BOLCII: Final thoughts on BOLCII…

One of common themes to emails I received was how to prepare for BOLCII “experience”. From gathering current intel from other LTs at BOLCII Ft Benning and Ft Sill each BN, Co and PLT does things drastically different. You are right, it should not be but it is. In D Co CQ room there was a binder of a high level cmdrs presentation given when BOLCII was still in its pilot phase. It contained a number of AAR comments that were identical to the ones our PLT gave at the final BN AAR now almost two years later. What does that tell you? The Army monolith is slow to change but keep in mind at the same time the units concerned were tasked to run 1000 LTs thru a month in a new program during war time with very little support resources.

A common complaint was “too much time between training iterations” and a “waste of time for IOBC” Maybe it is my perspective of a few more years but for goodness sake used the time you are given even read a professional development book. I know from working with my unit what it is like to have 18-20 hr days with no weekends off. The Army takes and the Army gives –Understand and use it wisely. I still think there is significant value interfacing the Combat, CS and CSS LTs together from different commissioning sources and learning to work together.

But there is a valid point here. In my lowly opinion as a 2LT, BOLCII does not need to be 7 weeks. 5 weeks would be about right IF the programs were resourced properly. For the BOLCII experience to be uniform there needs to be spot checks from the BDE and BN levels at the PLT.


Examples of differences:

PT. Our PLT Mentor placed a high emphasis on PT every day, garrison or at the FOB with the exception of road march days. Moreover, it was “real” PT, no shamming. Other PLTs only did PT until the APFT and quit. Our PLT APFT average was about 273. We had about 10 LTs score 500 or above on the Iron Voyager APFT contest.

Meetings. Other PLTs constantly held “meetings” (I think they were professional development orientated, or maybe just cadre on a soap box) we would walk by and they would be in there for hours it seemed, with all the LTs looked as excited to be there as in a dentist office waiting for a root canal. Our PLT Mentor did believe in these, We had two professional meeting which were very intellectually engaging and that was it.

You could tell the PLT cadre that a “death grip” on their PLTs. Those PLT were the ones that did not display any enthusiasm or initiative, took forever at the arms room and lost sensitive items.

I heard of one PLT Mentor would keep his PLT will 2000+ on Fridays and then individually interview every single LT about their plans for the weekend and deny approve them even with in the 150 mi radius. Another PLT Mentor was a total shammer and got caught sleeping in a car during qualification.

Our PLT Mentor set the tone right away, he was very professional and down to earth. He expected us show responsibility take initiative and then let the PLT student leadership take care of business. Given, a requirements for that plan to work and be successful, is the personality, maturity and experience of the PLT members. If your PLT has a bunch of shammers and scum bags then the cadre will have to be a lot more involved.

PLT Cadre: I believe it is requirement to have several deployments to serve as a cadre and it is regarded as time for the CPT/E7/E6 to spend time with family before another tour. Some cadre will pencil in the training and others will go above and WAY beyond. We were fortunate and for the exception of one, all of our cadre genuinely wanted to prepare us and yet keep it done to earth.

FOB Missions. Our PLT ran 2 missions a day plus PT, other PLTs only ran 1 mission a day with no PT. Who got more sleep? Who got better experience?

I came during the hottest cycle possible for GA (Aug-Sep) and during a record heat wave, which accounts for the high number of LTs going to the hospital in an ambulance. Any other cycle should not experience this degree element of stress but you do need to be in shape. As a baseline, shoot for a 250 APFT with a decent run time and you should be fine. Be smart stay hydrated and used Gatorade /electrolyte replacement in your camel-bak and eat something every meal even though you may not feel like it.

PLT Demographics:

-41 with 1 international
-5 Females
-65% West Point (high % due to graduation timing) 4 LTS were OCS including me, the rest ROTC.
-About 12 IOBC, a few Armor, the rest CS and CSS.

From talking with a current LT a Ft Sill, his PLT has few West Pointers, 50% Female and the majority CS and CSS.

West Pointers: As a general rule a very sharp and physically fit bunch. They have an enviable tight bond after spending 4 years together. They had a few prior service graduates but for the most point had limited experience in the “real Army” Typical age 22. Lots of Airborne, Air Assault, and even SCUBA qualified.

ROTC: Hit or miss depending on the school. Some very high speed and mature LTs and some LTs that should have not been commissioned. Limited practical Army experience with the exception of prior service “Green to Gold” types. Age from 20 (yes 20!) to mid 30’s. Lots of Airborne qualified.

OCS (Federal, NG State and Accelerated): I am biased here since I am OCS, but I think OCS brought the best mix of experience of time inside/out the Army, the only group to go thru Basic Combat Training and a deep appreciation of earning our gold bar. The OCS commissioning source definitely stands above the sources with the level of physical, mental stress received (smokings!) and attention to detail taught during training. Age 28-32.

Note on social activities: Generally, you will have weekends off. You will need to prepare for the next week training (laundry, packing, reading/writing assignments due etc) but for the most part it is for you to rest and refit.

Columbus does have some rough areas so used some common sense and do the buddy team thing and know where you are going (i.e. Victory drive has an average of 3 people killed each weekend.) The historic riverfront is a project in progress and is very nice and is also the location of the better local drinking establishments/clubs. Anything further out and you run into the cougar type establishments. Be advised there can be a lot of testosterone flowing around with all the Ranger regiment and Airborne graduates, do not put yourself in a situation where you get in a confrontation and an enlisted/NCO strikes you because that will have serious career repercussions for them for striking an officer -even off duty. The MPs have an arrangement with the Columbus police and routinely patrol the historic area. Plenty of cabs run to and from base, it will cost you about $5 each.

Exit 7 has the Peachtree mall with a number of name brands and hotels. Exit 10 has a large modern strip with all the major chain restaurants and shopping outlets. The other exits have one or two points of interest but those are the main two exits.

P.S. I am going to try and fill in some of the missing days as I have time so check back.

BOLCII Day 33: Graduation

0500 wake up, quick hygiene, take the rest of my stuff do to the car stand by for room inspection by SFC Kerr. There is definitely a difference with the ROTC rooms, as they had not dusted their wall lockers, shelves and desks. Hand over my key and time to collect linen.

Here is an example of classic Army way; we collect all the sheets blanks and pillow covers in bundle of 25, haul them down stairs and then find out they need to be individually turned in so we un-bundled everything, and bag one pillow case with blanket and 2 sheets call the PLT down and send the PLT there on their merry way.

NOTE: There was no contingency to have BOLCII LTs stay over post gradation in the barracks as all the cadre take advantage of the downtime before the next cycle. So plan to leave Ft Benning on graduation day if at possible for your BOLCIII. Otherwise, you will have to stay in a hotel or try to borrow a room from a IOBC LT.

At 0730 it very evident the chow long line is too long so a number of us POV to the on post Burger King and down some high quality food and reflect on the past 7 weeks and what the future holds for all of us. 0820 we head to the bld 4 for rehearsals. The parking lot is getting full because there is a Basic Training graduation on the front grounds and the Infantry conference is happing this week in bld 4.

Only the honor graduates have assigned seating the rest is a free for all in the front center section. At this point I hand out the “coveted” ACU BOLCII tab I had arranged a source for 3rd PLT to wear under left pocket flap (if you need a qty of these send me an email.) Rehearsal are quick and we are released to explorer the infantry conference, there is definitely a lot of cool gear on display by the vendors. Everything from the latest high speed uniforms, personal equipment, weapons and munitions, to robots and IED resistant trucks.

Back to Marshall Auditorium, a video presentation of pictures from our training (a number of my pictures show up, which is cool) prayer from the chaplain, a few good words from the guest speaker about what our PLT will expect from us, and the 2 honor graduates from each PLT go across the stage. We recite the Soldier’s creed, sing the first refrain of the Army song and we are pronounced “graduates of BOLCII.” The graduation is anti-climatic. However, honestly there really is no way they could run all 480 of us cross the stage in a timely manner. We each take away with the satisfaction of what we have put into of the program and the life long friendships we have made.

The only issue I have is wife traveled 4 hours from Augusta with sons and by the time she arrived, the MPs would not allow her to park in at the Infantry center and kept directing to her to the “next” entrance where she would be told that entrance was closed as well. Long story short, she missed the graduation. She was very unhappy about it and so am I.

POV back the Co area we collect our dental records from the previous day and then are called outside to a formation the cadre because the common areas are not clean enough, after threats of continued formations our PSG take over and assign details to get it knocked out. 30 mins later it must have meet with satisfaction as we are released to sign and copy our DA31s and receive our diplomas. I give the cadre each a BOLCII tab and they are suitably impressed. CPT McGinty even places it above his Ranger tab(!)

Off to SBOLC for me!

BOLCII Day 32: Out process III

0545 at Peden field. We form up and move out for our C and D Co’s 4 mile run. The pace was about 8:45. CPT McGinty kept changing the distance between us and the lead PLT so it was almost like a fartlek run at times. The cooler temperature change is noticeable as I am barely sweating by the time we come back to Peden field.

Chow and change in to ACUs. Draw weapons and clean, clean. After touching up the few minor spots SSG Dunfee had found yesterday I take my weapon down to for another inspection, but I take a few cleaning supplies just in case. SGG Dunfee finds (or they appear, I’m not sure which!) a few more minor things, no sweat, I correct them on the spot, wait one person in line and SSG Dunfee finds a few more things! Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against a high standard and expect them of other myself but I find moving targets frustrating. -This plan is not working so I take my m4 upstairs to wait the process out.

After some quality time with a tooth brush, dental pick and CLP while watching Shooter DVD on my laptop I decided lunch time might make a good opportunity target time so down I go and this time I am a go for turn in. I spend the rest of the afternoon working on making the PLT movie with XPs movie maker. LT James is kind enough to not assign any details to me so I can stay focused.

CPT McGinity calls for 4th squad to received our end of cycle counseling. Counseling is individual and very informal. My rating is about the middle of the pack which considering the high percentage of tight knit West Pointers in the squad is pretty good. CPT Mcginty expresses his appreciation for my “senior age” (ha!) and maturity in helping maintain balance in the squad.

A detail was sent to the Ammo Supply Point (ASP) to count, inventory and restock all the unexpended and unused ammo from our training and apparent it was the worst experience of all BOLCII for them! No food, no water and very over bearing DA civilians for 8 hours with multiple redundant verifications of the ammo. They have all promised when they get to their units, there will be organized spend-ex’s but NO unexpended ammo, ever!

We were released at a reasonable time. LT Grams and Boudro and I headed to chow for a snack so we could start packing and still be hungry for the PLT party at the IOBC LTs house. We packed an hour and a half or so and headed over. When I arrived, “power hour” had already been in progress.

I hung out for had some good food, received my official Red Sands employee tee shirt (our PLTs new security, stability operations company) I stayed an hour and half and headed back to pack and clean my room which would end up taking till 0100 by the time I got done talking with everyone and carrying out all my stuff and sweeping and mopping,. I had to wake my roommate up as he was planning to wait until morning to mop, that was a no-go in my book!

BOLCII Day 31: Out process II

Downstairs at 0540 at the squad office for ice sheets. The “chill” in the air at 70 degrees is definitely noticeable.

LT Sadoun leads PT, we have an ab and lower body work out with flutter kicks, multiple variations of crunches and partner resisted sit ups and ability group sprints. Off to chow and a little down time till weapons draw at 0830. 4th PLT PL tried to bully their way into taking our place. LT James our PL for the week stood fast and we had our draw done in 2 mins! LT Kwia gave a brief on Liberia’s army. It was very fascinating and little known how US involvement in the past several years has literally turned there country around from civil war to a relativity stable country. LT Kwia is one of a very few officers being trained by the US to lead their new army.

SSG Dunfee gave us the download on the DA31 for BOLCIII and what he was expecting for weapons turn-in. BOLCII is requiring us to claim graduation day as our first day of leave –not cool!

I then worked on a detail cleaning up the squad room for the next cycle, what a mess! I received my leadership counseling from SFC Kerr for my PSG duties last week. It was very informal working thur each of the Army values and how they related to my responsibilities. Basically SFC Kerr was looking for me to relate a particular scenario I faced and how I dealt with. The rating scale is 1-4 with 4 being above average. I scored about 50% 4’s and 50% 3’s so I good to go at this station.

My unit had given me a job list of about 120 pre-mob tasks that need to be complete be for deploying next year, I took the list to SFC Kerr and he was able to mark off about 75% which will be a HUGE time saver!

I took my M4 down to SFC Dunfee for a the first run thru, I somehow hoped for a first time go but that illusion was quickly shattered. A few minor cosmetic things to touch up and I should be good to go. The armoror in OCS doesn’t even measure up to this standards! –Not a bad thing ether.
Bottom line is the cadre want the downtime between the next startup so they will make sure the LTs take care of everything possible.

I help LT James make a run to Little Caesars for a load of “Hot and Nows” for the PLT so we can keep them cleaning weapons instead of breaking for chow in the defac. “LT Ninja” has to be given a 30 min counseling lesson by LT Seitz about not order other LTs around and talking with his moth full of pizza drinking straight from the Pepsi 2-little bottle!

We completed turn-for the day and were released at a reasonable time. LT Grams and I headed to Commandos surplus to pick up 41 BOLCII tabs for graduation and a hair cut (Note: the haircut place next to Commandos is the best in town!) We then headed to Texas Roadhouse at exit 10 to meet up with a dozen other LTs for some good steak and good times.

Tomorrow AM is the BN run with 2 Co’s of 6 PLTs each in formation, this will be fun! I still have to catch up on last week blog, crate the picture CD and pack all my stuff tomorrow –ah!

BOLCII Day 30: Outprocess I

Sunday night I got back from Augusta about 8pm and dumped all my stuff out. I had taken advantage of LT Deriks’ laundry service this weekend for $10 a load and cleaning CIF/turn-in so I didn’t have to worry about getting back earlier and going to the on post laundry CIF machines.

I also had to complete a peer eval for the squad which was difficult for me. You rank them 1-10 or what ever then explain why you picked the top tree and bottom three. My last chopice was very clear but the others were not, I felt like I blue falcon’d the other two last place LTs.

I went thru and organized all my platoon issue for turn-in Monday; MOLLE vest, canteen and, mag pouches, blank adapter, mags, IBA, IBA plates, elbow and knee pads and reference books.

I dumped my two duffels of CIF out and went thru double checking I still had everything, that took awhile. I am so glad I have home unit issue gear!

0600 PT, we divided the PLT into three teams for soccer, football and ultimate Frisbee. Boy was this a nice break and still a good workout!

After chow we waited on other PLTs for our weapons draw and then brought them up to the 3rd floor for cleaning. LTs broke out the radios and we went to work. Over the weekend I bought a can of foam shaving cream and had had my M4 looking like new in no time (trick I learned from Basic Training) just wet down the m4 with water then spray and brush the shaving cream everywhere, it lifts the oil and carbon right off. All the other LTs immediately became interested in this time saving technique and in no time, my can was depleted with promises of “I’ll buy you another one!”

About 1130 LT James decided to turn weapons back in for CIF return, he had chow and load a bus up for the short trip. It was actually fairly painless, LT James put in front of the line because I am working a PLT picture CD and once they found my paperwork I dumped my gear in a shopping cart and went down the line handed stuff back. The civilians where very reasonable, the one ting I was missing; a strap for a 2Qt they did not ding me on.

We walked back to the barracks as soon as each of us was done. I ran our PLTs pictures over to C Co as they are making a BN picture CD

By the way the IOBC guys did not have CIF turn in. They will keep their gear thru the end of IOBC course. They got to put on PTs for the day and clean crew served weapons. What fun –NOT!

By that time it was 1700, we fell out for for formation and after a few words form CPT McGinty, where released.

I went downtown to a coffee house with a few other LTs and knocked out a bunch of paperwork work for SBOLC.

BOLCII Day 29: rest after 10 mile ruck and mission

BOLCII Day 29: Last missions

LT Corina weighs in with 240B before rolling out.

More tonight, I promise!

BOLCII Day 28

Sorry for not posting, things have been very busy with our culminating week at the FOB, we are runnins missions at all hour of the day and night. This AMs mission was an point ambush for IED makers. After that we did PT wearing our IBAs, running sprints, push ups, sit ups in the hot sun, it was killer and we were all wasted. Tonight we were QRF, went to rescue a downed chopper pilot and deal with an attack and news media. We had a real 9 line when a LT went down during the mission due to heat and went to the hospital. Tonight we prepared for tomorrows AM raid mission. Tomorrow night is 10 mile ruck and mission at MOUT site, we come back in the early am and start cleaning. Tonight we started singing NSYNC while riding in the LMTV -It is time to leave this place !

BOLCII Day 22: Land Nav and back at the FOB

Note: Day 21 was Labor day. C Co got a 3 day weekend.

0345 formation (yawn) we had packed our rucks, duffels for the FOB the night before s well as an assault pack for the land nav course. Loaded the bus and eat MREs on the way. I brought some nutribars to snack on as I knew I would not be hungry enough to eat the main course that early. Also Gatorade in the camel-bak. We were all nervous given the problems we all had on the practice course.

We did our land nav on Yakee South (practice was on Yakee North) in total about (12) 1000m grid squares.

It took a little long to get rolling this time, you could recheck your pace count and double check your compass. The company formed up and the cadre issued maps (color and 100% better then the B&W photo copies we received for practice!) Each LT was issued a score card with their name on it with different point and in different order to prevent cheating. No talking allowed but red lights OK (remember your head lamp LED!) Each PLT received a different start time and we immediate spread out on the ground in front of the cadre shack to take advantage of the utility lighting. I was one on the last in PLT to finish plotting at about 25 mins. I plotted everything and then rechecked everything. As I did not had a warm fuzzy from last time. Based on my point I chose to angle of attack verses dead reckoning. I plotted pace count from major intersection and trails and distance in for the first (6) and decided I would adjust fire on my last two based on METTC. I struck out at a fast range walk passing most of the LTs on the road. I could already see a number of them stopped on the road re-plotting –don’t do this! Take the extra time at the start point. I had some trouble finding my first one which is never a good sign but finally after double checking the map I went back on the trail to the main road and re paced counted and still… nothing! My frustration level was rising, I looked up and on a small hill there and it was! (these point are not reflective) Off to the next one, My pace count did not match the map or the trails, I rechecked everything, found what I thought was the trail and aging… nothing in the area! I looked to the right and 100m I could just make a point out. The course is not self correcting (no stamped grids) but others have “written” grids on them. The grid written on this one said it was about 200m South of the one I needed, so I headed off North, I then ran into a major terrain feature that did not match up but did tell me the point was the one I wanted regards less of what some one had written –Lessoned learned here and through out the course, trust your skills and equipment, not what people have written on the posts or you will fail.

I am now at the FOB and need to hit the rack for live fire ops tomorrow. I will fill in the rest and catch up on a couple of days later. Long story short I managed to get 8 of 8 points correct with 10 minutes to spare. We had about 8 fail from the PLT who will need to pass as it is a graduation requirement.

BOLCII Day 19 & 20: 24 Hr MOUT Ops

0530 PT: A little disorganization as the PT Leader showed up to one spot outside the wire and the PLT showed at a different location. Once we got going it was 2 min of lower ab work out with flutter kicks, partner assisted calf lifts, and partner assisted squats (partner in the same weight class sitting on your shoulders) mountain climbers, leg lifts, steam engine, donkey kicks, crunches, rocky crunches and a bunch more I can’t remember at the moment.

Off to showers and chow then on the bus with full battle rattle plus (2) MREs off to Mckenny MOUT site for more shooting house training. This one has the full town with houses, buildings, church, jail etc. SSG Vega and SSG Butler ran concurrent training in two different buildings with squad size with two fire teams and Opposing Force (OPFOR) so we could put into use what we had learned the previous day. Great training! But like many things at BOLCII you will get what you put into it. If you want to lay around and nap you can find a way. If you want to learn important stuff that could save your and your Soldiers lives you need to take initiative and make en effort to be in the middle of the action.

On a “can you believe this!?” note, LT “Ninja” (fake name to protect his identity) fired a blank off in-between training to “see if his M4 would fire –wrong answer! We jumped all over him for it.

MRE about 1200, more training then about 1700 we ran a quick PLT mission to assault the big blue building. I was on the squad providing security. The PL and PSG did not have much time to organize but it went off reasonable well.

1800-2000 Time for a tasty MRE and a few minute of rack time where ever you could find it. 2000 we formed up in the town square and CPT Mcginty told us we would be conducting Simunitions training by squad. The cadre issued us (12) simunition upper receivers/barrels and (2) mags each for us to swap out and put on our M4s.

NOTE: One note of concern is the cadre did not issue us the special Simunitions helmets. Whether they forgot or they were not available I do not know but the IOBC guys who had been running Simunitions missions in the same town all day looked at us like we were crazy! If you bring your make sure your bring your clear pro-glasses, gloves, if you bring your own IBA, bring your neck, and groin protection even if they don’t put it out. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIvfUoTUZGE and you will see how much these rounds can hurt if you get shot in the “wrong” place! I improvised some groin protection by using a carbineer on the front of my belt with a small pack and tied a doubled up ACU handkerchief around my face in case I took a face shot so it would not leave a bloody welt.

There was a massive cluster as a rain front rolled in while 1st SQD ran their mission. We had to secure everyone’s gear including their sensitive items, move them to one building them move them to another building, hours were lost as LTs tried to find their stuff. Lesson learned INSIST to the cadre NCOs to secure your gear inside a building.

LT “Ninja” struck again buy refusing to die while OPFOR and continuing to fire Simunitions point blank and trying to take head shots. One LT finally drop kicked him and that was the end of that.

It was 2330 by the time 4th squad got called up, LT Miles stayed our squad leader and was given 20 mins to plan with the squad. The OPFOR was also given 20 mins to plan. We talked and LT Wismann was chosen lead A tm and I was chosen for B tm. We agreed which team would lead and go left/right etc. We did not have our PVS-14 night vision so we agreed to enter each room using a brief burst of white light (I suggest buy/bring a high output LED converted AA maglite) to disorientate the OPFOR. We test fired our simunition M4 as their had been problems with them jamming up on the first round. We also conducted some brief rehearsals.

Time hack was called and we immediately went tactical and stacked up outside the building door, A tm went in first right and we went left clearing the first floor. A tm went up the stairs and saw an obstacle outside the 2nd floor door on the right, suspecting a trap LT Wismann wisely closed the door and we conferred a minute, he suggested A tm go thru the left door as we and breached and thru assaulted the right door. A tm immediately took fire and lost (3) of their (4) members, we blew thru the left door, I kicked the obstacle out of the way and we immediately went to work clearing the hallway and rooms, I called for a high/low on almost all the situations, it took more time but my team was the only team in the PLT to neutralize all OPFOR and bring all my team members out alive. There was a point of confusion when the SQD Ldr told me all OPFOR had been neutralized and we could stop clearing. We had one more room to go and I made a command call to clear it anyway which was a good thing as there was an unexpected EPW to deal with. We then had an After Action Review (ARR)


The PLT was formed up to coordinate the next mission. The PLT would move and setup a patrol base from 0100-0400 and setup off for the PLT night mission.

CPT Mcginty called for OPFOR volunteers and I was not going to miss this opportunity so I yanked LT James out of the squad and made a bee line for the rally point. There was (6) OPFOR and CPT Mcginty gave us some basic requirements and left the execution totally up to us. We went around and setup the building the way we wanted; including moved a refrigerator to block the main stair well and turning all lights out as teh PLT was to all have PVS-14s on. We setup our PVS-14s (except for mine which some loser LT had broken!) We then racked out for a few hours in the same room with all sorts of creepy-crawlers on the floor in our sweat drenched uniforms.

An hour or so into it I heard one of the metal pipes we had leaded against the doors as an early warning device crash and hit the floor. I open one eye and watched to see what would happen, I saw some of the IOBC guys dart thru the door and look at us with their PVS-14. Thankfully, they did not disturb us although I could hear them continue to run ops in the area. 0330 we were up, made final adjustments and found a hiding place.

I won’t bore you with all the details but I was on the 3rd floor and I could see the PLT move in front the wood line, all the cadre started throwing grenade simulators (blinding flash/earth shaking bang) to see how everyone would react. The PLT did a good job and hit the building from multiple sides. I waited patiently in my hiding spot as the squads made their way up to the 3rd floor and shot two of the assault team as they entered the room before the 3rd man got me. I got left on m

After a few minutes I got bored and decided to have some fun. I poked my head out one of the West windows and saw 2nd squad on the roof of the jail below me providing support by fire. I figured it wouldn’t be right for me to fire at them since I was “dead” but I decided a “ghost” could throw empty shell casings. I darted between the six windows, pitching casings on the guys below causing mass confusion as I made myself visible and darted away. 2nd squad was unable to confirm if the 3rd floor where I was had been cleared as 4th squad was now gone so they kept yelling the challenge word then firing off a few rounds. It was all I could do to keep from rolling on the floor laughing.

Lessons Learned: PCC/PCI on all PVS-14s during the day and have extra batteries. PLT needs to move tactically to assault. Do not let the grenade simulator derail the plan. Have PLT SGT setup a CCP right away.

Another squad finally came up to move me to the CCP where I was searched and waited for end-ex. CPT Mcginty lead the AAR then about 0630 we loaded buses for the FOB. I made a bee line for the showers and chow then packed all my gear and racked out with the rest of the PLT till 1100. We slept like the dead.

We had one LT showed the sign of heat stress by puking his guts out and shallow breathing/heat rate. On of the LTs kept an eye on him all night checking his vitals every hour and he eventually recovered without a trip to the hospital.

Those of us who had to complete SRM and those competing in MOUT loaded a bus, waited for an hour, loaded anther bus and finally moved out Booker range, We knocked out firing SRM and stood by to clean the range (3rd PLT cleans again!) we stood byand waited, cleaned the shooting house after the MOUT teams, attmpted to load a bus but were told 3rd was last in the order of march, ah well. We finally got back to the barracks (home sweet, home!) took our gear up to our rooms, cleaned weapons, had chow and waited to be released. The 1SG "actual" (real 1SG) decided to do a spot check on our weapons and happened to pick one that did not meet the standard (!) so I was appointed OIC to quickly mobilized a team to perform a level 1 re-clean. We knocked them out while the cadre breathed down our neck, as they needed to turn in a Co-wide weapons count.

Then we learned that one of the cadre had misplaced a gov-credit card so we waited while they looked and then decided to cancel it. Then we find out pieces part are missing from the PVS-14 turn in! Overall it was a very painful wait as we all wanted to go! Finally, after the awards were given for the week and safety brief was given we were released at about 2000. The word was C Co was released about 1500.