"You're an Officer now -- learn."

As I briefly stated before in my "IBOLC to PL" post, even though I'm an Infantry Officer, I took over a Cav Scout platoon.  The circumstances surrounding my decision were: 1). I had been in TRADOC for nearly a year and I was burnt out on being in a training mindset, 2).  When I arrived at my first unit, I was put on brigade staff as a holding place until they figured out what to do with all the new Lieutenants (LTs), 3). I just wanted to be a PL already. 

After about 3 weeks on staff, the brigade (BDE) S3 (Operations Officer) called me into his office and just laid it out on the line.  He told me: "All the Infantry spots are taken up right now, at best you're looking at a 6 month wait.  We've got a Cavalry Scout platoon that's been without a lieutenant for a week now, do you want it?"  So I said yes and took myself down to the Cavalry Squadron that next day.

After meeting the Squadron Executive Officer (XO), he sent me over to the Troop I'd be joining.  Meeting your Troop/Company/Battery Commander can probably be a very intimidating thing, but for me it all happened so fast I didn't have time to be nervous.  Plus I was really, really eager and I just let my youthful enthusiasm carry me through.

The XO walked me over and into the Commander's office, introduced me to the commander and told him I'd just arrived from BDE.  He left, and I attempted to follow the book and "report as ordered" to the Commander (one thing I've learned: always air on the side of customs and courtesies.  If you think you'll be a dork for doing something or showing too much respect, it's always better for a Commander to chuckle and tell you to "relax" than it is for him to lock you up and yell at you for your lack of respect and military bearing).  He appreciated the gesture and then told me to relax, have a seat and talk to him.  Backstory on my first commander, this was his second command, he was older and on his way to Major.  He had a lot of experience, and with that experience came a quiet calm.

He just sat down and asked me about my life, where I was from and what my ambitions were.  Not in the Army, but in life.  He was a very personable man and I was put at ease.  Then he asked me about my military career: "Sir, I'm an Infantry Officer, I'm excited to be here but I don't know much about the Cavalry."  He didn't skip a beat, he just reached behind him to his book shelf and pulled out a binder.  The binder was the Cavalry Scout platoon field manual.  He just threw it on his desk with a thud and said to me one of the most influential sentences of my military career:

"You're an Officer now -- learn."

And then he just continued talking to me like nothing happened.  It was at that moment I realized two things: 1). I was a big boy now, 2). Training was over, you're a leader with men relying on you.

He just stated it so matter-of-factly that I was almost caught off guard.  He didn't care that I had no formal training in the platoon tactics I'd be expected to lead.  He just expected me to learn it and know it.  He didn't want me to do this as a learning point, or for future reference, he just expected it of me at face value.  It was one of the biggest wake up moments of my career.  I've had a few since then, but I feel that was a great starting point.

As I write about my time as a PL, I'll attempt to go chronologically as memory permits.  I learned something from every commander I worked for, and my big take aways from this Commander were: professionalism, the admin side of officership, and property.

From the anecdote above, I don't want to sell my old Commander short by making it seem he just threw a book at me and then let me sink or swim.  Far from it.  That was just his starting point.  He expected me to develop a baseline knowledge on my own, so I could speak intelligently to him on the subject when he mentored me.  In fact, part of the professionalism aspect, one thing I learned from him that also stuck with me (in that same initial conversation) was this: "You've been taught in ROTC that your platoon sergeant trains you up as a lieutenant.  While that's true, traditionally and you will learn a lot from him (and you should), it is the Captain's job to properly train his Lieutenants.  That is a responsibility I take seriously."  He did.  He always had time for me, my questions and to just call me into his office and give me a personal OPD (Officer Professional Development) on scout things he knew I either didn't know or was foggy on.
So if meeting your commander for the first time is the first scariest thing a new LT has to do, then meeting and counseling his platoon sergeant (PSG) is the second.  This Captain taught me a great way to counsel a PSG, and it's a method I've used with every PSG I've had, and knowledge I've bestowed upon the many PLs that I've served with on my left and right.  That is the subject of another entry, however.

Platoon Leader time: Complete

After 22 months and 2 platoons, I have finally completed my PL time and have been moved up to staff.  In that time, I've had 3 platoon sergeants and 4 commanders (well, I only had one commander for a month on his way out, but I still learned a lot from him in that one month).  That being said, I've got some experience and I'm fresh off the platoon leading trail.  If you're a cadet out there or a recently commissioned graduate, don't hesitate to email me.  Again, nothing I say is gospel, just what I've seen in my experience.

As for the purpose and direction of this blog, I will now fill it with some stories and situations I recall as a PL.  I hope to impart some advice on what it truly is to be in an entry-level officer position, and some tricks of the trade I've picked up from PLs more senior to me, working with several platoon sergeants and serving under different commanders.

After I'm done exhausting my stories, I will close out this blog.  I will keep it up, as parents and mostly cadets still email me from time to time, and there's a lot that's scary out there for a new Lieutenant starting from the ground up.  However, if after you get started as a Lieutenant and your career takes off, if you still need advice from a blog as you approach Captain, well, I can't help you.  It would take a better man than me, as well as some introspection on your part.

My time as a PL in two platoons was a great experience, and I've definitely matured as a person and as an Officer since taking over. 

If you stumble across my blog, I hope I help you out.  I always remember to throw my disclaimer down as much as possible: this is not doctrine, just my experience.  You talk to another PL, he'll have different stories and different advice to give.  That's what makes that Army a great organization.

IBOLC to PL

A lot has happened since my last entry. As it stands now, I recently got promoted to First Lieutenant (1LT) and am currently a Cav Scout (more on this later) Platoon leader. Here's the breakdown:

LTO:
Oh, the LTO. I don't think words can describe what the LTO is without doing it some injustice. For those who don't know, let me explain. The LTO is the Lieutenant Transition Office (now known as HHC, LTO is a technically outdated term, but we still call it that), and it's where motivation goes to die. The LTO is quite possibly the worst place in the world. The LTO is the governing body and is where LTs report in between schools (since we have to go to so many). There are 4 Platoons: Pre-IBOLC, Pre-Ranger, Post-Ranger and Follow On Schools, and the PCS (Permanent Change of Station) platoon (the guys getting ready to leave because all their schools are done). You do PT in the morning, check in at 0900 and once again at 1300. That's it, that's all you do. Unless...of course...you get tasked. The taskings vary, from playing OPFOR (essentially, playing the role of the bad guy for the students going through IBOLC on missions), to Sergeant Major's detail (cleaning Latrines, mopping floors), pulling Staff Duty (being up at the front desk of battalion for 24 hours) or, and I was prvileged enough to be on this detail, pulling up carpet and breaking tile. It turns a bunch of Army Officers into Privates, and since they treat you like Privates, you start acting like one. Instead of volunteering for anything, you consistently try to shirk duties and get the new guys to fall for it. Salutes and respect? You can forget about that at the LTO. Actually, pretty forget about that at Ft. Benning. You're a Private they call "sir" usually with a sense of irony and a tad bit of mockery. Most of the NCOs are cool about it, yet some of them treat it as their last chance to take every dig they can at an Officer. I am not alone in this opinion/observation.

IBOLC:
Infantry Basic Officer Leader Course, the basic branch school all Infantry LTs need to complete, was slow at times but overall I learned a lot. I was one of the first classes to go through the new 16 week course, as opposed to the old 13 week iteration, and to me and some of my fellow students, that they had not quite figured out what to do with the extra 3 weeks. There was A LOT of hurry-up-and-wait, and there were times were we sat around doing nothing for hours on end. That, I hear, has changed, and even the school company that started right after us had a different schedule of events then we had, so, it was/is a work in progress. The first 6 weeks of the course were basic infantry skills, tedious and boring, yet required. We had all done it a hundred times before, but at an Infantry course, you need to be sure your Infantry Officers can meet the minimum standards (marksmanship, PT, land navigation, etc). Week 8, for me, was my best week at IBOLC and the week I felt I learned the most. That's when we concentrated on Operation Orders (OPORDs) and planning missions to a detailed degree I never though imaginable. Breaking down a Battalion level OPORD to what your Platoon needed. I had never used transparencies to draw out the Execution paragraph on map overlays before, nor did I ever do such indepth Terrain, Enemy and Weather anlyses. I lost more sleep that week than any other week in IBOLC because it was very intellectually challenging. The final two weeks of IBOLC consist of Leader Forge, which is intentionally run like Ranger School, in order to prepare Infantry Lieutenants for thier next immediate challenge. Leader Forge isn't hard, and it doesn't even suck that bad. It's just continual missions, waiting for your turn, and supporting your buddies as they take their leadership roles. IBOLC was a positive experience for me, and I felt my platoon cadre were the best trainers of the other ones I had observed (and I'm not just saying that because they check in on this blog from time to time). What set them aside from the other leadership, in my experience, was the fact they never stopped riding us. They never gave us a break. When the other platoons zonked PT, we were out there. They were cool with us, but always firm, friendly, but never buddy-buddy. It was a good template for how to engage your Soldiers and NCOs when you arrive at your unit.

Ranger School: Ranger School for me...hasn't happened yet. I didn't meet the standard, but my Troop Commander has given me an open invitation to go back whenever I feel I'm ready.

Airborne School: Airborne school was definitely an experience. It was the first place on Ft. Benning I actually got treated like an officer. Officers at Airborne school don't have to do any of the duties that the cadets and privates have to do, and the instructors usually smoke and joke with you (and the other NCOs), rather than constantly sneering at you. You do get some additional duties, like being a safety on the towers and such, but overall, the payoff is better. You get released for breakfast and lunch. Airborne School, I feel, could be conducted in 1 week vs 3 weeks, because everything you learn (the PLFs or Parachute Landing Fall) goes out the window once you hit the ground. The PLF is a mythical creature that has never been seen in the wild. The PLF is the, supposed, method of falling once you hit the ground, and the Sergeant Airbornes teach it to you in painstaking detail over the course of 2 weeks. You hit the ground and certain way, and curl your body and roll with the floor, that way, displacing all your energy and therefore (in theory) minimizing injury. However, what usually happens is the wind blows at the wrong time or anything and you hit the ground like a sack of potatoes being dropped off the Empire State Building. I brought up this observation at Mech Leader School (more to follow) and a Captain in that course with me was a former Company Commander at Airborne School. He pretty much locked me up and told me I was just doing the PLF wrong and basically I was a dirtbag who didn't know what he was doing/talking about. So that may be so. However, my friend broke his leg so bad at Airborne he might be out of the Infantry. Another one sprained his ankle, not so severly, but severly enough he had to wait to jump again.

As for my jumps, I was first jumper, first jump (I was also first jumper on my 3rd jump). I wasn't scared on the way up. I wasn't scared at all until I hit had to stand in the door. Then all I could concentrate on was the fact that there were a lot of trees below me. I looked down. Never look down. All I kept thinking of was how badly I'd be impaled if the plane banked and I flew out the door. The green light on the door lit up, I got a slap on my ass and heard "GO!" in my ear. The first jump we got to jump with the T-11 (new parachute vs the T-10D). That is an amazing parachute. You fall so slow and hit the ground relatively gently. The next 4 jumps we jumped with the T-10Ds, and you fall FAST and hit the ground like a turd hitting the water. I did two combat jumps and one night jump for my fifth and final jump. I almost broke my tailbone on the night jump. Thankfully, it was my last jump. So now, I'm a five jump chump and if I never had to jump out of a plane again, it'll be fine with me. I'll do it if I have to, I can. I'm not scared of it. It just sucks. The ground never gets any softer.

Mech Leader: Mech Leader school is the school at Benning that teaches you familiarization with the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and how to employ it. Not much to say, it's a 3 week course that is largely academic. It's a gentlemen's course and was probably the best course I attended in the Army so far. It was all about knowledge and learning, not about smoking or anything like that. You'd come in, learn your stuff for the day, then go home. I also fell in love with the Bradley here. It's an amazing machine. If I ever get into a Bradley Brigade, I wouldn't mind.

Platoon Leading: So I PCS'd from Benning after Mech Leader and headed out to my first duty station. I was put on Brigade Staff for 2 weeks until a Platoon opened up in the Brigade (BDE). One opened up in the Cavalry Squadron, and it was offered to me, and I jumped on it. Now I'm a Platoon Leader and I'm loving life.

Future PLs, don't worry. Just be you and do you. Don't try to be tough or change up your gameplan (unless that's how you are normally). Like I wrote about going to LDAC, you've gotten yourself this far by being you, don't go in and throw a Hail Mary on the first play of the big game. Your NCOs will be good, or they won't be, and you'll do your 30 day analysis and then get cracking.

Life sucks in TRADOC, especially if you're Infantry. Don't worry, though. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It's called being a Platoon Leader and it's everything you thought it would be, after training for it for some many years.

Commissioning to IBOLC

I officially became a Commissioned Officer on May 18, 2009, but do to a...well...I couldn't tell you why, really, I did not go on Active Duty until October of that same year. The Army essentially cut myself, and thousands of LTs just like me, loose to do pretty much whatever we wanted until our next assignment (and entrance into Active Duty).

For me, I didn't start Gold Bar Recruiting (when newly commissioned LTs work at the college they graduated from until their Branch School begins until October. So for those of you paying attention at home, that left me with quite some time off between the end of May and the beginning of October (with no time and service being counted). I had to find some way to make money.

So I wound up bartending in the interim and it was...interesting...to say the least. All I can say is that the lessons I've learned about humanity and human nature whilst bartending will definitely come in handy when I eventually get in front of my platoon.

As for Army stuff, I officially entered Active Duty on October 19, 2009 and began a successful career as a Gold Bar Recruiter (henceforth GBR). My Battalion Commander saw fit to give me an Army Achievement Medal (AAM) for my time from October to March, to my shock and surprise. He told me not many Second Lieutenants would have an AAM and sincerely thanked me for my hard work. So, I'm proud that at such a young stage in my career I now have two things I can put on my dress uniform (the AAM will go right beneath my Air Assault wings, which have been shining brightly since 07).

As for right now, I'm about to begin Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course (IBOLC), which is the official title of BOLC B for the Infantry Officers (this should be apparent but as we all learn at some point: common sense; not that common). I'm just trying to get myself into outstanding shape and stay motivated through the next couple of months which will be spent at TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command; any time you're at a training school in the Army, you fall under TRADOC).

Beware of Smiling Sergeants

As a cadet through various training schools and my own ROTC program, I learned that NCOs never smile unless they're up to something. I hope you all get what I mean after these brief anecdotes.

• At LTC: During morning formation during the recovery phase of LTC, one of our Drill Sergeants came to our platoon smiling and asked who wanted to eat breakfast first. Those poor ten people who agreed did get to eat early...but only because they had to clean the entire company's rifles all day.
• At Air Assault: On the morning of our 12 mile ruck march, the Air Assaults Sergeants told us we were getting a "super breakfast" if we completed the school. So after our equipment check, we pick up our gear and head to the DFAC (Dining Facility) where a bunch of smiling sergeants were handing out MREs. The super part? We got juice.
• At ROTC: During an FTX in which we were informed (as MSIIIs) that we would not be sleeping in doors at all the entire weekend, our Master Sergeant came up to us smiling and asked if we wanted to sleep inside that evening. By this time, I knew better, and I quickly told everyone to say no. He later told us had I not saved everyone's ass, he was going to let us bed down for the night, turn off all the lights, wait 15 minutes until we were all asleep, then he was going to turn on all the lights, kick us out of our sacks and have us go outside.

So yes, beware of smiling sergeants.

More Tips for LDAC

I'm going to share some valuable advice I got from my SMI (Senior Military Instructor) before I left for LDAC last summer.

He told me not to go into LDAC expecting an E. Go in their expecting an S. You don't get an E for doing your job, you get an S for doing your job. If you show up to your job on time everyday, do you expect your boss to give you a pat on the back? No, because you're SUPPOSED to show up on time everyday. So if you run a flawless STX lane with no mistakes, then congratualtions, you're satisfactory.

That's the attitude I had going into LDAC, and I walked out of LDAC with two S's, and the rest of them all E's. As stated in an earlier post, I was a Distinguished Military Graduate as a result.

I'm not bragging, I'm just saying this advice helped me cope with LDAC. It took an enormous amount of pressure off me. Instead of worrying about performing, I just did what I had to do and did it well, and apparently, I got an E for it. That's all. I thought all the work I did was S work, but my cadre at LDAC kept giving me Es. I didn't expect it, nor did I strive for it. I just concentrated, focused on my goal and did what I had to do.

Put it this way: would you throw a Hail Mary for the first play of the Superbowl? Hell no. You'd stick to the tried and true methods that got you to the Superbowl in the first place. Don't change it up when you get there trying to show off. Just do what you've always done on STX lanes and you'll walk away fine.

Also, getting an E in garrision is extremely difficult, especially if you're SL and there's not much to do. LDAC has changed since my time there, as in, you'll be spending a lot less time in garrison and more time in the FOB, so my example may not work, but if there's some in garrison time, you'll understand my analogy.

Just being a good SL will only get you an S. Doing all you're supposed to do will get you an S. Keeping accountability and all that good stuff will get you an S. What I did when I was SL once in garrison was I made my squad practice DNC (Drill and Ceremony) in the company area when we had an hour of downtime. We were bad at DNC and needed the practice, and I was on the Color Guard team so I was pretty good at it. So for an hour we marched around the company area and I had each one of my squad come out after five minutes and do the same commands we all had just done. My evaluator who had seen me do this said that is what put me in the E category for that eval because it wasn't in the basic job of SL, I went above and beyond the duties of my position. I didn't have to improve our DNC, but I saw it as a weakness and used my position to better it.

So, getting an E at LDAC at least in my experience is going above the duties described by your position.

Hope this helps.

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.