Fort Belvoir, Va. (May 22, 2014) - The United States Army Engineer Officer Candidate Regiment, Class 33-C2 of 1967 returned to Fort Belvoir May 14 for lunch at the Officers' Club and a tour of the installation.
Thirty of the 60 graduates returned for the tour that took them to the officers' living quarters, the Exchange, Commissary, Logan Dental Clinic and the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital. For many of the former officers, this is the first time they've been on post since their graduation Sept. 15, 1967.
"I would say the camaraderie is the biggest feeling being here today brought back," said former 1st Lt. Jim Basch. "When you see these guys, it makes you swell up and I'm not a real emotional person."
The tour also stopped at the Army Engineer Officer Candidate Regiment and the soccer fields which used to be the post Parade Field. Driving past the soccer fields brought laughter from the former officers since that is where they conducted physical fitness training during their course.
"It really taught us a lot about life," said former Capt. James Blackburn. "Getting along with people I probably never would've associated with otherwise. We came from all corners of the United States and different backgrounds."
The tour ended at the post headquarters with a meeting with U.S. Army Garrison Fort Belvoir Commander Col. Gregory D. Gadson.
Gadson took questions from each graduate about his responsibilities as garrison commander, but he let them know how he appreciates their interest in coming back to Fort Belvoir.
"It is heartwarming to see a group come back to a place that had such an impact on their lives, and during a time like the Vietnam War, which also had such an impact on their lives," said Gadson.
The course was 26 weeks long. It included daily physical fitness training, classroom instruction and chores in the barracks that included cleaning and waxing floors.
Candidates were only permitted four hours of sleep a night, so they had to learn to juggle their responsibilities while managing their fatigue. Handling that stress prepared each graduate for their time in the Army, as well as life, according to former Capt. John Slekman.
"I went to Vietnam in 1968 right after the Tet Offensive had been launched," said Slekman. "OCS gave me the confidence to handle the stress, plus being able to stay awake for three days straight."
Blackman recalled an example of the team-first attitude that developed during training. He had to pull a two hour guard shift at night and still needed to fold his laundry and shine his shoes when he returned to his room.
"When I got back to the barracks, my roommates had done all of that for me," said Blackman. "So, we never had to ask for help. You just did what needed to be done."
The care for one another and the sense of responsibility their experience at Belvoir created is something each graduate carried with them during their time in the Army and their lives that followed.
"We were guys in our early 20's when we graduated, and some of us were sent to Vietnam," said Basch. "So, everything we went through in OCS helped us get through those experiences and our experiences afterwards."
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