Motivational Statement for OCS package

[dlockwood]

Hello everyone. I have been lurking the past few months reading all the posts. I am in the process of finalizing my OCS package to apply for BUD/S. I have been through several drafts of my motivational statement, but feel that it needs to be better. I have found some examples on the web. My recruiter says that my statement should be about being a Navy Officer, not about being a SEAL Officer. Can anyone offer any advice about things I should or should not put in my statement? What do review boards look for in terms of a statement? Is there some grading matrix or is it subjective?

Thanks!
Dan

[An2mal]

All I can say is being a Navy Seal officer is harder then being a Navy Seal, think about it.... Look at the men you will be leading, the men you will lead as a Navy Seal officer are Intelligent, Motivated, Hardened Men that will look to you for Decisions and Leadership. So ask yourself what kind of person you will have to be? I'm sure you have heard the old adage for leaders" never ask your men to do something you are not willing to do yourself". Now that being said Last time I checked officers In BUDS get one shot and one shot only, on top of that they get pushed twice as hard. If you are the type of person that is motivated enough to do this, I would sure as hell put it in my motivational statement.

[dlockwood]

Thanks for the reply. I think that i'm going to go against my recruiter's recommendation on this one. I want to join to be a SEAL not another command's fourteenth round draft pick. I'm going to get started rewriting my statement to focus on what I want to acomplish during my time in the Navy, specifically leading the best soldiers in the world. Thanks again for your input.

[sdaedalus]

Just a suggestion, Navy SEALs may be the best at soldiering, but remember they are "sailors", not soldiers. Boards look at semantical things like that .

[dlockwood]

Thank you for that as well. I bought a book, "How to be a Naval Officer" or some such title. Until I started reading it, I had no appreciation for all the history and formalities that take place in the Navy, or any branch of the armed services. Thanks for pointing out the symantic differences. I realize that these are the things that can make me stand out from the crowd, but things that are difficult to learn if you are not part of the culture.

[daveed007]

dlockwood,
Would you mind posting (or emailing me if you're the shy type) your PFT scores that you're submitting with this package. I would be curious to know your background as well but understand if you don't care to share, and of course whether or not you get accepted when the time comes. I'm taking my PFT on the 25th and know I can't meet the recommended swim time, just wondering what all they will look at when they make the decision. Thanks and best of luck to you.

Dave

[dlockwood]

I have not taken an official PFT and wont be submitting my package until December or January. That being said my practice scores are below:

Swim: ~10min
Push: ~65
Sit: ~100
Pull: ~15
Run: ~10min

According to the information that I got from my recruiter these scores are NOT competative for consideration as an Officer so needless to say I am working very hard to improve them. I have only been really training for about 4 months now and got a stress fracture in my left foot the first week I was running so that set me back a little bit. The information that I got for the scores and what I am striving for as as follows:

"A competitive profile would be an applicant with a good overall package. We look for a GPA of 3.0 or better from a good school without a lot of W's, F's or D's. We like language and varsity sports. PFT scores that impress us are sub 9 minute swim and runs, over 120 push-ups and situps and 25 pull-ups. We select 16 OCS applications a year and receive over 200 applications."

That was from a LCDR responsible for Officer Applications to BUD/S.

[daveed007]

That 16 out of 200 is very useful information and has been asked for here in the past with no reliable answer. I am graduating this December and hope to have a PFT score decent enough to submit by then. I've been training for about 8 mths now and it'd be nice to see how we progress from now till then. With a tremendous deal of luck we might even end up in the same class. My practice scores are:

Swim: 11 min
Pushups: 100
Situps: 100
Pullups: 20
Run: 9:30

Have you gone through the interview(s) yet? What are you planning to do if you don't make it through BUD/S. I was looking into becoming an Aviation Maintenance Duty Officer.

[dlockwood]

Have you gone through the interview(s) yet? What are you planning to do if you don't make it through BUD/S. I was looking into becoming an Aviation Maintenance Duty Officer.


Are you talking about the interview with the recruiter or the one that they give concurrently with the PFT? I dont know if I would consider joining if I didn't get a billet to BUD/S. If for some reason I couldn't complete the training I would probably transfer to crypto or intel. I am an engineer by trade, and intel or crypto is what my recruiter was pushing me to do anyway. I got the standard sales pitch i assume. What I also found out is that the recruiters work off a point system. It was explained to me in this way. Basically each officer program has a certain point value assigned to it; nuclear, pilots and NFOs have the greatest points associated with them. Additionally careers that are in high demand at the time have higher points. Needless to say the recruiter will try to sign you up for the program that he gets the most points for. I'm not sure what the points are used for, probably promotion or something. It was interesting the way the conversation changed after I told him that I wanted to go to BUD/S and everything else was secondary. He made some comment like "well that is one way to go, but I never really thought it would be fun to be running along the beach with an ambulance driving behind me." With the program as competative as it is there are no shortage of qualified canidates so the recruiters tend to steer people away from BUD/S. At least that has been my observation.