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!