Navy Boot Camp and Officer Candidate School: What to Expect

2 minute read Aug. 15, 2024

Navy Boot Camp is the first step in turning you into a sailor with all the skills to perform in the fleet. If you’re on the Navy officer path, you’ll attend a 13-week course to prepare for an officer’s responsibilities. Know what to expect and arrive ready for Navy training.

What you need to know

Navy Recruit Training takes place in Great Lakes, Illinois. It’s a seven-week program.

First five processing days: medical and dental exams, administrative screenings, inoculations, uniforms
Physical Training: one-hour daily workouts, six days a week — training alternates between cardiovascular endurance and strength and conditioning
Navy Physical Fitness Assessment: must pass in the sixth week of training to graduate from boot camp
All recruits will also get hands-on technical training in the following areas:

- Basic seamanship: line handling, shipboard watch standing, getting a ship underway and back to port safely as a team
- Firefighting: five days of classroom and hands-on fire team training
- Water survival: techniques for surviving at sea, staying afloat in open water — without a personal floatation device, swimming 50 yards, five-minute prone float, clothing inflation
- Weapons training — M9 service pistol and M870 shotgun
- Antiterrorism and force protection training

At five-and-a-half weeks: Battle Stations program begins. Battle Stations is an intense 12-hour final evaluation that will assess:

Everything you learned in boot camp
That you have the skills, discipline and core values to be a sailor

Navy Officer Candidate School

Officer Candidate School is a 13-week course located at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island. Navy OCS prepares you to assume the responsibilities of a naval officer and helps you develop to your fullest potential.

It includes academic training, memorization and military and physical fitness training. Its purpose is to develop qualities important to your success as an officer, including: