Range Time!

This week entailed my favorite Soldier skill:  Marksmenship!

We started my grouping, which is where you practice your breath control and trigger squeeze to "group" three shots within three centimeters.

Then we moved onto zeroing, which is where you shoot at a target to see where your groups fall.  For instance, if your groups are in the upper left, you adjust your sights down and right so your weapon "zeros" in on the target when you look through the sights.

Finally, we qualified!  For Basic Rifle Marksmenship, 40 pop up targets that you rotate through prone supported (place your weapon on a sandbag), prone unsupported (prop your M4 by your elbows), and kneeling (on your knees): 

Then, we did Advanced Rifle Marksmenship.  This was different because you shot multiple different shots and stationary targets while moving.  Very cool, and I kicked some of the boys butts!

Info Briefs

Most Adjutant General Officers serve as S-1 section leaders, who provide human resources support for a battalion (400ish soldiers).  Because of their staff position, AG officers must be exemplary speakers.  To test this skill, BOLC requires each person to deliever an Informational Brief about an assigned topic relating to the things that a S-1 should know.

I was assigned "Retirement Eligability and Processing Unit Requirements" so I visited the Retirement Office on post and made some new friends and gathered great information.

I delivered my brief and got some great responses from my class.  The number one thing that I need to work on is my military bearing.  I tend to teach like a teacher, not a soldier.

The Nitty Gritty Officer Rub

After two grueling days of Land Nav, we headed inside for Property Accountability lessons. 

Basically, the take away is:  YOU ARE THE OFFICER.  YOU SIGN FOR EVERYTHING IN YOUR PLATOON.  YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING IN YOUR PLATOON.

So, it is important to create hand reciepts.  A hand reciept is something that you have your subordinates sign when you designate a piece of equiptment into their control.  For instance, when I am a platoon leader, I will sign for all 3 computers and a whole lot of mail supplies.  As the OIC (Officer in Charge) I will rarely touch most of it, so I hand reciept it down to the enlisted soldiers who use it everyday.  Thus, if something goes missing or breaks, I know almost definitively who did it.

Land Nav

During the beginning of week three, we headed out to the field with the CAD (Combined Arms Department) to do some map reading and Land Navigation.  The course was set up like a grid, with a major North/South road, and East/West fire breaks (sandy paths between trees to stop wildfires).

This is one of the more major roads that I found my points on!

Operation Crimson Tide

Captain Noyes taught our Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) and made it fun!  She created a scenario where we were the USC Gamecock's football team and we were getting ready to tackle Alabama's Crimson Tide. 

We used the MDMP process and divided up into different sections (I was in charge of PAO), and created a commanders brief that we turned back around to CPT Noyes:

Convoy Ops

Talk about a full day!  We headed out to the Soldier Support Institute's Warrior Training Area where we briefed convoy operations from a sand table:

Then did a walk through:

And finally, we hopped on the computers and went through the mission:

Wanna Wrestle?

Wednesday started with some high speed PT:

Then I showered and headed to the padded Combatives Room.  We started with different drills where you had to "spiderman" across the floor, or "batman" across the floor.  The worst one was the EO (I dont remember what this was) but it is ridiculously hard and looks just as ridiculous:

But I did learn quite a bit about self defense and what to do when I hit the floor:

Don't Get Mad, Get CAD!

CAD = Combined Arms Department, who's motto is literally "Don't get mad, get CAD!"  Seriously folks, I cant make this up.

Anyway, the CAD teaches us all of our "Soldier" skills, like convoy operations, weapons, land navigation, etc.  And on Monday and Tuesday we began learning counter IED (improvised explosive device) and FCBC2 (basically a crazy GPS).

It was familiarization training, so we basically got to play with computer games all day and try not to get blown up:

The End of Week One

One of the continuing missions of week one was online training.  This included everything from safe driving to Casualty Assistance Officer training back to Anti-Terrorism. 

We also had many "mini-briefs" such as ASAP (the Army Substance Abuse Program, aka the ppl who do the pee tests), a Chaplain (not Chaplin, as in Charlie) Brief, a weekend safety brief, an A CO welcome brief, and more:

I Got a Coin!

Every girl loves her accessories, especially if they come in Army green:

Today we headed to CIF to sign out all the gear that we will need for the field, like sleeping bags and IFACs (Body Armour):

And what would BOLC be without a little classroom time?  We recieved our first block of actual "AG" instruction:  Effective communication. 

When it comes to Army Communication, it is all about being ACTIVE.  This means removing "to be" verbs, and crafting your speech to be direct and succinct.  Because of my Public Affairs background, this was second nature for me.  At the completion of the instruction, the briefer asked if anyone could summarize what we learned, so I volunteered.  He had me come to the front and talk everyone through the experience.  I did, in my bright and bubbly PAO attitude, and he LOVED it.  He gave me a coin to teach yet another lesson:  the thank you.  He says to accept any award through the T-COT formula:  Thank the agency for the award, credit the ppl who helped you, observe the award (tell everyone how pretty it is), and thank the agency again.  I was (and still am!) really excited:

Over the Wednesday Hump

This morning started a little earlier than we originally thought.  Thanks God for random urinalysis, right?  They are to deter the troops from drug use by randomly sampling random soldiers.  Today, we were all randomly sampled... woo.

Then we were briefed on "Reserve Component Duty" as well as AGR (Active Guard Reserve, basically reserve soldiers who work full time for the Army) by LTC Sula Irish:

Then discussed some ethical situations that we face as officers.

We also got our first taste of the Army's "Hearing Conservation Program."  Because the nature of our work is sometimes loud, many Veterans have dramatic hearing loss, so the Army is trying to help reverse the problem through education.

 Then we were fitted for our very own earplugs:

We ended our day of training by discussing CRM, better known as "Risk Management."  Thats right, Cadets, it never goes away.

FRAGO is My New Best Friend

This morning was the set date for the APFT, but unfortunately (or fortunately?) the test was rained out.  And not rained out... POURED OUT! 

After drying off from the APFT, we headed to the SRP (Soldier Readiness Program) where we had our medical readiness evaluated.  Basically, we had an initial health screening, a blood screening, lots of vaccines, an eye check, and a hearing check.  As you can see, I didn't have very much luck at the blood screening station:

Then we went for dental x-rays:

Holy Inprocessing, Batman!

I woke up to a steamy rainy morning, and all I could think about was the PT test.  I tumbled into my car and made it to the SSI (Soldier Support Institute) building #10,000 ten minutes early.  I was relieved after I met CPT Comiskey, our class advisor, who seems to be the perfect balence of coach/mom/drill sergeant. 

We started with an introduction to the course, basically a syllabus of a college course.  Within the course, we will have two sides of grading:  percentage events (PT test, formal and informal memo, reading review, information paper, a brief, a leadership grade, a supply test, and smaller technical tests) and go/no go events (Casualty training, culteral awareness writing, land navigation, M4 qualification, manage training, HR planning).  I must recieve a score of "70%" or better on each of the percentage events, and must recieve a "go" on all the go/nogo events.  Oh, my!

The nitty gritty started immediately: we signed for our computers, then we inprocessed with finance (basically filled out SGLI and DD Form 93), and inprocessed with personnel (make sure personal information is on file).  I got my new CAC (Common Access Card, basically and ID card with a chip in it to electronically verify).  It looks like this in my computer:

Finally, we were briefed on the course as well as special positions that people can hold, such as Class Leader (basically the PL), Squad Leader, S1 (in charge of personell issues and attendence), S3 (in charge of training, as well as collecting training documents, certificates, etc.), S4 (Supply), S6 (Computer stuff), PAO, Academic Officer, and PT Leader.  Fun Fact:  Did you know that S1 (with no "-" in the middle) is referring to the actual person, whereas S-1 refers to the section.

I was voluntold to be the PAO (big surprise, seeing as it is my college major *sarcasm*).  Check out my work at facebook.com/agbolc.

I ended my day with my initial counseling with CPT Comiskey to go over expectations for the course and expectations for my position as the combat camera man (PAO).

Get the Ball Rolling

When I arrived at Fort Jackson, I checked in at the Fort Jackson Inn (which, by the way, there are MANY different Army lodging locations so it took a while to find the correct one) but I was turned away because there was no room, so they sent me to a hotel off post for the next few months.  They stamped my orders with a control number, and I headed back out the gate toward my next adventure.  I started having flashbacks of Lorton from last summer (crampt, dirty hotel room with no amenities).   However, I was pleasantly surprised. 

I have a cute little kitchenette:

And a desk to do all my Army work and my MBA work:

A bed to sleep in:

And finally, a bathroom to primp in:

Driving Down

Because BOLC is three months long, they recommend driving so you have a car (transportation) so you don't have to rely on other people.

I packed up four tupperware tubs of "Army" stuff, plus two boxes of kitchen, two boxes of bathroom, and my sister-in-law Natalie's suitcase full of "civvies."  And I insisted on bringing my bicycle, so Christopher had to help me take the wheels and the handlebars off so it could fit in my tiny Cavalier.

Too bad I couldn't bring my puppy... he ran circles around Chris and I while we packed the car.

I had a hard time leaving Chris, but he promises to visit.

The drive down was pretty uneventful, but I did learn one thing about my car choices:  My next car WILL have cruise control!