I have a post that I really want to make right now, but since I haven't updated since before Thanksgiving, I'll give an update on life first.
First off, my Thanksgiving pass reappeared. Apparently our Company (or our Battalion) is disorganized enough that it assigns people to extra details without bothering to finish going through pass and leave forms for upcoming holidays, and it doesn't really track where those forms are at during the approval process. This leads to passes disappearing (as fa as the Company is concerned) while they're being approved at Battalion, which in turn leads to a lot of distress on the part of the unfortunate brand new lieutenants who don't know any better. A.k.a. me. Hopefully, when the time comes to write an end-of-course memorandum next week discussing the various shortcomings (and good things) about life in DCo, I'll remember to make some sort of fuss about better leave and pass tracking.
That aside, Thanksgiving was okay, as was Christmas. I'm used to living by myself now though, so shared living arrangements really bother me. I also love my family a great deal, and enjoy visiting my extended family in Michigan, but I think I've (finally?) grown up and grown past the need to be with my parents and my family on a regular basis. That's not to say that i don't ever want to visit them all, but I'm happy having my own life now, and truth be told, I can only really handle being around the rest of the family for a limited time. I've read and heard that that's how most adults feel when returning home; whatever, that's the way it feels for me. I don't know that I speak with my dad any more often now that I'm off living my own life (and college did not count), but I talked to him on a fairly regular basis in college anyway. Granted, he generally has to call me, but I've always been that way with everyone in my family (which is a large part of what I'll discuss in my next post). I do talk to my mom a lot more often, and I frequently call her instead of the other way aound, which is a change for me. I also talk to my older brother on a somewhat regular basis, but i'll talk more about that in the next post too.
Christmas itself: my mom flew to Michigan this year, so I got to stay there for the entire break instead of flying out to Colorado on Christmas day; that also meant that I got to visit with my mom's side of the family for a little over a week, which I don't ever get to do (I typically only see them for a day or for lunch if at all). I did not, however, get to see my mom's stepmother, who has always been "my grandmother" in the same way that all of my other grandparents have been "mine." I'm actually a bit upset still over the reasons we didn't see her, since it was an unpleasant bit of drama and I truly would have liked to have seen her, even if she didn't seem particularly interested in seeing any of us (but she felt snubbed for reasons that I won't go into, so I don't think it's entirely her fault - which is why I've pretty much held my tongue to the rest of my family about it, since I know I'll probably get a little bitchy about it if I say anything, and nobody really deserves that).
Anyway, I'm back at Fort Rucker (obviously I suppose), and only have a week and a couple of (extremely easy and short) days away from being finished with BOLC III/JOPD/A Bunch of Stuff That I'll Probably Forget by the Time I Finish with Flight School. Then I start SERE school on 15FEB, and then I'm probably looking at a 1-3 month hold before starting "actual" flight school (which is good, since it gives me time to memorize the parts of the flight manual that I kave to know).
On a more personal note, I'm not sure I still have a boyfriend (if I ever really had one), and if I'm bothered by that fact, it's only because I don't know for sure, and would like "closure" if that's the case. The story of my dating experience:
-He asked me out to dinner after a strange conversation on Halloween. Due to the nature of the situation, I was pretty sure he was not my boyfriend.
-We go out again, at which point I supposed he probably was my boyfriend.
-We went out to eat a handful of other times and made out from time to time.
-We didn't "technically" have sex... depending on your definition of sex, I suppose. But we went far enough along for me to decide that i'm not comfortable with it, in hindsight. I never said anything after the fact, because I was fine with it during the fact (what hormone-induced idiot wouldn't be?), and it hasn;t really come up again since then.
-Although our mutual friends may have known something was going on, we never actually did any "couple-y" things in front of them... and I don't know if that was because he didn't want people knowing he was "with" me or because he thought I didn't want people to know or because it just never really came up. It still bugs me a little, but I didn't say anything so it's my own fault if I've got a problem with it. Especially since I don't know if I do want everyone knowing.
-Then we left for Winter Exodus, and he went to SERE school immediately on return. Cue 3 weeks of no contact, which didn't bother me in the slightest.
He's back now, and I haven't received the texts and calls and unannounced visits (which actually really piss me off...) that I was expecting. He also didn't kiss me or anything when we drove back from Montgomery together after Exodus, or when I drove him home this past Sunday after a mutual friend's son's first birthday party. Maybe he's just waiting until the weekend, or maybe I've given off some kind of signal that we're done, or maybe the three weeks (well, 3 weeks plus Exodus) apart did what I'm too chicken to do (because dating, even if it's not-dating, a friend is pretty damned awkward when you're debating breaking up and you have all the same mutual friends and have to work together for quite a while before being sent into the "real Army"... at which point we'll see each other again frequently anyway, because Aviation is a very small community).
Long story short, I'm a little confused about the whole thing, probably not helped by the fact that I've never dated anyone before (and never really kissed anyone before, or made out with anyone before, or did anything else remotely sexual with before), and I rather wish that I hadn't bothered "dating" (or not-dating, whichever...) the guy after all. Blah.
Apart from that, not much going on personally. I'm getting myself a ferret after I return from SERE, and my older brother is going to drive up from Florida to help me move the ferret in and in general just hang out (and bring me a lot of smoked pulled pork). I'm really looking forward to having a pet :) I want a dog, but I know I won't have the time for one during flight school, and moving with one will be really difficult once I finish. Ferrets aren't as low-maintenance as a fish or something, but they sleep a lot during the day, and don't need the same amount of space that a dog would. I'm also not allergic to them like I am to cats, so they're pretty much the ideal pet for me right now. I know emotion doesn't translate well through digital means, but I am SOOOOO excited to be getting a pet!!
Aaanyway. That's it I guess. Time to post this and then start on the next (somewhat disturning) post :p
OH! My car is FUCKING UP. I almost forgot that! My speedometer swings back and forth - not constantly, but nearly every time I drive now, worse in the cold it seems, and enough that I have no idea how fast I'm going when it happens, unless I have my GPS on. The dealership basically told me "tough shit", since they'll have to take apart the electronics to go through all of the wiring to try and fix it, which I don't have the time (or really the money) for. Especially since the mechanic on post says it's probably an instrument cluster problem, and I should try finding one at a junk yard and replacing it before going through the wiring. I have absolutely no idea where a junkyard is here in Alabama, but maybe I can get my brother to find one in Florida and bring it up after SERE, since he's way more car-savvy than me anyway. Blah again.
The end for real this time.
Showing posts with label BOLC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BOLC. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Mother Rucker
So, yeah, I obviously didn't post about my weekend in Naperville. Not because it was a bad weekend or anything, but because I simply got too lazy to bother posting.
So, we'll start with Naperville. It was an ok weekend. Got to see my mom and two of my brothers (yeah, I have four of them :p). My older brother adopted a new puppy (who was sick and skin and bones then but is healthy and apparently doubled in size as of her vet visit a day ago :p), and she is absolutely adorable. Her photo is the one up at the top. The next two are Charlie (my brother's first dog, and a complete daddy's boy) and Kit (one of my mom's two dogs, and a complete momma's boy :p). I do wish that the weekend had been longer, or that it hadn't been a competition weekend (aka a "work" weekend for my mom). Didn't get to hang out and have some quality mother-daughter time like I was hoping :-/
Anyway... the last couple weeks of Fort Sham passed by pretty much the same way as the rest of the time there - easy and boring, for the most part. I'm still not active duty according to the Army database, and apparently that was a big enough fuckup that it had to be sent to the DA to be fixed *sigh*
So, we'll start with Naperville. It was an ok weekend. Got to see my mom and two of my brothers (yeah, I have four of them :p). My older brother adopted a new puppy (who was sick and skin and bones then but is healthy and apparently doubled in size as of her vet visit a day ago :p), and she is absolutely adorable. Her photo is the one up at the top. The next two are Charlie (my brother's first dog, and a complete daddy's boy) and Kit (one of my mom's two dogs, and a complete momma's boy :p). I do wish that the weekend had been longer, or that it hadn't been a competition weekend (aka a "work" weekend for my mom). Didn't get to hang out and have some quality mother-daughter time like I was hoping :-/
Anyway... the last couple weeks of Fort Sham passed by pretty much the same way as the rest of the time there - easy and boring, for the most part. I'm still not active duty according to the Army database, and apparently that was a big enough fuckup that it had to be sent to the DA to be fixed *sigh*
Oh well, at least BOLC III is over... now on to my real BOLC III! That's right folks, I have (finally) arrived at Fort Rucker. I have my own apartment here (2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, all to myself), which is nice except now I actually have to grow up and pay bills :( And buy furniture, which is a hell of a lot more expensive than I'd expected... Thus far my life has consisted of PT in the morning (which lasts from the 0615 formation until around 0700... what a joke...) and inprocessing. Now I have Permissive TDY (PTDY) starting after PT Monday, which means 10 days of not having to do anything and still getting paid! So I'm going to stay here long enough for my internet to be hooked up Monday (I'm hijacking a neighbor's right now) and for my furniture to be set up Tuesday, and then I'm headed home until the 6th.
In other exciting news, apparently I'm entitled to BAH (housing pay) for part of the time I was at Fort Sam, which means my paycheck next Weds. will have an extra $700 tacked onto it... plus the $719 for this next month's housing that I haven't been drawing yet. In short, the paycheck will be double what I usually make :) Additionally, my travel voucher will wind up being approximately $2000, which I should be getting deposited to my bank account towards the end of this upcoming week. Hallelujah for paying off the credit card (which I pretty much maxed out to buy furniture) and restocking my checking account (which I wiped out paying rent and buying groceries and curtains). Yes, I bought curtains. I bought blackout curtains, which I fully expect to lower the cost of my electricity bills, so no need for "housewife" jokes, thanks :p
And while I'm speaking about decorating my house, check out the paintings I bought in New Orleans to hang on my walls!
I was going to paint the walls too, but then I discovered how expensive paint is, and I decided that it wasn't worth it for a year-and-a-half-long stay. Instead of painting, I'm probably just going to invest in some comfy throw rugs that match the curtains (which match the paintings). Yes, I picked different rooms for the paintings so that I could color-coordinate curtains and such. I like art and like things matching, so sue me :p
OH, and in case anyone is curious about the oils, the lady's website is here: http://raganarts.com/RaganArts/Ragan_Arts.html
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Argh, Graduate School
FML. And that's all I really have to say about deciding to start some online Master's courses this semester. Just... FML.
In other news, we've begun the Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) portion of BOLC III. I'm torn between enjoying the work, wanting to gouge my eyes out with a pencil at the mind-numbingness of the work, and wanting to beat my head repeatedly against a desk at having to work with other people to produce an OPORD. I blame being the Bn XO in ROTC for that last bit... :p
And in OTHER other news, it's the f-in weekend! Hell yeah! Thank God for training holidays, because we have a 4-day weekend now :) That means only a 4-day and a 3-day week, and then GRADUATION!!! And I get to make the 13-hour drive to Fort Rucker to move into my first apartment ever XD
This weekend I'm headed to Napervill, IL (I think I already mentioned this once...) and I expect it to be a blast. Not the least because it's going to be NICE weather there! Like, highs in the mid-70s instead of the low 100s!!! w00t! I will actually have an excuse to wear a sweater at night! And, ya know, hanging out with family is always fun :) I'm going to try to convince my brother to wear a Superman cape (the one I got at 6 Flags last weekend) while he competes :p
Anyway, have to go beat my brain against my homework (HOMEWORK!!! FML. Again.) now, so will update on Monday or Tuesday probably about how the weekend went.
In other news, we've begun the Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP) portion of BOLC III. I'm torn between enjoying the work, wanting to gouge my eyes out with a pencil at the mind-numbingness of the work, and wanting to beat my head repeatedly against a desk at having to work with other people to produce an OPORD. I blame being the Bn XO in ROTC for that last bit... :p
And in OTHER other news, it's the f-in weekend! Hell yeah! Thank God for training holidays, because we have a 4-day weekend now :) That means only a 4-day and a 3-day week, and then GRADUATION!!! And I get to make the 13-hour drive to Fort Rucker to move into my first apartment ever XD
This weekend I'm headed to Napervill, IL (I think I already mentioned this once...) and I expect it to be a blast. Not the least because it's going to be NICE weather there! Like, highs in the mid-70s instead of the low 100s!!! w00t! I will actually have an excuse to wear a sweater at night! And, ya know, hanging out with family is always fun :) I'm going to try to convince my brother to wear a Superman cape (the one I got at 6 Flags last weekend) while he competes :p
Anyway, have to go beat my brain against my homework (HOMEWORK!!! FML. Again.) now, so will update on Monday or Tuesday probably about how the weekend went.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Let's Kill Some Nazis
So, "survived" field week here at Fort Sham. The worst part about it was no showers (but we still got all sweaty and nasty at 6am doing PT, nevermind that it's over 100 degrees here so we're getting pretty disgusting during the day anyway :p) The training itself wasn't too bad though; easy for the most part, although I did more infantry-type stuff than medical stuff, much to my disappointment. Not hard or physically demanding infantry stuff (although we did get a surprise 4-mile ruck to the FOB on Monday :p), but worthless nonetheless (mind you, the majority of BOLC 3 is worthless for a future MEDEVAC pilot, but nobody here needs practice manning a guard tower or sitting all day in a security perimeter. Honestly.)
General pointlessness of the field exercise aside, at least we had quotes from Inglourious Basterds to tide us over. That movie is by far the best I've seen all Summer, even topping Hangover. I didn't know going into it that it was supposed to be at least partially funny, and that was a great surprise. I also wasn't expecting it to have a decent plot (I've seen a lot of movies this summer with horrible - or no - plots, so I was expecting the usual), so that was also a nice surprise. Yeah, I know, it was a completely unrealistic plot, but any idiot knows that Hitler wasn't shot to death in a movie theater, so the rest can be forgiven, in my opinion. There were some inconsistencies, but nothing that made me dislike the movie in any way. So long as you don't mind some blood and gore and beating people to death with baseball bats, I'd recommend this movie to pretty much anyone.
That said, went to Six Flags yesterday. Favorite rollercoasters: Superman (all four of us got Superman capes and wore them every time we went on the ride - geeky, I know, but fun) and Poltergeist (0 to 60mph in 3.8 seconds, hell YES!). No real "least favorite" coasters, although the Rattler certainly lived up to its name (but what did I expect from a massive wooden rollercoaster? And I only smashed my head into Jay's shoulder about three times, so it's ok...)
Next weekend: Naperville, IL, for the Ashley Whippet disc dog competition with my mom and brothers! Whoo! We also realized this weekend that we have no more 5-day weeks left here at BOLC 3 - two 4-days and a 3-day! AND I finally got my orders to flight school, so I can head straight to AL when I'm done here and move into my apartment! Good news all around :)
General pointlessness of the field exercise aside, at least we had quotes from Inglourious Basterds to tide us over. That movie is by far the best I've seen all Summer, even topping Hangover. I didn't know going into it that it was supposed to be at least partially funny, and that was a great surprise. I also wasn't expecting it to have a decent plot (I've seen a lot of movies this summer with horrible - or no - plots, so I was expecting the usual), so that was also a nice surprise. Yeah, I know, it was a completely unrealistic plot, but any idiot knows that Hitler wasn't shot to death in a movie theater, so the rest can be forgiven, in my opinion. There were some inconsistencies, but nothing that made me dislike the movie in any way. So long as you don't mind some blood and gore and beating people to death with baseball bats, I'd recommend this movie to pretty much anyone.
That said, went to Six Flags yesterday. Favorite rollercoasters: Superman (all four of us got Superman capes and wore them every time we went on the ride - geeky, I know, but fun) and Poltergeist (0 to 60mph in 3.8 seconds, hell YES!). No real "least favorite" coasters, although the Rattler certainly lived up to its name (but what did I expect from a massive wooden rollercoaster? And I only smashed my head into Jay's shoulder about three times, so it's ok...)
Next weekend: Naperville, IL, for the Ashley Whippet disc dog competition with my mom and brothers! Whoo! We also realized this weekend that we have no more 5-day weeks left here at BOLC 3 - two 4-days and a 3-day! AND I finally got my orders to flight school, so I can head straight to AL when I'm done here and move into my apartment! Good news all around :)
Sunday, August 16, 2009
BOLC III - Fort Sham Houston
Enter week... 3? 4? We started on a Weds, so I really don't know what week of training it is :p
Anyway, here I am. BOLC III is everything I could have wanted :p I think the latest we've been released is 1730... and we were released at 11 this past Friday. Hell. Yes.
Training consists of a lot of powerpoint classes. Exams consist of multiple choice questions, in which they tell us every single slide that's going to be tested the day before. Homework? So far we've just done 7-10 min a powerpoint presentation, although we do have a homework book (yes, I'm seriously, a freakin' homework book! hahaha) that I assume we'll eventually use.
What have we been doing with the rest of our time? Watching movies, going to sea world, going to concerts (that'll be a separate post :p), hanging out with Jay's friend Mark, who is a former drill-instructor-now-"platoon-leader" who has about 2 months left in the Army and is absolutely hating his life right now. Seriously, this poor guy's life sucks worse and worse every time we talk to him.
Aand... that's pretty much it. Still waiting on my orders for flight school (but our branch manager is working on it, so hopefully will have some soon). Also trying to un-fuck my personnel records, since I'm still listed as being in the Inactive Ready Reserves when I *should* be listed as Active Duty. Once I un-fuck that I can hopefully finally finish my Tuition Assistance application and pay the school before they put holds on my student account, charge me late fees, and unregister me from classes. That's right, I stupidly signed up to take Grad classes online. No, I don't know what's wrong with me. The week classes start? I'll be out in the field. In the 100+ degree weather. Doing PT and Combatives. With no showers. -_- It'll be the one part of Ft Sam that sucks...
Anyway, here I am. BOLC III is everything I could have wanted :p I think the latest we've been released is 1730... and we were released at 11 this past Friday. Hell. Yes.
Training consists of a lot of powerpoint classes. Exams consist of multiple choice questions, in which they tell us every single slide that's going to be tested the day before. Homework? So far we've just done 7-10 min a powerpoint presentation, although we do have a homework book (yes, I'm seriously, a freakin' homework book! hahaha) that I assume we'll eventually use.
What have we been doing with the rest of our time? Watching movies, going to sea world, going to concerts (that'll be a separate post :p), hanging out with Jay's friend Mark, who is a former drill-instructor-now-"platoon-leader" who has about 2 months left in the Army and is absolutely hating his life right now. Seriously, this poor guy's life sucks worse and worse every time we talk to him.
Aand... that's pretty much it. Still waiting on my orders for flight school (but our branch manager is working on it, so hopefully will have some soon). Also trying to un-fuck my personnel records, since I'm still listed as being in the Inactive Ready Reserves when I *should* be listed as Active Duty. Once I un-fuck that I can hopefully finally finish my Tuition Assistance application and pay the school before they put holds on my student account, charge me late fees, and unregister me from classes. That's right, I stupidly signed up to take Grad classes online. No, I don't know what's wrong with me. The week classes start? I'll be out in the field. In the 100+ degree weather. Doing PT and Combatives. With no showers. -_- It'll be the one part of Ft Sam that sucks...
Saturday, July 25, 2009
New Orleans, BOLC II - Week 7
Done, done, fucking done, finally. Goodbye, home of the infantry, hello, Fort 'Sham' Houston.
Week 7 was our last week, and theoretically should have been the easiest. Of course, they couldn't resist screwing with us every single day, even after we graduated...
Monday was the day of our second APFT, which was actually kind of nice because the weather was 10 degrees cooler compared to the first one (about 65 instead of 75). It made the run a lot easier, and I improved my time by 30 seconds. Unfortunately, the lack of organized PT and the lack of time or energy to work out on my own meant that pushups hurt (although I still maxed them), and my situps got worse (only did 70 compared to 78 last time, and 80 is maxing *sigh*). The rest of Monday we spent turning in our CIF issue and cleaning weapons (with no cleaning kits, just some q-tips and dirty rags).
Tuesday we had to do a crossfit competition for PT... while Delta Company got to play ultimate footbal and ultimate frisbee. What. The. Fuck. So we cheated our way through the whole thing, and my platoon finished in 20 minutes, compared to the other platoons who finished in 30-40. Way to go us. That day was spent cleaning weapons all day - again, with no cleaning kits. Of course, the weapons were being inspected by MAJ KJ, so none of them passed inspection... Did he care that we had no cleaning kits? Of course not.
Wednesday was our "4"-mile graduation run (which wasn't even on our final counseling sheet...). It was actually 5.1 miles, but hey, who's counting? Now, I was in 1st platoon, Charlie Company. The run was a battalion-level run, with Charlie and Delta. So, given that my platoon is the FIRST platoon of the FIRST company, we should have been FIRST in the order of march, right? Wrong. We were last. Helloooo, slinky. Helloooo insane sprint for the first half mile since we had to constantly catch up to the platoons in front of us. Helloooo 8:45 average run pace for 5 miles (the ridiculously fast and painful first mile was balanced out by the ridiculously slow and painful last mile). My right foot also went numb the last 15 minutes, and alternated between not being felt properly and sending stabbing pain up my leg for the end of the run. Fucking peachy.
Later during the day, we... got to clean weapons again! AND we somehow had to have our barracks moved out of and cleaned to standard during that time. We had better cleaning supplies for the rooms than for the weapons, of course. The rooms were inspected at 1500 (most of them didn't pass and had to be re-cleaned), and the weapons were inspected at 1600 (we were originally supposed to be done at 1600...). Of course, MAJ KJ inspected the weapons, since this was our final day of cleaning them. One of the three checked had a tiny rust spot on the outside. Fail. One had some dust on it. Fail. The third was the weapin of one of our platoon's resident shitbags, who had barely cleaned his weapon at all, letting everyone else do all the work (there were four people who did this, and all four of their weapons were horrible... I know because I had to clean one of them after the failed inspection). Needless to say, his weapon was filthy. Fail. Draw weapons again, clean for... a half hour? Seriously, sir? Is a half hour really worth it at ALL? No, but that's ok. We re-drew weapons and cleaned for a half hour anyway (a whole half hour to clean some asshole's weapon that hadn't been TOUCHED all week... while said person hung out behind the building with some of his infantry buddies and did nothing, as usual). Then we turned them in and were finally released. Sometimes, I just don't understand the bullshit that goes on at BOLC II.
Thursday was the make-up day for people who fell out of the not-really-4-mile run. And for the 2 shitbags who didn't fall out but showed up to formation late. Suckers. And for the guy in our platoon whose elderly mother was having her third, extremely high-risk,open heart surgery, so he missed the run Weds (and the commander pretty much screwed the poor guy over... had it been me, there would have been an IG complaint in the making, but this guy is a better person than me and elected to drop the issue and just get the hell out of Fort Benning). The rest of us formed up retardedly early to turn in linens (0445 to be exact). Then we formed up again a couple hours early (0800) to sit around and do nothing for a while (surprise surprise). Finally we were bussed over to graduation (what a relief). AFter graduation (which was fortunately a short ceremony), Delta Co was released to return to their company area. Charlie Co was NOT released, because apparently we're the bitch company, and get to do all of the bullshit details. Go us. Once we were finally allowed to leave, we had to go back and pick up our leave forms and medical records, which fortunately went quickly. By that point, my platoon's cadre were like, "fuck it, it was nice working with you guys, peace out." So we skipped the mandatory safety brief and hauled ass out of there.
Thursday afternoon marked a day of travel to New Orleans, where I spent the night. A buddy of mine from my platoon who is also going to Fort Sam for BOLC III went with me, and we hung out in New Orleans all day. The city is pretty amazing. It's fairly laid-back during the day... kind of reminded me of NYC with a slower attitude. We had lunch (I had a hot roast beef and gravy sandwich, apparently known as a "sloppy roast beef" in the city) and a couple of drinks. Note to the wise, New Orleans is pretty much built around drinking, so their drinks are really strong. I'm a lightweight anyway, so two drinks would have made me buzzed regardless, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't walking straight when I finished them. We wandered around some more, I got slightly ill (only slightly, thank God...), and then finally started to sober up. I also spent a large chunk of money on some oil paintings. Music and art are probably my two biggest weaknesses when it comes to spending *sigh* If I remember I'll take a quick snapshot of one of the paintings I bought to show you...
Anyway, after that we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a couple of hours, until around 8:00pm. Then we headed back downtown, and holy CRAP it's a completely different city at night. The nighlife was definitely hopping. We had dinner at a place called Pat O'Brian's, which is well-known for its hurricanes (they're about a foot tall and as strong as every other drink in the city). And man were they good. We walked up and down the main strip for a little while, just taking in the sights, and then settled at the Old Opera House. I really wish I knew the name of the cover band that was playing there, because they were pretty damned good. We stayed there for several sets of music, until the band took their 2nd or 3rd break (I forget which) and some drunk guy came over and stood for like 5 minutes trying to get me or Jay to dance with him. Once his friend called him away and he was finally gone, we decided to head out and walk a little bit, since the band was taking a break. Then we realized that it was past 1am, and we had to check out at 11, so we headed back.
Today we travelled to Houston, where we'll be seeing an Astro's game tomorrow in the Astrodome. Monday morning we'll drive the last 3 hours to Fort Sam and check in there. Then we start BOLC III Weds (at 0530... gah). This trip is basically vacation time for us, which is turning out to be pretty fun. Glad Jay agreed to convoy it though... it wouldn't be nearly as much fun alone (I probably wouldn't have stayed in New Orleans alone, since it's not exactly the safest place for a single woman to wander around).
Anyway, hopefully Fort Sam is as cool as I'm expecting it to be. Will keep you posted :p
Week 7 was our last week, and theoretically should have been the easiest. Of course, they couldn't resist screwing with us every single day, even after we graduated...
Monday was the day of our second APFT, which was actually kind of nice because the weather was 10 degrees cooler compared to the first one (about 65 instead of 75). It made the run a lot easier, and I improved my time by 30 seconds. Unfortunately, the lack of organized PT and the lack of time or energy to work out on my own meant that pushups hurt (although I still maxed them), and my situps got worse (only did 70 compared to 78 last time, and 80 is maxing *sigh*). The rest of Monday we spent turning in our CIF issue and cleaning weapons (with no cleaning kits, just some q-tips and dirty rags).
Tuesday we had to do a crossfit competition for PT... while Delta Company got to play ultimate footbal and ultimate frisbee. What. The. Fuck. So we cheated our way through the whole thing, and my platoon finished in 20 minutes, compared to the other platoons who finished in 30-40. Way to go us. That day was spent cleaning weapons all day - again, with no cleaning kits. Of course, the weapons were being inspected by MAJ KJ, so none of them passed inspection... Did he care that we had no cleaning kits? Of course not.
Wednesday was our "4"-mile graduation run (which wasn't even on our final counseling sheet...). It was actually 5.1 miles, but hey, who's counting? Now, I was in 1st platoon, Charlie Company. The run was a battalion-level run, with Charlie and Delta. So, given that my platoon is the FIRST platoon of the FIRST company, we should have been FIRST in the order of march, right? Wrong. We were last. Helloooo, slinky. Helloooo insane sprint for the first half mile since we had to constantly catch up to the platoons in front of us. Helloooo 8:45 average run pace for 5 miles (the ridiculously fast and painful first mile was balanced out by the ridiculously slow and painful last mile). My right foot also went numb the last 15 minutes, and alternated between not being felt properly and sending stabbing pain up my leg for the end of the run. Fucking peachy.
Later during the day, we... got to clean weapons again! AND we somehow had to have our barracks moved out of and cleaned to standard during that time. We had better cleaning supplies for the rooms than for the weapons, of course. The rooms were inspected at 1500 (most of them didn't pass and had to be re-cleaned), and the weapons were inspected at 1600 (we were originally supposed to be done at 1600...). Of course, MAJ KJ inspected the weapons, since this was our final day of cleaning them. One of the three checked had a tiny rust spot on the outside. Fail. One had some dust on it. Fail. The third was the weapin of one of our platoon's resident shitbags, who had barely cleaned his weapon at all, letting everyone else do all the work (there were four people who did this, and all four of their weapons were horrible... I know because I had to clean one of them after the failed inspection). Needless to say, his weapon was filthy. Fail. Draw weapons again, clean for... a half hour? Seriously, sir? Is a half hour really worth it at ALL? No, but that's ok. We re-drew weapons and cleaned for a half hour anyway (a whole half hour to clean some asshole's weapon that hadn't been TOUCHED all week... while said person hung out behind the building with some of his infantry buddies and did nothing, as usual). Then we turned them in and were finally released. Sometimes, I just don't understand the bullshit that goes on at BOLC II.
Thursday was the make-up day for people who fell out of the not-really-4-mile run. And for the 2 shitbags who didn't fall out but showed up to formation late. Suckers. And for the guy in our platoon whose elderly mother was having her third, extremely high-risk,open heart surgery, so he missed the run Weds (and the commander pretty much screwed the poor guy over... had it been me, there would have been an IG complaint in the making, but this guy is a better person than me and elected to drop the issue and just get the hell out of Fort Benning). The rest of us formed up retardedly early to turn in linens (0445 to be exact). Then we formed up again a couple hours early (0800) to sit around and do nothing for a while (surprise surprise). Finally we were bussed over to graduation (what a relief). AFter graduation (which was fortunately a short ceremony), Delta Co was released to return to their company area. Charlie Co was NOT released, because apparently we're the bitch company, and get to do all of the bullshit details. Go us. Once we were finally allowed to leave, we had to go back and pick up our leave forms and medical records, which fortunately went quickly. By that point, my platoon's cadre were like, "fuck it, it was nice working with you guys, peace out." So we skipped the mandatory safety brief and hauled ass out of there.
Thursday afternoon marked a day of travel to New Orleans, where I spent the night. A buddy of mine from my platoon who is also going to Fort Sam for BOLC III went with me, and we hung out in New Orleans all day. The city is pretty amazing. It's fairly laid-back during the day... kind of reminded me of NYC with a slower attitude. We had lunch (I had a hot roast beef and gravy sandwich, apparently known as a "sloppy roast beef" in the city) and a couple of drinks. Note to the wise, New Orleans is pretty much built around drinking, so their drinks are really strong. I'm a lightweight anyway, so two drinks would have made me buzzed regardless, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't walking straight when I finished them. We wandered around some more, I got slightly ill (only slightly, thank God...), and then finally started to sober up. I also spent a large chunk of money on some oil paintings. Music and art are probably my two biggest weaknesses when it comes to spending *sigh* If I remember I'll take a quick snapshot of one of the paintings I bought to show you...
Anyway, after that we went back to the hotel and relaxed for a couple of hours, until around 8:00pm. Then we headed back downtown, and holy CRAP it's a completely different city at night. The nighlife was definitely hopping. We had dinner at a place called Pat O'Brian's, which is well-known for its hurricanes (they're about a foot tall and as strong as every other drink in the city). And man were they good. We walked up and down the main strip for a little while, just taking in the sights, and then settled at the Old Opera House. I really wish I knew the name of the cover band that was playing there, because they were pretty damned good. We stayed there for several sets of music, until the band took their 2nd or 3rd break (I forget which) and some drunk guy came over and stood for like 5 minutes trying to get me or Jay to dance with him. Once his friend called him away and he was finally gone, we decided to head out and walk a little bit, since the band was taking a break. Then we realized that it was past 1am, and we had to check out at 11, so we headed back.
Today we travelled to Houston, where we'll be seeing an Astro's game tomorrow in the Astrodome. Monday morning we'll drive the last 3 hours to Fort Sam and check in there. Then we start BOLC III Weds (at 0530... gah). This trip is basically vacation time for us, which is turning out to be pretty fun. Glad Jay agreed to convoy it though... it wouldn't be nearly as much fun alone (I probably wouldn't have stayed in New Orleans alone, since it's not exactly the safest place for a single woman to wander around).
Anyway, hopefully Fort Sam is as cool as I'm expecting it to be. Will keep you posted :p
Saturday, July 18, 2009
BOLC II - Weeks 3-6
SO, obviously I haven't updated in a while. I'll blame tiredness, you can probably chalk part of it up to laziness. That's ok.
Week three... I honestly don't remember what happened during week 3, except that we were in the FOB and I got chiggers. I know we did combatives, which was way better than LDAC, because we were allowed to use choke holds and arm bars in the spars, so I actually won one of mine (choked him out before he could close on me :p) and fought another one to a draw. Very fun. The rest of the week was spoent doing "infantry tactics"... aka running Battle Drills. Cue 'the suck'.
Week 4 was a short week, thanks to the 4th of July. We did convoy ops (the simulator was crazy fun,. basically like being stuck inside of a giant video game) and ran through Battle Drill 1a in preparation for Wednesday's live fire exercise - basically we went to a range with live rounds and had our squad maneuvering through an opbjective. Potentially very dangerous, since if someone messed up we could wind up shooting each other. Fun for the infantry guys, but after running the lane with blanks a couple times the live run wasn't as fun for me... it was a pretty tiring day all in all.
Fourth of July I went home and to St. Augustine. It was nice seeing (some) of the family again, but driving that much back and forth kind of sucked :(
Week 5 was back in the barracks. We did our 10 mile ruck march that Tuesday, MOUT (military ops in urban terrain), and a squad land nav exercise on Friday. The 10 mile march completely sucked. We did MOUT tape drills during the day, and started the ruck at 4pm. Let me make note of the fact that from 2-4 is the hottest time of the day, and it's in the high 80s at midnight in this place. Now let me mention that the majority of our 10 miles were uphill. For pretty much the first 7 miles, we didn't go downhill once... and here in Ft. Benning, there is no such thing as level ground. The sun, which had been hidden by clouds the rest of the day, also decided to put in an appearance for the first 2 miles. Thanks a lot. Now, the pace was slow (17-18 minute miles at the start, 20 at the end), and we stopped several time (4 or 5 I think). We had a LOT of people fall out as heat casualties. One of the guys had heat exhaustion so bad that the doctors thought he had a heat stroke, and he was on quarters for the rest of the week before they let him return to train with us. We also ran out of water in our coolers the last 3 miles, so people couldn't refill canteens or camelbaks. THAT was great planning... Whatever... I passed, but only because my squad members are awesome and helped carry my 203 (which is heavier than a regular m4...)
Had another weekend of fun, where I was DD for a bunch of the people in the plt. The first bar we went to, Scruffy Murphy's, is a cool place, and we've gone there a few times now. We wound up at a club called Flip Flops though, and I could have done without being there. Reminds me a lot of your stereotypical frat house party... I also was groped by a girl O.o awkward....
Every week, we look forward to Wednesday being finished. That's because Weds. is hump day. Monday sucks, not just because the weekend is over, but also because we know we have a whole week ahead of us. Tuesday sucks, because it's basically like Monday except we don't have the sadness of being separated from the weekend following us around. Weds... that is a pretty rotten day, right up until last formation, because then it's like, hey! All downhill from here! And Thurs and Friday we can actually look forward to the weekend.
In the same tradition of hump day, week 6 is hump week. It's not halfway through training, but it IS the longest week. We went out to the field Monday and ran 2 4-hour missions (should have run 3 but there was a thunderstorm so the last one was cancelled). Tuesday and Wednesday we ran 4 missions. Thursday we were only supposed to run 3, but we ran 4 instead (and skipped our 2am-6am mission on Friday). I was in leadership twice: the first mission as a squad leader, and one of Weds' missions as the PL. Go, go. You'd have to suck pretty bad to get a no-go out here. Thursday I gave in and went to sick call, because I had (have) poison ivy everywhere, including my face. Thank God for cortisone shots... my face still has traces of it, but it is no longer swollen and nasty looking - now it just looks like I have some dry skin and maybe a little bit of acne. My arms are continuing to get worse though... the rash is definitely springing up in new spots, and it hurts to bend my wrist and fingers because of it :( I also feel slightly ill half the time, because the feeling in my arms is way off. Anyway... I literally spent all day Thurs not doing anything. I didn't even get back out to the FOB until 1230 (I was up and reporting for sick call at 5...), and then I just sat in the TOC until midnight, when the next platoon relieved us. Given the stories of how the last couple of missions went for my platoon, I'm actually kind of glad, even if it was really boring. Major KJ was with the platoon for the last mission, and apparently it went horribly wrong because of it. As a result, they had to do it over, and didn't return to the FOB until around 015, shortly after our TOC detail had been relieved. Friday we spent policing the ranges for brass (which sucked), cleaning weapons, and doing CIF layouts, since we turn our stuff in on Monday.
This weekend is going to be pretty laid back. We went out to Longhorn's for dinner last night, but didn't do anything else because the people who fell out of the ruck had to do it again this morning at 345 (everyone passed this time). Tonight we're going to a place called the Hunter's Pub, which is 30-45 minutes away but supposedly has the best steaks in Columbus (even though technically it's not in Columbus :p). It wouldn't surprise me if we wind up downtown at Scruffy Murphy's after that. Tomorrow I'm going to lunch and a movie with a friend that I met last summer here (Harry Potter, hehe).
Next week is a short week, and our last one here. We have our second APFT Monday (the run is going to be horrible, because we haven't done a lot of PT here and we're not often released early enough to go to the gym AND get anything near a decent night's sleep) and CIF turn-in during the day. Tuesday they're doing the Iron Warrior competiton in the morning (the APFT with dips and pull-ups added on). Not sure what we're doing during the day... Weds. we have our company 4-mile run. It's supposed to be at a 9 minute pace, plus or minus 15 seconds. I've heard that what really happens is we start off at that pace, and it gets progressively slower. Great... it will suck because we haven't done much running AND because we'll be pounding our knees up on a slow pace. I suspect that we'll be mostly doing barracks maintenance Weds. Thurs will be graduation, finally. It's only supposed to be an hour long... then we get to piuck up all of our paperwork, and be released around 1. We'll probably get everyone together for lunch, and then it's off to Texas for me and a few other (and the rest will scatter to wherever their next duty stations are).
I'll type up a review of BOLC II, probably tonight sometime (we're going to have to turn one in for a course evaluation anyway).
All I'll say for now is, senior ROTC cadets beware, it's NOT being cancelled for at least another year!
Week three... I honestly don't remember what happened during week 3, except that we were in the FOB and I got chiggers. I know we did combatives, which was way better than LDAC, because we were allowed to use choke holds and arm bars in the spars, so I actually won one of mine (choked him out before he could close on me :p) and fought another one to a draw. Very fun. The rest of the week was spoent doing "infantry tactics"... aka running Battle Drills. Cue 'the suck'.
Week 4 was a short week, thanks to the 4th of July. We did convoy ops (the simulator was crazy fun,. basically like being stuck inside of a giant video game) and ran through Battle Drill 1a in preparation for Wednesday's live fire exercise - basically we went to a range with live rounds and had our squad maneuvering through an opbjective. Potentially very dangerous, since if someone messed up we could wind up shooting each other. Fun for the infantry guys, but after running the lane with blanks a couple times the live run wasn't as fun for me... it was a pretty tiring day all in all.
Fourth of July I went home and to St. Augustine. It was nice seeing (some) of the family again, but driving that much back and forth kind of sucked :(
Week 5 was back in the barracks. We did our 10 mile ruck march that Tuesday, MOUT (military ops in urban terrain), and a squad land nav exercise on Friday. The 10 mile march completely sucked. We did MOUT tape drills during the day, and started the ruck at 4pm. Let me make note of the fact that from 2-4 is the hottest time of the day, and it's in the high 80s at midnight in this place. Now let me mention that the majority of our 10 miles were uphill. For pretty much the first 7 miles, we didn't go downhill once... and here in Ft. Benning, there is no such thing as level ground. The sun, which had been hidden by clouds the rest of the day, also decided to put in an appearance for the first 2 miles. Thanks a lot. Now, the pace was slow (17-18 minute miles at the start, 20 at the end), and we stopped several time (4 or 5 I think). We had a LOT of people fall out as heat casualties. One of the guys had heat exhaustion so bad that the doctors thought he had a heat stroke, and he was on quarters for the rest of the week before they let him return to train with us. We also ran out of water in our coolers the last 3 miles, so people couldn't refill canteens or camelbaks. THAT was great planning... Whatever... I passed, but only because my squad members are awesome and helped carry my 203 (which is heavier than a regular m4...)
Had another weekend of fun, where I was DD for a bunch of the people in the plt. The first bar we went to, Scruffy Murphy's, is a cool place, and we've gone there a few times now. We wound up at a club called Flip Flops though, and I could have done without being there. Reminds me a lot of your stereotypical frat house party... I also was groped by a girl O.o awkward....
Every week, we look forward to Wednesday being finished. That's because Weds. is hump day. Monday sucks, not just because the weekend is over, but also because we know we have a whole week ahead of us. Tuesday sucks, because it's basically like Monday except we don't have the sadness of being separated from the weekend following us around. Weds... that is a pretty rotten day, right up until last formation, because then it's like, hey! All downhill from here! And Thurs and Friday we can actually look forward to the weekend.
In the same tradition of hump day, week 6 is hump week. It's not halfway through training, but it IS the longest week. We went out to the field Monday and ran 2 4-hour missions (should have run 3 but there was a thunderstorm so the last one was cancelled). Tuesday and Wednesday we ran 4 missions. Thursday we were only supposed to run 3, but we ran 4 instead (and skipped our 2am-6am mission on Friday). I was in leadership twice: the first mission as a squad leader, and one of Weds' missions as the PL. Go, go. You'd have to suck pretty bad to get a no-go out here. Thursday I gave in and went to sick call, because I had (have) poison ivy everywhere, including my face. Thank God for cortisone shots... my face still has traces of it, but it is no longer swollen and nasty looking - now it just looks like I have some dry skin and maybe a little bit of acne. My arms are continuing to get worse though... the rash is definitely springing up in new spots, and it hurts to bend my wrist and fingers because of it :( I also feel slightly ill half the time, because the feeling in my arms is way off. Anyway... I literally spent all day Thurs not doing anything. I didn't even get back out to the FOB until 1230 (I was up and reporting for sick call at 5...), and then I just sat in the TOC until midnight, when the next platoon relieved us. Given the stories of how the last couple of missions went for my platoon, I'm actually kind of glad, even if it was really boring. Major KJ was with the platoon for the last mission, and apparently it went horribly wrong because of it. As a result, they had to do it over, and didn't return to the FOB until around 015, shortly after our TOC detail had been relieved. Friday we spent policing the ranges for brass (which sucked), cleaning weapons, and doing CIF layouts, since we turn our stuff in on Monday.
This weekend is going to be pretty laid back. We went out to Longhorn's for dinner last night, but didn't do anything else because the people who fell out of the ruck had to do it again this morning at 345 (everyone passed this time). Tonight we're going to a place called the Hunter's Pub, which is 30-45 minutes away but supposedly has the best steaks in Columbus (even though technically it's not in Columbus :p). It wouldn't surprise me if we wind up downtown at Scruffy Murphy's after that. Tomorrow I'm going to lunch and a movie with a friend that I met last summer here (Harry Potter, hehe).
Next week is a short week, and our last one here. We have our second APFT Monday (the run is going to be horrible, because we haven't done a lot of PT here and we're not often released early enough to go to the gym AND get anything near a decent night's sleep) and CIF turn-in during the day. Tuesday they're doing the Iron Warrior competiton in the morning (the APFT with dips and pull-ups added on). Not sure what we're doing during the day... Weds. we have our company 4-mile run. It's supposed to be at a 9 minute pace, plus or minus 15 seconds. I've heard that what really happens is we start off at that pace, and it gets progressively slower. Great... it will suck because we haven't done much running AND because we'll be pounding our knees up on a slow pace. I suspect that we'll be mostly doing barracks maintenance Weds. Thurs will be graduation, finally. It's only supposed to be an hour long... then we get to piuck up all of our paperwork, and be released around 1. We'll probably get everyone together for lunch, and then it's off to Texas for me and a few other (and the rest will scatter to wherever their next duty stations are).
I'll type up a review of BOLC II, probably tonight sometime (we're going to have to turn one in for a course evaluation anyway).
All I'll say for now is, senior ROTC cadets beware, it's NOT being cancelled for at least another year!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
BOLC II - Week 2
Holy hell, this week was long. It's kind of strange how, both weeks, each day felt like a whole week, but at the end the whole week felt like one long day...
Anyway, this week was BRM (basic rifle marksmanship) and US Weapons. We zeroed our weapons, did a known-distance (KD) range, and qualified, and then spent Friday shooting off 50-Cals, 249s, 240Bs, MK19's, and 203s.
Zeroing was more difficult than I anticipated... we're using CCOs (close combat optics) instead of the old iron sights, and getting used to them was a pain. You're supposed to keep both eyes open, which is weird as hell, and (supposedly) if your target is more than 50m away you don't have to have your red dot centered (I don't believe that... nothing is completely parallax free, so if I have the time to center the dot, I'm going to...). Zeroing at night with the PEQ15s (umm... basically an infrared laser devide) and NODs was ok, but I wasn't issued a PEQ15 so I had to fire someone else's weapon. After it was already zeroed. And then my platoon got screwed into picking up everyone else's brass. *sigh*
Known distance was easy, and kind of fun. Basically you're just shooting at the same target from 100m, 200m, and 300m, so you can see where you tend to place your shot groups at different distances. KD at night was a waste of time, because they weren't marking the targets with... I forget the name, but basically marking them with tape that shines in infrared. Since they didn't do that, once we were farther than 100m away we couldn't see our shot groups. We also couldn't see the numbers on the lanes, which was a pain. I'm pretty sure I shot someone else's target a couple times.
Qualification... once again, CCOs are a pain to get used to, and I had to keep reminding myself not to close my left eye. I shot 29/40 though, which was good enough to get off the range. Qual at night was horrible... mainly because we all forgot that the PEQ15 has an IR spotlight on it, so we couldn't actually see our targets with the NODs. I also was never issued a mount for my NOD, so I had to borrow someone else's, and basically hold it with my left hand while I fired with my right, since it wasn't adjusted to fit me. Joy.
Tuesday and Thursday were long days, since we were doing the night stuff. We didn't leave the ranges until 2am both days. Fprtunately, our cadre took pity on us, and cancelled PT. Unfortunately, we won't have organized PT next week either, since we'll be in the FOB, so I have to motivate myself to do it on my own. Yay...
Friday was ok, the lines were long and I never got to shoot the 50-Cal (which was all I really wanted to fire anyway :( ). The MK19 was cool, but getting the damned thing to not jam was a pain in the ass :-/
Oh well... The infantry museum opened yesterday, so I'm going to check that out this weekend. Otherwise, not much going on I guess... 2 weeks down, 5 to go.
Anyway, this week was BRM (basic rifle marksmanship) and US Weapons. We zeroed our weapons, did a known-distance (KD) range, and qualified, and then spent Friday shooting off 50-Cals, 249s, 240Bs, MK19's, and 203s.
Zeroing was more difficult than I anticipated... we're using CCOs (close combat optics) instead of the old iron sights, and getting used to them was a pain. You're supposed to keep both eyes open, which is weird as hell, and (supposedly) if your target is more than 50m away you don't have to have your red dot centered (I don't believe that... nothing is completely parallax free, so if I have the time to center the dot, I'm going to...). Zeroing at night with the PEQ15s (umm... basically an infrared laser devide) and NODs was ok, but I wasn't issued a PEQ15 so I had to fire someone else's weapon. After it was already zeroed. And then my platoon got screwed into picking up everyone else's brass. *sigh*
Known distance was easy, and kind of fun. Basically you're just shooting at the same target from 100m, 200m, and 300m, so you can see where you tend to place your shot groups at different distances. KD at night was a waste of time, because they weren't marking the targets with... I forget the name, but basically marking them with tape that shines in infrared. Since they didn't do that, once we were farther than 100m away we couldn't see our shot groups. We also couldn't see the numbers on the lanes, which was a pain. I'm pretty sure I shot someone else's target a couple times.
Qualification... once again, CCOs are a pain to get used to, and I had to keep reminding myself not to close my left eye. I shot 29/40 though, which was good enough to get off the range. Qual at night was horrible... mainly because we all forgot that the PEQ15 has an IR spotlight on it, so we couldn't actually see our targets with the NODs. I also was never issued a mount for my NOD, so I had to borrow someone else's, and basically hold it with my left hand while I fired with my right, since it wasn't adjusted to fit me. Joy.
Tuesday and Thursday were long days, since we were doing the night stuff. We didn't leave the ranges until 2am both days. Fprtunately, our cadre took pity on us, and cancelled PT. Unfortunately, we won't have organized PT next week either, since we'll be in the FOB, so I have to motivate myself to do it on my own. Yay...
Friday was ok, the lines were long and I never got to shoot the 50-Cal (which was all I really wanted to fire anyway :( ). The MK19 was cool, but getting the damned thing to not jam was a pain in the ass :-/
Oh well... The infantry museum opened yesterday, so I'm going to check that out this weekend. Otherwise, not much going on I guess... 2 weeks down, 5 to go.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
BOLC II - Week 1 Update
So, week 1 has finally come to a close.
All in all I'd say the week went well.
Wednesday kicked off with a urinalysis. Since I had CQ duty from o200-0400, and formation was at 0405, I spent those 2 hours drinking 32 oz of Gatorade and an additional 32 oz of water. Big mistake apparently, since they decided to do an EO briefing before the UA and also had to give two separate briefings on what to do for the UA. I was damned near ready to wet my pants by the time we finally got to actually start. Then I got stuck being an observer for the rest of the testing, since I went first. -_-
Since the UA took so long, we didn't get to do PT that morning. I don't really remember what else we did all day (some more briefings, and CIF issue), but we can't go a day without PT it seems, so we did it at 1300. Yay for the hottest part of the day... It wasn't really that bad though... it was mostly an intro to crossfit, so we ran a couple laps (I think the track is 400m), did pull-ups (which I suck at), did dips (which I also suck at), and did inclined pushups (which I don't suck at, but which were fairly painful on sore muscles). It was a good workout though, so I really can't complain too much.
We did PT Thursday with a local baseball team, so it actually wound up being not so bad. Part of it was a crossfit-type workout, which was fun except for the fact that I can't do monkey bars to save my life. Had to have a buddy help me across the whole way :-/ We then spent the morning doing some more paperwork stuff: dental and optometry inprocessing, getting ID cards (FINALLY I have my CAC card...), and getting car decals. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that the registration has to be in our own name to get the decal, so since mine is still in my dad's I have to get a notarized letter of power of attorney from him to get a decal. Guess I'll just use the guest pass and get a decal in Texas, since I won't have another day when I can visit vehicle registration... Thursday afternoon we started CLS (combat lifesaver) training.
Friday morning we had a 5-ish mile ruck march for PT. We rucked a little less than a mile to the clinic, where we got immunizations, then rucked for a while longer until we had to come back to eat and shower for the rest of CLS training (not sure how far we actually went). My new Danner boots seem to work well, I just need to make sure to wear sock liners when I'm carrying a ruck to avoid blisters on my heels (I didn't really get blisters, but the top layer of skin definitely peeled off - didn't hurt at all, fortunately).
The rest of Friday was a long day of classes, for the most part. At the end of the training we got to practice giving IVs, which was fun. Then we took a written exam and got our CLS certification cards. I am now qualified to try and save people's lives in combat :p
We got off around 2200 that night... 10 hours after the last time we'd eaten, and 16 hours after we'd gotten up that morning. Since it meant the start of the weekend, and the DFAC was closed anyway, a group of 10 or 11 of us headed to Outback for dinner, which tasted amazing. We got back in around 0030.
Sleeping in today was nice - I woke up around 5 anyway, as I expected (yay for my internal alarm clock setting itself), but then went back to sleep until around 1030. I'm on CQ duty right now (from 12 to 1500, in fact), but there's not much that the daytime shifts have to do. The cleaning tasks are assigned to the nighttime shifts (which makes sense, since people won't be walking around making the floors dirty again, and it keeps the people on duty awake), so all the daytime shifts really do is answer the phone and contact the NCO who's on call if there's a problem. We also are supposed to cut out targets for the rifle range on Monday, but my knife isn't big enough to really cut through the plastic targets.
Other than that, I have no real plans for the weekend. I wanted to swing by a post office today, but they either aren't open or close at two around here. I'll probably swing by the PX for some more PT shirts (the packing list said to bring 3 shirts and 3 shorts, but we do PT 5 days a week so that doesn't really work out well...) and sunblock (there's not really any shade at the rifle range). Tomorrow... again, no plans, but I might head to the pool here on post and swim some laps so that I'm not too sore after PT monday (I'd intended to do that today and take tomorrow off, but my arm hurt like hell from the meningitis shot and I was honestly too tired to want to get up this morning).
PT monday morning isn't until 0530 (holy hell, we get to sleep in!), and it sounds like another crossfit-ish workout (crossfit probably isn't really the right word for it... but we're doing some workouts that involve lunges and high-knees and stuff like that, and then sprints, so not really sure what you'd call it). Then we get to start our BRM training at the range. This next week promises to be long; we have to qualify at night too, so there will be at least one night where we will return to the barracks at 0200 and have to be up at 0500 for PT. Days spent at the range also tend to be long just because of the waiting around in the heat.
Weeks 3 and 4 will be spent in the FOB (forward operating base), so not sure what contact with the "outside world" I'll have (there is supposedly internet there, and we can bring our phones, but rumor has it that ATT doesn't work out there, and I'm not sure I'll be on my computer at all while I'm there). Weekends are still off though, and Week 5 is spent at the barracks before we spend week 6 doing actual field training out of the FOB (apparently we don't spend the entire week running our own missions, but get to play OPFOR - aka the bad guys - for other platoons part of the time, which will be fun). Then week 7 of outprocessing and graduation, and we're done!
Damn, it sounds so short when I summarize it like that... I suppose if every week feels like this past week (which basically felt like one long never-ending day, instead of 5 days) then it'll feel like it went by quick at the end too. Or it'll feel like we've been here forever. We'll see.
Until next time! (and I will just keep telling myself, I could always have been screwed and gotten stuck at Ft Sill. It will make the next 6 weeks feel so much better :p)
All in all I'd say the week went well.
Wednesday kicked off with a urinalysis. Since I had CQ duty from o200-0400, and formation was at 0405, I spent those 2 hours drinking 32 oz of Gatorade and an additional 32 oz of water. Big mistake apparently, since they decided to do an EO briefing before the UA and also had to give two separate briefings on what to do for the UA. I was damned near ready to wet my pants by the time we finally got to actually start. Then I got stuck being an observer for the rest of the testing, since I went first. -_-
Since the UA took so long, we didn't get to do PT that morning. I don't really remember what else we did all day (some more briefings, and CIF issue), but we can't go a day without PT it seems, so we did it at 1300. Yay for the hottest part of the day... It wasn't really that bad though... it was mostly an intro to crossfit, so we ran a couple laps (I think the track is 400m), did pull-ups (which I suck at), did dips (which I also suck at), and did inclined pushups (which I don't suck at, but which were fairly painful on sore muscles). It was a good workout though, so I really can't complain too much.
We did PT Thursday with a local baseball team, so it actually wound up being not so bad. Part of it was a crossfit-type workout, which was fun except for the fact that I can't do monkey bars to save my life. Had to have a buddy help me across the whole way :-/ We then spent the morning doing some more paperwork stuff: dental and optometry inprocessing, getting ID cards (FINALLY I have my CAC card...), and getting car decals. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that the registration has to be in our own name to get the decal, so since mine is still in my dad's I have to get a notarized letter of power of attorney from him to get a decal. Guess I'll just use the guest pass and get a decal in Texas, since I won't have another day when I can visit vehicle registration... Thursday afternoon we started CLS (combat lifesaver) training.
Friday morning we had a 5-ish mile ruck march for PT. We rucked a little less than a mile to the clinic, where we got immunizations, then rucked for a while longer until we had to come back to eat and shower for the rest of CLS training (not sure how far we actually went). My new Danner boots seem to work well, I just need to make sure to wear sock liners when I'm carrying a ruck to avoid blisters on my heels (I didn't really get blisters, but the top layer of skin definitely peeled off - didn't hurt at all, fortunately).
The rest of Friday was a long day of classes, for the most part. At the end of the training we got to practice giving IVs, which was fun. Then we took a written exam and got our CLS certification cards. I am now qualified to try and save people's lives in combat :p
We got off around 2200 that night... 10 hours after the last time we'd eaten, and 16 hours after we'd gotten up that morning. Since it meant the start of the weekend, and the DFAC was closed anyway, a group of 10 or 11 of us headed to Outback for dinner, which tasted amazing. We got back in around 0030.
Sleeping in today was nice - I woke up around 5 anyway, as I expected (yay for my internal alarm clock setting itself), but then went back to sleep until around 1030. I'm on CQ duty right now (from 12 to 1500, in fact), but there's not much that the daytime shifts have to do. The cleaning tasks are assigned to the nighttime shifts (which makes sense, since people won't be walking around making the floors dirty again, and it keeps the people on duty awake), so all the daytime shifts really do is answer the phone and contact the NCO who's on call if there's a problem. We also are supposed to cut out targets for the rifle range on Monday, but my knife isn't big enough to really cut through the plastic targets.
Other than that, I have no real plans for the weekend. I wanted to swing by a post office today, but they either aren't open or close at two around here. I'll probably swing by the PX for some more PT shirts (the packing list said to bring 3 shirts and 3 shorts, but we do PT 5 days a week so that doesn't really work out well...) and sunblock (there's not really any shade at the rifle range). Tomorrow... again, no plans, but I might head to the pool here on post and swim some laps so that I'm not too sore after PT monday (I'd intended to do that today and take tomorrow off, but my arm hurt like hell from the meningitis shot and I was honestly too tired to want to get up this morning).
PT monday morning isn't until 0530 (holy hell, we get to sleep in!), and it sounds like another crossfit-ish workout (crossfit probably isn't really the right word for it... but we're doing some workouts that involve lunges and high-knees and stuff like that, and then sprints, so not really sure what you'd call it). Then we get to start our BRM training at the range. This next week promises to be long; we have to qualify at night too, so there will be at least one night where we will return to the barracks at 0200 and have to be up at 0500 for PT. Days spent at the range also tend to be long just because of the waiting around in the heat.
Weeks 3 and 4 will be spent in the FOB (forward operating base), so not sure what contact with the "outside world" I'll have (there is supposedly internet there, and we can bring our phones, but rumor has it that ATT doesn't work out there, and I'm not sure I'll be on my computer at all while I'm there). Weekends are still off though, and Week 5 is spent at the barracks before we spend week 6 doing actual field training out of the FOB (apparently we don't spend the entire week running our own missions, but get to play OPFOR - aka the bad guys - for other platoons part of the time, which will be fun). Then week 7 of outprocessing and graduation, and we're done!
Damn, it sounds so short when I summarize it like that... I suppose if every week feels like this past week (which basically felt like one long never-ending day, instead of 5 days) then it'll feel like it went by quick at the end too. Or it'll feel like we've been here forever. We'll see.
Until next time! (and I will just keep telling myself, I could always have been screwed and gotten stuck at Ft Sill. It will make the next 6 weeks feel so much better :p)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
BOLC II - Week 1
Oh man, I hurt right now.
We had our PT test yesterday (which I passed with a 280), and I'm still sore from it. Then we did a run this morning that was approximately 4 miles long (not counting the many times we had to circle back to pick people up) and holy hell, Georgia has hills X( Now, I've been up cardiac hill in full ACUs, a ruck, and a gas mask before, in the middle of the day in the summer, and it sucked then. But damn it if it doesn't suck just as much in PTs before the sun is up. And the other hills weren't much fun either. Add that to the fact that all the water I drank yesterday apparently wasn't enough, so I dehydrated, stopped sweating, and got dizzy, and PT this morning was pretty unpleasant. I am, however, proud that I didn't fall out until the very end, after I stopped sweating (and stopped seeing straight... heh).
At least I know that I will eventually get used to the PT regimen here (5 days a week, whoo!) and it will make me better at PT... but until my muscles adapt, heal, and grow, it's going to be fairly painful *sigh*
In other news... Sooo many briefings the past 2 days! The cadre for my platoon seem pretty cool, although I haven't really talked to SSG Coulter or SFC Thomas. We had a couple of colonels (the DCG was one of them) and a SGM (may have been a CSM, couldn't see his rank clearly and didn't really read the ppt slide), and that was pretty interesting. Kind of a "wake the fuck up, you're not little kids and college students any more so act like a damned officer" day... (ok, so I actually thought the speeches were a lot of fun, honestly...)
I get CQ duty tonight, from 0200-0400 >.< sleep is a crutch. but the 12-2 shift would be far worse... I probably wouldn't get any sleep if I had that shift. Fortunately we don't have CQ over the weekend, and I think next week it goes to 2nd platoon, so I only get it once this week (and we'll see if I get to pull CQ at the Bn HQ next week).
Tomorrow we have a urinalysis first thing (formation at 0400, yay...), followed by crossfit (MAJ Ty would be so happy...) and I think some more briefings and such. Thursday and Friday are CLS, which will be fun... right up until one of my classmates has to stick me and misses the vein because mine are so small. That won't be much fun at all. PT both days, of course.
Then... the weekend! And some recovery time for my abused muscles (ok, ok, it's partly my fault for not PTing enough the past month and a half, but I still think today's run would have hurt a bit). No real plans, except to relax a bit and maybe do some reading. I found a couple of parks nearby that might be fun to wander around, and I think I'll see if the Infantry Museum is open weekends (it was closed for renovation when I was here last summer, so I haven't seen it yet). May or may not post another Week 1 update, we'll see.
Next week is BRM!
EDIT: The Infantry Museum isn't open again until June 19th, so I'll have to wait a couple weeks to check it out. Should be cool though :)
We had our PT test yesterday (which I passed with a 280), and I'm still sore from it. Then we did a run this morning that was approximately 4 miles long (not counting the many times we had to circle back to pick people up) and holy hell, Georgia has hills X( Now, I've been up cardiac hill in full ACUs, a ruck, and a gas mask before, in the middle of the day in the summer, and it sucked then. But damn it if it doesn't suck just as much in PTs before the sun is up. And the other hills weren't much fun either. Add that to the fact that all the water I drank yesterday apparently wasn't enough, so I dehydrated, stopped sweating, and got dizzy, and PT this morning was pretty unpleasant. I am, however, proud that I didn't fall out until the very end, after I stopped sweating (and stopped seeing straight... heh).
At least I know that I will eventually get used to the PT regimen here (5 days a week, whoo!) and it will make me better at PT... but until my muscles adapt, heal, and grow, it's going to be fairly painful *sigh*
In other news... Sooo many briefings the past 2 days! The cadre for my platoon seem pretty cool, although I haven't really talked to SSG Coulter or SFC Thomas. We had a couple of colonels (the DCG was one of them) and a SGM (may have been a CSM, couldn't see his rank clearly and didn't really read the ppt slide), and that was pretty interesting. Kind of a "wake the fuck up, you're not little kids and college students any more so act like a damned officer" day... (ok, so I actually thought the speeches were a lot of fun, honestly...)
I get CQ duty tonight, from 0200-0400 >.< sleep is a crutch. but the 12-2 shift would be far worse... I probably wouldn't get any sleep if I had that shift. Fortunately we don't have CQ over the weekend, and I think next week it goes to 2nd platoon, so I only get it once this week (and we'll see if I get to pull CQ at the Bn HQ next week).
Tomorrow we have a urinalysis first thing (formation at 0400, yay...), followed by crossfit (MAJ Ty would be so happy...) and I think some more briefings and such. Thursday and Friday are CLS, which will be fun... right up until one of my classmates has to stick me and misses the vein because mine are so small. That won't be much fun at all. PT both days, of course.
Then... the weekend! And some recovery time for my abused muscles (ok, ok, it's partly my fault for not PTing enough the past month and a half, but I still think today's run would have hurt a bit). No real plans, except to relax a bit and maybe do some reading. I found a couple of parks nearby that might be fun to wander around, and I think I'll see if the Infantry Museum is open weekends (it was closed for renovation when I was here last summer, so I haven't seen it yet). May or may not post another Week 1 update, we'll see.
Next week is BRM!
EDIT: The Infantry Museum isn't open again until June 19th, so I'll have to wait a couple weeks to check it out. Should be cool though :)
Friday, June 5, 2009
BOLC II Overview
The powers that be apparently don't want me bashing BOLC II before I even start it, since the internet doesn't seem to want to work long enough for me to finish this post. Let's try again.
I am just now beginning to realize how much BOLC II mught suck... and I haven't even started it yet.
According to my written orders, I have to report in tomorrow, at some unspecified time. According to my online orders, I report in NLT Sunday, at an unspecified time. Rumor has it that if I report in 'early', I will wind up tasked with something. At the same time... I really don't want to sit around all day tomorrow, and I definitely don't want to risk reporting in late by following what the online orders say. So, tomorrow in the am it is. Even though we don't actually do anything until Monday.
Monday starts the wonderful world of PT (which I did not do enough of the past 2 months) and inprocessing. Cue the ass-loads of paperwork, the ridiculous lines, the hurry-up-and-wait boredom, the immunizations, the "oh shit, they told me I didn't need that form!" and, for me at least, the "God damn it, why does Patrick AFB suck too much to give me my CAC card?" Yes, that's right. PAFB doesn't have me updated in the system, so even though I am contracted AND commissioned and have all of the paperwork to PROVE it, they will not give me my CAC card. Even though Jensen, who commissioned the same day as me, got his at the AFB near his home. Wtf? Of all the things that might actually result in me not getting paid on time...
Next week we also may or may not have a diagnostic APFT. Which I will probably pass, but not with a very high score. Who knows? Apparently sometimes they don't do the first APFT until the second week.
Speaking of the second week, we get to do a few days of combatives. Basically, stuff I've done twice already now, except potentially more painful because people actually care now. It also might not help that I weigh 87.5lbs, and don't stand a chance fighting against anyone unless I'm actually allowed to try and hurt them... which we're not allowed to do. Really realistic training right there... *cough* We also get do do classes on BRM. This is an M4. This is how you disassemble it. This is how you reassemble it. Etc etc.
Week 3 is actual zeroing and qualification. Cue the ridiculous amount of time spent waiting at the range to shoot. Then cue the pains of shooting with full combat gear on (yeah, I know, we obviously need to practice in the actual gear we'd wear downrange, but that doesn't make it any more fun to do). At least we get to use an M4 and not the M16s that we get stuck with in cadet-land. We then get to do some reflexive firing and firing at night with the NVGs (which may or may not be a qualifying exercise, apparently).
Week 4 is convoy ops (unless you didn't qualify with your M4... which is a possibility since we'll be using a sighting system that I personally have never worked with before...) and LandNav. 5 points of practice, then the actual 8-point course... A "daytime" course that starts at like 0430. Glad we trained that way at Malabar in ROTC, even though it really sucked back then...
Week 5 is live fire exercises, US weapons, and the joy of kicking in doors. Fun stuff.
Week 6 is the sucky week in the field. Apparently your level of activity greatly depends on what squad you're in. 1st squad is on point most of the time, and therefore always sees action, 4th squad is rear guard most of the time, and therefore rarely sees action. Hard to say which I'd rather be. The FOB doesn't sound too bad though - shower facilities, wireless internet, and apparently we get to keep our phones and stuff even when we're in the field. QRF and guard duty are both guaranteed to suck, as per usual. The week ends with the 10-mile road march. In full combat gear, with approximately 35 pounds in the ruck and a weapon. Joy... Rumor has it it lasts a ridiculous length of time, with little missions scattered throughout it. I really hope the rumor is wrong. Enough time to do it without breaking ourselves or without falling out: good. Several hours spent changing from standing to prone to kneeling and having to get up and down with all that gear on: not good. Did I mention that I weigh 87.5lbs? and all that gear will probably be over half my body weight? Yeah. If they try to assign my the SAW for that march, I might snap on somebody's unfortunate ass.
Week 7 is the usual outprocessing. And cleaning. Lots of cleaning. "Even though the rooms looked kind of crappy when you got here, we expect them to be spotless and perfect when you leave." Thanks.
At some point, we do a second APFT and a 4 or 5 or 6 mile ruck (nobody is really clear on how many we do...). Weekends off (unless you fuck up bad, or your platoon in general is comprised of screw-offs, in which case pass priveledges might get revoked) and evenings off... although they might be very short evenings.
Oh well. I've been told expectations are actually fairly low at BOLC, at least for the first week or two, so hopefully it won't be that bad. It is, however, Army training... which means it will probably suck a great deal of the time... especially since I did all of this at LDAC except convoy ops (which I at least learned about at CTLT) and working with NVGs (which we played with at Spring FTX). So you see Florida Tech cadets, the Panther Battalion actually does prepare you for stuff besides camp ;) (And rumor has it that BOLC II might wind up being abolished as a repetetive waste of time that only benefits a very small amount of people... you lucky little bastards if that is true!)
Is it bad that I'm complaining about training before even reporting in for it?
It could be worse: I could be stuck at Fort Sill.
I am just now beginning to realize how much BOLC II mught suck... and I haven't even started it yet.
According to my written orders, I have to report in tomorrow, at some unspecified time. According to my online orders, I report in NLT Sunday, at an unspecified time. Rumor has it that if I report in 'early', I will wind up tasked with something. At the same time... I really don't want to sit around all day tomorrow, and I definitely don't want to risk reporting in late by following what the online orders say. So, tomorrow in the am it is. Even though we don't actually do anything until Monday.
Monday starts the wonderful world of PT (which I did not do enough of the past 2 months) and inprocessing. Cue the ass-loads of paperwork, the ridiculous lines, the hurry-up-and-wait boredom, the immunizations, the "oh shit, they told me I didn't need that form!" and, for me at least, the "God damn it, why does Patrick AFB suck too much to give me my CAC card?" Yes, that's right. PAFB doesn't have me updated in the system, so even though I am contracted AND commissioned and have all of the paperwork to PROVE it, they will not give me my CAC card. Even though Jensen, who commissioned the same day as me, got his at the AFB near his home. Wtf? Of all the things that might actually result in me not getting paid on time...
Next week we also may or may not have a diagnostic APFT. Which I will probably pass, but not with a very high score. Who knows? Apparently sometimes they don't do the first APFT until the second week.
Speaking of the second week, we get to do a few days of combatives. Basically, stuff I've done twice already now, except potentially more painful because people actually care now. It also might not help that I weigh 87.5lbs, and don't stand a chance fighting against anyone unless I'm actually allowed to try and hurt them... which we're not allowed to do. Really realistic training right there... *cough* We also get do do classes on BRM. This is an M4. This is how you disassemble it. This is how you reassemble it. Etc etc.
Week 3 is actual zeroing and qualification. Cue the ridiculous amount of time spent waiting at the range to shoot. Then cue the pains of shooting with full combat gear on (yeah, I know, we obviously need to practice in the actual gear we'd wear downrange, but that doesn't make it any more fun to do). At least we get to use an M4 and not the M16s that we get stuck with in cadet-land. We then get to do some reflexive firing and firing at night with the NVGs (which may or may not be a qualifying exercise, apparently).
Week 4 is convoy ops (unless you didn't qualify with your M4... which is a possibility since we'll be using a sighting system that I personally have never worked with before...) and LandNav. 5 points of practice, then the actual 8-point course... A "daytime" course that starts at like 0430. Glad we trained that way at Malabar in ROTC, even though it really sucked back then...
Week 5 is live fire exercises, US weapons, and the joy of kicking in doors. Fun stuff.
Week 6 is the sucky week in the field. Apparently your level of activity greatly depends on what squad you're in. 1st squad is on point most of the time, and therefore always sees action, 4th squad is rear guard most of the time, and therefore rarely sees action. Hard to say which I'd rather be. The FOB doesn't sound too bad though - shower facilities, wireless internet, and apparently we get to keep our phones and stuff even when we're in the field. QRF and guard duty are both guaranteed to suck, as per usual. The week ends with the 10-mile road march. In full combat gear, with approximately 35 pounds in the ruck and a weapon. Joy... Rumor has it it lasts a ridiculous length of time, with little missions scattered throughout it. I really hope the rumor is wrong. Enough time to do it without breaking ourselves or without falling out: good. Several hours spent changing from standing to prone to kneeling and having to get up and down with all that gear on: not good. Did I mention that I weigh 87.5lbs? and all that gear will probably be over half my body weight? Yeah. If they try to assign my the SAW for that march, I might snap on somebody's unfortunate ass.
Week 7 is the usual outprocessing. And cleaning. Lots of cleaning. "Even though the rooms looked kind of crappy when you got here, we expect them to be spotless and perfect when you leave." Thanks.
At some point, we do a second APFT and a 4 or 5 or 6 mile ruck (nobody is really clear on how many we do...). Weekends off (unless you fuck up bad, or your platoon in general is comprised of screw-offs, in which case pass priveledges might get revoked) and evenings off... although they might be very short evenings.
Oh well. I've been told expectations are actually fairly low at BOLC, at least for the first week or two, so hopefully it won't be that bad. It is, however, Army training... which means it will probably suck a great deal of the time... especially since I did all of this at LDAC except convoy ops (which I at least learned about at CTLT) and working with NVGs (which we played with at Spring FTX). So you see Florida Tech cadets, the Panther Battalion actually does prepare you for stuff besides camp ;) (And rumor has it that BOLC II might wind up being abolished as a repetetive waste of time that only benefits a very small amount of people... you lucky little bastards if that is true!)
Is it bad that I'm complaining about training before even reporting in for it?
It could be worse: I could be stuck at Fort Sill.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)