COT 10-04 nurse to 10-05

thanks so much for the heads up!

i am not going till 10-06, but i am definitely going to copy and paste all of this information.

If you have an iPhone or other type of smartphone, you'll have no problems getting a web connection through it.

TAKE A REAM OF COPY PAPER - I forgot this until just now. (Mid, I do apologize!) For some reason they hide paper from you - it does seem as though some of this is deliberate just to see how you'll handle it, and then some of it I think they just don't think about it. I took two reams of copy paper and ended up using it to print stuff off in their copier!

Do you get your uniforms beforehand? My husband (he was infantry) said he got those in basic.

How many suitcases can you bring? LOL!!!!

BTW, I am sure you are doing Great )))!!!! Take care.

Officer training is different from enlisted training, regardless of what service you're in. Officers receive a very small one time clothing allowance (in the AF it's $400) and are issued nothing. We spend about $1200 to $1600 on uniforms to go to COT.

Essentially you can take what you want to COT; I can't speak for the other services.

I got my mess dress before hand. They changed the requirement just one week prior to COT. We do not need it! So I have a $500 outfit that I will probably never use. anyone need one? lol

on your list: at least 3 PT uniforms. lots of white socks. white exercise sport bras. sick meds (2 people in my flight are sick). a bunch of empty folders, and a three ring binder with divider tabs is really helpful to me (but not for all).

Pooh, I had the paper memo. I brought some with the printer. :)

You'll wear your mess dress (if you want to, that is) - I've already worn mine twice.

Good point, Mid - you can take your antihistimines and vitamins and whatever OTC stuff you use; you're not checked for that sort of stuff. Take Bandaids, too - they run out of that stuff in the OTS Shoppette pretty quick.

on your list: at least 3 PT uniforms. lots of white socks. white exercise sport bras. sick meds (2 people in my flight are sick). a bunch of empty folders, and a three ring binder with divider tabs is really helpful to me (but not for all).

what size 3 ring binder? massive or small. ha.

Thanks for the heads up. Uniforms, paper, tylenol, motrin, vitamins, white socks, paper, ink, printer, internet access. Appreciate the heads up!

binder size - not to big to fit in your hand comfortably. Mine is the 1.5 inch. It works great. I filled it with paper, paper dividers, and sheet protectors. Wish I had one of those pen holders you can keep in it.

about suitcases. Whatever you can carry! I had 3 suitcases, my labtop backpack, and a box (my new laudry basket!). You can go back to your car the first day later in the eve to get settled. But then whatever you left in your car is off limits.

Thank you for the information.

Thanks and good luck. What about books? Are there recommended books for a completely non-military person to read prior to COT?

I've completed COT and unless you're desperate for something to do to kill time, I wouldn't bother. As a prior enlisted member of the USAF, I personally have a couple I'd recommend:

Amazon.com: Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the U.S. Air Force, 1947-2007 (9780312358112): Walter J. Boyne: Books by Walter J. Boyne

Amazon.com: The Cold War and Beyond: Chronology of the United

Amazon.com: Hap Arnold and the Evolution of American Airpower (9781560989493): Dik Alan Daso, Richard Overy: Books

Amazon.com: Hap: The Story of the U.S. Air Force and the Man Who Built It: General Henry H. Arnold (9780670360697): Thomas M. Coffey: Books by Thomas Coffey

Anything about the Doolittle Raid, the WASPs, or Billy Mitchell:

Amazon.com: Billy Mitchell: Crusader for Air Power (Midland Books: No. 180) (9780253201805): Alfred F. Hurley: Books - this man was court-martialed for testifying as to the usefulness of air power in war and the need for a separate Air Force after an incident involving the Navy dirgible the SHENANDOAH and loss of sea planes in Hawaii - in 1925, after WWI. (Essentially he told the inquiry board - and a few others - that the future of warfare was air power and they essentially thought he was nuts.) He was more than ahead of his time. There was a movie made about this with Gary Cooper called THE COURT MARTIAL OF BILLY MITCHELL, and I recommend that as well. It puts the creation of our AF in perspective and to a time before 1947.

The WASPs - or the Womens Airforce Service Pilots (their insignia, Fifinella, as designed by the famous Walt Disney is up in my avatar) flew planes (bombers, fighters, anything that flew) from base to base and from the factories to bases since all the available men were off fighting the war. They flew for very little pay and NO BENEFITS. Some of you may have heard of a woman named Jackie Cochran, a famous early female aviator and the "commander" of the WASPs - she and Hap Arnold went to Congress after WWII to lobby not only for the creation of the USAF, but for the inclusion of women for equal pay and with equal bennies. They weren't successful for many years, but the girls among us (across the services - the Army had WACs and the Navy had WAVEs) owe our stripes and bars to Jackie and her fellow crusaders.

The surviving WASPs were JUST RECOGNIZED and properly awarded for their service by President Barack Obama either late last year or earlier this year, I can't remember which.

And for women's (and NURSES!!) military history in general, check out WE BAND OF ANGELS, the story of the military nurses captured and held by the Japanese at Bataan in WWII. Oh, and keep Kleenex handy.