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.