also have a complicated way of reporting into the "duty hut" to talk to your staff. The duty hut is the office located at the front of the squad bay. I was TERRIBLE at reporting in. It took me WEEKS to get the hang of it. I once remember almost having tears of frustration when I kept getting it wrong. This doesn't have to be you :)
I promise this is relevant, but have you ever heard that joke about the goofy husband who runs an errand for his wife? It goes like this:
A woman tells her husband, "HONEY, go to the store and get a gallon of milk. If they have avocados, get six." The husband comes back to the store holding six gallons of milk. "Honey," he said. "They had avocados."
If you don't get it, the husband took the joke literally. Since the store had avocados, he got six gallons of milk.
When you report in to the duty hut, you must be as literal as possible and follow a formula. The formula is:
3 Knocks + Greeting of the day + "Candidate X requests permission to speak to" + Instructor Billet + Instructor Rank + Instructor Last Name
For example, let's call myself Candidate Hart (not my real name). Let's say I got in trouble for talking, and was assigned an essay, and was instructed to return the essay before lights to Gunnery Sergeant Harris, one of my Sergeant Instructors. You think all the instructors are in the duty hut.
I would go to the duty hut.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"Good evening ladies. Candidate Hart requests permission to speak to SERGEANT INSTRUCTOR Gunnery Sergeant Harris."
But guess what. GySgt Harris isn't there, and instead you hear your Platoon Commander, Captain Mendez.
"Gunnery Sergeant Harris isn't here."
What do you say? Here's where it gets tricky. I had good luck in that my instructors all had different distinct voices, so I always knew who was talking. Let's continue. Remember I said it's tricky? You're still a lowly candidate. I would then say,
"Good evening MA'AM. Candidate Hart requests permission to speak to PLATOON COMMANDER Captain Mendez."
That's right, you have to ask permission to speak to anyone you encounter when reporting in. Toward the end, they relax this rule. Let's continue.
"What, Hart."
"Good evening Ma'am. Sergeant Instructor Gunnery Sergeant Harris requested that THIS CANDIDATE turn in this essay to her before lights."
"Give it here, Hart. Go."
"Yes Ma'am. Good evening ma'am."
Did you notice some things? I said THIS CANDIDATE instead of "me." I used the greeting of the day at the beginning and end of each encounter. Once you have permission to speak to a specific staff member, you don't have to ask permission again.
Don't worry, this takes practice. By the time I had my second billet, Platoon Sergeant (multiple report-ins a day), I had it down so fast that the instructors would always cut me off and tell me to just get to the point. Just remember, each time you need to talk to someone new, you need to ask permission. Let's do another example, and let's make it more complicated.
In this example, I'm in my billet, and I need to speak to an instructor with the last name Reyes, a male instructor from a different platoon. I can't differentiate the voices of any instructors in this platoon, and I can't remember if Reyes is a Staff Sergeant or a Gunnery Sergeant. I can look this up or ask someone, but in this example, I won't.
Walk up to the male platoon duty hut.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
"Good afternoon Gentlemen. Candidate Hart requests permission to speak to Platoon Sergeant Gunnery Sergeant Reyes."
(see that? I played it safe with the higher rank).
A Captain walks up to the entrance, with a stern look on his face.
"I'm CAPTAIN RAMIREZ!"
Keep your composure and continue.
"Good afternoon Sir. Candidate Hart requests permission to speak to Platoon Commander Captain Ramirez."
"What Hart."
"Good afternoon Sir. Candidate Hart needs to give the count sheet to Platoon Sergeant Gunnery Sergeant Reyes."
Captain Ramirez has a smirk on his face. Stay tuned.
"Hey GUNNERY SERGEANT Reyes. Candidate Hart is requesting you."
Someone walks to the door, and you see that Gunnery Sergeant Reyes is actually a Staff Sergeant.
"Thank you for the PROMOTION Candidate Hart. I didn't know they let candidates do that. I thought you had to be an officer to promote someone."
KEEP YOUR COMPOSURE. They are doing this on purpose.
"Good afternoon Staff Sergeant Reyes. Candidate Hart requests permission to speak to Platoon Sergeant Staff Sergeant Reyes."
"OH MY GOD HART. WHAT DO YOU WANT!!!!!!!"
"Good afternoon Staff Sergeant Reyes, THIS CANDIDATE has the count sheet for this morning."
"Give it here, Hart."
"Aye Staff Sergeant. Good afternoon Staff Sergeant."
LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
To make things even more complicated, asking permission to speak to and using the entire billet is really only used when reporting into an office. If you see an instructor walking alone and you need to ask them a question, I believe you can just say,
"Good morning Gunnery Sergeant Harris. Candidate Hart has her medical chit."
But just always prepared to do this wrong, and be prepared to take any yelling in stride and keep your cool.