"There's no smiling at OCS."

Now that the Navy has moved Officer Candidate School back to Newport from Pensacola, the Providence Journal has published an 8-part series about the ins and outs of the Navy's least known commissioning program and profiled some of the candidates and staff.

Even for folks like Ruth and I who already knew more than we wanted to about OCS, it's a fascinating series. It's usually very difficult for me to read and watch a huge package of articles like this, but it was well worth it in this case.

But don't just listen to me -- Ruth has greatly enjoyed the series both as an OCS grad and as a photographer. She's very impressed by how well they've represented the OCS experience.

BTW, Ruth was in good shape when she reported, and has always been strong for her size, but because of injuries to her knees and hips suffered during the rigorous program it took her 62 weeks, most of them spent in rehab and getting even stronger than she already was, to complete what was at the time a 13 week program.

[NOTE: I changed the last paragraph because my original phrasing didn't explain why she was there a long time, which left open the possibilities that someone would think she was a dirtbag or just someone that reaaaaaly loved living in a dirty WWII barracks in Floribama -- something one of the doctors accused her of, believe it or not.]