FTX
For some reason I always dread heading out to the field for ROTC, but after I get out there and everything gets started, my thought process completely changes, and I end up having a good time. By no means was our FTX easy, but I did end up learning a great deal and enjoying myself for the majority of it. I just kick into serious military mode when I'm out there and make it my perogative to focus completely on my training. It seems to do great things for me, because I didn't have difficulty with anything.
We arrived at Fort Drum around 5PM on Thursday night, and the evening was spent in several formations, breaking down into company, platoon, and squad elements, and dealing with the usual garrison busy work. I was assigned as a squad leader from that night until the end of Friday, and I was really hoping that I would end up in a higher leadership position during the rest of the weekend, but that never happened. I was kinda pissed about that, I really wanted to do more than that, but oh well. As squad leader I did well, making sure that everyone had all of their equipment prior to moving out for traning on Friday, and kept my eye on their canteens and how they were doing. It was relatively easy, but nice to meet some other cadets from different schools. This FTX was a joint one with cadets from our branch schools attached to SBU: Houghton Colllege, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, SUNY Alfred and Fredonia; as well as cadets from other schools nearby: Penn State, Edinburo, and Gannon Universities.
Friday started for me at 0500 with the last fire guard shift, and then after first formation and breakfast we went on a ruck march with full rucksack and other equipment. We marched four miles to the hand grenade assault course and went through that and marched another two miles to a museum where we spent an hour. I got to hold an RPG launcher and an AK-47, which was pretty sweet. After that we marched another mile or so back to our barraks, ate lunch and headed on over to the land navigation course. Day land nav lasted for 5 hours, and I only found 3 out of 7 points with Kubs. I should have checked over her plotting and stuff a bit more, but I wanted her to get the practice. Oh well, we still did good, and she learned from it so I didn't mind. After coming back and eating for an hour I went back out for the night land nav course with Kausner and we found 3 of 5 (we only found 3 because that's how many we needed and we were both tired) and we relaxed for the last hour or so that was left in the time limit (3 hours). After finally getting back from being way out across the other side of the course we got back on the bus and headed back to garrison for the night. I was exhausted and passed out within 5 minutes.
Saturday I woke up at 0530 and got ready for the next day of training. After formations and breakfast we headed over to the obstacle course and worked with that for a few hours. After eating a quick MRE lunch, we went to clothing and sales and I picked up some new equipment that I will use for next year. After clothing and sales we visited an infantry unit at Fort Drum and talked with the lieutenants and checked out the barracks and stuff. It was pretty cool. When we got back to garrison we talked with some MS IV's and some cadre about LDAC and summer training schools. We cleaned the barraks like woah and got them to look great by around 10PM. Some douche bag tried to get us to clean the MS III's weapons after they came back from OPFOR and we just laughed at them while Major Erickson bitched them out and basically told them to fuck off and leave us alone. It was not our job to clean those weapons. We headed to bed shortly afterwards and I fell asleep again with no problem.
This morning I woke up at 0430 to do the last fire guard with Dave and we just chatted about some stuff. After a really quick breakfast, we all finished packing up our equipment and started the last round of cleaning the barracks. This went far better than last year's ever did, and we were the first unit to complete our cleaning and pass building inspection the first time around. After that we loaded our equipment on the bus and had a short awards ceremony followed by comments from LTC Trietley and MSG Zackery. Around 1030 we were headed back to SBU on our bus. I fell asleep for a bit, and was basically ready to get back to school and take a damn shower. Since getting back and unloading equipment around 1620, I took a really long shower and smoked my first cigarette in 4 days. That was a shock to my system. I ate dinner with the majority of the gang, and we filled each other in on our respective weekend escapades. After dinner Amili and I headed to the res so I could buy some smokes and now I'm just doing laundry and relaxing. I'm mad tired and I'm going to sleep like a rock tonight.
After seeing how the cadets from other schools work under pressure, I'm proud to say that I'm a cadet in one of the best ROTC programs around. It was evident in how our cadets carried themselves, how well they managed the training, and how we were treated by other MS IV's and cadre. It was a long but good weekend of excellent training, and I can say that I'm confident that the other members of my class and I will do well next year as MS III's. It's going to be tough, but we'll get through it and succeed. ROTC's almost done for the year, but I've got Airborne school in a month from tomorrow. I'm getting pumped.
Alright, enough. I'm going to put in a movie and finish up my Jameson with some tonic water and just enjoy this evening before I start the hellish final weeks that are left in this semester...it's going to get real busy and stressful.
We arrived at Fort Drum around 5PM on Thursday night, and the evening was spent in several formations, breaking down into company, platoon, and squad elements, and dealing with the usual garrison busy work. I was assigned as a squad leader from that night until the end of Friday, and I was really hoping that I would end up in a higher leadership position during the rest of the weekend, but that never happened. I was kinda pissed about that, I really wanted to do more than that, but oh well. As squad leader I did well, making sure that everyone had all of their equipment prior to moving out for traning on Friday, and kept my eye on their canteens and how they were doing. It was relatively easy, but nice to meet some other cadets from different schools. This FTX was a joint one with cadets from our branch schools attached to SBU: Houghton Colllege, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, SUNY Alfred and Fredonia; as well as cadets from other schools nearby: Penn State, Edinburo, and Gannon Universities.
Friday started for me at 0500 with the last fire guard shift, and then after first formation and breakfast we went on a ruck march with full rucksack and other equipment. We marched four miles to the hand grenade assault course and went through that and marched another two miles to a museum where we spent an hour. I got to hold an RPG launcher and an AK-47, which was pretty sweet. After that we marched another mile or so back to our barraks, ate lunch and headed on over to the land navigation course. Day land nav lasted for 5 hours, and I only found 3 out of 7 points with Kubs. I should have checked over her plotting and stuff a bit more, but I wanted her to get the practice. Oh well, we still did good, and she learned from it so I didn't mind. After coming back and eating for an hour I went back out for the night land nav course with Kausner and we found 3 of 5 (we only found 3 because that's how many we needed and we were both tired) and we relaxed for the last hour or so that was left in the time limit (3 hours). After finally getting back from being way out across the other side of the course we got back on the bus and headed back to garrison for the night. I was exhausted and passed out within 5 minutes.
Saturday I woke up at 0530 and got ready for the next day of training. After formations and breakfast we headed over to the obstacle course and worked with that for a few hours. After eating a quick MRE lunch, we went to clothing and sales and I picked up some new equipment that I will use for next year. After clothing and sales we visited an infantry unit at Fort Drum and talked with the lieutenants and checked out the barracks and stuff. It was pretty cool. When we got back to garrison we talked with some MS IV's and some cadre about LDAC and summer training schools. We cleaned the barraks like woah and got them to look great by around 10PM. Some douche bag tried to get us to clean the MS III's weapons after they came back from OPFOR and we just laughed at them while Major Erickson bitched them out and basically told them to fuck off and leave us alone. It was not our job to clean those weapons. We headed to bed shortly afterwards and I fell asleep again with no problem.
This morning I woke up at 0430 to do the last fire guard with Dave and we just chatted about some stuff. After a really quick breakfast, we all finished packing up our equipment and started the last round of cleaning the barracks. This went far better than last year's ever did, and we were the first unit to complete our cleaning and pass building inspection the first time around. After that we loaded our equipment on the bus and had a short awards ceremony followed by comments from LTC Trietley and MSG Zackery. Around 1030 we were headed back to SBU on our bus. I fell asleep for a bit, and was basically ready to get back to school and take a damn shower. Since getting back and unloading equipment around 1620, I took a really long shower and smoked my first cigarette in 4 days. That was a shock to my system. I ate dinner with the majority of the gang, and we filled each other in on our respective weekend escapades. After dinner Amili and I headed to the res so I could buy some smokes and now I'm just doing laundry and relaxing. I'm mad tired and I'm going to sleep like a rock tonight.
After seeing how the cadets from other schools work under pressure, I'm proud to say that I'm a cadet in one of the best ROTC programs around. It was evident in how our cadets carried themselves, how well they managed the training, and how we were treated by other MS IV's and cadre. It was a long but good weekend of excellent training, and I can say that I'm confident that the other members of my class and I will do well next year as MS III's. It's going to be tough, but we'll get through it and succeed. ROTC's almost done for the year, but I've got Airborne school in a month from tomorrow. I'm getting pumped.
Alright, enough. I'm going to put in a movie and finish up my Jameson with some tonic water and just enjoy this evening before I start the hellish final weeks that are left in this semester...it's going to get real busy and stressful.