Commissioned Officer

Well, it appears my journey as a cadet is finally over, and as I look at my calendar has been over for a little more than a month.

On May 15, 2009 I raised my right hand to God and swore my oath as an officer in the grade of Second Lieutenant.

This blog is not over; however, my journey has just begun. I'll keep writing tidbits as I remember them, and I'd like to write more on BOLC II and BOLC III as they come up. If I'm not exhausted I'll write a comprehensive review of Ranger School when I'm done with that, too.

My goal is to provide those who stumble across my page with a look into the real life of a cadet, and once you hit your MS III (Junior year), you start hearing about life as a brand new lieutenant and all the schools you'll have to go through, and I'd like to continue aiding that process with this blog. From all the emails I've been getting, I can tell it's helping some people, so why stop now?

However, the posts won't come for a while as I don't leave for BOLC II for quite some time. Until then, I'll be your friendly neighborhood Gold Bar Recruiter.

Things Your Cadre Won't Tell You About LDAC

Here's a BIG factor that will make or break you at LDAC, but your cadre won't tell you because, well, you'll know why when I tell you:

Do NOT offer to help ANYONE when you're at LDAC.

It sounds messed up, I know, but it's the way it has to be. By me saying this, I don't mean be a Blue Falcon and refuse to help anyone. What I mean is don't OFFER. You'll be (incorrectly) viewed as a Blue Falcon if you do.

Why is this the case? Because cadets are stupid. Yes, it's true. Everyone at LDAC is so high strung about their evals that they will perceive any attempt at help that is unwarranted as a sign you're trying to screw them.

It's the wrong attitude and it's horrible, but it's the way things are. I have a problem with this. I know my stuff and I like helping people. For example, one of my squad members was Squad Leader for a STX lane. We had to locate a weapons cache and hold it. We arrive at the cache, begin our assault, and then one of the OPFOR (opposing forces) took off and ran into the woods. Immediately our SL decided to round us up and go after him. I had been on a STX lane at my university where this exact thing had happened, and the SL at the time got gigged for going after the OPFOR. His mission was to hold the cache, not get the guy. So here is my SL about to make the same mistake. Quietly, and off to the side, not in front of everyone, I spoke to him softly and said "Hey dude, I was on a STX lane just like this one before, and the guy got gigged for not staying on mission. It's up to you, but I've seen it happen, and I think we should stay here." It was simple. I was trying to give advice on a situation I was knowledgeable about. He flipped out on me, on the spot, saying how I needed to shut my mouth and stay in my lane and all this good stuff. (By the way, he got gigged for going off mission and looking for the OPFOR...but that's just between you and me).

I watched it happen time and time again over the course of LDAC. Don't offer any advice or help unless you're asked for it first. Unfortunately, because (as I said) cadets are stupid, you can't do the right thing and help a buddy out. You actually have to watch them fail and do something wrong even if you know you can fix it with a simple suggestion off to the side. It's hard for me to do, and if you're a good person, it will be hard for you too, but please restrain yourself.

If you see something jacked up, let it happen. It seems counterintuitive, but just let it go. If asked for help, don't be a Blue Falcon and do all you can to help your buddy. Just don't offer what is not asked for.

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.