Battalion Commander

It's official. I am my school's battalion commander as of last Thursday. I suppose this means I'm at the pinnacle of my cadet career?


It's all just a downward slope toward that commission, now.

To The Glory and Honor of the Infantry!

The title of this post says it all. I found out my branch today and I got what I worked so hard for: Infantry.

(It has recently been brought to my attention that here are other branches other than the Infantry. I had no idea. However, some civilians don't know what Infantry means. Well, hopefully this page will help you: http://www.us-army-info.com/pages/branches.html)

I have stories from LDAC that I will be posting shortly. I really haven't had time because trying to fit a social life around being Battalion S3 has really eaten up all free time I have. Oh, and I suppose I do have to do that whole college thing while I'm at it, too.

Now, this isn't just a post of me bragging, I did plenty of that in celebration last night. A lot of civilians don't understand how cadets get their branch (and even some cadets) and I've had this conversation at least 50 billion times with people asking me how we get what. So I'm going to attempt to write it down in a clear and concise manner.

There are many, many factors that go into Accessions (which is what Cadet Command calls the process in which it selects which cadets go where) but it's broken down into two big groups:

1. Academic Program
2. Leader Program

The academic program is easy to understand. It's 40% of your overall "grade" and you get 40 points by having a 4.0 GPA in college. So, if you have a 3.8, you have 38%. Having a high GPA is HUGE when it comes to Accessions. Lord knows it helped me out a lot.

The Leader Program is further subdivided into two groups:
1. Military
2. Physical

The physical (fitness) aspect is based on your fall and spring semester APFT scores, your LDAC APFT score and your campus and LDAC CWST (Combat Water Suvival Training) tests. The total of all those subcategories adds up to 15%. So if you have 100% in every APFT event (push ups, sit ups, 2 mile run) in both junior year semesters, plus LDAC and you've passed all your CWSTs on a first time go basis, you just got yourself 15 points. Add that in to your 4.0 GPA, and you've got 55% already, stud.

(As you may or may not be able to tell, this is pretty hard to attain already).

Your military grade is 45% of what you get and that consists of many things.
1. 15% is your overall LDAC (Warrior Forge) performance. Did you get an E (Excellent), S (Satisfactory), or N (Needs Improvement)? You get this score based on your leadership positions and your leadership attributes in all your evaluations at LDAC (which include at least 2 garrison evaluations - one squad level and then one platoon level and above, your Field Leader's Reaction Course -FLRC evaluation, your STX evaluations - one non-variable lane, one variable lane, and your patrolling evaluation.

SIDEBAR:

FLRC - You're a cadet given a physical puzzle to figure out. For example, you're given two planks of wood of varrying lengths and an ammo can. Then you're given a sand pit that has stumps sticking out of the ground at varrying intervals and distances away from each other. Then you're told your mission is to move your entire squad across that pit, you can't touch the sand, and you have to bring the wood and ammo can with you when you cross. Oh, by the way, you can't throw the ammo can either. It's all stuff like that. It's difficult.

STX lanes are when a cadet leads other cadets in a simulated mission at the squad level. So that cadet is a squad leader of anywhere from 9-12 other cadets (in Cadet Land). The cadet is evaluated on how well he briefs the Operations Order (OPORD), his rehearsal of the plan, how he executes his plan and how he keeps his command and control of the situation during the simulated battle. A non-variable lane is when you're given the OPORD and the lane is carried out just as that order was given. If you're given an ambush, you set up and execute an ambush. A variable lane is when you begin your lane thinking you're doing one thing, then at some point throughout the lane, "higher" will call you and give you a change of mission. You have minutes to react, plan and brief your squad on the situation and the new course of action.

Patrolling is just a bigger, longer STX lane with more people. Instead of 2 hours per lane, it's 6, and instead of one squad, it's 2. Couldbe variable, could not.

END SIDEBAR

If you get 3 overall Es on your evaluations, you're considered an E at camp. Now, the Army also breaks it's evaluations into 16 leadership dimensions. You're graded E, S, or N in each category, every mission. So let's say at LDAC, I never get an overall on any evaluation, but I've consistently been an E in 7 of my leadership dimensions (the same 7, all the time). Then my overall grade at LDAC will be an E again.

That's how you earn that 15%

2. You're next 25% comes from your Platoon Officer at LDAC. The major or captain (usually) who was in charge of your platoon from the start of LDAC to the finish. Your teacher and mentor while you're there. He gives you a Cadet Evaluation Report (CER) and takes your evaluations into account. He's evaluating your potential and writes official comments on your record. What he says is important. He can praise you, say you're on par with your peers, or say you're not on par with your peers. For example, one of the categories for potential is O - Outstanding, ready to commission now. That's a big one to get. So based on his evaluation you get some or all of that 25%.

3. 15% comes from your Professor of Military Science (your ROTC Battalion Commander, the actual BC not the cadet BC). He also gives you a CER based on your performance as an MS III. It's the same process as the CER above.

4. 10% comes from where your Professor of Military Science places you against the peers in your class.

5. 10% comes from your Professor of Military Science's comments on your place on your class list. He comments on your potential, which might have improved since your MSIII CER.

6. You get an extra 15% for your extra curricular activities, working a job, being Airborne/Air Assault/Any specialty school qualified, and all that jazz. You also get credit for being on Color Guard and Ranger Challenge. This is an easy 15% to get. Just don't be lazy and DO SOMETHING.

7. Finally, 10% is your Land Navigation score at LDAC.

You get certain bonusses on your overall ranking if you're the Top 5 in your platoon at LDAC and if you're RECONDO at LDAC (basically, you have above 90 points in every PT event and you do all the training. It's not that special).

After all that, individually, you're ranked against every other MS III who has gone through LDAC that summer. This year that number is around 4100 I believe. Based on all those factors above, you're put into the National Order of Merit List (OML). The top 10% cadets on the national OML are known as Distinguished Military Graduates, or DMGs. DMGs are pretty much guaranteed their choice of branch and duty station, but it's not 100% guaranteed.

The Army does something called Force Distribution which means that some of the best cadets are put into the less popular branches and some of the worst cadets are put in the more popular branches that other people have earned, so that way, each branch has potentially good and bad officers. For example, the most popular branches are (usually): Infantry, Aviation, Armor, and Military Intelligence. So you have to be very high on the OML to get into any of these branches, usually. However, if you're in the bottom 10%, there's a chance you'll be forced into one of these branches and some DMG will be put into a less popular branch like Chemical and Quartermaster. This way, the less popular branches don't get stuck with all the shitbags and the high-speed branches don't seriously get hurt by having a bad officer, because odds are if you have a shitty officer in the Infantry, you'll have a strong Platoon Sergeant and Squad Leaders to keep everyone alive. At least, that's the idea at any rate.

Now, the final option you have if you're somewhere in the middle of the OML is to do something called ADSO, Additional Service Obligation. The basic active duty contract is 4 years active duty, 4 years reserve duty. Now, you can tell the Army "Hey, I really want Infantry, but I'm in the middle of the OML, I'll give you 3 more years of active duty service if you give me Infantry." You can also ADSO for duty station and grad school. You can ADSO for branch and duty station, but you can't do both branch and grad school (at least to my knowledge you can't).

Now, the ADSO list is a separate list. It's not a guarantee, but it does shoot you up above other people.

Each branch has a certain amount of Lieutenants it can take every year; a quota, if you will. For example, let's say the Infantry can only take 100 LTs this year. So if you're 101 on the National OML and cadets 1-100 want Infantry, you're shit out of luck. Not even an ADSO will save you (if the Army doesn't use your ADSO, they tear it up, so you don't get stuck 7 years in a branch you hate).

Getting duty station is done pretty much the same way.

So that's pretty much it, that's the entire process, now I'm not going to gloat but I am going to put how I did and where I ranked to get where I am today, as a guideline for any cadets going through this process.

My most shameful event: my APFT. I scored around a 250 on all my campus tests and (there's reason for this that I'm not going into, nor am I making excuses for) a 224 at LDAC. That's pretty bad. So I had an uphill battle from there.

At LDAC I got an E on everything, except for one evaluation and I had 7 or 8 overall Es in my leadership dimensions.

My CER at LDAC was awesome, my Platoon TAC said I had outstanding potential and I was ready to commission now. My Professor of Military Science said the same. They both recommended me for Infantry. I was number 2 in my platoon at LDAC (platoon sergeant for the last week....yay!).

I have a 3.87 GPA. When I say study and hit the books to any cadet out there reading this, I mean it. Don't slack off in college. Your GPA can make or break you.

Plus I'm AIR ASSAULT!!!! So that gave me an edge. I was also on the executive board at a club at my college, I volunteer at my elementary school and I work 20 hours a week on top of that. Plus I did Ranger Challenge and Color Guard.

All that crap got me a DMG (I was 219 out of 4000+ on the Active Duty National OML). Now, I wasn't satisfied, I wanted Infantry more than anything. So I signed an ADSO just to insure that I wouldn't be force distributed to something other than Infantry. I took no chances. Today, I was informed that I got Infantry and that I didn't have to use my ADSO, so the Army tore that up.

INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!

Most people can't do what we do

This is one of those random philosophical musings that happens at 2 oclock in the morning when you should be sleeping but are too stupid to know any better. However, it was the fact that I thought over this fact and then discussed it with my room mate (who is also a cadet) that I came up with the basis for this post.

It's 2 am, and I need to be at Ranger Challenge PT at 5 am. Yet here I am, wide awake, knowing full well I have a smoke session and a full day of work and classes in the morning. I've been doing this throughout college and ROTC and I'm still pulling a 3.87 GPA, as is my room mate (and we both have different majors). I also find evidence of this in non-cadet friends and girls I date. They're always so busy and concerned with sleep and getting work done and their not being enough hours in the day, etc. I always counter with "So what, I have PT at 5 and I can still make time for friends/girls/dinner etc." However, normal people just don't understand that. I had a Tyler Durden moment when talking to a girl, and it may sound arrogant but it's just a fact of life. She's always stressing about school, family and work. I asked her to come unwind and grab a cup of coffee. She said she wanted to but couldn't because of XYZANDAMILLIONOTHERPROBLEMSOHMYGODLIFESUCKS! I just said to her, "You worry too much. I don't buy my books, I don't sleep, I eat whatever I want, I work my job and go to all my classes and I still get it done. I am free in all the ways you are not." She was dumbfounded, not because I was a jerk about it (I wasn't), I was just being honest. That lead me to the following realization:

Officers, nay, all Soldiers are a cut above the rest. Although I'm not either yet, I will be an officer in just over 9 months, and I'm cut from the same cloth as they are. So are all my cadet friends. We get so much more done on so much less than anyone else and we still manage to have integrity (meaning wholeness of life).

America is in good hands. George Orwell (allegedly) said it the best with this quote:

We sleep safely in our beds at night because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

I will be one of those men very, very soon. So will my friends. Those men are out there, right now. They're shitting in holes. They're shivering at night. They're dodging mortars and bullets and RPGs. They're not eating or sleeping for days.

They are a cut above the rest.

Enjoy your sleep America, the Army's got you.

Back from LDAC

I have returned from LDAC and have already begun life as an MS IV cadet. My new rank and position is Cadet Major and I will be the Battalion S3 for a while. There will be more on that later but I won't be getting into it right now.

I have many, many stories from LDAC, which I will be putting up shortly as well when I find out my place on the national OML (which I've been told I will be finding out by next Monday, August 25).

Fireguard

This may seem like common sense to some, but to those of you going to LTC, odds are you don't have any military experience whatsoever.

In the Army, someone has to be awake at all times in the barracks no matter what. In case someone falls off a bunk or a fire miraculously springs up from somewhere, it's the Fireguard's duty to wake everyone up and let the Drill Sergeant on CQ (charge of quarters) duty know. You also have to clean the barracks everyday, and the best time to do this is at night while you're on Fireguard. The best method to do this is create a rotation cycle.

Example: My platoon bay at LTC started First night, first shift fireguard duty as the two people in the bunk on the right side of the room. Hour two were the people next to them down the line, and so on and so forth. This way, you're not stumbling through the dark wondering where the next fireguard is sleeping and waking up the wrong people. Also, this way no one complains about having to do the duty, since it's a cycle and everyone gets their lumps.

Now for cleaning, we also made a rotation. Hour one had to sweep the floor, hour two had to mop the floor, hour three had to sweep the halls, hour four had to mop them, hour five had to clean the bathroom, hour six had to mop it. Then everyone woke up.

That's just one man's way of doing it. It was pretty damn efficient though and I recommend it, only because it cuts down on the bitching factor.

My buddy is Air Assault

I just called my friend down at Knox and he's officially Air Assault. Hopefully I'll be able to get him to write a few things down here about his experience at a different Air Assault location.

Parental Feedback

Keep the feedback rolling in, ladies and gentlemen. My site traffic is going up everyday and I'm getting some good emails from all of you. There's no such thing as a stupid question, I want to help you. Most readers are cadets who want some advice and reassurance going into Air Assault, things I never had (except for a few words from my buddy who went the year prior to me).

One of the best emails I've gotten so far, however, came from a mother who has a son at Air Assault right now. She just wanted some insight as to what her son was going through and what to do come graduation day. I was more than happy to help.

I'm just some cadet from New York and the fact that my word is at least helping some of you keeps this site fresh.

Ruck, ruck, ruck!

I have been getting a lot of emails about preparation for the 12-miler at Air Assault. My advice to those people is always the same: ruck, ruck, ruck! Ruck heavy and ruck often. If you take a look at the packing lists in the previous post, the ruck at Air Assault is not that heavy, maybe about 30 pounds, 35 the most. However, when you train for it, I'd train with at least 45 pounds. You don't know what the terrain is going to be like at your school. If it's Camp Smith, you know from me that the terrain sucks and the hills are brutal. My friend who is down at Fort Knox right now tells me he's doing his 12-miler on an air strip (or so he currently thinks) so it will be largely flat. Having the extra weight in your ruck while you train will make your rucking experience at Air Assault that much easier.

When training, hold yourself to the Army standard of 15 minutes per mile (try to finish each mile in at least 14) and work yourself out from there. Be comfortable with a ruck on and have boots that are well worn in. That will make your life so much easier at Air Assault.

For the 12-miler at my school, we had an Air Assault Sergeant keeping the pace for passing. Meaning, if you were behind the Air Assault Sergeant with the flashing red light, you were failing and you had better pick it up. So if you need someone to motivate you while you're there, you have it.

As for a good general work out/ruck plan, I have found a great one in this book. It's called "Get Selected for Special Forces" and can be found here http://www.specialops.org/news.asp . Scroll all the way to the bottom and buy that book. All the proceeds go to a great cause and that book will not hurt you, I guaran-damn-tee it. In the back of the book, the authors give you a 30 day work out that includes a lot of muscle building, cardio and rucking. I'm currently on Day 4 of the 30 day plan and I'm loving it. This book is probably a smart investment, even if you have no aspirations of going into the SF at a later point in your career (but who doesn't want to go SF?)

Air Assault Packing Lists

A few readers have emailed me about Air Assault packing lists.

A quick google search for the 101st and Warrior Training Center yielded the following results:

For the 101st -
http://www.campbell.army.mil/aas/


For the WTC -
https://www.benning.army.mil/wtc/wtc/b/aaslt/index.htm

Remember, you still have to know who is teaching your school so you know which packing list to use, and their website MIGHT not have been updated, but those should give you a good look into what a ruck will feel like at Air Assault school.

Question about Air Assault and LTC

Cadet Aaron Naiditch emailed me and asked me this question. In accordance with courtesy and respect, he has given me permission to recreate his original email here.

"I was just curious as to what you thought of LTC. I am not attending it, since I have been contracted since freshman year. Also, what made you decide to join ROTC in the middle of your college career? Was it difficult adjusting to it, after not being in the program the first two years?

thanks,"

Here is my reply:

"By and large, I thought LTC was a waste of time. I didn't really learn much I didn't already know, then again I did do ROTC for a year before I went to LTC. I started my cadet career as an MSII. However, I'm glad I went and I recommend as many people as possible to go if they can (even if you were a I or a II). As a result of LTC, I have already gotten on a plane and not know where to go when I got off the other side, so I won't feel so insecure about LDAC. I've already worked with a Zodiac and know some of the waterborne operations as a result. I know what it's like to forge relationships with people you've just met and work as a cohesive group. I've also learned things about myself having gone there.

I'm a New Yorker, (Queens, NY) born and raised. I'm a fast-talking, loud, sarcastic prick at times and I can and have pissed people off as a result. My usual attitude to people I pissed off was the New York one: "Fuck em." I have since learned this attitude is incorrect and have been striving to change that. I've met with some success and some failure. It's a slow process but it's a process nonetheless. I've stated before in earlier posts I didn't like my squad at LTC. We got the mission done and I learned how to work with people I don't like (and they didn't like me), but it's a much better process if you like each other. LTC taught me that and as a result has given me an leg up on LDAC, I believe.

And I joined ROTC in the middle of my college career after my freshman year. I had known I wanted to do it basically since sophomore year of high school. I tried to get into West Point, but family issues caused me to withdraw myself from candidacy. The same familial issues also caused me to not do ROTC in my freshman year of college. Everything happens for a reason, however. After going to Air Assault School with West Point cadets I have discerned I would have been miserable with the Academy lifestyle. I've grown so much as a person during my collegiate career and I have so much more to bring to the table now (as an Officer, of course), because I was in an environment that allowed me to make mistakes and learn from them. The structured society of the USMA would have been murderous to my development, in my opinion. Also, not being able to do ROTC in my freshman year caused me to go to LTC, which was a big help for me, so I have no regrets to date.

It wasn't that hard adjusting to cadet lifestyle in my MSII year. I had to learn how to go to sleep at a reasonable hour and work out on a regular basis, but everything else I ate up with a spoon. I love being in the Army and can't wait until I commission."

SITREP

School has been keeping me busy over the past month or so. My professor's decided that only having 5 classes left meant they had to cram as much work done my throat as possible, so I've been scarce.

One of my MS II friends left for Air Assault school the other day at Fort Knox. I've been coaching him through the process, teaching him how to climb a rope and the like. He called me the other day and he passed Day Zero, and I'm confident he'll do fine.

As for me, I almost got an Airborne slot. The MS I instructor (a LTC) was shooting the shit with me and I brought up Airborne school. He says to me "I just got an email saying there's an Airborne slot available but you have to be on a plane today." Knowing full well I had all my finals the following week, I say to him "Sir, I'll have my bags packed in 10 mikes if you can get me on that plane." He looks at me and says "Are you serious?" "Yes, sir!" "Wait, you're an MS III aren't you?" "Yes, sir?" "I'm not allowed to send you until after LDAC, I'm sorry."

Just like that, my Airborne dreams were squashed...for now.

As for myself and LDAC, I've been assigned to 15th Reg, 16 July to 17 August. So if any of you ROTC cadets who stumble across my page are unlucky enough to have to wait the entire summer to go, you'll be seeing me, I'm sure. Even if I'm not in your squad or platoon, I'll be the bald, deep-voiced, loud guy yelling out "Air Assault!" as I've been known to do.

Air Assault School: The 12-Miler

In my initial post entitled "Air Assault School, Completed" I briefly mentioned the 12 mile ruck march. I am going to go a little more in depth now because, well, I want to.

As I mentioned earlier, according to one Air Assault Sergeant, it was hotter than Benning at Camp Smith during the course. It was 100 degrees and 90% humidity the entire time. It was brutal heat. However, anyone in the Army knows that with enough time and hydration, you can get used to the heat. Your body gets used to it. You get acclimatized.

So after a summer at Fort Knox and then Air Assault, I was pretty used to the heat. So when it came time to do the 12-Miler I'm expecting a grueling suck-fest of, well...suck.

I wake up at 0300 (the ruck begins at 0430) to the sound of pounding rain. My first thought is not one of anger, or depression, it's "Of course...why wouldn't it be raining?" So I get up, relieve myself, and brush my teeth.

I bring my ruck down to the 1st platoon barracks where my remaining battle buddy is. He's senior to me and is a paratrooper, so has more experience than I do with equipment and the like. He's in the process of wrapping his poncho around his ruck, and thus, waterproofing it. I quickly follow suit and do the same thing. The previous night, we had packed our rucks together in such a way that the 30 pound load feels like it's cut in half, and our ruck looks half as big as everyone else's. My buddy has done the ROTC Ranger Challenge for 4 years at this point and I guess he knows a thing or two about packing his ruck. We had prepped for this ruck since the beginning of Phase Two. Every night at chow, we were given a juice box of Gatorade. We would steal an additional one after dinner if there were leftovers, and as the ruck begins, we have 4 Gatorade boxes in our ammo pouches on our LBEs. Everytime we get up the ridiculous uphill (see below), we'll down a box of Gatorade before driving on.

Before we head off to first formation, I realize I have to take a piss. I decide to hold it, and use it as motivation to finish the ruck in as little time as possible. We step outside the barracks and discover it's 50 degrees outside on top of the rain. I start shivering immediately, but I actually like it. Maybe this ruck won't be so bad after all if I'm not sweating balls the entire time.

Me and my buddy link up as the ruck begins (I was in 2nd Platoon, he was in 1st)and we run for about a half mile until we hit the huge hill I had mentioned previously. If you lean forward at the waist to bear the weight differently, you can almost touch the ground with your hand. If I were a math major, I'd give an approximation on the angle of the slope, but I'm not so I won't. It's fucking steep, is all I'm saying here.

We walk that up and then run a good bit of the lightly sloping downhill (I find it ironic that the downhill is not nearly as steep as the uphill). Throughout the remainder of the ruck, we do a combination of walking swiftly and running (to destinations in the distance or in 10 second intervals of sprinting). We're hitting an average of 12 minute miles, 3 minutes ahead of schedule every time.

When we finish the first 3-mile loop well ahead of schedule and we're not the least bit tired, I look at my friend and tell him "We're giving our families a graduation today." He nods in agreement and we begin running to the bottom of the hill.

Somewhere around mile 6 or 7, we both acknowledge the fact that we're completely soaked and that our feet are swimming in sweat and puddles of rain water. We embrace the suck and drive on.

(SIDEBAR: Embrace the suck became the motto of Air Assault School, or at least to me it did. Right before I rappelled out of the UH-60 as I'm waiting on line for my turn, the Sergeant Major of the Warrior Training Center came up and talked to me. He told me the 12 miler was going to suck, and I told him I would embrace the suck and ask for more of it. He would later on make a speech to our class before the 12 miler and "Embrace the Suck" was at the core of that speech.)

Around mile 9 me and my friends legs cramp up and we have to stretch our legs as we walk, but at this point, we have a comfortable lead on time, so we don't have to run anymore.

We stretch and cramp and curse and walk and talk and bitch and moan and drive on.

As we're passing our last quarter of the last mile, an Air Assault Sergeant is passing us in the opposite direction. As he walks by he says to me and my friend "Congratulations Air Assault, you made it."

Yes we did.

A Cadet's Journey: The first email

Sometime yesterday I received my first email regarding this blog and I'm a little excited. I want feedback from those people who randomly stumble in here looking for "US Army Air Assault School."

I hope my blog helps in any regard and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. I am not an expert, but I wear my wings proudly. I can give you knowledge on my experience, but that's it. Before I left, I went to Barnes and Noble and I looked up books to buy on Air Assault school and didn't find any. This blog is partially my response to that. If it can help in anyway, then I did some good.

Aside from that it's me recording my journey as a cadet up until I get my butter bar, and right now a big part of my cadet life has been Air Assault. I don't hide the fact that I'm Air Assault and was one of the best experiences of my life, and most people who find my site find it by searching some variant of Air Assault (thank you Feed Burner).

That being said, here's my first email I received and my response. I hope this helps.

Reservist (he didn't give a rank) Brock Thibodeaux wrote:

"Hey whatsup man. I'm an enlisted reservist right now, future cadet, and I've been bugging my unit commander to get me into air assault school this summer.

But..it doesn't look like they're gunna pay for me to go there. So I was really thinking about going as a walk on.

I read your blog and saw that you and your buddies were walk ons and got slots due to passing the obstacle course and because others got dropped.

My question is....how did you get the class dates for West Point? Also, what paperwork do I need to show up with and do I, as being enlisted, get paid active duty pay during my 10 day training period?

To tell you the truth I'll catch a greyhound if I have any chance of going to this kick ass school!

Thanks"

My response:

"Yeah man, anything you can do to get to this school, do it. If you gotta take a bus and camp out in front of West Point, do it. It's essentially what my battalion did.

As an enlisted man getting pay, I don't know. I didn't get paid to go. As a cadet, you're honored with the chance to go, and we're so mega high-speed, hoo-ah, hoo-ah that we don't care we're not getting paid.

Getting a walk on is sometimes easy (the year before I went a whole platoon of 82nd walked on, according to my friend who walked on the prior year), but for me and my four friends, we almost didn't get in. The OIC was a good guy and he saw we were motivated and hard workers and let us have our shot.

As for the class dates, I don't know. I had just gotten back from Fort Knox doing the Leader's Training Course and my friend called me on the last day and said he heard a rumor we had slots. So as soon as I got home, I went to my battalion S-1 and bugged them until they let me take the qualifier to get to go. I aced it and went.

The only paper work I brought was a letter from my Battalion Commander saying I was who I was, I was qualified and legitimately won my spot, my DoDMERB and a record APFT score card (within the last 3 months). My ID card and dog tags also came with me.

As far as the packing list, our S-1 pulled it off the internet from the 101st Sabalauski Air Assault School, however this was a problem. Sometimes the 101st boys teach Air Assault School at Camp Smith, other times it's the National Guard Warrior Training Center. Our instructors were WTC and they had their own packing list. It was a huge snafu. They wanted their list, ROTC cadets had the 101st list and the West Point kids had a West Point list. The only people who had their list were the Guard and Reservist who won slots in their battalions.

So, my advice to you is find out those school dates anyway you can, and then call up West Point and find out who is teaching that class so you have the right equipment. I don't see your BC or your CO giving you problems with going if you're dedicated to going on your own. As long as they know they're not paying, you should be good to go. "

Just to be clear, I asked his permission to reproduce his email here. If you email me, I will offer you the same courtesy.

Air Assault School: The "O" Course

The Obstacle Course (or "O" course) is the first thing you do at Air Assault School. Well, actually it's not at Air Assault School because the O course is Day Zero and Air Assault officially begins on Day One.

The O Course is pretty grueling. There are 9 obstacles altogether, 2 of which are mandatory. The first mandatory obstacle is the "Tough One" (seen right.) which consists of a rope climb, walking across wooden planks, climbing up a log ladder and then climbing down a cargo net. This one is non-negotiable. You have to pass this or you go home. Learn how to climb a rope before you go or you're wasting your time. Also, if you just man your way up the rope using upper body strength, learn proper rope climbing technique with your legs. You will be smoked before the obstacles so you can't just use raw stength.

Now, my experience at Air Assault varies with one of my friends who went the year prior. I had the Warrior Training Center conduct my school and my friend had the 101st Airborne conduct his. During the O Course for the 101st, he had to say "Air Assault!" everytime his left foot hit the ground. When I was there, we didn't have to do that. We just got smoked in between obstacles.

"Alright Air Assault, good job on the Tough One, now bear crawl over to the Weaver." After the weaver it was "Now do the Steam Engine all the way to the Confidence Climb" and so on and so forth.

The other mandatory obstacle is the Confidence Climb. Basically, it's a 60 foot ladder that you have to stretch your entire body to climb each rung. It wasn't that difficult for me since I'm not afraid of heights, but if you are, perhaps Air Assault really isn't the place for you to be. When you rappel out of that UH-60, you will be 100 feet up in the air with nothing to break your fall except your face.

Aside from that there are some pretty standard obstacles, like a low crawl through a mud pit and a horizontal log jump (jump over each log without touching it with your legs), but the toughest non-mandatory obstacle is the Weaver. (pictured below)

You have to weave your body under one log and then over the other in succession.

You're only allowed to fail one non-mandatory obstacle, but try not to fail any at all.

After the O Course, you're drenched in sweat, mud and victory but you're going to need to complete an 18 minute 2 miler afterwards. The faster you finish the O Course the more time you have in between the run and the time you finished.

18 minutes doesn't seem like much, but you will be smoked so it's going to suck a lot harder than you think, but still, if you can pass an APFT there is no way you should fail it.

Philosophical Musings on Being a Cadet

I know I have more stories from Air Assault School and Fort Knox I just can't remember them at the moment. Things I've told my friends that I think are insignificant are stories to them. So while I reload my brain I want to give a philosophical musing on being a cadet.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm a genius (I doubt that, highly), maybe I go to an easy school (likely), and maybe I have an easy major (undoubtedly so), but I barely spend any time actually doing work for college. I get a lot of it, granted, but I never pay attention to it. When an assignment is due, even a 10 page paper, I cram the research into the night before and pull an all nighter. On days like this I often show up to Ranger Challenge PT at 0500 having not gone to bed. It would be more prudent to budget my time better and spread the work load out evenly as I used to in the past, however I can no longer give school my full attention.

The worst part about being a cadet is the fact that you have so many "bosses" in your life.

I have my Army boss, which is getting ever more so demanding as time goes on. I was promoted to cadet staff sergeant and as such I always have to call squad members and find out why they're not at PT, compile a leader's book and so on. Basically, I wind up doing upwards of 30 hours of work a week for my Army boss and it's stuff I enjoy doing.

I have my Work boss, the day job I need to work in order to eat and pay for gas. Cadet Command gives cadets a stipend every month so that they don't have to go to work and can concentrate on just being a college student and a cadet, however, cadet command failed to take into account the fact that, while there aren't many of us, there are still some cadets in New York City. The standard of living here is ridiculous, and I can't survive on the stipend the Army gives me. Basic Housing Allowance for Army personnel living in New York is about $2,000 a month, one of the highest in the Army. Why doesn't the Army pay out a housing allowance based on where the cadet lives, like the rest of the Army? Oh well, the world may never know. Maybe they'll let me know when I'm a lieutenant, but I doubt it.

Finally, I have my School boss. I still need to go to my classes and get good grades (well I don't have to), but I need to in order to get into the branch I want. The branch I want is highly competitive and I need the best grades I can get, the highest PT score and a load of extra curricular activities in order to ensure I get my first choice. (Based on my personality in all these writings, it should be clear what my branch choice is, but I'm not going to say it so I don't bias any further writings....well, anymore than I already do).

That being said, the one that takes precedence in my life is my Army boss. It's what I want to do and I want to do it now. I immerse myself in it. I consider myself a Student of War and I can't get enough of it.

Instead of reading my textbooks (which I don't even need, why do I waste my money every semester?) I read books on war, anything. I can't get enough.

I've read and re-read the "Art of War" about 10 times, "Starship Troopers" about 6 times, and then I go to Barnes and Noble and buy a new book, mostly two, every week. I read and despised "Jarhead", I am reading and enjoying "On Killing" by LTC Dave Grossman. I am constantly reading histories, of the US Army, of the Airborne units, Medal of Honor winners, anything I can get my hands on.

This is what I want to do with my life and I'm becoming more and more institutionalized. Going out with my Army buddies on weekends is such a difference than my other friends. We can have entire conversations without saying anything and understand what needs to be done, just based on hand and arm signals we apply to real life (such as at a party or restaurant). I know, we're a bunch of dorks for doing it, but that's how big of an impact it has on our lives.

After completing Air Assault School and rappelling out of a helicopter, roller coasters don't give me a rush any more. After completing Cadet Basic at Fort Knox, I know how to prioritize and what's really important in life and what's not. I love the whole Army experience and despise the fact I'm not doing it 100%.

People say I could get into the real Army and I could hate it, and there's always that possibility. But at Fort Knox, the typical garrison day of the Soldier was broken down for me and that doesn't seem so bad. The training is going to be fun. FTXs, rucks, runs, marksmanship and weapon's quals. All that is awesome. Even the times when you don't sleep and you don't eat are not going to be that bad. I've been there. I've done that. I've embraced the suck and come out alright.

The only thing I have no idea about is deployment and combat, which is why I study war. To steel myself mentally and emotionally for whatever might come my way. I have an intellectual idea of what it's going to be like, but if you haven't been there or done that, you really have no idea.

All I can do is sit and wait and occasionally pray when I feel like bothering God, but I usually don't because He has enough to worry about.

That's the "normal" life of this cadet.