Revisiting Land Nav

I had someone send me a message regarding some of the things I wrote about my land navigation post - I had to go back and read what I wrote, as it had been a while, but his words got me to thinking.

First, about the dead reckoning.  I believe my words were that you should 'never dead reckon at night,' which I would posit are true - for the course.  But I was guilty of not thinking beyond the course itself; after all the purpose of land nav training is not to pass a course, it's to be able to move on the battlefield, and know where you are at any given point.  So, on the land nav course that advice might be well and good, but in the real world, if you have to march through nasty, hellish thicket, then you have to do it.  And if you have to do it, you better know what the hell you're doing.  So yes, you should practice dead reckoning at night, through crappy terrain, and if my advice for the course steered you away from doing that in your future, my apologies.  On that note, there is a book by John Poole called The Last Hundred Yards, which talks extensively about route planning and land navigation, and talk about the perils of dead reckoning, and how to mitigate them.  I would recommend reading up on it, and trying out some of the techniques to see if they work for you.

The other thing mentioned was the, for lack of a better word, cheating.  Which it was - you can mince it any way you choose, I suppose, but at the end of the day, you have to be able to do the course without assistance.  It's an easy endeavor, and I would posit that all the LTs out there are proficient enough that they need no assistance, despite the horror stories you will inevitably hear - so why do people bother at all, then?  I think it stems from a goodhearted, if not flawed, desire to help each other out - nobody wants their fellow man to fail, even if he doesn't really need the help all that much.  The second question that arises is, why mention that it occurs at all?  Well, because it does occur.  And because it does occur, I think it needs mentioning.  After all, what someone reading this journal wants is an accurate, or at least honest, description of what to expect.  I will, however, say that I tried to make light of it, instead of bluntly stating what it was - cheating.  Passive, perhaps, but cheating nonetheless.  So, in closing, I will say that while it occurs, if you feel that you need to rely on it, well-intentioned though it may be, then you should be spending your free time in the woods practicing, and becoming proficient.  After all, there will be no coughing fits and clanging cups in Afghanistan when your GPS dies on you.

Slacker!

Yes, I am one.  Sorry.  We are now ,however, up to date!  Once I return, I'll upload some handouts specific to the OPORD stuff that we did, so you can prepare yourself before hand.

Week 11 - Patrolling

What a week!  Right off the bat, I will tell you that decent cold weather clothing would be a solid investment for you, if you're coming to this course in the winter.

From what I could see, this week was completely different, depending on which platoon you were in.  Some ran more missions that others, others spent quite a bit of time doing rehearsals or classroom instruction.  Regardless, you will be out in the woods for hours on end.  This was basically the first experience for many people with platoon-level operations.  As you would expect, we focused on raids and ambushes for the missions, with instruction being devoted to setting up security halts, ORPs, and MTC/Deliberate Attack.  We operated out of a TTB, which meant warm beds for our four hours of sleep, and porta-johns to download in to.  I would imagine that had the weather been more agreeable, we would have slept in patrol bases.  As it were, only a couple more degrees, and Gore-tex would no longer have been effective.  No joke, my canteen water was slushy, and guys with Camelbaks were SOL - their tubes would freeze up.

I won't spend a lot of time telling you about specifics - you have the field manuals, so you can see for yourself.  I'm going to skip straight to the lessons learned, which were plentiful for this week:

• They are going to take away your compasses after Land Nav.  Go buy one.  You will need it, and they will expect you to be able to do all kinds of things you need a compass for, but won't bother to give you one.  Navigation, setting fields of fire, establishing azimuths for egress, all kinds of things.  You need to have one, and if you don't, find out who in your platoon has one and keep him close by.  We had two guys in our platoon who had personal compasses, and they got requisitioned constantly.
• Prior planning prevents piss poor performance!  Make a copy of the grading sheet the give you in week 8 for your OPORD (or get the one that I will post in a few days) and USE it during your planning.  I would say 90 percent of all the heartache we ran into during missions could have been avoided with a clear and concise OPORD, with appropriate graphics.  Which brings me to my next point:
• If you're going to have a sand table / graphics (and by if, I mean you will unless you're an idiot), make them big enough for everyone to see, and place them where everyone has access to them.  otherwise, you're wasting everyone's time.  If the cadre give you overhead photography of the objective, pass it around so everyone can see it.  How silly is it to do a raid on buildings when the assaulting element doesn't know how many buildings are on the objective, let alone their layout?
• It's important to avoid last-minutes indecisiveness, but that doesn't mean you can't alter the plan, given circumstances on objective. If conditions differ significantly that for what you planned, adapt accordingly.  Don't, for example, place an ORP 600 meters out (especially without those compasses we mentioned) just because on your map recon there was a huge clearing, if the whole place is densely wooded when you show up.
• Sector sketches, sector sketches, sector sketches.  Have templates made up before you go out, it will save you time and energy once you establish patrol bases.
• It should go without saying, but as a leader, please keep a map on you at all times, and make sure your special teams and key personnel have important grid coordinates on hand.

Week 10 - MOUT

I use MOUT loosely for this week - most of it was spent doing the same glasshouse drill over and over until you went blind.  The focus for this week was room-clearing, which would culminate in a live-fire room clearing.  As I said, we started with glass houses, but also incorporated the empty room of the not-yet-renovated BOQ space in the building that BOLC occupies.  Bonus tip - if you're looking for a good place to poop (is poop a doctrinally correct term?) during the duty day, the bathrooms still work.  Just bring your own toilet paper / babywipes.  After a day of that, we spent the next couple of days at MOUT sites.

We started out by conducting a raid on the MOUT site (something we never practiced or rehearsed for, which I found odd) - this took up the majority of the day.  At night, we cleared buildings using our NODs (something else we had not practiced or received instruction in - I'm noticing a trend here), learning how to traverse stairwells, pieing corners, buddy-clearing smaller rooms, and taking corners by force.  Needless to say, when we practiced doing this stuff in the daylight for the first time the next day, it was much easier to grasp the basic concepts.  For those of you who are curious, you can't see a damn thing with those NODs on - it's not that things are out of focus or there's not enough light (which, well, there wasn't, but it was a problem we found workarounds for), but you have no depth perception and your field of vision is so narrow.  You just run in to everyone and everything.  It's not something I would do in real life without extensively practicing first.

During the day it was much better, and quite a bit of fun, actually.  Unfortunately, inclement weather cut things short, and we had to return early to run glasshouse drills until about 2000 or so.  Thursday we went to the kill house proper, did blank certifications ,and then live fire certifications.  A word to the wise - no matter how hot and painful the brass that just went down your neck is, don't lean in front of your buddy's barrel.  Shenanigans will NOT occur.  Friday was the usual - weapons cleaning and lots of standing around.

Lessons learned?  Perhaps:

• Winter tactical gloves would be a wise investment.  All things being equal, fingers were the hardest thing to keep warm, because you're holding on to a chunk of metal that sucks away all of your heat.  It made what would have otherwise been a comfortable get-up absolutely miserable.
• You'll want your terrain model kit ready to go this week - they way they explained it to use, we thought we would just be practicing MOUT, but they through in that mission, which the PSG and PL were graded on.
• MRE heaters make nifty warmers in a pinch, so long as you fold the bag in a way to prevent spilling.  I also use them to heat up my shaving water in the mornings.  No reason to be uncivilized, even if one is, as they say, roughing it.
• If you can wing it, try to volunteer to be a FO, RTO, etc., because it means you're not lying in the prone for hours on end during missions, freezing to death.  It also allows you to actually see what's going on and learn s thing or two before its your turn, as opposed to being a Joe on the line.

Week 9 - More OPORD, Fire Support, and Air Support

As all of last week was learning about OPORDs and then working on the platoon-level OPORD you would present, this week was dedicated to actually presenting said OPORDs, and just to see if I can possibly squeeze in the word OPORD in to this sentence any more than has already been done - OPORD.  I digress.

Basically, if you weren't presenting OPORDs, you were getting classes or running glass house drills for next week.  Classes consisted of learning about different air assets available to us, 5-line CCA, and 9-line CAS, de-conflicting fires and airspace, and graphical control measures associated with said airspace.  After a couple of hours of this, I remember nothing.  One of the days out of this week, we went to the call for fire trainer, where the FA NCOs were able to concisely explain everything you needed to know in about 10-15 minutes.  I've been noticing that, about the FA guys - they cut to the quick, and are very thorough.  Kudos to King of Battle - maybe they could get them to teach all of our courses - we'd be out of this place in half the time, I'd bet.

For those of you who have experience with fire missions, prepare to be underwhelmed.  All the missions were the same, no variations in shell/fuze combos, no danger close, and they made you do successive bracketing.  The civilians running the equipment frown upon you calling Fire For Effect missions right off the bat.  The CCA/CAS was very good, however, and I got a lot out of it.  I feel very confident in that aspect.  Which reminds me - I am not JTAC qualified.

Don't be surprised if you don't get to brief your OPORD this week, it apparently is a time consuming ordeal, and some people have to re-do theirs, which eats up more time.  Best advice I can give you for your presentations is to keep the scoresheet next to you to ensure you hit all the points, and don't overthink things.  People freak out for some reason and make their plans overly-complex, and use thirty words to describe something that can be said in seven (or better yet, with an overlay).   Relax, keep it simple and brief, and you'll be fine.

Week 8 - OPORD

Well gentlemen, I won't make any bones about it -  I've been slacking on this journal.  In the ever present war between keeping current on my updates and letting off steam, letting off steam has won.  Es macht nichts.

Week 8 greeted us with a lovely little mid-course examination, focusing on offensive operations.  Topics for our particular exam included:

• Forms of Maneuver
• Types of Offensive Operations
• Types of Special Attacks
• Types of Movement to Contacts
• Purposes of Offense
• Principles of War
• Civil Considerations during IPB (ASCOPE)
• Military Aspects of Weather
• Military Aspects of Terrain (OCOKA)
• Steps for COA Development
• TLPs
• Operational Terms and Graphics, specifically:
• Unit Symbols
• Equipment Symbols
• Tactical Mission Tasks
• Types of Rehearsals

I am sure I am missing a couple, but rest assured, if you have these down-packed, you'll be fine - they will do a comprehensive review beforehand that will cover everything on the exam.  Just take the time to actually study these things.  All of this stuff can be found in the supplied field manuals.  One of the guys in our class has  something called the Battle Staff Smartbook, which takes all this stuff, from about three different field manuals, and smushes it into a book you can carry in your pocket.  Might be something to look in to.

Nothing much to tell you about the rest of the week, really.  They taught us how to do OPORDs, did a few practice ones, and set up a schedule for presenting them for a grade - they give you the grade sheet beforehand, so you know exactly what you have to hit.  Be forewarned, that the format for these OPORDs is probably not the same way you did them in West Point/OCS/ROTC, but it's not necessarily a bad thing.  The way they taught us how to do them streamlines a lot of the information and makes the whole endeavor less pedantic.  If you can stand to wait a few days until I return from leave, I will upload a scan of the grading sheet, along with an explanation of what all the acronyms mean.  I'll also take the time to walk you through how I presented my OPORD.  If you would like a copy of the company level OPORD that they gave to us, to see what it looks like, I will email it to you, if you provide a .mil address.  The rest of the week you worked on your OPORD, editing as you learned in class, and two brave souls volunteers to go first, so the rest of us could get a taste for what right looks like.  We asked the guys what their grade was, and they told us that it would be on a curb - in other words, we all had to go before we got a grade.  So maybe it's OK to suck, as long as you suck less than everyone else (the answer is no, by the way.  This is your bread and butter, here.).

Sand Table Kit

Here's the sand table kit I used in ROTC, with some additions of my own.  I'll let you know if it's adequate for IBOLC.  Compared to the ones I've found on the internet, I think this one is much better at getting the information across without clutter up the table or looking cheap.  My suggestion is to get the think/hard lamination, like the kind print shops do - it stands up well, and you don't have to weight it with pennies like you do the thin laminate.  Throw in some colored yarn and misc. markers, and you're good to go.  LEt me know if there's any glaring omissions that you would add.

Download the Sand Table Kit

Week 7 - Intro to Patrolling and Squad Live Fire

Not going to lie, this was a long week.  We started out Monday with some classes in the morning, then drew weapons and headed out to the 'range (woods).'  Spent the first night trying to do security halts and leader's recons, but between the rain and the fact that everyone's batteries were dying in the NVGs, it didn't seem like we got a lot accomplished.  Tuesday was a bit more productive; going over react to contact, crossing a linear danger area, setting up a patrol base, etc.    We ran a few react to contact lanes with blanks, and spent the night actually practicing establishing a patrol base.  Wednesday we did react to contact / bunker KO lanes, again with blanks.  Thursday we went out to a pop-up range similar to the one we ran the fire team live fire on, except the range was actually wooded, had fighting holes, ditches, etc.  We spent the morning getting certified to run the squad lane with blanks, and then did the live fire in the afternoon.  Went home that night (except for a couple of squads who got re-cocked), and then got up Friday and spent the whole day and night doing weapons cleaning.

This week was somewhat frustrating, for several reasons that I shall not elaborate on.  However, as with all things, we walk away a bit wiser:

• Keep your magazine pouches high on your chest rig.  I had them on low to try and keep my workspace clear when handling my weapon, but I ended up having to shift around to get to my magazines for reloads, and the magazine had a tendency to slip out of their pouches.
• You might want to find some decent anti-fog stuff for your lenses, as the rain and humidity plays havoc with your eye-pro and optics at night.
• As there is quite a bit of downtime, you may be tempted to rest on your laurels.  Use that time to develop squad SOPs and rehearse the battle drills, as it makes thigns that much smoother when you actually get evaluated on events.
• You're going to put a lot of blanks through your weapon this week, and if the weather was as bad for you as it was for us, there's standing water in your weapon to deal with as well.  Pack some good solvent in you cleaning kit, preferably something aerosol that you can blast out hard to reach places in your weapon.  Time for cleaning your weapon is limited, but crucial if you don't want constant stoppages on the live fire.
• You may spend all your time training and rehearsing with one set of cadre, and end up with another set of cadre on the range that tell you everything you're doing is wrong.  Don't let it get to you - you may be reset several times, buts that doesn't necessarily mean you will get a no-go.  Keep your cool, and remember that slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.  Don't let some cadre breathing down your neck, screaming at you to hurry up, fluster you.  Better to take an extra couple of seconds to check yourself and your buddies, than inadvertently pull a safety violation and get kicked off the range, because you're stressing out.

Week 6 - US Army Weapons Familiarization

And I use the term familiarization loosely.  Due to the holiday, it was a short week, but we still got some field time in.  Monday consisted of classes on machine gun theory and the weapons squad.  If you're blessed enough to be chosen at a gunner or assistant gunner, you'll go out to the range to get 'qualified' on the M240 or M249.  I'm told by my friends that qualification consisted of shooting a couple of belts, along with learning how to take down the weapon and such (something that we all did as a platoon the previous Friday).  Tuesday we drew weapons, and went out as a platoon to do M240, M249, M2 and Mk 19 familiarization.  We shot one belt for each weapon during the day, with the exception of the Mk 19 (logistical difficulties precluded us firing them, but we did get an opportunity to pull them apart).  The weapons themselves are, as you might imagine for a TRADOC unit, pieces of junk.  Don't fret if they malfunction on you (or if you go through three of them, as one buddy team did).  We also did a night familiarization, but only with either the M240 or the M249 - depending on what platoon you were in.  Wednesday was weapons cleaning, and we called it a week.

Not a lot happened this week, so there's not exactly a whole lot of advice to dole out.  Two things do come to mind, though.  First, if you're a gunner or AG, check your weapons constantly - parts (pins, bolts, etc) like to fall out of them, and you don't wanna find out that a pin is missing only when you finally return from the range.  Bad juju.  Secondly, it might behoove you to look up the TM for the optics for the guns, and see how to range targets with them properly.  It's a pop-up range that you're on, and while the're not tracking how many targets you hit or anything, it's always satisfying to see 'em fly back down behind the berm, instead of throwing up dirt.

Bear With Me

Last Couple of weeks have been draining, lots of fieldwork.  Next couple of weeks are all classroom, and there's Thanksgiving, so I will get this journal up to speed.

Week 5 - Land Navigation

A little bit of a mix-up this post, there's plenty to cover.

To get it out of the way, PT on Monday and Friday was Fight Gone Bad and Murph, respectively.  No pt between those days, but since you'll be walking 30+ miles by the end of the week, you'll be getting your exercise in.

Land navigation training for IBOLC occurs at the India training site - give me a couple of days and I will have a copy of the map posted, so you can see what the area looks like for yourself.  Brace yourself - you will be hearing quite a few horror stories about this place, and while they are not unfounded, I am here to tell you that is is not as bad as people will make it out to be.  Yes, the woods are thick and I highly recommend not dead reckoning through them, but the vast majority of points can be found right off of a road - remember, the guys 

who set up this course didn't want to trudge through all that crap any more than you did.  

The standard for a GO is five out of seven points, in five hours.  You will start at about 0600, and end around 11.  Plenty of time to find points, and if you are poor at night land nav, there will be enough daylight to find points.  before you get to the actual test on Thursday, you will do three iterations with a parter (two day, one night), and before that, a cadre walk-through with your squad.   Make no mistake, you will have plenty of practice beforehand.  As far as results, we only had a handful (<10) people fail and have to go to the retake on Saturday, and off the top of my head, I can't think of anyone that didn't make it through the retest.

So what's the course like?  Well, it's big; there will be plenty of walking, as I've already mentioned.  The woods are thick, as it is a new course, but by the time I went through, trails were well on their way to being worn in to the points.  The map you will be given is quite accurate, the only major discrepancy being that Christopher Road is shown as crossing the railroad tracks in the southeastern corner - this is, in fact, not true. The road will skirt the tracks, and if you're not paying attention, you may end up running into an RI.  Not the most rewarding of experiences, as an LT.  Another point worth mentioning - there's a few intermittent streams listed on the map - I'm here to tell you that when the map says 'intermittent stream,' it really means 'eight-to-ten foot ravine filled with mud, and surrounded by nearly impenetrable thicket.'  No joke, I spent two hours travelling a kilometer through the woods, because of two of those streams.

So, some tips/tactics/techniques to keep in mind for this week?  Well first, let's talk about land nav in general.  No matter how much the cadre are breathing down your neck and yelling to get moving, take the time before you step off to plot all your points, and come up with a detailed plan on how you're going to get to your points.  Include distances to each major land feature along the way, what directions trails go down, and what terrain features we should see, both when we arrive at the point, and when we've gone too far.  Now, let's talk about night land nav - under absolutely no circumstances should you dead reckon during the night.  You will get lost or waste time trying to fight your way through thickets.  If night land nav is not a strong point for you, take heart.  There will be several LTs looking for your point as well, so just look for the converging red lights and you search for your point.  Some LTs, having arrived at their point, will take the time to knock the mud out of their canteen cup, or try and scare away any hazardous wildlife in the area with aforementioned cup.  A completely unintentional side effect of this is that the cup makes a rather loud clanging sound against the metal post the kite is affixed to.  I must also surmise that there is some sort of potent flora growing right next to these kites, because many of my fellow LTs seems to some under great coughing spells whenever their in the vicinity of said points.  If all else fails, find the point furthest away from you, and start walking.  By the time you arrive, the sun will have risen enough that you can find that point, and then work backwards from there.  Many guys do this when they can't find a point in the dark, and they come back to it during the day and find it no problem.

For day land navigation, there's noting to it.  As I said, most points are 100 meters or less from a trail or road, and the map is quite accurate.  I would suggest bringing a large knife with you just for this week, despite the IBOLC smartbook saying that you cannot carry a knife other than a multitool.  You may very well need it to get through some of the terrain, if you decide to dead reckon during the day.  Dead reckoning in daylight is not nearyl as perilous as during the night, but it will still be a slow trip.  Trust your pace count, have a plan before you step off, keep your eyes open, and don't panic.

Relax - this week is long, and if it's raining, it may very well be miserable, but it is far from hard.

End of Week 4

This week was better than last week, as far as waiting around went.  The weather was hot and muggy, despite cloud cover.  The focus for training was shooting on the move - barrier drills, reflexive fire, fire team shoots, etc.

Monday - PT was 3.5 mile run at about a 6:30/7:00 minute pace, then a mile sprint at the 1 mile track, and a 'light' run back to Taylor field.  We drew weapons, and went out to another pop-up range.  The range itself was pretty fun - like the qual range, you have pop-ups, but the popups are on a track and move.  THe shooting itself was fairly easy, so if you decent last week it should be no problem - not that it matters, because it's familiarization only.  Often times there will be two targets up at once - a stationary, and a moving.  Take down the stationary first, because the moving one will pause for a second or two at then end of the track, so you can take your time to shoot it.  Bottom line - don't sweat it, and have fun.  We turned in weapons after a quick wipedown, and called it a day.

Tuesday's PT was a real kicker - four stations, each 15 minutes long.  Station 1: tire flips, but you don't move with the tire - you must return to the starting line, and your partner sprints out the tire to do his flips, and sprints back.  So, the farther you've flipped the tire, the more you have to run.  Second station was ascending dips/squats, in 3/5 intervals, respectively.  Third station is descending virtual shovels / pull ups, starting at 30 and decreasing by 5.  The last station was running (supposed to be the rest station).  We drew weapons again, and headed out to the reflexive fire range - again, not a hard range at all, you bring your weapon up and fire at fixed targets from 4 to 25 meters.  Out of the whole company, only a handful had to go through it again, and they give you plenty of practice before hand.  Nothing to worry about.  Those not shooting rehearsed the barrier shoot, practiced tactical magazine changes, fixing weapon malfunctions, and discussed fieldcraft (slit trenches, lean-tos, etc).

Wednesday's PT was supposed to be lunges with rucks and IBAs until you died.  Luckily our NCOs realized that it would perhaps not do us well for our ranges later in the week, or the 6 mile ruckmarch on Friday.  Instead, we did 100 push-ups, 50 burpees, and 100 sit-ups, split up as we pleased.  The range for this day was barrier shooting - again, noting to freak out about, but it certainly was exhausting, for only being about 3-4 minutes long.  Those not shooting either rehearsed fire team movement, or did combatives - specifically, muzzle taps, head-butts, and how to wrestle your weapons away from someone.

Thursday we did not do PT; we made up for it later, though.  This day we did the fire-team range.  In the morning, we practiced with blanks, and did the live-fire in the afternoon.  After that we headed back to Taylor Field, wiped down weapons, and called it a night.

Friday was the 6 mile ruckmarch.  Unlike last week, we just had to have 35 pounds, minus water - for those of you who are curious, this is about the same weight as your sleep systems, IBA, and E-Tool.  Made for easy packing.  The march was done to standard - i.e., sub-15 minutes a mile.  We did about a 13:45 pace, coming in at 1:24 for 6.1 miles.  The rest of the day, as it will probably be from now on, we cleaned weapons.

Observations / Lessons Learned:

• Don't just wipe down your weapons after the blank iteration for the fire team-range.  Blanks are very dirty (and don't extract half the time, much to my dismay), so you'll want to do a more thorough cleaning, so you have no problems in the afternoon.
• You might want to seriously think about investing in a decent sling, because the one you're issued is a piece o' junk.  Good gloves helped a lot, as well.
• They bivy cover did a damn good job of keeping me dry, without a lean-to.  Still, given the choice, I would have brought some bungee cords and made a lean-to.
• Dental picks!  Buy they for your cleaning kit!

End of Week 3

Oof, what a week.  This week was devoted to BRM, or at least the crash course for LTs.  As all ranges go, it involved quite of bit of waiting and standing in the sun, but at least you got to send a bit of lead downrange, which is always a treat.

Monday's PT started out with a fire-team competition. It consisted of a 2/3 mile run, then as a fire team: ten 30-foot rope climbs, 100 box jumps, 8 monkey bar iterations, 100 pull-ups, and 150 sit-ups.  Another 2/3 mile run and a repeat of all the exercises, finished with a 1/3 mile run.  The rest of the day we drew weapons, mounted and tied down all the optics systems, and turned them back in.  At 13 hours total, it was probably the longest time I've even taken to be issued a weapon for the sole purpose of making sure it was in working order.

Tuesday's PT was brief, as we had to get out to the range; 40 minute ability group run.  After that we rucked out to the range wearing full battle rattle.  We spent the rest of the day 9and night) zeroing our M68 optics and our AN/PEQ-15 laser.  We overnighted on the range (as well as Wednesday and Thursday).

Wednesday we popped smoke and headed out to another range - the technology here is pretty cool, it can show you on a computer screen where your bullet is traveling in relationship to your target.  This too was an all day and all night affair.

Thursday was qualification day - we got to do three iterations, and they took the highest score for record - it's a GO/NO-GO event, so your OML won't be affected by how well you do.  Even if you don't qualify on the first three, they will work with you until your qualify.  There also a night qualification/familiarization.  The score here is just for your own knowledge; they won't track your score or record it.

Friday was a four mile ruckmarch back to Taylor Field - since we had all of our gear (about 50 pounds), it was a tactical march instead of a march for time.  The day was devoted to weapons maintenance - we didn't get out of there until about 1700 or so, so no break there.

Observations / Lessons Learned

• You'll be sitting in the sun quite a bit, so bring sunscreen.  Our cadre were sticklers about not having upturned collars or neckerchiefs to protect your neck, so if you get burnt, prepare to do explain to every cadre member that passes by why you're covering your neck.
• Don't laugh, but make sure to check the inside of your IBA and remove the collars and groin pieces.  A lot of guys didn't realize it was in there, and taking it out made things slightly more comfortable.
• Invest in some anti-fog stuff for your eye pro.  'Nuff said.

End of Week 2

Two down, fourteen to go.  Tuesday started out with combatives before PT.  Pt proper consisted of a long and fast run down to 'Big Cardiac'- for those of you not familiar with Fort Benning, it's big freakin' hill.  From there, we did five sprints to the top of the hill, and an additional four sprints halfway up, followed by a slower run back to the quad.  You got to the point where you would will your feet to move, but you were barely inching forward.  All in all, it took almost three hours.  The rest of the day was devoted to classroom instruction - much of it will be review for ROTC and USMA guys - roles and responsibilities of PL/PSG/SL/TL, OERs and NCOERs, how to conduct counseling, how to plan training and PT, nutritional and fitness information.

Wednesday was the O-course.  The whole company was running the course, so choke-points inevitably developed, and the wait to get through certain obstacles was significant.  Basically, the whole thing just got you sweaty.  More classes, this time delving in to the very basics of tactics - mostly operational terms and graphics dealing with fire control measures.

Thursday's PT started with a run to Doughboy Stadium, and then exercises based on ability groups (the cadre will already have a list of who is in which ability group, so no sham for you!).  Basically, a lot of lower body endurance and abdominals.  We went out into the field in order to conduct Combat Lifesaver Training; I have no idea how readily information is available on CLS, but the trainers requested us to not discuss what was taught.  Not that you have to worry about it, they will teach you everything you need to know, and you'll be more than prepared for the examination.  The training itself was at a TTB, so it wasn't exactly roughing it.  They even had showers available, so no baby wipes needed.

Friday was the piece de resistance for this week's PT.  The RPAT (Ranger Physical Assessment Test, or something like that.  I was frankly too busy gasping for air to pay attention).  Run 2 miles in full battle rattle (no rucks), rope climb, 100m litter drag, 6 barrier hurdles, another rope climb, and a 1 mile run to finish.  Standard is 45 minutes or less.  The unanimous opinion of our platoon was that the litter drag was, by far, the most taxing event.  our advice would be not to pull the litter with you hands, but instead loop the drag handle around your waist or upper body and lean forward.  After that, we wrapped up CLS training, took the written exam, and did a practical exercise.  Both Thursday and Friday were long, as they had to pack in quite a bit of training.  Bring caffeine.

All in all, a tough week, both for PT and staying alert.

Observations / Lessons Learned:

• If you don't have a leg-locking technique down-packed for the rope climb, I strongly suggest practicing one.  Even with thirty pounds or so of junk on, its possible to strong-arm your way up, but it ain't pretty.  Do yourself a favor and practice.
• You're not going to have much time after the workday these first two weeks, so prioritize what you want to get done and haul ass.  You'll need the sleep.
• Go ahead and get your gear adjusted/customized before you get out there.  There's a little bit of leeway with your LBE setup, and there's a quite a few adjustment points on the ruck that can't be done on the fly, so take the time to find what works for you.
• If you haven't done so already, start investing in some personal gear.  I'm not saying be a geardo, but a good pair of gloves, and good boots will serve you well.  Snap-links and LED lights seem to be prevalent within the platoon, as well.  You might want to go ahead and look at map cases, as well.  You won't need them until week five, but they aren't going to issue you one, so you might as well find one you like.  One guy had a little map case that folded up into an admin pouch, that he said cost him only about twelve bucks.
• As BRM is next week, there was some discussion about magazines:  I noticed that many people add their own duct-tape / para cord pull loops to the baseplate, to ease pulling magazine out during exercises.   If you're really paranoid about having working magazines, you can buy three-pack replacement followers for about six bucks - unlike the standard followers, they're designed to not slip / stick in the magazine well, which reduces jamming (supposedly).  None of this is necessary, but more power to you if you do it.

Posting will probably be weekly from this point on; I had barely enough time during the past week to take care of things as it were, and the next few weeks are probably going to be spent mostly in the field.  because of this, some details may be lost, just because of memory/fatigue.  However, if you contact me and want me to elaborate on anything, I can probably jog my memory enough to help you out.

End of Week 1

Now that the weekend is here, I finally have time to sit down and type out the week's events.  Each day this week has been long and tedious, and by its end you pretty much just have time to eat and get ready for tomorrow before it's time to hit the hay.

Tuesday:

The day started out with an intro to combatives - a brief history, and some basic ground dominant body positions.  Tuesday was the first part of our physical, to include urinalysis, blood work, hearing and vision checks, and vitals.  Once finished, we picked up our books - bring a large bag.  They gave me more manuals/books than I ever had in college.  Afterwards we had a small amount of time to grab food or take care of other things, and then we did CWST.  The CWST is already easy to begin with, but this one even more so - you simply have to ditch your gear underwater, and swim 15 meters without a rifle.  No 5 meter drop, no swim with weapon, and no water tread.  After that was a urinalysis, and we were cut for the day.

Wednesday:

Wednesday started out with the APFT.  I know the perennial question everyone will have is - "will they have hard graders?"  to which I say, there's no point in answering the question.  It will all be subjective - you may have a company with easy graders, you may not.  The best thing to do is not practice perfect pushups, but practice pushups beyond perfect - hit the ground with you chest.  That way, you know for sure you're prepared, regardless of the grader.  The run will be on a one mile track, and you won't start at a distance marker - this makes it difficult to pace, if you're used to running on a 400 meter track, or having people call out times to you.  You'll only have one call-out, and that's at the one mile point.  Learn your pace before you show up; better yet, find a buddy with a similar run time, and pace each other - even when you feel miserable, you're not gonna want to quit and lose face when you have a running buddy.  Following this, we took care of pantographic x-rays and anyone with CAC card issues got them taken care of at SRC.  This was followed  by our gear issue at CIF.  A lot of stuff here, but you won't need you own barracks bags, as they'll issue you two.  You'll be required to have you name and cat eyes sewn on the corresponding gear - you can get this done at Ranger Joe's for around 30 dollars, give or take a couple.  Afterwards we were free to do as we pleased until an evening informal social at the Officer's Club.  You'll have the opportunity to talk to many senior officers and meet your fellow LTs, if you haven't already.  For those of you not socially inclined, there's booze there to keep you occupied.  Obviously, don't make an ass of yourself.

Thursday:

Not a hard day in the least.  PT was tough - for those of you familiar with Crossfit, we did a double Murph workout, but we were not allowed to break up the exercises - you had to complete all of one exercise before starting on the next.  Needless to say, most people did not finish.  We completed the second part of the physical, and had more dental x-rays, and an exam if necessary.  You'll probably be finished by late morning, at which point you're free.  At 1600, we had an anti-terrorism brief, took a quiz on some basic military knowledge, and got our safety brief.


Misc:

A couple of random things.  First of all, spot reports:  spot reports can be positive or negative, and can add/subtract either two or five points from your final grade.  Watch yourself, as you may get negative spot reports for very minor things, and positive ones are supposedly hard to come by.  Second, although you turn in your medical and dental records on Monday, keep copies of you physicals - if you've had an exam within a year, you don't have to get another one, which will give you some time to do whatever you need to do.

Week One - Inprocessing

And so it begins!  I spent the last week on an OPFOR detail for another company, which naturally involved a lot of downtime for us.  We were responsible for ammo distribution and guard, in addition to playing OPFOR.  I picked a couple of the cadre's brains, as well as listened in on some of the AAR comments from the lanes the platoons ran, so I gleaned some knowledge from that.

I think the comment one cadre member summed it all up - as officers, you can't feel sorry for yourself.  You're going to be cold, tired, hungry, etc., but you still have a mission to do.  Even when you're 'just a Joe,' you can't zone out.  You've got to help your buddies out and continue to be a team player.  Don't start getting complacent and forgetting the little things.  Some examples cadre gave, which we also observed firsthand - rucksack flops, clanging weapons around, noise/light discipline.  It's these little things that irk them.  As another cadre member told me, IBOLC doesn't have a lot of washouts beyond those that get cut for height/weight or PT.  It's when you come here with the attitude that you know it all already, and you don't need to pay attention or take it seriously that blindsides people.  A prime example from this last week - one student didn't check to make sure all of his live ammo was turned back in, and when another student borrowed a magazine form him during the lane, he ended up firing a couple of live rounds.  Nobody was hurt, thankfully, but it really drives home what happens when you get complacent.

I digress - back to inprocessing.

The day started out at oh-dark-hundred; having been given a welcome letter the previous Friday, which included everything we needed to bring, there wasn't any real surprises or or people not coming prepared.  We took care of eight/weight, personal paperwork, finances, and reviewed the material and expectations for the upcoming weeks.  The day was long.  Most of the time that got eaten up was from people not following one simple rule, which they harped on again and again - do not fill in paperwork until told to do so.  They have a specific way they want things filled in, and even though you say 'I've done this stuff before, it's all self-explanatory,' you will fill in something incorrectly, and everyone has to wait until you've redone the form and caught back up with everyone.  The forms you fill out are expected to be pristine - any mistake, and they have to be redone.  Expect to do at least a couple over again.  I'd also suggest bringing a book - there will be some downtime, as there is different paperwork to fill out depending on your commissioning source, and some groups will be done while others are still hammering away.

Let there be no mistake - Ranger School is taken very seriously here, and the cadre flat-out stated that IBOLC is Pre-Ranger School for us.  Barring injuries or failure to meet standards, you will go to Ranger School afterwards.  I've got no qualms about that, personally.  Anything to get me prepared.

You'll also be split up into your platoons and squads today, and get some face time with the platoon trainers.  As the day wound down, we got schedule information for the week - tomorrow will be physical exams, book issue, and CWST.  Wednesday will be the PT Test.  Our PT uniform for tomorrow caused some difficulties - as they announced that we would be wearing the APFU jacket, and it was already 1900.  SInce all the ROTC guys had to turn in their winter PT gear, there was a mad scramble afterwards to go pick up stuff from Ranger Joe's - where the jackets are 30 dollars more than at clothing sales, and most ROTC guys are broke form not having a job for several months (the economy sucks, what can I say?)

One last little aside - after we had broken down into our squads, and the cadre chose the PSG, the PSG started organizing us for tomorrow.  To choose squad leaders, he asked all the prior service guys and West Point guys to raise their hands, and chose from them.  I think it's safe to say that everyone respects the aura of prior service, but the West Point thing got a few raised eyebrows.  Apparently OCS and ROTC guys aren't quite up to snuff on our drill and ceremony?  =P

Observations / Lessons Learned:

• If you're missing anything from your clothing bag, for whatever reason, get it ASAP - wait until the last minutes, and you may be fighting with every other 2LT in the world for the supply at the PX.  Either that, or paying through the nose for it at an off-base shop.
• Bring everything with you that you think you possibly may need - receipts, family documents, memorandums, whatever.  The welcome letter was very concise, but you never know what you may need, given your circumstances.
• You're going to be stuck with guys who come from all walks - OCS, ROTC, West Point, prior service, branch transfers, National Guard, you name it.  Get to know these guys, pick their brains, and never think any less of them because of where they come from.
• Follow the directions of the administrative staff.  Follow the directions of the administrative staff.  Follow the directions of the administrative staff.  Follow the instructions of the administrative staff.  'Nuff said.
• Expect downtime, and have something on hand to keep you occupied/productive.
• If you're hurting for money, don't be afraid to talk to cadre and going to AER - they will understand that you've been unemployed for some months, and have a lot of expenses to take care up before you first paycheck rolls in.
• If you're coming from OCS, you will still have the TA-50 you were issued during OCS.  Because of that, when you're in HHC waiting to class up, you can expect to be pulled for OPFOR detail.  Just a heads-up.

Just Checking In

Nothing much going on for the moment - until you class up, there's not a lot to do around here.  Once you're released from formations, you're free to do whatever.  As far as details go, it's a one week on, one week off deal.  Depending on how long you're in HHC, you may end up playing OPFOR or otherwise being a warm body for some evolution the training companies are running.  Other than that  - make sure you show up here able to perform physically.  It should be a no-brainer, but if you still need assurance on the matter, the PT here is challenging.  I don't hear people complaining about PT being too easy.  Next posting will occur the following Monday.

Day...0?

And so, it begins.  I got to Benning early, so I decided to use the time to take care of some miscellaneous things - ID card, vehicle decal, uniform parts, etc.  Things went smoothly until I went to Olsen Hall to check on the BOQ reservation that I made a few weeks prior.  While they knew I was coming and had me in the system, there were simply no slots available for me.  They sent me on my way with a 'Non-Availability Statement' and an explanation that I would be reimbursed for up to ten days of staying in a hotel, until my housing situation was settled - either by a slot opening up, or me finding a place.  Needless to say I decided not to bank on a slot opening up.  While it's never a joy to shell out money for a hotel, it's the nature of the beast; there's simply too much going on here for them to have space available for everyone.

Speaking of money, I seem to have been bleeding it since I arrived.  Nothing major, just little things, but one of those 'death by a thousand cuts' feeling.  Two particular things stood out - we are required to have an orange reflective vest with our name and rank embroidered on white tape, front and back.  There are several military stores around the area that will take care of that for you, for about 25 dollars.  Twenty minutes later I have a nice shiny reflective vest.  We also need a canteen - I gave myself a couple of kicks for deciding to not bring mine along, but such is life.

Once I took care of this stuff, I reported in proper.  As you would expect from a course of this nature, in-processing is more or less down to a science.  They'll give you all the info you need to get started.  You'll know when, where and in what uniform to show up to events, and how to get the ball rolling on BAH.  As I said, they'll give you everything you need to get started, but in case you're curious, DA-5960 is the form you'll be dealing with.

Other than that...once you report in, you'll be doing PT and showing up to formations.  From what I gather ,the following week will be devoted to getting all the admin stuff out of the way before IOBC starts proper.  I'll keep updating as I go along, but for now my only concern is housing.

Observations and Advice :

• Make finding housing your priority - from what I can gather from my fellow LTs, everything else will be taken care of during in-processing, but a place to live is all on you.
• If possible, start travel early.  This gives you time to take care of any little details that need to be taken care of before class, and if something delays your travel, it gives you a buffer.  If you show up before you report date, they'll still in-process you - easier for everyone all around.
• Check in with DEERS / ID cards and make sure you've been moved to Active Duty - if not, they can take care of that for you before it rears its head later.
• Places you should know how to get to - Olsen Hall (Housing), Soldier's Plaza (Admin and DEERS/ID), and PX (Clothing Sales).  You should do a route recon from where you're living to the IBOLC building, so you know how to get there.
• Make copies of everything, and keep all receipts.  From my limited experience with military orders, you always are required to make far more copies than you end up using - as soon as you try showing up with fewer copies than listed, however, Murphy's Law will kick in and you'll end up needing them all.  
• Never give up your original copies - in fact, I would leave your originals in your room altogether, and carry only copies.  If you're down to your last copy of something, tell the person wanting your copy that they are free to make a copy for themselves.

One Note Before I Begin

I will be reporting in shortly, so before I do, I wanted to add an OPSEC disclaimer to this journal:

Due to OPSEC (and brevity - you don't need to know every waking moment of training), I won't be describing anything doctrinally-based (e.g., tactics, techniques) in detail - if you can't already find it in a field manual, it will not be posted here.  This is simply to protect our personnel, and prevent people from using the information to harm us.

If you do want some specific detail pertaining to something I mention, you should contact me with a .mil email address, and I will be happy to discuss it with you.

On that note - in my previous post, I mentioned that I would tell you how things went with the firearms registration, as I was a bit unclear on my situation.  Upon further consideration, I won't be posting that information, due to several on-base incidents involving firearms on base.  If you want to know about it, you can again contact me with a .mil address.

Preparing for IOBC

As the first entry into this journal, I suppose I should bring you up to speed:

I graduated from college and commissioned into the Army Infantry in May 2010.  Due to my particular degree, I did not have any classes on the main campus, and my class schedule precluded be from attending the regularly scheduled ROTC class.  Consequently, I fell through the administrative cracks on several occasions.  Unfortunately, one of those cracks was getting my orders for IOBC.  After asking ROTC for the orders, and being on the dark for several months, I called my branch manager; ROTC found my orders the next day.  As luck would have it, my report date was more than a week before my class date, so I've been in a bit of a scramble to get packed and ready.

Before all of this, I looked around for anything that would give me an idea on how to prepare for IOBC.  We only had one active duty officer in my ROTC cadre, and he was not an Infantry officer.  The infantry officer we did have, was not very forthcoming with useful advice.  My ROTC program did assign me an active duty mentor, an infantry captain who was stationed in the area.  He had good career advice, but again, lacked information for IOBC.  Lastly, there was the IOBC website - while there was some administrative data, I still left like I was being thrown to the wolves.  What do I need to pack?  What kind of paperwork aside from my personnel jacket do I need to bring?  is there anyone I need to contact beforehand, and for what reason?  No idea.

So that is the current situation, as it applies to me.  My father, an artillery officer, helped me to prepare, but acknowledged the fact that he was Field Artillery.  Not to mention he went to OBC several decades ago.  As it is, the following is what I have done to prepare.  I will let you know in a few days if it was adequate, or I looked like a moron upon reporting in.

• Records and Personal Information

First, I reviewed my personnel jacket.  The ROTC admin office made me copies of everything for my own records, and provided a checklist of items in the personnel jacket (OMPF).  I check to make sure everything marked on the checklist was actually present, and anything that was missing I made copies of and replaced.  Specifically, my jump record from Airborne School was not present, nor were my orders for my jump wings. My DD-214 also did not list two unit awards I was entitled to, so I made sure to place copies of the citations in my jacket as a temporary measure, and then made some phone calls to have my records corrected.  

The OMPF isn't the only thing to be concerned about - I checked my records for things such as school transcripts, insurance information, titles, etc.  I also made copies to leave with my parents, should something happen to my own copies.

• Uniforms

I looked up the clothing bag list in AR 670-1, and did my best to fill that list out, given my limited funds (no one wants to hire a college grad who they know is going to leave in a couple of months, but people are more than happy to keep sending you bills).  I packed four sets of ACUs, sewed the rank on my patrols caps, broke in my berets, and made sure my PT gear and dress uniform was in order.  I decided to wait on winter gear, simply because I doubted I would need it immediately, as thus could wait for my first paycheck.

• Housing

Housing is the one area I'm feeling anxious about.  Since I got my orders late in the game, I didn't have time to look for housing.  To compund matters, you cannot get a BOQ slot unless you are TDY.  Since I was PCSed to Fort Benning, I could only reserve a room for 30 days.  Hopefully that should give me time to find an apartment in the area.  I plan on using a combination of the Army Housing Network and internet research to decide on a place.  The main thing is that I only need a place for four months - if I get orders for Ranger School after IBOLC, I see no need to pay two months' rent for a place I won't use.

• Packing

Between the housing situation, the length of IBOLC, and the need to place stuff in storage if I got to Ranger School, I decided to pack light.  Computer, civilian clothing, professional reading, kitchen supplies (couple of pots, utensils, dinnerware, spices), toiletries and cleaning/maintenance supplies, and a minute amount of miscellaneous gear.  As far as TA-50 goes, I'm taking my own compass, more protractors than I can shake a stick at, and a couple of map cases.  TA-50 will be issued to us, and anything I end up needing I can buy once I'm on post, but it's always good to have your own compass that you know works - the quality of what 

you get handed to you by CIF varies.

• Automobile and Firearm

I made sure to look up in the Benning website what they needed in order to give you a base decal, and checked that I had everything in order.  Aside form that, I made sure to fix anything on my car that someone might balk at on base (for instance, some jerk stole my driver side mirror, so that had to be replaced).  I also plan on bringing a firearm with me, and looked over the regulations pertaining to privately owned weapons.  I'm a little unsure of my situation, as I am in the BOQ for perhaps up to 30 days, but no matter what, I have to talk to the MPs first anyway, who will tell me what I need to do (or chew me out for asking stupid questions).  This may also be a stress point, so once I show up and talk to the MPs, I will make sure to post what happens, and my observations.

Again, I'll be arriving in a few more days, so I shall see how well I prepared, and relay to you what I could have improved on.