It was a very difficult week for many people. I was very glad that I actually came out of it really well. Most people are having issues walking today (Saturday.) Here's a breakdown of our return week:
Monday: The Downey Mile. It's a mile long obstacle course in which you and your squad carry a whole bunch of gear through the course. At the end of it, the squad must carry the gear and two logs across the finish line. Sadly, our platoon lost by a mile. Noone is sure about why the times were so skewed. After talking to many individuals from other platoons, I learned that many groups skipped the second set of walls and most cadre actually told them the quickest way to pass through obstacles. Slightly skewed, I'd say. But it was a smoker and it was muddy, for it poored down rain as we were doing it. Today was also the beginning of our history classes.
Tuesday: Platoon PT at Doughboy stadium. The entire company has to run the mile to the stadium. Then it was an hour and a half of stairs up and down the bleachers combined with 30/60 sprints combined with laps. More running. History continued today and we had our one lesson on military intelligence.
Wednesday: Urban Land Nav. The squad and platoon redeemed their Downey mile performance by coming in second on this event. It was running from one point to another all over post. Each point was at a minimum 1.5 kilometers away from the previous. Another smoker and our legs are fried. More history today.
Thursday: Military Intelligence exam. I got a 96. Not sure which question I missed, because I knew them all. We had Doughboy stadium again and now we can't feel our legs. We spent two hours doing our Senior Officer Candidate Review rehearsals. It was rough considering all we do is stand in formation and take commands. Cadre are still not satisfied with how the ceremony looks so look out for more rehearsals. We were told we have PT off tomorrow. It was a big morale boost, but the History test is tomorrow and it covers American military history between 1600 and 1870. The BCS championship game is tonight and many people are planning to forgo studying to watch it. I am not that stupid. This test historically fails 20 percent of the class in the first round and then fails 5-10 people in the retest. I don't plan on being one of them.
Friday: Got to sleep in, sort of. Many people got up at 4 AM to study because they watched the game. That woke the rest of us up. The test wasn't at all bad, probably because I studied. Unfortunately, I only got an 88 when it felt like a 95. There must have been some tricks in it that I fell for. As predicted, 23 people failed the test. They will retest on monday. And to round out the week, branching was today. It's a little event where the branch slots of the class quickly count down as the class goes by "order of merit" to choose a branch. I am already branched the coveted MI. There was only one MI slot available and the number one student took it. Surprisingly, Infantry went out after the first 15 people. Why the heck would you want to do that? Oh well. Finance and Signal also took a while to go out. Transportation (not surprisingly), Field Artillery, and Air Defense Artillery were the three branches that people at the bottom of the OML had to settle for. ADA was the last place branch that nobody wanted. I bet my father in law would love that. Once each student chose a branch, they had to turn around in front of the class and say "BOC (name). I select (branch)." If prior service, you say "BOC (name). I AM (branch)." It was actually kind of an interesting and fun event.
Ok so here it is. There's 6 weeks left now, however the meat and potatos of the course is almost over. We go to the field for 3 weeks and two skills will be tested: land navigation and leadership in the field. Leadership in the field historically kicks as many people from the class as the history test. I have some experience, so I'm not really worried about it. Not only that, the platoon will make an OPORD cheat sheet and an infantry tactic SOP. I don't see how you could fail if you have access to both of those. The trick though, is not to freeze to death in the expected 10-15 degree temperatures expected over the next two weeks. The field time will be broken up by a longer weekend next weekend for MLK day. That will be a good time to go back over the stuff we need to know. After the field is over, there's just History II and a PT test. 71 graded events and we're down to 6. Those are the 7 mile ruck march, 10 mile ruck march, Leadership in the field, History II, The PT test, and Land Nav. Sweet.
BOC Sharp
No comments:
Post a Comment