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.