Officer Training

Josh left on May 21 for 5 weeks...32 days to be exact...of officer training. I cried months in advance of him leaving. Just thinking about be apart made me sad. I cried multiple times in the days prior to him leaving, and the tears didn't stop after we dropped him off at the airport. In our whole 7 1/2 years of marriage the longest we have been apart is 10 days. We had heard how bad officer development school {ODS} was going to be. Tons of working out...Josh could handle, and would somewhat enjoy that. Tons of yelling at you...Josh had been preparing himself for that, not that it would be a walk in the park but he could handle it. Little or no sleep...not sure you can prepare for that. NO contact with wife, kids or family...this is the part that we were dreading the most. We had heard they would take away all of your civilian stuff including your cell phone for at least 2 weeks. We said goodbye about 9 times before we found out that they would not be taking away his cell phone, but that they were supposed to turn it off and not use it until they were told that they could...{yeah right!} We texted more than ever before, and had secret phone calls whenever Josh could. On the second day the chief showed up and they were awakened at 3 am after only a few hours of sleep. They had to stand at attention and be yelled at. I got a text from Josh that said something like:
" this morning we woke up at 3am to them yelling and beating on our doors. we stood at attention and listened to them yell at us. 3 people passed out. 1 person locked their knees and the other 2 were hyperventilating because they were freaking out. it wasn't even scary. my dad was scarier than that growing up." I seriously laughed out loud when I read that!

We often joked that it was fat camp. They worked them out hard and only let them eat 3 meals a day. No snacks. No sweets. No soda. No food in their rooms. Josh lost 10 pounds while there {like he needed to!} Josh and his roommate bought some cliff bars when they were given liberty to go to the store on base. They hid them in their room. His roommate gave one to a friend who ended up dropping the wrapper on the field during graduation practice, the guy told the chief who gave it to him and they searched Josh and his roommate's room and closet and they got them taken away!

The rules there were ridiculous and lots of them did not make sense, but that's the military!

Josh went to church with some other guys their first weekend there. When they walked in they were pulled into a room and told that they could use the internet and phones there, and that before they went back to base they were going to feed them! Someone in the ward must have known what it was like to be at ODS.

It definitely was not a walk in the park for either of us but we made it through and were SO excited to see each other when it was all over.