Week 13: The Final OPORD, the Final APFT, the Final and Randomly a whole lot of Mortars

Yes this is basically the Final week. It is the last week before we go out to Leader Forge so they really pack everything together. This week is also worth a lot of points. The Final OPORD is worth 100, and for us we actually did a CONOP more than an OPORD but it was all on powerpoint. Which made some things a lot easier and some things more difficult. We had three more people fail this, making it their second one and recycling them back to week 5... suck. That brings us down to 25 people. The APFT final was actually really easy and you get 100 points if your over 290, 95 points if youre over 270, 90 if over 240, etc. I dont think anyone got less than 85 total points so that was nice. We also had a quiz on COIN and an Exam. The exam was the first one we had were you actually answered questions instead of just memorized lists. Because I had been in a Civil Affairs unit during college this was my bread and butter, but for a lot of guys it was hard, mostly because it was so unexpected. They also have a new final they just started with the last cycle who graduated a couple weeks ago. It used to be 100 multiple choice questions but now its all fill in the blank and a whole lot of depicting fights. Suffice to say we studied like crazy and we were all super nervous, especially since the cadre told us how much harder it would be. But when we took it on Friday it was WAY easier than we all expected. Just make sure you really understand Operational Terms and Graphics FM 1-02, or you're screwed. But to be honest after so many OPORD's you'll know exactly what to do. Basically a whole lot of worrying for nothing. The best part was on Friday was right after we took teh final we were released so that was nice. Oh and randomly on Thursday they had our class do a live fire with the mortars. We used 82mm and hung the rounds ourselves. It was kind of cool, but the purpose was to actually call for fire, and we were so behind on the schedule all we really did was read a prewritten sheet. So all you had to do was read off a card, and then we rotated with the other platoons to actually hang the rounds. Which the first time or two was really cool, but after hanging something like 40 it wasnt that awesome... and at the time all I wanted to do was study for the final. So basically this week is really simple, but a lot rides on it. Also you have to have a certain number of points to continue. Hopefully no one else gets recycled, but we wont find out until the first day of Leader Forge. Which for us is a Sunday. Anyways Ill be gone for the next 10 days, and then its a four day pass. A nice little break after we do make it through this hell week.

Week 12: Urban Ops and Blackhawks

So this week was hands down the most fun I've  had at IBOLC. It started off on Monday pretty much the same as all field weeks. Getting everything prepped for the company, getting weapons, and NVG's, MRE's, the whole shebang. One thing that is important for this week was to have a good GTAO set up for the two mock villages you'll be at. Basically the GTAO is a map where each building is numbered separately and coded. So basically when you're getting shot at you can say "Contact from building 12." Instead of "Someone is shooting at me from that building on the left, behind the big circle one." Type of thing. Anyways have that set up. So Monday itself we went out to the mock city and actually had a few familiarization classes with a few of the big weapons systems. Like really big. The M1 Abram was just kick ass and I admit I envied the armor guys for a little bit. I got in the drivers seat (which may be the most relaxing job in the army), closed the hatch and just about passed out. Anyways, played with that for a while, as well as the Strykers, and the Bradley's. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I'm going light infantry and airborne, and I think the best weapon the US has is the soldier, but I sure wouldn't mind walking less and using a few of those things here at IBOLC. Anyways at about 1700 we started our patrol lanes. We started with a patrol base outside in the woods about 500 meters away from the village. The village was awesome, it was only built a few years ago and is a maze. Plus everything has ladders, and there is this HUGE underground network of sewers. There is the "Government Building" which is five floors and is basically a death trap.... But more about that place latter. Anyways most of our lanes were raids, then a KLE lane, then a defensive lane. That's pretty much how the whole week went more or less as far as the lanes went. The first night was actually pretty fun. I remember as we were clearing rooms was of the guys on my team literally yelled out "This is SO much better than running through the woods!!!!" And it really was. That night we were also set up in a defensive lane and while another one of our sister platoons was getting water from the water buffalo our cadre recruited them for a riot. They rioted and then stuff went crazy. All 40 of them rushed the building at once. I was up on the third floor where our prison was and all the sudden people were firing like crazy and I looked outside through the window and saw people literally jumping through the window's. When I ran down stairs it looked more like and old school royal rumble from WWF. People were literally beating the crap out of each other. One poor guy in our platoon, a small Lebanese, was looking at the window and then a guy hit him full in the chest, and pushed him backwards all the way across the room, through the hallway, and slammed hit to the bottom of the stairs I was standing on. Ouch. Though it gave me the perfect, and thrilling, opportunity to jump and tackle the guy from the stairs, and then hog tie him. Once I looked up from my little victory I saw things had calmed down a little bit. About 15 guys were hand cuffed or zip tied really. The other ones had run away and we were checking to make sure we werent missing any SI. Luckily we werent. So we put them in jail (which was a legit jail with cells) for about an hour until their cadre came to get them. It was a blast. Anyways, that night was a lot of fun, but it had rained a ton so we were all soaking wet, which wasnt much fun at all. Then on Tuesday at about 1200 they took us back to the company because all the cadre had to meet with the new battalion commander for a few hours. This just gave us an opportunity to eat fast food instead of MRE's and to clean our weapons a bit. Then we went to the hanger for our air assault mission. Had to do a lot of dry practices getting on and off the blackhawks. We didnt do a true air assault, no fast roping or anything, but we did get a long ride all over Ft. Benning before we were eventually dropped off at our LZ. We then had a movement of about eight miles, which was by far the biggest movement of the week and then conducted the attack on that hellacious government building. It was 100% dark, so dark that our NVG's wouldnt really work with the laser, which made anytime a battle buddy look at you, literally blinding. I felt even worse for the OPFOR, they were literally blind and it had to be scary for them and we blasted into rooms and started lighting them up with sim rounds. Which hurt by the way. Anyways, that is how most of the week went, some of the KLE's were really fun, but challenging if youre into the civil affairs type stuff. But like I said, this was the funnest, and most real world training I think we've had so far.

Week 11: Two Quizzes, a Test. RPFT #2, OPORD #2

Whew! Glad this week is over, it was brutal. It may have been a week in the classroom but you have so much going on youll probably only get a few hours of sleep. First of all, as the title of this week says, there is a lot going on and of the 1,000 possible points in this course, 250 are part of this week. So if youre not very good at math that 1/4 of youre grade in 1/16 of the course. Don't eff it up. So anyways Monday is just a day of classes on Defensive and Urban Ops. Pay attention because its the only classes you will get. Tuesday starts out early, we had to be there at 0400 so we could go have the RPFT. We went out to Rangerland and were actually graded by real RI's. A LOT of people failed. The first time we did the RPFT a few weeks ago not a single person in the company failed, this time about 1/3 did. Only a few on push ups, none on sit ups, and a bunch of the five mile run. I don't know what the difference was this time, or if it was simply just the heat but it wasnt good. The run is the only real graded event and its worth 25 points. Then when we came back to the classroom we had the defensive ops quiz. To be honest it was probably the easiest quiz we've ever taken. Then for a couple of the platoons they got released after a quick review of urban ops. Not our platoon. We watched some real good army videos on how to not be an idiot as a PL. Kind of funny, but most people just wanted to go work on their OPORD. Tuesday night was the night I decided to pull my all nighter for the OPORD. As I said a few weeks ago, you need to put at least 40 hours into it. Which makes it really hard if you get off of work everyday somewhere between 1700-1800. Anyways as I think I said before the real key to passing is writing a word for word script. I literally dont think a single person that passed didnt have one. Mine was about nine pages long in size 12 font. If anyone is interested just let me know and I'll email mine to you. I got an 85 on mine and the only reason I didnt get a 95, at least according to my grader, was because my graphics were zoomed in enough on the urban area we were fighting. Wednesday we had three people go got more than 90% on their first OPORD brief to us. It was a good idea to pay attention to them as each grader is different and you can see what your grader gave them. So, you basically had to come back at at 0200 Thursday morning for the 12 mile ruck. I two words--it sucked. First of all it was a damn thunderstorm when we started so our light a pre weighted 35 pound rucks weighted 56 pounds when we crossed the finish line (at least thats what mine weighted). Anyways its a simple six miles down and back and I did the first six at a 13:30-14:00 min pace. Which paid off because the last few were brutal. The track we took had mile 10-11 completely uphill. I swear that thing looked like Mt. Everest and felt like it as well. I had been on pace the whole time and had saved up some precious minutes but mile 11 literally took me almost 20 minutes and that took away almost all of my time. Suffice to say I made it at a little over two hours and 58 minutes and I was dead. My traps hurt so bad I literally had to lay on the ground because when I stood up or sat down and gravity pulled on my arms it hurt to bad. And I was not alone. Most guys though didnt take care of their feet  and that was the main problem. Of the company about 25-30 failed. Im not sure exactly cause I was too smoked to care. They will have to retake it in week 13 on the one mile track--yuck. Then the rest of Thursday and Friday are all OPORDs. I went at about noon on Thursday we I was free to go after wards. Friday was kind of a bummer day. We lost another five who failed both their OPORDS. One came as a really big surprise. And two people passed who I was certain would fail. I guess you just never know. So we are back down to 27 and we started with 40 and have had 4 inserts. Its been brutal. Though next week is supposed to be a blast, we do a few air assault mission and use simunitions the entire time. I'm jacked. Anyways, the only other thing we did Friday was have an advanced CFF class with CAS and CCA. All in all, a brutal week, and good luck when you hit it.

Week 10: Patrols...of Death

Ok the title is a bit melodramatic but at times that what it felt like. So Monday morning is just like any other with PT and the like. Then you get prepared to get out to the field. They bus you out there, drop you off, and once you get all your equipment loaded you're off. A note on that. You will have a TON of equipment. They give you a week's worth of MRE's (12) you're own ammo for the week (around 300 rounds per M4) and then you have to distribute the machine gun ammo. I think each person in the platoon carried 200-400 rounds and the weapons squad carried around a thousand at all time. Plus all the other stuff (AT-4's, javelins, breach kit, tripods--those bad boys weigh 25 lbs themselves--extra barrels, etc) in your rucksacks. There is no way your rucksack itself will weigh less than 80 lbs, its just not possible. The only good thing is that as you go through the week it will get a little lighter each day as you use your ammo and eat your food. If you're in weapons squad youll be even heavier. Total, including my FLC and weapon, I had over 100 lbs on my body. Somehow you just get used to it. No secrets there. Just make sure your ruck is connected properly and fits you well or you will be in a world of hurt. If you don't know what you're doing ask someone! Don't wait, its not worth it. So when you are doing patrols they dont really care on what or how you brief, as long as it works. You are graded 100% on execution. Obviously the more you brief the easier it is. Ok my only advice here is work hard and dont screw your battle buddy. We literally did not sleep at all until Friday night when we almost got an hour before we returned to the TTB and started loading up everything and cleaning etc. But I thought I'd give you a few high lights (or low lights) of the week. We started really bad. We had to do a 5 km movement but our PL did bad terrain analysis and took us through a swamp. It SUCKED. Both literally and figuratively. The epitome was the PL himself who literally fell into the mud up to his armpits. If you dont believe me I have pictures, Ill send them to you. To say he was stuck is a serious understatement. He couldnt move, or even access his radio and the whole patrol almost moved by him completely before the RTO noticed he was gone. We were in a heavily wooded area and couldnt see much, plus we were in traveling over watch. Suffice to say that we didnt even get close to making it to the OBJ and failed miserably. PL got it the worst, but everyone was up to their knees at least. Other fun things included moving 12 casualties 1 km off the OBJ to a LZ. I happened to be the medic on that lane and I literally fireman carried people 2.5 km myself. It felt awesome. The last lane we had was the real killer. We had to move one casualty 10 miles on a skedco. That flat out sucked. It was the hardest thing Ive ever done in my life hands down. You still have all your gear and dragging that guy through the woods and sands just sucks. We went up a hill that I swear was vertical. But I admit I felt like a bad ass when we finished, though i was so tired I could barely pull the trigger when OPFOR hit us at the LZ. This was also a time for people to step up. We had one kid who was carrying the 240B carry all his own stuff, that, his tripod, and 2000 rounds of ammo. His kit weighted over 150 lbs easy. We didnt even realize it until afterwards or we would never have allowed it. But he was a real team player and made it easier for all of us. Dont get me wrong though, it wasnt all suck and we did kick some ass eventually. We had tons of smoke and using that is always fun. Plus once you get all your CAS and CCA down with your IDF you can really dominate. Have fun with it, cause you certainty wont be doing anything else.

Week 9: First Graded OPORD

Ok so I admit I was stoked to be back in the classroom this week for some good R and R. Sadly though, I was mistaken. Given the physical aspects of this week arent that bad at all. We had some pretty rough PT, but nothing too crazy. What was killer was the OPORD. As I mentioned in week 5 the OPORD's are incredibly detailed. For our platoon you really needed to put at least 40 hours into it. The hard part is that you still work a 60 hour week. So in order to put 40 more hours into your product you will have some sleepless nights. Yes, even in the classroom CPT Morris somehow takes all my sleep away. Anyway you will receive the company OPORD in slideshow format. The phrase "there's more than one way to skin a cat" perfectly applies here on how you want to break down your own OPORD. What I do is try to complete paragraph one over the weekend. Other than paragraph three this will take most of your time to complete. I do terrain analysis first, doing my GTAO is literally my first step, then simply following down the Company OPORD and doing my own as it applies to key terrain, avenues of approach, etc. Then I begin the enemy analysis, which is crucial to passing your OPORD. If you enemy analysis is bad, especially your enemy sittemp, they youre screwed. Your whole plan will suck and you will fail. It happened to a lot of guys. Think of the enemy as yourself. Basically create a whole separate scheme of maneuver for them. Not with all the graphics, but how you would fight if you were them. If you spend some legitimate time doing this things will be a lot easier. But dont get sucked in to thinking there is only one thing or one way the enemy can fight. Make sure to have something like a PACE plan for how the enemy will fight. THen once you have that you can start writing up their COA statements and then easily slide right into your own COA statement and Task Org. Mission statement takes two seconds then the big daddy. Paragraph Three. If you have good enemy analysis and good COA statements for both you and the enemy this will be a lot easier. Start out writing a detailed concept of the operation, then basically take your concept of the operation and turn it into 30-40 slides. Show movement at LEAST at the squad level, but you really  need to break it down into teams. Once you get done with this, paragraph four and five are basically copied from the company and you can move on. I think everyone in the platoon had at least once sleepless night while we worked on our OPORD's. Especially because we were on a short week for Memorial Day. The presentation itself is 45 minutes. If you get done before 40 minutes you are a fool and you are almost guaranteed to fail. Make sure to talk really fast. Most guys that passed that a specific script and just read off of it. This is not like ROTC or LDAC where they care about how engaging you are. You could be as interesting as a block of wood but as long as you have the info, youre set. Anyways, about a third of the platoon passed. Which means already 2/3's of the platoon are already on the chopping block in week 11. But if you were at least over a 60/100 you should be set for week 11.

Week 8: Squad Lanes and Patrols

So first of all this was by far the hardest week thus far. You get out to the field pretty dang quick, by 1000, and its go time. We had the squad live fire first. This is similar to the team live fire from week 3 except now youll need to shift and cease fire. They are incredibly strict on safety and if you do anything unsafe in the practice fire with blanks beforehand you will be crushed. Also make sure to conduct good PCC's/PCI's. One of our squad leaders got fired and got a major minus because the M249's jammed because they didnt have any CLP. This was also the first time we used the two different military radios. Out platoon did some extra practice and while one squad was conducting the practice on the live fire with blanks the other three squads were assaulting the trench. The squad leaders got the opportunity to rotate as PL's and control all four squads. The hardest part was communicating on the radios. As the PL I had three seperate radios, and literally had conversations with 9 different people. My PSG, 4 SL's, then four other cadre who take the role of Company Commander, 1SG, Fires, or other assets. I admit I had a blast and it was fun, but it is really hard to keep track of everything. Thank goodness they keep repeating themselves but I did completely miss CAS. Practice makes perfect. Anyways after everyone goes through the live fire (which is a smoker) we began  our squad lanes. The rest of this week is almost the same as week 4, except this time each squad will teach classes and conduct lanes instead of the cadre. They are basically evaluating our ability to train soldiers. NOTE: You will not sleep this week until Thursday night! At least our platoon didnt. We stayed up for somewhere around 82 hours. It was basically LDAC on crack. I have learned that its only really hard to stay awake between 0100 and 0500. During daytime hours its not too bad and you are so dang busy you simply dont have time to sleep, or think about sleeping. A lot of guys dip to stay awake. I use BBQ sunflower seeds and bring out four or five bags when we go into the field. Anyways, as SL I was OIC for my squad's portion of training. We had nine hours to conduct training and lanes for the other three squads for nine hours From 2000 to 0500 until we had PT. We had react to contact and had four different lanes with different OPFOR. But I have to admit it was some of the hardest training we had done. First of all guys had already been up for like 50 hours when we started and their motivation wasnt at its peak. Then the terrain was rugged and using NVG's in rugged terrain is one of two things--hilarious or deadly. Or both. People fall all the time, usually not too bad but we did have one guy go down a ravine. He wasnt seriously injured but was a little woozy for a while. Anyways there were plenty of times when people zoned out. We had people falling asleep standing up. When I was evaluated a late, sometime around 0300 I was standing behind the SBF with the machine guns blazing. I leaned on a tree and the next thing I knew I faceplanted right between the two M240B's because I had fallen asleep. Like I said, less than five feet away from two machine guns. Its a difficult couple of nights. Thursday night we FINALLY got to sleep, and we got 5 hours! We were so jacked before going to bed you would have thought we had won a the collective lottery. Bad news is that Friday morning is the 8 mile ruck march. We had 35 lbs dry and then we carried an additional 8 quarts of water so your ruck wasnt the normal 80 lbs it had been during the week. They let us leave an assault pack with stuff in it so our rucks weighted roughly the same. You have two hours. The fastest did it in under an hour and twenty minutes. Most of our platoon was exhausted so a bunch of us just did the first mile in 13 minutes and the next seven miles in 15 minute miles. Not super hooah hooah high speed. But I didnt give a rats ass and we came in at an hour and fifty seven minutes. Once youre done with that in the morning you load buses and go back to the company to clean weapons! It wasnt too bad, but we got out a little late at about 1800. I crashed immediately when I got home and slept a ton.

Week 7: Machine Guns and Rockets

Well let me tell you, if you every wanted to fire a machine gun a lot, this is certainly the week for you. But before you get to do all that awesome stuff you need to take your first RPFT at the one mile track! They do grade pretty tough and try to recreate Ranger School, but its not to hard. I'm not sure about the company but no one in our platoon failed. The toughest part for people was the 5 mile run, but even the slowest came it with a minute to spare. Also if you can do any of the following you will get a major positive (100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 5 mile in less than 32:00, and 20 pull ups) so in theory you could get 20 extra points if you were a super stud. No one in the company got more than two. Anyways the sucky part is the RPFT starts at 0400. And I mean people are doing push ups at 0400 so we had to be there at 0330. Not the coolest way to start the week. After the RPFT Monday morning is mostly in the classroom and a little preparation for the week. Our platoon checked out eight 240B's, twelve M249's,  two .50 cal's, and two MK-19's. Suffice to say if we went to combat like that... it would suck carrying everything. Monday afternoon is a familiarization fire on the crew served weapons which is pretty cool if you've never fired them before, and a few more in depth classes on the machine guns. That evening we had classes on the different rockets and missiles used by the infantry. Not too exciting, but most of the instructors were pretty good so the time went by fast. Tuesday was an awesome day. Basically we got to blow stuff up. For whatever reason our class was the first IBOLC class to get to shoot AT-4's and boy did we shoot a lot of them. I think the whole company shot somewhere around 80 (There are about 120 in the whole company), and it did look pretty cool to see eight or nine rockets hit the same target at once. On the other hand a few of my classmates really struggled and probably couldnt hit the broad side of a barn with those things. Until I fired a live one I had no idea how much of a "whoosh" there really was. They also let us shoot live rounds out of the M203's, which was a lot more fun than I anticipated to be honest. I should have mentioned that before you fired anything that blew up you did a whole lot of either dry firing or firing with some sort of non lethal ammunition (chalk or balls or something). That afternoon the assigned gunners from each squad zeroed on their weapons. I had been assigned as a main gunner for the 240 and zeroing was a lot easier than I expected. For those that did it, it went faster than when we did the M4's. The next two days and nights were spent qualifying on the weapons systems. Kind of life qualifying with the M4's except the closest target is at 400 meters and the farthest was at 1000 meters. To be honest I couldnt even see anything past 800 and neither could my assistant gunner so I never even tried to shoot at them. But its not too difficult and most people qualified after their second try. Then on Wednesday night the entire company will do a familiarization fire with all tracers in the M249. It flies through and we were changing barrels every minute and they were still getting super hot. Oh and dont be a dumb ass and touch the hot barrels. They say it a million times but someone always gets a pretty nasty burn. Then Thursday morning is spent making sure all those that still need to qualify are, and other tasks. You return back to the company Thursday afternoon, but youll be cleaning all night. Literally. We had a rotation with the squads, but you only had an hour to go home. Not really to sleep, just to drop your gear and take a shower, and grab a bite. Friday all day is just cleaning. Youll get released when you finish. It took us until 1800.

Week 6: Land Nav

So this week is land navigation. If that's one of your strengths, then this will be a pretty easy week for you. If you struggle it will be a living hell. Monday was actually spent in the classroom with a few classes and a couple of teams briefing their OPORD's that werent able to go last week. The classes were mostly on risk management and CRM's. Then at about 1700 you load the buses and drive out to the land nav site, which is huge.

Things to make sure you have for land nav:

-Map markers and erasers
-Protactors (they dont provide them for you)
-Compass
-Pace count beads (have them!)
-Map case or zip lock bag
-Red light flashlight or head lamp

Anyways, Monday night you go over a few things, have a quick land nav class in case you forgot the basics and then go to bed. Tuesday you start the day going out as a fire team with a cadre member to practice land nav. The points they give you make you feel really good about yourself until you go out on the real course. All of these points on the practice are right off the road less than 100 meters and very close to the start points. This practice is really only good for guys who are really struggling. If nothing else practice your pace count, because God knows youre going to need it the next couple of days.

Then after lunch you basically do the same thing, but this time you are all by yourself. You only do four points for both of these practices. They dont mean anything, some guys just went out and took naps, I went and found my points, figured I might as well practice while I'm out there. That evening youll have classes on crew served weapons and how to use them. Its basic, and the most important part is how to put them on the tripods.

Wednesday starts bright and early. Unlike LDAC or ROTC there is no "Day" and "Night" Landnav, they simply start you out at 0400 and you have until 1000 to get all 8 points. Sounds easy right? Maybe... Ok, Ive always been good at landnav, and ended up getting 8/8 on this course, but it was way harder than any course I'd ever done before. First of all the start point is at least 4 km away from your first point--guaranteed. So you need to go quick to get to all of your points. You dont have to run, but unless you can go directly to your points with ease, I would at least run every other point or something. Wednesday is technically a practice day, but if you get 8/8 then you dont have to go again the next day and youll get a major positive, so for the week youll get 45/40 points, which is pretty damn awesome. So I would try as hard as I could to get all 8 the first day and rest (more or less) on Thursday when everyone else goes out.

What makes this course so hard is the utter lack of attack points. They are few and far between to say the least. Mostly you need to be exact on your pace count, shoot a perpendicular azimuth and go. The point I had that was closest to the road was about 450 meters. So your dead reckoning needs to be pretty damn good. Most points are about 600 meters away from any roads or trails. Also, unlike LDAC there are no "Cadet Trails" or rather, there are tons, but most of them dont go anywhere and I wouldnt trust them at all. But like I said, the course is really long. One decision I had to make was to go and extra 2.5 km by road and then dead reckon 500 m, or go from the road I was on and dead reckon 1100 meters. I gambled and did the 1100 meter dead reckon, and by the grace of all that is holy I found my point.

Anyways, I think 12 out of the 150ish in the company got 8/8 so we were tasked with helping those that had done really bad (4/8 or less) and help them. By the way you need an 6/8 to pass. This afternoons practice was just like the day before. Four points in four hours. Then youll come back and have some sort of platoon training. We actually had the Brigade Commander come out and he spoke to us about ethics.

You will also to PT around dusk, its pretty chill, nothing intense. We did a lot of stretch, a light jog, and push ups. Then they actually let us have almost 6 hours of sleep (minus fire guard of course) so people would have a better chance to pass.

If you go out again the next day, its the exact same thing. Its long, its a damn swamp, youll get soaked, and then youll run back. Make sure to bring a change of boots and extra clothes, especially socks, youll want them. If you stick around, like I did. You pretty much do nothing, maybe a few small details. But youre not allowed to sleep, which sounds easy but kinda hard at 5 am when youre not doing anything. We had about 20-25 in the company fail. (I think the average is about a 1/3 of each company fails, so we did pretty good). Then those that failed will go out again with those that did well. Then more classes on machine guns, then youre back to PT then bed.

Friday morning is a retest day for those that failed (FML if youre one of those poor guys) and the rest of you will land nav using the daggers. Or whatever the acronym is for the army GPS. Basically its a good GPS that takes you from point A to point B. But the good thing about it is that it can connect to other military electronics and you can do all sorts of things like CFF or place TRP's. Anyways the sucky thing is that it dead reckons, so youll get soaked in the swamps. Then at each point you go to there is a cadre member with some sort of test. AT-4, Crew served weapons, CFF, etc. Not really graded, but good practice. Then youll head back, get on the buses, and head back home. If you failed again (and some do) then you will keep going back to pass land nav every Thursday or Friday until you do. So just get it done and knock it out.

On a side note watch out for the wildlife. I personally ran into a cotton mouth in a tree and about crapped my pants and slowly backed away. Luckily it was in the tree, because on the ground those bastards chase you. We also had a wild hog go into out patrol base, that was interesting... Not much you can really do, except dont be stupid, and avoid where possible.

Week 5: Team OPORD, kind of...

So during week five you actually get taught on how to do a real army OPORDs, at least in the infantry. But the main thing is that no matter what commissioning source you had, these OPORDs are nothing like the ones you did in school. The detail is much much greater. Literally paragraph one is longer than any five paragraph OPORD I wrote in ROTC. You will also have your first exam on TLP's and Military Terms and Symbols.

Ok as far as the OPORD goes the first three days in the class they teach you how to write them. As you can imagine its three days of death by Power Point. But ironic part is that you really need to know and understand those power point presentations in order to actually pass and graduate IBOLC. I dont really know exactly what to write about what they teach you other than that none of it is actually hard, just detail oriented. The last couple days of the week we briefed our OPORD's, and everyone did really bad. Or should I say they got blown up by our CPT. I think the highest grade given out was 40/100. And that was by a direct commission captain who is actually in Civil Affairs (long story), and he has a PhD. If I can Ill try to put up a good example of what is expected at week five. Or you could just email me at tanner.j.meloy@us.army.mil and Ill send you mine. The meat of the presentation is your obviously your scheme of maneuver. Be prepared to spend a lot of $$$ on ink, lots of ink. For the scheme of maneuver you're going to need at least 25 steps, each with its own map and overlay. Plus each step like terrain analysis and enemy situation is all going to be on a overlay over a map.

What I found is the easiest way to do everything is to go step by step over the grade sheet and ensure you have everything. Better to have bad or weak material than nothing at all. Also the UPS stores on post also have shells for the OPORDS--BUY ONE!! It makes presentations so much easier! If you dont use a shell you're an idiot, simple as that. The Platoon Trainers have also told us that you will pass if you write out exactly what you will say and simply read it and point at your trifold board. Your presentation will be as boring as hell, but you will pass. Over all the point is however you end up presenting its up to you, just make sure you have everything and use it. A lot of guys made great boards with lots of good stuff, but never referred to anything on the board, and that really hurt them.

I do admit this week is kind of boring, especially listening to the same OPORD over and over. But I would still try to take notes and pay attention to what people do good and bad. With the two quizzes and test the week is worth a total of 70 points, 7% of the course. So make sure and study. Tests arent really hard, but they are very detail oriented and silly mistakes will cause you to fail.

Week 4: Lots of Battle Drills, No Sleep

So this week was our first official week in the field, and it was our true (at least in my opinion) "Welcome to the Infantry" week. Monday morning started off pretty normal. We had PT then afterwards a quick class on Call for Fire, which was basically the same slide deck they show you in your commissioning source, but this time from an FA officer. Then a quick class on demo because you will go to a demo range at the end of the week and they have to show you some stuff before they let you blow stuff up, more on that later though. Then they let you quickly change, you grab your ruck which now weighs about 65-75 lbs with the full load, they issue you a weeks worth of MRE's to smash in there and then you get on an overcrowded bus and you drive out to the range. You get classes and instruction on four basic battle drills, all at the squad level. The only new one for me was attacking a trench. That, gentlemen, is something I will never want to do in real life, so here is me hoping we never go to war with North Korea. But if you have had any urban combat training its very similar. They also issue you a breach kit for the platoon, which is basically 30 lbs of axes, and other tools to get you through all sorts of crap. One guy has to carry it for the rest of the course. Anyways, you get plenty of instruction and practice. Monday itself though is classes and then Tuesday and Wednesday you actually get to practice. But the nights are the hard part. We started working on patrol bases at night. It takes a loooooong time. Someday when we get more practice I'm sure it will go faster. Anyways, we started the patrol bases operations with the ORP when full night fell, around 930. I had the unfortunate luck to not be in leadership so all I did was security, and staying awake was incredibly difficult. But if you fall asleep and get caught its an automatic major minus. So the only advise I would give is on range cards, make sure you have them, and people do them right because that is what takes forever. The individuals do it, then buddy teams, then squads, then the whole platoon. I know it sounds really easy, but its not, and we didn't finish until after 0400 and wake up was 0500. Then we got up and ran 5 miles at a 7:30 pace. At least that was the goal, I think we did it at about 8:00 though. But the fact that I ran 5 miles after 45 minutes of sleep was a miracle in and of itself. But then we got back and as I said before we actually practiced the Battle Drills. Then the day basically repeated itself on Wednesday. You will do field PT and it was sprints for us on Wednesday, that didn't feel very good haha. Then that night we got hot a's which was awesome and our captain gave us a surprise, we wont have PT tomorrow so we were going on a ruck march tonight! We waited for it to get dark again, rucked up and went. The first three miles there were at a good 14 minute pace, but it was really really warm and humid. Then we took a break at three miles, cooled down, and then got "hit" with artillery simulators. We took four "casualties" which made our night a living hell. We had to pick them up and carry them, I got to carry an extra ruck, which felt like it weighted a ton, and then i realized it had the breach kit on it as well. Woo hoo! So I was carrying the two, when we got another round of artillery. It tried to run as fast as I could the called out three hundred meters, but as I was doing so the breach kit fell off the ruck, flew down, and whacked me straight in the back of the knees. Suffice to say I went flying and face planted into the dirt. As I rolled over onto my ass cursing the damn casualties, the captain walked by, looked at me and said "Hey LT, dont be a pussy. Get up." My only thought at this point was "Welcome to the infantry." We eventually got back from that three miles back exhausted. But then we had to make a new patrol base. We got done, and then had a whopping 15 minutes before wake up. I still managed to sleep. Thursday was an awesome day though. We had the demo range. The first part was the best. They let us blow up four claymores, which was kinda cool, then they blew up over 100 lbs of C4. They put most of us in these little bunkers and it sucked the air right out of us. It also knocked the cadre on their ass. It was epic. If they let us have a copy of the video Ill post it. The second half of the day was less exciting. It was the grenade range. Where they treat you like privates. But eventually it was over and they let us back to the company. We had to clean our weapons and all the platoon equipment, but we released around 2100. It may seem kinda late but even five hours of sleep felt like 12 after a combined total of two all week. Friday was then a relaxing day. We went to the Call for Fire simulator, then had  a quick class and were released at 1500. Quick note, we got three new LT's who just recycled from week 13 for failing OPORD's, made it a little more real for us

Week 3: Shooting, shooting, and more shooting

So if you didn't get it from the title of the post, this week is based on shooting. Monday starts with the 4 mile ruck march. We did it at a 13 minute pace which is pretty fast. especially if you haven't rucked much in the past. For those of you that are rucking machines, it will probably be boring. But We had quite a few guys fall out, and if you do fall out you get a major minus and it goes against your leader presence attributes. Anyways, the whole point of the round about ruck is to get to the BRM range that you'll drive past all the time on Ft. Benning. Monday you get a safety brief and begin zeroing. Its not very exciting but if you've ever been to basic its way better than that. Things are much more laid back and you're treated better. Once about twenty people have zeroed they will take you to the range next door and you begin qualifying. I think most people only attempted to qualify once, but during the rest of the week you'll get plenty of opportunities. They will take your best score during the week and use that, and if any time you score 36+ (expert) you don't have to go again. Monday night you also zero using NVG's and IR lights. Which is kind of cool as a novelty but is mostly a pain in the ass. You get home around midnight and first formation is 0530 the next day. Tuesday starts off with a 5 mile run at a 7:30 pace to ensure you can do it under 40:00 minutes, everyone in my platoon made it. After that its is more of the same and they take you to the EST 3000 or whatever its called. Its a video game that replicates zeroing and qualifying, then they take you to this cool range that tracks your bullets and tells you where exactly you're shooting, where you hit the targets and such. Mostly if helps with the little things like if your breathing is off or your trigger squeeze. Tuesday is the only day that you'll get off at a decent hour. Wednesday is the official qualifying day supposedly, but like I said before if you already qualified then you're good. If you do qualify expert you get a major positive and most likely a challenge coin from the Battalion Commander. After that you "qualify" at night using the NVG's. No one came even close. Someone hit like 13 out of 40 and that was the best. I'm sure with some practice people could do better, but half the time I couldn't even see the targets. Anyways, home by midnight again and the next day you got formation at 0500. We loaded the buses immediately with the rucks, which is a pain. My advice is to have a plan with your platoon on how you will load up beforehand or its gonna be a painful 45 minute drive. We did field PT then went to another live fire range and did a whole lot of reflexive fire. Like a ton. I think we shot like 200 live rounds each after all the practice. I was smoked from all of it to be honest. Then you take another bus ride to where you'll be doing your team live fire the next day. You'll do a few dry run through's that night and then you'll make a patrol base and with bivoac shelters. Then that night we had our first infantry moment. Holy hell can a storm come out of no where in this place. One moment I'm digging a slit trench and the next moment we are all soaked. But then there was a giant blaze and lightning hit less than a mile away and all hell broke loose. Cadre ran up like chickens with their heads cut off and told everyone to drop everything and get in the buses. So then we spent the next five hours soaked in a bus, unable to move. That sucked worse than being under the rain would I'm pretty sure. Then finally at 0200 they told us we could go back to our sites and go to bed, wake up at 0500. Came back and by buddy had his sleeping bag literally filled with water. Had he stood up in it the water would have gone up to his knees. Luckily for me mine was fine, but it was warm outside so no one suffered too bad. Then Friday was all Team Live Fire. Each team of four has a team leader, which I was, and its cool to lead everyone but it is a smoker. You have to run (well IMT) to everyone and get LACE reports all the time and its rough. You are in full armor by the way. But everyone has to get a GO with blanks before you go with live rounds. About half the groups will go again so it takes a while. Then the live fire round is up. For the love of all that is holy do not flag anyone. First of all it is stupid and dangerous, and second the cadre will hurt you, like literally. Once youre done with all of that you go back to the company and begin cleaning weapons. We got done at about 2200 which is about average and then it was release, sweet release. Next week is right back to the field though for Patrol Base operations, should be interesting.

Week 2 Powerpoints and an Obstacle course

So this week started with our first official PT led by cadre, you start and end everyday with the PRT, which is army-wide. On Monday we did the SEAL circuit three times, which is basically a smoke session, kudos to you if you can actually do it all without rest. The idea is cross fit upper body on Mondays, ability group run on Tuesdays, cross fit lower body on Wednesday, ruck march/run  on Thursday, and Friday for our platoon is supposed to be focused on our weaknesses. For us it was a pull up workout with rope climbs. One word-smoked. We also had a piss test on Monday, so make sure to drink a lot of water the night before. As I said on Tuesday we had a run, which was a five mile at a 7:30 minute pace over cardiac hill a couple of times. It was rough for some of us, but it was a mental boost to know you're already set for the run on the RFPT. Then we finished that and went straight to the obstacle course. If you're and ROTC guy it is the exact same one as LDAC at Ft. Lewis. It wasn't too hard the only ones that are truly important are the Big One, where you climb up a rope, walk across some planks, climb up a ladder and then go down a big ass cargo net. The other one, I cant remember what its called, you climb up a ladder and then go down a loooong rope. You must be on top of the rope when you go down and be face forward. If you get a no-go on either of these two (you get three attempts) you will get a major minus (-5 points) and lose out on one of the ten points of leadership presence. Basically you must complete nine of the ten options of on the leaders presence portion or they can theoretically fail you out of IBOLC. Case and point, learn how to climb a damn rope.

The rest of the week was spent in various classes on a variety of subjects. Everything from BRM and Health and Nutrition to how different infantry units are organized. A big focus of the week was also on counselings. The homework for the week was to write four different counselings. One as an initial counseling for your PSG, another for your weapons squad leader, a third that would be an initial counseling for your three rifle squad leaders, and last a discipline counseling. Our Platoon Trainer gave us a scenario about your best SL who recently had a newborn and has been late four times in the last two weeks. Interesting case. But dont wait until the night before to do them, a couple guys in my platoon did and they didnt sleep at all.

Caveat on that, even though this is a Basic course it is nothing like basic training where you start from scratch and they teach you everything you need to know. They expect that you have actually learned something from your commissioning source. You will have some sort of homework every night so if you are banking on eight hours of sleep every night you are wrong. We usually get released every night between 1900-2000 so there just isnt a lot of time. I think collectively our platoon averages about 4-5 hours of sleep a night, and its only week two.

Also, have some spending cash for your gear. I'm not saying go be a PX ranger but you will have to buy equipment because they issue you only a basic TA 50. So gloves, eyepro, and the like are on you. They do allow you to add some pouches and stuff on your FLC. I would advise you get a leader pouch, where you can put your pens, paper, protractor, and any other handy dandy tools. Also start making a leaders book ASAP. Fill it with all sorts of stuff like cheat sheets for weapon capabilities, range cards, nine lines, uxo or anything that comes from an FM. If you need ideas on what to put email me and Ill send you to a link that has a lot of good stuff.

Lastly next week is all in the field at the range, culminating in a team life fire. So we also did the video game version on Friday. It wasnt too bad, but I'm ready to get out of the classroom!

First Few Days

Ok so the first were days were half of what I expected, and half a complete surprise. The part I expected was all the paperwork, most of it you've done before and even if you have a copy in your file they usually make you do a new one. No big deal, just do it. Also you literally need at least 30 copies of your orders. I'm not kidding, for some random reason everybody from everywhere wants two copies. My packet from school only had 10, thank goodness I had made a bunch for myself before, saved me. Also make copies of your everything in your packet. It seemed to me that each office, like travel or finance wanted something random from the packet. Like I said the only thing that saved me some pain and wasted time was the fact that I made a copy of my entire packet and happen to take it with me. The oath of office is also needed frequently. Again these things wont make you recycle, but they'll save you some time in that first week. The surprise was the intensity. Do not think this is the easy part and Ranger school is the hard part (or so they tell us). The company commander was freaking people out. I'm not kidding when I say the guy next to me was literally shaking.

PT Test:
The PT test for us was the second day. I wont really say to much about the grading because its too dependent on the actual grader if they're "easy" or "hard." Just do stuff to standard. I will say that for my platoon the average was in the 250's. If you think that's low, just wait. Also pull ups (or chin ups) are part of the PT test. If you cannot do six you will receive a negative counseling and get a major deduction from your overall score. Then you have to come in every weekend for PT. That would suck, don't fail.  Height/Weight are right after the test. If you fail that you are automatically recycled if you're active duty. If you're National Guard they send you right home and you'll have to rebranch. It happened to a NG soldier in our platoon. One down already.

Platoon Trainer:
So your main trainer is a Captain, usually junior and this as their assignment for a year to 18 months before they take company command. They are legit. Apparently I got the luck to have the hardest one in the battalion. When the battalion CSM briefed the company he asked who was in a certain CPT's platoon, when we raised our hands he just looked at us and said, "Sorry brothers, your experience here will be harder than anyone else s, but you'll be better for it." Now after the first week I can already see what he means. Our platoon stays way later (First formation was at 0445 and we were released after 2000 the first three days) and does much more PT and when everybody else is talking and wasting time we are going over tactics. Double edged sword, I hope you get as lucky as I did. But usually each platoon recycles about 2-3 over the course (out of about 45ish) our platoon trainer usually recycles about 20 each cycle. Literally 10x the amount.

Along those same lines, they gave us a wake up call pretty bad the first night. If you've every heard this course is easy or you can just party on the weekends and show up in the right place, right time, right uniform and you'll pass youre mistaken. Come prepared to lead. I'll give you more information as the course goes along, but nobody in the company is taking anything lightly. There are additional duties you can volunteer for right off the bat, do them. I'm a sponsor of an international student, its awesome.

Also I posted a few good books to have the first post, I kind of lied. They expect that you have already read those completely, not just have them. Most of us were caught off guard. Also be familiar with military signs and symbols, if you're not it will be painful for you starting day 1.

Passes:
You will get passes for the holidays. Easter is this weekend so we have Friday off. If you want to go any farther than Atlanta you need a pass. They really don't care where you go as long as your back. I asked just for curiosity if I could fly back to Washington for the weekend, they said sure, just be back for accountability formation on Monday. Now I wouldn't recommend that, but just so you're aware it is an option.

Random Notes:
Know how to climb a rope, we have to do it every time we leave the building or get there. To get to the latrine or fill up a water bottle  we have to go outside, that means each time we take a piss we have to climb the rope twice. Sucks. People already have bloody hands.

Travel and Signing In

So as I was trying to prepare for IBOLC I tried to find stuff on the internet that other new LT's had written. I did find one blog that was really good (here it is: http://bolcjournal.blogspot.com/2010/09/preparing-for-iobc.html) but while it was good it was only one LT's experience a couple years ago. I don't expect too much has changed but I wanted new officers, especially infantry ones, to at least have a couple things to read and get a better picture as what to expect as they go to BOLC. The plan right now is to update this at least once a week and more if I find it necessary. Less if I don't have any time, because lets be honest, this is important, but my time at IBOLC is gonna come first.

In case you cared, I'm an ROTC graduate from BYU. Was prior service but not combat arms. Because I was a December graduate I got my IBOLC dates pretty early and they changed four times, always earlier. I even got my RFO's about my next tentative assignment. But onto the important stuff...

Anyways, a bit about your PCS. If you don't mind a little hassle when you move I recommend doing a full DITY, I'm scheduled to make about $2500 from it after everything is said and done. Married couples I've talked to have made more than $3000. It really isnt that bad. Oh and check travel routes before you go, when I drove through Nebraska there had been a massive snow storm the night before, so while the roads for fine for us 12 hours later, there were at least 30 semis and a bunch of other cars abandoned on the side of the road, most of them had just slid off. No bueno.

So everything I've heard is to not report in early, I agree. I did however do a few recons and went on post a few times. Mostly to see how long it took me to get from my apartment to the gate and to where I need to be every morning. The whole "signing in" thing was a bit of a joke though. Just for kicks and giggles I went in one day early and an LT from a different class who got the poor assignment to waste his Saturday sitting at a desk all alone, handed me a welcome letter from my new 1SG and told me to be at the appointed place at 0430. Yes, 0430...damn. Anyways the letter basically said that the first week was going to be all in processing and to bring a backpack with every piece of paperwork you have.  The letter also said to be prepared to be on post until 2000 every night, but everyone I've talked to who went through in processing here at Benning said its more like 1000 every day. Ill let you know next week.

Records: Most of it youll have received from your S1 but prior service will need all their enlisted stuff and other things like lease agreement, marriage certificate, etc. Make sure to review your packet, page by page and make yourself personal copies. All my army paperwork was in a big unorganized box but now its time to get serious. 

Uniform: So I got both unit patches for my follow on unit and the follow me patch here at BOLC. Id heard you wear the follow on unit if you know it, and I talked to the NCO on staff duty and he said, and I quote "Hell yeah wear that thing! You dont wanna look like some new and confused LT with the "Follow Me" patch." Well ok sergent. Ill let you know what they say. Other than that make sure you wear clean uniforms. Your first paycheck will have money specifically for that, dont waste it, buy yourself some legit uniforms. 

Housing: If you want to live of post, you can. I recommend it and there are tons of places. Do make sure before you sign anything to make sure your apartment complex has been ok'ed approved. Met an LT who didnt do that, suffice to say he is in a world of hurt at the moment. Then you have to decide for how long, if you get a ranger slot you gotta decide if you wanna pay two months for a place you wont see, or put stuff in storage or what. Food for thought. 

Oh, and they dont do base decals here anymore on post, so just make sure to always have your CAC card, or at least military ID with you. And if you want to have a firearm in your car when you go on post, do the paperwork, dont break that rule. 

If you have any questions feel free to comment and Ill answer you the best I can. Obviously there are some basic OPSEC stuff so I wont go into too much detail about the actual training itself, more about what to except and how to better prepare yourself. I had to opportunity to be a Gold Bar Recruiter and had a lot of time to study, before you come I would suggest you read four books first:

FM 3.21-8 (Duh)

FM 3-90 Tactics

Ranger Handbook (its full of great information and isnt really that long)

Starship Troopers (if this book doesnt make you jacked to go infantry nothing will) 

Also for official infantry stuff check these links:

IBOLC Homepage- http://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/199th/ibolc/

Training shedule- http://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/199th/ibolc/content/pdf/IBOLC%20Training%20Calendar.pdf

Breakdown of scoring- http://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/199th/ibolc/content/pdf/IBOLC%20Graduation%20Requirements.pdf