BOLCII Day 4: In process cont

PT got off to a rough start at Dough Boy Field by the LTs arriving late. The issue was that we have been POVing everywhere and the move out was kind of haphazard and the last LT did not know where to show up.

NOTE: If you are in class leadership, don’t be afraid to ask for a bus etc to move your PLT around.

Once we moved beyond that it was awesome PT! Including windshield wipers on the pull up bars, running up and down the stairs, buddy carry up the stairs of the stadium (each person about 12 times!) flutter kick s and something called the “scuba” that I was not very coordinated at and them back again to the pull up bars to start again.

Back at the Co area, it was cleaning and shower, chow time. After that was walking to the building for checking vision and dental and any CAC card type issues. And yes I was right, I need to have my dental file redone the second time this year! (can you tell by now that I am irritated about that!?) the dental imagining server crashed as I was waiting in line so it will be a return trip at some point.

NOTE: It is so hot down here I can’t imagine wearing glasses like I use to prior to LASIK. Contacts would probably work but I never wore them so I don’t know. Just do not be that one LT in the whole platoon to wear your contacts to the vision screening!

NOTE: I have LASIK and they are fine with LASIK/PRK operations. I learned that they hand PRK operations out like candy to West Pointers. They will check your eye for the how well the operation healed.

Back in the Co area it was time unload some of the heavy weapons into the basement arms room for future training. I have not shot a Mk-19 before so that should be fun!

After getting some chow it was time to move out to get my shots with Gedaliah, and LT Ming Lee. I only needed a Hep A. Thank goodness, my shots are indeed up to date in the Army computer system so I didn’t need 5 like some other LTs. Again, bring your yellow cards just in case.

BOLCII Day 3: CIF/In process cont

First PT on our own went pretty well. The cadre asked for volunteers to be the PLT PT leader and selected one LT who seems pretty high speed. The list is now posted for daily PT leaders who will coordinate thru the PLT PT leader.
We are doing PT with a PT plan but executed by the squads which is working out very well and is good moral team building It was circuit training in the field across the barracks with incline, decline and regular/wide/close hand pushups separated by sprints around the track.
One LT from D Co went down this morning about 0630 and had a temp of 107 when they took him away in the ambulance. Drink water, this heat is NO JOKE.

After showering, it was off to a National Guard / Reserve briefing with LT Nate Grap. No big surprises except that there only about 24 Guard/Reserve LTs here of the whole D Co. They are not able to help with my initial uniform allowance so back to my unit again (I understand that Ft Sill BOLCII takes care of processing your $400 for you)

NOTE: This seems simple but make sure the pages of your orders and amendments are stapled together so you do not look like a total moron. You will be handing copies out left and right.

NOTE: The NCO did say if you have enough time between BOLCII and BOLCIII they will help you get slots in Airborne, Air Assault, Pre-Ranger and Ranger if you unit can get order cut since there would be no travel expense.

NOTE: If you are NG/AR you are NOT eligible for the 600lbs DITY TDY move. ONLY active duty.

NOTE: #1 make sure you bring your POV!! #2 Make sure your orders have in and around mileage on them. I have 60 miles per week.

Later 4th squad as a group had our initial counseling with CPT Mcginty. Basically to sum it up he said “I will treat you professionally as my platoon leaders and I expect you to treat me professionally as your company commander, and we will have a great time training” I think this really set the tone for the rest of BOLCII for me. We signed out pre-filled statements and headed on our way.

CPT Mcginty also stated that we are officers and the weekends are ours to do with as we please (within the guidelines and any staff duty) and he would sign any reasonable pass request.

Back in the Co area we stood by for a little while then took a bus down to CIF to draw TA-50. They gave the option of any OCS who had brought their gear could stay back on other details. Even though I did bring my gear I elected to go just in case there was one piece of critical gear they gave out that I didn’t have. Contrary to CIF draw when I went to basic this one was very well organized and painless although they gave out a lot of cold weather gear and the infamous rubber over boots that no one ever wears. The hardest part was a “self administrated shake down” (Ha! Never in OCS!!) out in the CAT5 heat.

Back in the Co area we were instructed to go to our rooms for 30 minutes to cool down because of the work to heat ratio.

NOTE: They are still giving out ALICE gear for BOLCII so if your are lucky enough to have MOLLE gear like me definitely bring it!! (for that matter bring your own ALICE gear so it will already fit you and you won’t have to clean the CIF)

We were supposed to draw IBAs in the Co area but that never turn out so we were released. Nate, Gedaliah and I decided to was time to eat on the economy so we head out veterans drive to a little mom and pop dinner Nate had found called “Aunt Lyn’s dinner” for some good southern cooking. We then explored the historic downtown Columbus river front. Very beautiful architecture and looks like there are some very nice coffee houses. We may come back this weekend.

NOTE: Make sure if you go eat on the economy that you sign in at the chow hall so they can count the meals. The process as you enter the chow hall is you tell the lady “Regular Army, Army Reserve or National Guard” an the last 4 of your social. She will write that down and then you sign and be on your way. No chow songs, VIP guards or false motivation required! You are even allowed dessert and may look at the TV and talk with no one yelling at you to hurry up –Amazing!

BOLCII Day 2: First PT/In process cont

The 75th Rangers have our PT area for a few days so we formed up outside the barracks for accountability at 0530 and marched out to another PT field for a “PT Demo” by our cadre to set the standard for they expect and will evaluate from now on. Nothing special to report, everything I have done in OCS. And if anything less formal with out a black hat screaming at me. At least that experience has paid off!

We then go for a 1-1/2 slow run at 8-9min miles. We had one person fall out less then half way. Hopefully it is just getting use to the heat and they can train with us. (Tip: do NOT call cadence by the airborne area, just keep your PLT in step) By the time we back we are all drench in a couple gallons of sweat. I am glad I wore my camelback as not everyone did. We had a “man down drill” afterwards where the cadre had a “volunteer” simulate a heat causality. The victim got frozen ice sheets in both arm pits, the groin, around the neck and then rolled up like a burrito -Ha! Also of note, as per the PSG, if we go to chow after being released for the evening, there will be no wearing of sandals without socks and no showing of cleavage!

4th SQD has latrine cleaning this morning, nothing to hard for 9 guys to knock out and we hit the showers, eat chow and get a little down time before briefings by the Co Cmdr, JAG, Dental (why do I have this feeling I will be standing in line for a whole day for the second time in 6 months because my dental records got lost!?) and Information assurance and EO/Sexual harassment briefings.

Tip: Take advantage of any time you have between hard times. Gedaliah and I found a hair cut place on the 1st floor of the Infantry Center fro Excellence and paid $7.40 each for a decent cut. I feel a lot lighter now!

Tip: Of note to the BOLCII/III infantry guys, there has been a lot of talk about them not staying in the barracks and instead in on/off post housing because they receive BAH. The word on street was to wait for one these guys when you when to sign for your room because you would then have the room to yourself as they would stage from there. That changed as of today, the infantry guys are being required to move back. The Infantry who are married and have their wife here will be allowed to not stay in the barrack after next week but it looks like the rest if them will be moving back in. They are not to happy and understandably so but the flip side is they will be more involved in everything that goes on.

We were released relativity early for the day again and after dinner chow Gedaliah and I went and found the main PX picked up some air freshener for the room and waste basket. After that we drove off post to Home Depot as Gedaliah was looking for some hardware items to repair his suit case that the airline have been intent on destroying. Some 6” x ¼” vinyl trim, gorilla duct tape and a hacksaw should do the trick. I stayed up later then intended talking to friends and family and working potential pay issues so I didn’t get to bead till midnight. 0530 will come early!

BOLCII Day 1: Hurry up and wait!

Up at 0545, Out the door and Gedaliah I find 3rd PLT and fall into 4th SQD. The LT leadership is all West Pointers who have been on the ground for the past 10 days. Roll call and 3rd/4th SQDs are dismissed to chow and downtime (!) until 1000 for blood draw and a series of in-briefs after noon chow by the BN and BDE Cmdrs. Did I mention I hate needles!? Prior to the blood draw they ask for everyone’s medical records… See above post on that! Fortunately there must have been a mixed up because they gave them all back before it was evident mine is missing. My shot records must be up to date in the big magical Army computer because I only have one draw, some of the ROTC get up seven!

In-briefs were actually pretty good, motivation mixed with reality of why we are here as an junior officer corp, what to expect and have fun but not get in trouble types stuff. I did learn that there are only two branches in the Army…. Infantry and Infantry Support –Ha!

It was inspiring to see 480 LTs in one place and one time (both C and D Co’s starting up)

Back at the D Co area we had our informal in-brief with the cadre, they all seem very level headed and dedicated to teaching us things with out being unreasonably hard-core. We were releases about 1730 (!) and Gedaliah hit chow in civvies and head into town to Ranger Joes to have “2LT name” (Black thread on white) sown own our new reflective vests that we had the honor of buying earlier in the morning (orange mesh with HORIZONTAL yellow strips and two white Velcro tabs. Tip: See my post about buying from Clothing Exchange first, they charged us $7.50 and Range Joe’s wanted $14.50 for the same thing.

That’s it for now. Got to make some phone calls and hit the bed early for 0520 formation.

BOLCII Day 0: my room

I pull into 2749 right on time at 1855. Up the stairs and to the left is the BOLCII CQ. It was manned by two LT’s who tell me I will be assigned to D Co and give me a map of the BOLCII company area and that I need to change into ACUs prior to reporting to the D Co CQ (I wouldn’t worry about changing prior to bld 2749 this as they expect you to be observing force protection measures while on civilian travel)

I get back and the car and head down Sightseeing drive to the company area. They were not kidding about parking being an issue! There are LT’s everywhere unloading cars. After driving around and around I finally make a “spot” at the very furthest edge of the parking lot from D Co.

I report into to several more LTs and sign my name on about six different pieces of paper and receive my room assignment of 340B.
I asked for the low down and they are all West Pointer’s who graduated this year and took 60 days leave which expired on 25JUL and they have been here since then. –No fun for them!! They seem pretty optimistic and report that the cadre seem pretty cool.

I head back out to the hallway and another LT graciously leads me through the winding corridors up to the 3rd floor. I head down the hall for my meeting with destiny and find a “2LT Gedaliah Scharold” He decently agrees to lend a hand hailing my stuff up so we head back down. Its time to start thinking like an officer so I am NOT moving my 500lbs of stuff ¼ mile away and up three flights of stairs so we move the car temporary by a side door and begin the unloaded process. Boy do I have ALLOT of stuff! By the time we are done we are both sweating like crazy in the 80 humid temp.

Gedaliah says flew in from WA state and has not eaten so I change back into my civvies (boy do I feel a lot better at this point then during OCS!) and we head in Ft Benning and slip inside a Buger King 10 minutes before closing (Although I have never had a .99 Jr Wopper take 15 minutes to make, they must have had to kill the cow!) Anyway another BOLCII LT comes in and we sit down to share what limited intel we have. It seems the word is “chill.”

We head back, I make my bed and put some stuff away, so least I can find it in the morning. The word is no inspections, boy is that a relief! I don’t have to spend hours rolling my under wear and socks and making everything just so.

The room is decent with two full size beds, two good size metal wall lockers and two desks with reading lamps! The room also has A/C!

I call some friends and family and hit the bed about 0030 in the morning. First formation is at 0615 for accountability. Over all I have a much better mood about how the 7 weeks will go.

BLOCII Day 0: Report day

Up about 0830. My plan is to report about 2100 so the first weeks leadership will have hopefully already been selected. I would prefer to have a few days on the ground before an assignment but I’ll roll with what ever happens.

I spent the morning rearranging some stuff in my car and making some march/run cadence index cards and making sure my orders, personal records are in order. Oh yeah, by the way even though it not listed on the “BOLCII to bring list” bring your Medical and Personal records (thanks to LT Marshall) especially your yellow immunization card unless your enjoy getting three shots in each arm and doing a road march the next day.

In my case, I called my unit last week to pick up my records and low and behold neither my personal or medical records could be found anywhere! Its like they disappeared into thin air! I still don’t have an answer but most of my important records should be on the print outs they gave me. It goes to show NEVER assume anything in the Army. Tip: After your commissioning is complete, ask to see your files and put your hands on them and copy everything and make copies after EVERY update. Thank goodness I have my DD214 and yellow card!

The hotel was gracious enough to allow me a late check out at 2pm. I looked on the internet trying to find a coffee/internet café so I can keep busy till 2100 but with no luck, I asked at the front desk and the said told me about a new Starbucks just down the road. –Perfect!! (ok, so maybe ¾ mile past where they told me) but anyway, I arrive and buy my “lunch” of water, fruit and slice of chocolate chip banana bread and THEN I find out because it is brand new they don’t have internet yet!!!! Ah, I just can’t win!! I’ll just type this up in word and copy and paste as soon as I get a chance.

While typing this, I sat in Starbuck’s outside porch and experienced my first GA thunder boomer. It is a LOT cooler now, but still very cloudy. I am sure the heat will be back.

Thank is all I have for the moment. I have 4 more hours till report in to keep busy. Hopefully I can post tonight, I’ll see what the internet situation is.

I left Startbuck and thanks to "free wifi location" tool I looked up on the web prior to leaving the hotel I am now "borrowing" wifi at a Sheriton hotel.

BOLCII Day -1 Saturday

Up about 0830, Recon trip day to Ft Benning. Take I-85 South, the end of 85 is literally the front gate of Ft Benning. Stay in the left lane (visitor) and pull into the visitors building parking area just before the main gate. You will near your ID, drivers license, registration and proof of insurance and reason for visit (tell them assignment) They gave me a 30 day temp paper pass. Ask for a map of where to register your car and where the “welcome center/Soldier plaza” is. They don’t have any BOLCII info at the visitor building so print out the maps/driving instructions before hand from the Ft Benning web site unless you want to become lost. (see why below)

Here was the frustrating part… I drive to the vehicle registration building and the sign says Mon-Fri 0730-1730! Ok so I drive on to find this “welcome center” with lots of maps just waiting for me …I spent almost an 1 hour looking for it. I found the “Soldier Plaza” no problem (it is a collection of 20-30 old barracks style buildings for different administrative purposes, Medical records, school, family etc) but no welcome center. So print your maps like I did before hand. I found the report building 2749 and marked it on my GPS so I will be good to go tomorrow.

After having spent the afternoon driving the base finding important things like the clothing exchange, PXs, ATMs and on base food. The clothing exchange is pretty well stocked so if you need something (no major CIF type items though) they should have it. I did pick up a LED light system for my ACH for night land nav (Thanks to LT Marshall for this one) it was pricy at $40 but it will be worth it to keep both hands free.)

I next went to Ranger Joe’s storefront to get my rank sown on my 2 patrol caps, boonie hat, ACH cover (thanks to LT Miller) as my understanding is that sew-on rank is painfully mandatory. It only took about 15 minutes, they have great service. I also brought one set of woodland BDUs with me from OCS (for combative week, apparently the ACUs get torn up big time, and I don’t want to pay for another set!) they still had BDU caps in stock so I had them sew everything back on as in Michigan OCS we had to strip our uniforms during for an extra measure of humility. I picked up a few other items including a 1-3 point harness for the M4 we will be issued as I understand from other LT’s that the low ready will be the carry and factory slings don’t work for that unless you want to hang on to it all the time. I hope they are right at $54! Also picked up a small Otter box (thanks also to LT Miller) for protecting my phone and camera in the field.

Extra tip, pick up as much as you can from the Clothing Exchange etc because Ranger Joe’s and other stores like them are going to stick it you at least 30% more for the same item.

Came back to the hotel and took a short nap. I am realizing that coming down a day early to recon was good but at the same time I am starting to go crazy with the “unknown, but know something stressful is coming factor.”

I realize I need to do something physical to relive the stress or I’m going to go nuts so about 2000 I put on my PT’s and head back to Ft Benning to run the Airborne track I had recon’d earlier in the day (I understand this is where BOLCII APFT will be held) to compare my last 2 mile time. After I got 3/4s away around the 1 mile track I realize there are two different ways to run it, I decide to run one long and one short (relatively speaking of course!) Afterwards I believe it should only have been both times around the shorter track. Time will tell but I will be fine ether way. After I get back to my car I start to feel the effects of heat stress and so I check my cars temp and it reads 101! No wonder, this climate will take some getting use to! With the A/C full blast I down a Gatorade and feel safe enough to drive back. The point is, maybe you should not attempt a 2mi timed run if you are from a northern state and it is your first day in GA in the hottest month in the year – something about acclimation!

Back at the hotel I jump in the shower and head to Applebee’s for some food, I had a small breakfast this morning and that was it so I need to eat even though I don’t feel like it. I felt like a total loser going solo and having a conversation with myself (no, not quite that bad but almost!) Tip, put some serious effort into trying to coordinate ahead of time to link up with another LT going to BOLCII (National Guard contacts, ArmyOCS.com message boards etc).

Back at the hotel courtyard, I try and find a quite corner to relax outside but it is very obvious that the half the enlisted population at Ft Benning has decided to book rooms here with their buddies and are consuming copious amounts of $4.25 hotel beers. I decide I better go back inside before I see something that I would be compelled to do something about as a officer. Back in the room I spend time calling home and friends and them watch the rest of “300”. It is about 12:48 before I finally kill the lights.

Packing for BOLC II

This is a test sending a blog and picture from my phone. Up till 1am packing, I want to have the packing done and over with!