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.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
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.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
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.
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.
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.
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