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.
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