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.

BOLCII Day -2 Friday

Prelude: The purpose of this blog is to document my experience at Ft Benning BOLCII and Ft Gordon BOLCIII for my own personal history and for the use and edification of future LTs as there seems to be no complete picture I can find of the training experience. My goal is to update it every duty day I am not in the field and include interesting information and pictures.

Arrive about 10 pm at Columbus GA hotel. Long day driving. After almost became too friendly with a bridge and had to pull over and take a short combat nap. Oh yeah, don’t try and find a missing car adapter for a cell phone while driving in the dark next to a temporary concrete shoulder barrier, almost had a wipe out there too. But I found the car adapter and that of course is the important part!

I make some phone calls and watch a little bit of “300” and then crash for the night.

Side note: I bought a Garmin GPS nuvi 360 (it’s name is Angelina, a story for later) a few months back and it was a life saver on this trip, there are number of complex direction and road changes coming from up North and it would have been challenging for me to navigate it with paper maps in the dark

On the road