Shortly after completing Marine Officer Candidates School this summer, Donald Reichard pinned second lieutenant bars on a fellow OCS graduate: His wife Cheyanne.
The couple had gone through the course at the same time as the first step toward their goal of becoming Marine Corps judge advocates. Donald graduated from OCS on Aug. 2, Cheyanne Aug. 9, meaning he outranks his wife on date-of-rank by a week.
They expect to attend The Basic School next fall or in early 2027.
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Donald, 28, served as a Navy corpsman for more than eight years. He was inspired by his work with Marines to join the Corps. He started training five weeks before his wife and later dropped her off at OCS so she could complete the Platoon Leaders Class.
The two were not in the same training class, so rarely saw each other during training. But each knew the other was facing the same challenges.
“I thought that it was extremely uplifting to know that he was enduring the same suck that I was,” said Cheyanne, 27.
Occasionally, the two would see each other on Brown Field, the main training area.
“I was going out to do the final event, The Forge, and she was actually in the middle of her 6-mile hike at the same time,” Donald said. “We obviously didn’t talk to each other, but I saw her in passing.”
Cheyanne said that when the two were near each other during OCS, she had a “conscious effort” to keep her bearing and not look at him.
“But I could feel his eyes on me because he was standing right behind me, essentially,” she said.
For Cheyanne, this summer provided her with the opportunity to finish her officers training. After completing the first six-week section of the Platoon Leaders Class in 2023, she was supposed to return to OCS the following year, but was delayed by a medical diagnosis. She was finally medically cleared to finish the training this year.
Having to rejoin OCS in the boot camp-like ‘transition’ phase and being older than most of her other classmates were the most difficult aspects of the experience, she said.
As a prior enlisted service member, Donald said he found himself helping others who were experiencing military life for the first time.
“You get there, you kind of know how to do things,” he said. You kind of know how the military works a little bit. You know kind of how the flow of things are, and when you fall into the flow of things you’re doing a lot of helping out others. That can be very difficult.”
Both Cheyanne and Donald are studying law at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce Law School. She is graduating in May, and he will finish his law degree in 2027.
When asked which is more difficult, OCS or law school, Donald gave a very lawyerly answer.
“I think that when I was in OCS, I wished I was at law school, and at times at law school, I wished I was back at OCS,” he said. “I think they are both very, very, difficult things to endure, and I think they’re difficult for different reasons.”
