Welcome

50th Company Infantry OCS

OC 24-69 “ First and  Best”

Click Here for Audio:   https://vimeo.com/420771833 

On August 1, 1969, 161 out of the original complement of OCS 224 “candidates” (as we were called) graduated from the rigorous six-month Officer Candidate School program at Fort Benning, Georgia and sallied forth as newly minted Second Lieutenants. The training was designed to place the candidates under intense psychological, emotional and physical pressure, and included a challenging academic component. It changed our lives profoundly.  After OCS, we disbursed and headed out to stateside assignments before heading overseas, mostly to Southeast Asia, but also to Korea, Germany, and elsewhere.  We then scattered further and set off on the rest of our lives.  Some remained in the military, but most  chose an amazing variety of civilian careers. We lost contact and our memories of each other, and of 50thCompany OCS, faded. 

Thanks to the magic of the internet and the dogged effort of a few members, we were able to locate and reconnect with most of the Company and had our first reunion in 2017 at Fort Benning. The bonding of members and spouses was instantaneous and powerful. A second wonderful reunion in Washington DC two years later built on friendships established at the first gathering. 

This website tells our story and serves as a repository for 50th Company OCS memories. The intent is to inform and entertain us and, when we are gone, future generations. It contains narratives (largely drawn from our publication, The Men of 50thCompany), after action reports for our reunions, photos, videos, OCS documents, personal musings, and much more. The focus is on the intense OCS experience itself and how it influenced our lives as individuals. We invite 50th Company members, their families and friends, and anyone else curious about OCS in the late Sixties to take some time to explore and enjoy what we have included in the site.