Monday we are completing convoy operations and remaining in the barracks overnight. Tuesday we are completing buddy team live fire exercise and night infultration. Wednesday we are turning in weapons and cleaning the barracks. We should be released by 1130 according to the Commander.
Scotts company will be lucky to be released by 1800-1900, even though Battalion-wide everyone is to be released by 1700 for the holiday weekend.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Week 3 complete
The days go by slowly but the weeks go by quickly.
Our week was finalized with two tasks. Friday we had to conduct a raid on a house. I fought, fought, and fought for my sqd (since I was sqd leader this week) to be the support by fire squad. I saw the initial plan and thought that there was no way that we should even be given the chance to go into the house. I knew that we would have all been killed. After some suggestions and finalizations with the PL for the mission, she finally allowed me to move two of my sqd members closer to me. They were now out of the way of the fratricide problem. Plus, I had better command and control of them.
Saturday, my company had night to day land navigation. We started at one end of the course and ended at the other end. No matter what, we were forced to walk the entire course. The course wasn't so much fun. Finding the points was easy. We could literaly, stand on top of a hill and see our points. The problem was the rocky terrain. I don't know how many times I fell in the dark. My nearest point from the start was 700m away. We were told to not use our red lense flashlight when walking. At about 450m at the azimuth of my point, I ran straight into a sticker thicket. I fought my way through, completed my count, and found my point. I found 4 points in the dark. It was starting to daybreak at my fourth point so I glanced down at my leg and noticed blood went through my ACU's. My shin also had a fight with a bouldler, the boulder won. My leg has two huge bruises where I had slammed into the boulder. I could see my 5th point from my 4th point so I cruised over there. When I was punching my paper, a girl from another platoon saw my paper and said outloud to herself, I'm only on my first point. I continued on and found my other three points. I found 6 for 8 successfully in three hours, 5 for 8 was passing. I know exactly which ones I didn't get correctly. The slopely terrain and changes of elevation made my estimation of distance off. Oh well, I'm not concerned. I'm a hell of a land navigator. I was the 5th one in from my platoon. Two others from my sqd just made it in right before me. We have 41 in my platoon, 10 failed - 4 from my sqaud.
My company returned from the land nav course and was released by 1130. Scott's company returned but was held up by Cadre until nearly 2300. I tried to remain awake until he was released and I failed miserably. I fell asleep watching the Texas Tech and OU game. I woke up to him knocking on the hotel door.
Our week was finalized with two tasks. Friday we had to conduct a raid on a house. I fought, fought, and fought for my sqd (since I was sqd leader this week) to be the support by fire squad. I saw the initial plan and thought that there was no way that we should even be given the chance to go into the house. I knew that we would have all been killed. After some suggestions and finalizations with the PL for the mission, she finally allowed me to move two of my sqd members closer to me. They were now out of the way of the fratricide problem. Plus, I had better command and control of them.
Saturday, my company had night to day land navigation. We started at one end of the course and ended at the other end. No matter what, we were forced to walk the entire course. The course wasn't so much fun. Finding the points was easy. We could literaly, stand on top of a hill and see our points. The problem was the rocky terrain. I don't know how many times I fell in the dark. My nearest point from the start was 700m away. We were told to not use our red lense flashlight when walking. At about 450m at the azimuth of my point, I ran straight into a sticker thicket. I fought my way through, completed my count, and found my point. I found 4 points in the dark. It was starting to daybreak at my fourth point so I glanced down at my leg and noticed blood went through my ACU's. My shin also had a fight with a bouldler, the boulder won. My leg has two huge bruises where I had slammed into the boulder. I could see my 5th point from my 4th point so I cruised over there. When I was punching my paper, a girl from another platoon saw my paper and said outloud to herself, I'm only on my first point. I continued on and found my other three points. I found 6 for 8 successfully in three hours, 5 for 8 was passing. I know exactly which ones I didn't get correctly. The slopely terrain and changes of elevation made my estimation of distance off. Oh well, I'm not concerned. I'm a hell of a land navigator. I was the 5th one in from my platoon. Two others from my sqd just made it in right before me. We have 41 in my platoon, 10 failed - 4 from my sqaud.
My company returned from the land nav course and was released by 1130. Scott's company returned but was held up by Cadre until nearly 2300. I tried to remain awake until he was released and I failed miserably. I fell asleep watching the Texas Tech and OU game. I woke up to him knocking on the hotel door.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
In the field
We are in the field for the next three weeks. We've been out here since Monday. Our week started with a 5 mile ruck march. It was at a turtles pace, I was one of the pacers in the front. We were told to speed up, then slow down, then speed up again.
Our ruck march ended at the US weapons range. We fired the MK19, 50 cal, M240B, M249, M203. I've previously fired all weapons besides the 50 cal. After the weapons range, we moved out to the FOB.
Tuesday, my platoon was in charge of ready up drills range. First they fired blanks from different positions, turning right, left, rear, moving forward and target discrimination. I was the Safety OIC for the live fire range.
Wednesday we spent our morning at the FOB doing MOUT training (urban operations). In the afternoon, we conducted more MOUT training at a mock villiage and IMT lanes.
Today, we woke up to a wind strom. I was in charge of PT this morning. I made it quick, and simple because we were about to blow away. 15 minutes later, we were off to change. We rode out to our training area on the other side of post, took about 30 minutes to get there. We continued to practice the MOUT tactics within the squad. Tonight we are off to a night course.
Our ruck march ended at the US weapons range. We fired the MK19, 50 cal, M240B, M249, M203. I've previously fired all weapons besides the 50 cal. After the weapons range, we moved out to the FOB.
Tuesday, my platoon was in charge of ready up drills range. First they fired blanks from different positions, turning right, left, rear, moving forward and target discrimination. I was the Safety OIC for the live fire range.
Wednesday we spent our morning at the FOB doing MOUT training (urban operations). In the afternoon, we conducted more MOUT training at a mock villiage and IMT lanes.
Today, we woke up to a wind strom. I was in charge of PT this morning. I made it quick, and simple because we were about to blow away. 15 minutes later, we were off to change. We rode out to our training area on the other side of post, took about 30 minutes to get there. We continued to practice the MOUT tactics within the squad. Tonight we are off to a night course.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
1/3, 2/3's rule violated
My platoon is tasked with running the qualification range tomorrow. The stellar student leadership in charge decided not to tell us what was going on when we were released from the nightfire range.
Its' about bedtime 2200 (for me) and we were just told us 15 minutes ago formation time and uniform.
Honestly, running a range is a mission. The current leadership failed us by not allowing us to prepare properly. We had a significant amount of downtime during the afternoon waiting nightfire. You can not tell me that they couldn't have planned earlier for the range tomorrow and put out the necessary information at an earlier formation.
I have a simple philosophy: Don't waste my time and I won't waste yours.
learning experience.......
Its' about bedtime 2200 (for me) and we were just told us 15 minutes ago formation time and uniform.
Honestly, running a range is a mission. The current leadership failed us by not allowing us to prepare properly. We had a significant amount of downtime during the afternoon waiting nightfire. You can not tell me that they couldn't have planned earlier for the range tomorrow and put out the necessary information at an earlier formation.
I have a simple philosophy: Don't waste my time and I won't waste yours.
learning experience.......
It's a FRAGO world
LT's here like to put information out before they fully think through the situation. If you read one of my posts from earlier today, I said that we have a 1600 formation for the nightfire range. It's not nightfall yet, smarties.... Time changed again to 1650, at least we can wait another hour to allow the sun to go down.
Please stop the insanity
LOL, goodness, one of the female students was tasked with making a cleaning roster for the female floor. She has had nearly two weeks now to accomplish this task. Still no roster, and she is getting upset because we don't get things done. Not all the platoons are on the same exact schedule, so getting the cleaning completed is a hassle.
Simple solution, we have 4 tasks to complete. There are 5 platoons. Rotate the tasks through the platoons, every 5th day, a platoon will not have a task.
It's so hard for a LT to make a decision around here. The 1SG stated on the first day that he wanted the barracks cleaned by the first formation OF THE DUTY DAY. (after PT). Some high speed females were waking up at 0400 just to clean for us to get it dirty again after PT. Why are people working against themselves?!?!?!? Clean after PT only, not before AND after! Wasting time yet again.
Simple solution, we have 4 tasks to complete. There are 5 platoons. Rotate the tasks through the platoons, every 5th day, a platoon will not have a task.
It's so hard for a LT to make a decision around here. The 1SG stated on the first day that he wanted the barracks cleaned by the first formation OF THE DUTY DAY. (after PT). Some high speed females were waking up at 0400 just to clean for us to get it dirty again after PT. Why are people working against themselves?!?!?!? Clean after PT only, not before AND after! Wasting time yet again.
I'm scared for my life
We were training on ready up drills this afternoon. I'm honestly scared for my life. I admit that I'm not the most proficient at marksmanship skills but goodness I know the basics... muzzle awareness, safety selector switch, etc. We had LT's flashing others while turning towards their targets, turning the selector switch to semi before facing the target. Need I continue...
Muzzle awareness is highly stressed in this environment, rightfully so. When were given the initial instruction for the ready up drills, we were told to get in a circle. So when we drew our weapons up to the ready, we all pointed our weapons towards each other.... Well, I refused pull my weapon all the way up to the ready, because I don't want to point my weapon towards another student. I was yelled at, but I believe that I was correct by not pointing my weapon at a person. We should have all been in a line and pointed our weapon in a safe direction, i.e. towards the building.
We went to the familiarization range in the morning. I thought that I had a firm handle on target acquisition, I aimed at the target, fired at the target, the target didn't go down. Apparently everyone had the same difficulty. There were holes in the target so even if we were right on target, the target didn't pop down. Everyone was highly dissappointed.
Tonight we are going to a night fire range. We are SP'ing from the company at 1600 (hmmm, still daylight for a few hours).
Muzzle awareness is highly stressed in this environment, rightfully so. When were given the initial instruction for the ready up drills, we were told to get in a circle. So when we drew our weapons up to the ready, we all pointed our weapons towards each other.... Well, I refused pull my weapon all the way up to the ready, because I don't want to point my weapon towards another student. I was yelled at, but I believe that I was correct by not pointing my weapon at a person. We should have all been in a line and pointed our weapon in a safe direction, i.e. towards the building.
We went to the familiarization range in the morning. I thought that I had a firm handle on target acquisition, I aimed at the target, fired at the target, the target didn't go down. Apparently everyone had the same difficulty. There were holes in the target so even if we were right on target, the target didn't pop down. Everyone was highly dissappointed.
Tonight we are going to a night fire range. We are SP'ing from the company at 1600 (hmmm, still daylight for a few hours).
Cluster F&*^
Tie down equipment, no take it off, now put it back on, take it off, put it back on and leave it. Put on your surefire light (for the day, we arent' doing nightfire until tonight). Can someone please make a decision and stick with it.
Here's the song that says it all:
http://www.soundsofswc.com/files/15_What_Ya_Gonna_Do_PL.mp3
Here's the song that says it all:
http://www.soundsofswc.com/files/15_What_Ya_Gonna_Do_PL.mp3
Monday, November 3, 2008
Wk 1/Day 1....My buddy and ME!
Our first formation was at 0430. We had medical inprocessing today. We sat around all morning until breakfast to get a PPD (TB) test. When finally released for bfast, the line was so long that I had to resort to a protein bar waiting for me in my wall locker.
The afternoon was spent filling out two pieces of paper, 2 hours to complete task. Ouch! Wasting time. We were briefed by the CDR/1SG, and then released for dinner. 2 platoons immediately were to draw weapons, the other 3 went to eat. I happened to be in the platoon that drew weapons. We were so upsete that we were going to miss chow..... again.... Finally someone removed their head from their 4th point of contact and pulled weapons guard as we barely made it to the DFAC to eat.
We were issued our M4's today. We are doing weapons emmersion just like the Basic Training privates. Yeah! Everywhere I go, my M4 is with me!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Back to school again
Ok, I've signed into my next school, BOLC II (Basic Officer Leadership Course 2, for those non-military types) in Ft Sill, OK. My personal opinion of Ft. Sill is that it is pretty tolerable compared to FLW. Sill is located in Lawton, OK, the third largest city in OK. Everything that one could possibly want is just outside the installation. Granted everything is now nicely located like Columbus, Georgia, but I don't care. It's not lost in the woods. I don't have to drive over an hour away to get to civilization or to shop anywhere besides walley world.
I'm assigned to 4th platoon, Delta Company. Rumor has it, that I'm in the most chill company in the Battalion and the most chill in the company. Hope it's true.
We didn't do too much today. We signed in, got our room assignments, gave our personal data to our platoon mentors, and moved in. I have a 4 person room with only one roommate. We decided to use the additional lockers for personal clothing, one each. ;)
I've managed to see Scott today too. He's assigned to Charlie Company. His company is far less structured and more time consuming than mine. I feel bad for him. He can handle the stresses alot better than I. He begs to differ on that.
I'm planning to give a daily update on my progress so stay tuned. Toodles!
I'm assigned to 4th platoon, Delta Company. Rumor has it, that I'm in the most chill company in the Battalion and the most chill in the company. Hope it's true.
We didn't do too much today. We signed in, got our room assignments, gave our personal data to our platoon mentors, and moved in. I have a 4 person room with only one roommate. We decided to use the additional lockers for personal clothing, one each. ;)
I've managed to see Scott today too. He's assigned to Charlie Company. His company is far less structured and more time consuming than mine. I feel bad for him. He can handle the stresses alot better than I. He begs to differ on that.
I'm planning to give a daily update on my progress so stay tuned. Toodles!
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