The time for graduation is almost here. The last two weeks have been nothing but inspections, out processing and paperwork.
Some of the interesting highlights:
We have to get discharged from the Army before we become commissioned officers, so there will be a period of time where we are civilians between our discharge and new swearing in.
The student led inspections are not to bad if they keep their head. The cadre don't make them go crazy but sometimes the students will just to make sure that they get a good grade, even at the expense of their peers (or sometimes just so they are not seen as soft).
I got less sleep during the 'recovery' week where we were prepping for our inspections than I did during any week prior. 3-4 hours a night was normal, going to bed past midnight and since our platoon had CQ I would have duty at some point every night.
Oh and I finally got my branch. It took until week 11 and I was almost afraid I would be graduating without one (there are several who are still without a branch and will likely not have one for a week or so after graduation). It ended up being my first real choice: Engineer. Oddly enough we had quite a few engineers come out of our class. So the truth be told I have been spending much of my time online doing further research into the branch.
I called the branch manager for Lt's and today we all received the list of where we could go and were asked to put in our top 4-5 choices. There was nothing on the list on the east coast at all, in the end I put Hawaii, Germany, Washington (state), and Alaska....some of the ones I skipped on for choices were NM, KS, MO, LA. Now I am just waiting on orders to come down for which one and report dates etc...
I am not sure how many more posts I will get since this is wrapping up quickly. My next stop is BOLC II here at Ft. Benning, then off to Engineer Basic Officer Course at Ft. Leonard Wood MO for 14 weeks.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Recycles!!
Today we found out that there are 7 more people leaving our company. This is the largest batch of people getting recycled since our class formed up. They are all getting recycled for something that happened in the field, one from our platoon is because of land navigation while many others are because of leadership failures from the field. Almost all of them are being sent back to day 1, which means they will have to go through the whole course again....the other option though is to go back to the regular Army as enlisted. Two of those people are leaving all together, one because he does not want to start over, and the other because he was here since May (an injury prevented joining the first class I believe).
We have our big inspection comming up and rumors are (like normal) running rampart. The weapons (rifles and machine guns) must all be spotless, if one is bad everyone gets checked again. The rooms must likewise be spotless and all be uniform. The rumor is that there is no possible way to get everything passed in time for the weekend but we'll see.
Everyone seems worried more about the upcomming history test on Friday. That test can fail you out of the course and make you recycle...not passing an inspection is just a pain in the ass.
Speaking of which, time to buff some floors.
We have our big inspection comming up and rumors are (like normal) running rampart. The weapons (rifles and machine guns) must all be spotless, if one is bad everyone gets checked again. The rooms must likewise be spotless and all be uniform. The rumor is that there is no possible way to get everything passed in time for the weekend but we'll see.
Everyone seems worried more about the upcomming history test on Friday. That test can fail you out of the course and make you recycle...not passing an inspection is just a pain in the ass.
Speaking of which, time to buff some floors.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Downhill ride
We are now done with the field time. The only requirements between us and graduation are a couple of easy runs, a history test and a PT test.
Last week was more of the same stuff like the week before, however this time we did the exercises as a platoon. It was really neat to see a larger size unit manuver on the field and take objectives.
At the end of the field problem we had a 10 mile march back in.... It wasn't that bad, I got a bit of a blister on the ball of one foot but nothing that a day out of boots won't heal. Amazingly we lost no one on the march, unlike many of the others where we had one or more fall out and get picked up by the truck. This just goes to show that it's more a matter of heart, this march was tougher than any of the previous ones and it came after we had been running a lot for the previous three weeks but no one quit.
When we got back in we picked up several people that were recycled from other companies to ours. Tommrow we will likely lose a few that started with us to the next one ourselves.
The weekend was spent cleaning our rifles (hours of fun), and cleaning all the personal equipment we used. In addition we had a book report due that everyone had to get done since we did not have time to type it while we were out in the field. I had finished reading the book the previous weekend so it was a matter of just writing it. I ended up doing mine on Sharpening The Warrior's Edge which is a great book on the psychological aspects of survival training.
Today we started with a nice easy run (well easy for me, not for some others who stayed out drinking all weekend). We are scheduled to do bunches of running this week, so I'm looking forward to it. After the run we had to do peer evals. This is where we rank everyone in our platoon from 1-34 in order of how we think they perform. It's tough to do that but something I will have to get used to, we will get asked to rank our subordinates all the time so just have to get a thick skin and drive on. The afternoon was the start of the final block of American Military History, the last class lost quite a few that got sent to us because they failed the final history so I'm not taking any chances.
Our platoon had the CQ (charge of quarters) duty this week so that means I will be doing one hour shifts in the middle of the night every day this week. It will be good for studying and getting a few cleaning things done, but I will be tired this week.
It's great as not the end seems in sight. As long as people don't lose their minds and get lazy or try to get away with crazy stuff we all should just be able to cruise through till the end.
Last week was more of the same stuff like the week before, however this time we did the exercises as a platoon. It was really neat to see a larger size unit manuver on the field and take objectives.
At the end of the field problem we had a 10 mile march back in.... It wasn't that bad, I got a bit of a blister on the ball of one foot but nothing that a day out of boots won't heal. Amazingly we lost no one on the march, unlike many of the others where we had one or more fall out and get picked up by the truck. This just goes to show that it's more a matter of heart, this march was tougher than any of the previous ones and it came after we had been running a lot for the previous three weeks but no one quit.
When we got back in we picked up several people that were recycled from other companies to ours. Tommrow we will likely lose a few that started with us to the next one ourselves.
The weekend was spent cleaning our rifles (hours of fun), and cleaning all the personal equipment we used. In addition we had a book report due that everyone had to get done since we did not have time to type it while we were out in the field. I had finished reading the book the previous weekend so it was a matter of just writing it. I ended up doing mine on Sharpening The Warrior's Edge which is a great book on the psychological aspects of survival training.
Today we started with a nice easy run (well easy for me, not for some others who stayed out drinking all weekend). We are scheduled to do bunches of running this week, so I'm looking forward to it. After the run we had to do peer evals. This is where we rank everyone in our platoon from 1-34 in order of how we think they perform. It's tough to do that but something I will have to get used to, we will get asked to rank our subordinates all the time so just have to get a thick skin and drive on. The afternoon was the start of the final block of American Military History, the last class lost quite a few that got sent to us because they failed the final history so I'm not taking any chances.
Our platoon had the CQ (charge of quarters) duty this week so that means I will be doing one hour shifts in the middle of the night every day this week. It will be good for studying and getting a few cleaning things done, but I will be tired this week.
It's great as not the end seems in sight. As long as people don't lose their minds and get lazy or try to get away with crazy stuff we all should just be able to cruise through till the end.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Headed Back out.....
Well we got a little break this weekend. It was a 3 day weekend because of the Easter Holiday. So there was a little time to regather my thoughts and waste some time. My wife, son and father flew down for a quick dinner on Sunday, I wasn't expecting all of them so that was a plesent suprise to me. After dinner they had to jump back in the plane and fly back quickly but it was still nice to see all of them.
Last week we were doing "Squad Lanes" where we do squad level exercises. The mostly consisted of setting up and ambush or "react to contact" where we run up on the enemy and manuver around them for the superior position. These were evaulated leadership positions, there was one evaluation for the planning phase and one for the execution phase. There is more to the planning than first comes to mind, and that is in the briefing. The Army has a specific format for how the types of briefs are given, called the Operations Order. Failure to follow this specific format resulted in a quick no-go. I was lucky and got both of my evaluations on the first day and easily passed both with only minor negative comments.
This comming week we are doing more of the same except this time with a platoon, or 3 squads. Since these are much larger operations and we only will do 2-3 a day (as opposed to 6 for the squads) it is unlikely I will have more than one more evaulation since they will need the rest of the time for people who failed the first.
So far this week is not starting off well, no one noticed that the roster for duty ended at midnight so I get to pull an hour of duty an hour before wakeup....
I think I have been woken up every 45 minutes tonight because something has gone wrong and I'm only being a squad leader at this time. If the standard is "all jacked up" we have met that standard.
Last week we were doing "Squad Lanes" where we do squad level exercises. The mostly consisted of setting up and ambush or "react to contact" where we run up on the enemy and manuver around them for the superior position. These were evaulated leadership positions, there was one evaluation for the planning phase and one for the execution phase. There is more to the planning than first comes to mind, and that is in the briefing. The Army has a specific format for how the types of briefs are given, called the Operations Order. Failure to follow this specific format resulted in a quick no-go. I was lucky and got both of my evaluations on the first day and easily passed both with only minor negative comments.
This comming week we are doing more of the same except this time with a platoon, or 3 squads. Since these are much larger operations and we only will do 2-3 a day (as opposed to 6 for the squads) it is unlikely I will have more than one more evaulation since they will need the rest of the time for people who failed the first.
So far this week is not starting off well, no one noticed that the roster for duty ended at midnight so I get to pull an hour of duty an hour before wakeup....
I think I have been woken up every 45 minutes tonight because something has gone wrong and I'm only being a squad leader at this time. If the standard is "all jacked up" we have met that standard.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Back from the Field
Real quick update.
My leadership week went well.
There were no big problems except for one soldier who took someone to sick call and I did not inform the Trainers.
The history test on that Friday got quite a few people, about 25% failed and had to retest the next week. It was a bit difficult but with an hour or so of intense studying no one should have had a problem provided they payed attention in class.
The field week came up quickly.
On the first day we set everything up and had some quick classes on how to occupy the area where we were to bed down for the night....
Oh wait first we had a 7 mile ruck march. This was not as easy as the previous ones. The terrian was much more difficult, this time we were off the main roads all the time. We were on 'tank trails' and other heavily rutted roads. At first the load was quite heave but the Commander weighed some of the people and found out that the load was over 85lbs before carrying the weapon and ammo, so that got reduced by about 25lbs or so. We had a couple of people fall out of the march. I carried the 240b (M60 update for those of us who are a bit older) the last half and it wasn't too bad.
Land navigation was fun for me and that started first thing the next morning. Basically we are given a map, compass and grid cordinates for 8 points and told to find as many as we can. The area is a few square kms and the points are like road signs with numbers in the woods there. For me it wasn't a problem but many people had problems so we repeated the whole thing in the afternoon.
Tuesday we practiced night navigation by going out at 4am and finding several more points. The afternoon was classes on reacting to an ambush and other such infantry tactics.
Thursday was the real test, I was doing great having a nice relaxing time in the woods until I was headed to my last point and realized I no longer had my log sheet that I stamped at each point to prove I had found it. My heart dropped so I ran backtracking until I reached my last point and couldn't find it. I headed in just in case someone picked it up and turned it in for me but no such luck....time to get ready to go out the next morning. The afternoon was more classes like the previous day.
Friday morning I got up with the rest of the retestors (including the one canidate who got tree-ed by wild hogs the day before and had to be recscued) and headed back out for another round. I took my time at this point and stuck to trails and just relaxed and enjoyed it. I finished in plenty of time this go around and had a good morning. That afternoon we broke down camp and headed back to the rear.
Saturday we got a chance to replenish some of our supplies and eat pizza instead of MRE's.
Now it's Sunday and we're headed back out. This time we are doing 'lanes' where we put into practice most things that we have done on paper up until this point. At least now we will stay in tents instead of sleeping in dugin holes under the stars. It will be another week of long days and short nights. We will at least get a 3 day weekend for easter and then head back out for the final week.
My leadership week went well.
There were no big problems except for one soldier who took someone to sick call and I did not inform the Trainers.
The history test on that Friday got quite a few people, about 25% failed and had to retest the next week. It was a bit difficult but with an hour or so of intense studying no one should have had a problem provided they payed attention in class.
The field week came up quickly.
On the first day we set everything up and had some quick classes on how to occupy the area where we were to bed down for the night....
Oh wait first we had a 7 mile ruck march. This was not as easy as the previous ones. The terrian was much more difficult, this time we were off the main roads all the time. We were on 'tank trails' and other heavily rutted roads. At first the load was quite heave but the Commander weighed some of the people and found out that the load was over 85lbs before carrying the weapon and ammo, so that got reduced by about 25lbs or so. We had a couple of people fall out of the march. I carried the 240b (M60 update for those of us who are a bit older) the last half and it wasn't too bad.
Land navigation was fun for me and that started first thing the next morning. Basically we are given a map, compass and grid cordinates for 8 points and told to find as many as we can. The area is a few square kms and the points are like road signs with numbers in the woods there. For me it wasn't a problem but many people had problems so we repeated the whole thing in the afternoon.
Tuesday we practiced night navigation by going out at 4am and finding several more points. The afternoon was classes on reacting to an ambush and other such infantry tactics.
Thursday was the real test, I was doing great having a nice relaxing time in the woods until I was headed to my last point and realized I no longer had my log sheet that I stamped at each point to prove I had found it. My heart dropped so I ran backtracking until I reached my last point and couldn't find it. I headed in just in case someone picked it up and turned it in for me but no such luck....time to get ready to go out the next morning. The afternoon was more classes like the previous day.
Friday morning I got up with the rest of the retestors (including the one canidate who got tree-ed by wild hogs the day before and had to be recscued) and headed back out for another round. I took my time at this point and stuck to trails and just relaxed and enjoyed it. I finished in plenty of time this go around and had a good morning. That afternoon we broke down camp and headed back to the rear.
Saturday we got a chance to replenish some of our supplies and eat pizza instead of MRE's.
Now it's Sunday and we're headed back out. This time we are doing 'lanes' where we put into practice most things that we have done on paper up until this point. At least now we will stay in tents instead of sleeping in dugin holes under the stars. It will be another week of long days and short nights. We will at least get a 3 day weekend for easter and then head back out for the final week.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Short Pause
It's been a bit since I posted last.
This week has hit like a hurricane. Being Platoon Sgt. eats up any free time that existed before hand.
Last week went quite well. It seems we ran a lot though. We ended up doing quite a few miles running last week in addition to the PT test on Thursday. We lost 2 people on the PT test, both failed their sit-ups. It seems odd to me that it would happen that way. You can easily work on that every night, and the minimum standard is not that high. I think they both needed to do about 50 sit-ups in under 2 minutes. My run time improved dramaticaly even though we did about 4 miles and ran stairs the day before. I knocked over a minute off my 2 mile time.
We had more classes throughout the day, and a couple of tests on Friday. I don't think anyone in our Platoon failed either test. In addition to that we had a few things that the cadre wanted us to memorize so we took a short quiz on that. There were 3 people who could not recall at least 70% of the knowledge so they stayed and took the test on Saturday morning.
The Parade went well where we got promoted to Senior Officer Canidates. There are some more privlages that come with that but I have yet to see them.
This week has hit like a hurricane. Being Platoon Sgt. eats up any free time that existed before hand.
Last week went quite well. It seems we ran a lot though. We ended up doing quite a few miles running last week in addition to the PT test on Thursday. We lost 2 people on the PT test, both failed their sit-ups. It seems odd to me that it would happen that way. You can easily work on that every night, and the minimum standard is not that high. I think they both needed to do about 50 sit-ups in under 2 minutes. My run time improved dramaticaly even though we did about 4 miles and ran stairs the day before. I knocked over a minute off my 2 mile time.
We had more classes throughout the day, and a couple of tests on Friday. I don't think anyone in our Platoon failed either test. In addition to that we had a few things that the cadre wanted us to memorize so we took a short quiz on that. There were 3 people who could not recall at least 70% of the knowledge so they stayed and took the test on Saturday morning.
The Parade went well where we got promoted to Senior Officer Canidates. There are some more privlages that come with that but I have yet to see them.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Nothing Much
Not a whole lot today.
For our PT we did just over 4 mile run, but they combined a slower group with ours so it was dreadfully slow which means I will move up next time and that may hurt me for a while. After the run we did lower body and abs for about 1/2 hr then ran into the chow hall.
We had more classes on Operations Orders and Troop Leading Procedures. For part of one exercise our platoon was tasked with obtaining an article of clothing from the commanding General for Ft. Benning. Somehow amazingly a couple people ended up with it.
We are approaching Senior phase and I will be the Platoon Sgt. for next week so we are already preparing for the ceremony and I'm getting some short briefings from the current Plt. Sgt.
For our PT we did just over 4 mile run, but they combined a slower group with ours so it was dreadfully slow which means I will move up next time and that may hurt me for a while. After the run we did lower body and abs for about 1/2 hr then ran into the chow hall.
We had more classes on Operations Orders and Troop Leading Procedures. For part of one exercise our platoon was tasked with obtaining an article of clothing from the commanding General for Ft. Benning. Somehow amazingly a couple people ended up with it.
We are approaching Senior phase and I will be the Platoon Sgt. for next week so we are already preparing for the ceremony and I'm getting some short briefings from the current Plt. Sgt.
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