Vegetarian.

[ThirteenFox]

I'm a 13F (obviously) SGT who's has 5 years down on my contract with an OIF tour, in VA. I graduate college in a year, and am wondering about being an officer. I have many questions (transition enlisted to officer, VA TAG's "band of excellence" i.e. officer branch needs). But here's my main question that I can't find an answer to here after searching:

I'm a lifelong vegetarian, never had meat (parents are vegetarians too). Basic Training was slightly difficult because I couldn't have any protein supplements, and we didn't use MRE's (which include added protein in the Veggie kind). In OCS do they allow you to bring Whey protein supplements or any of the like? In IET my pushup scores were very low, after weeks of eating as many eggs as the DS's would allow.

For those that want to know, I plan on branching Arty or Military Intel and getting my Masters.

[TxIntel 1978]

Being a veggie won't be too much of a hinderance. Veggies MREs are more than plentiful since they ****.

As for OCS, you are not allowed any sort of supplements or pills while in training. The only saving grace I could tell you is that if you go traditional, you have 28 days to stock up on protein pills in your system before your weekend OCS drills. You'll only have to deal with 2 days of no popping. If you go Fed OCS, well. Good Luck.

[Marine2Guard]

I had two vegetarians in my OCS platoon, neither made it due to being heat casualties. You will not be allowed any kind of supplement and will only get MREs during the field.

[RedLeg]

There was an OC in my Phase I class. He was in really good shape and made but he also struggled getting enough calaries durring those two weeks.

[ThirteenFox]

Thanks for the replies, Iraq wasn't bad at all but that's because I had control of my intake.

Maybe traditional is the way to go then.