I suppose I could say that my personal mission of completing in-processing so that I can official begin the BOLC common course has been accomplished. I am ready to get crackin'. My new mission: I will successfully complete BOLC, with high standards, NLT 27 November 2013, IOT get on to AOC track phase and parrrtay! Haha- maybe.
The first week of the common core BOLC has ended. Word on the street is we get our weekends to ourselves for the most part (it wasn't the case for the last class, but our class is quite blessed for THAT fate). I bring this up to give you wondering minds a bit of peace, hope, etc.
Here's how week zero went down: the majority of it was in-processing. Paperwork, completing online courses (that spurt out training certificates required to turn in), height/weight, and sitting in on very oxymoronically long briefs as introductions to the course by commanders. It's not so bad, really. You just sit there and stay awake- take it as a mental fortitude practice/exercise. I caution that you should be as well-behaved as you can be, and automatically professional (because officer = professional...) that way your coffee privileges won't be taken away. (I remember in AIT, for medic school, we could NOT have any coffee at all, and there was no real way to get it, other than sneaking in 5-hr energy shots...). So yes, BOLC so far, is not that bad at all. Still, oh my goodness, I'm so glad the campus I am at now has a Starbucks downstairs...whoowee.
In-processing is just a hairy beast. Big, obvious, annoying...it must be done. Folks were having issues getting important things like PAY...CACs, AKO accounts set up. If one can get a CAC before BOLC, then everything else may be less stressful. There were briefs for finance, TRICARE/DEERS, and a class on how leave works. Leave is a big thing to manage, and it can get confusing while in a training environment. Orders were another annoying hairy thing. Some folks had unusual orders that conflicted with dates for other things like duration of TLF stays (if you are not permanent party, and have a follow-on unit right after common core BOLC and AOC phase, then you will be required to stay on-post in temporary living facilities. I'm permanent party because I have additional school/assignment to FSH, so I had to live off-post, but I also already established my housing well in advance). Try to find out as much information of personnel stuff if you can. If you're a Reservist/NG member, keep in touch with your unit so that you won't have unusual orders. The Baylor folks took very good care of us and had our in-processing stuff squared away almost a month in advance (cue the choir of angels).
Student leadership was assigned during this zero week. If you went to the luscious forest of Endor- I mean, Ft. Lewis for LDAC (ROTC), then this is a very familiar situation for some folks. In AIT, I was a student "1SG" but that really means nothing whatsoever, other than calling the company to attention and receiving the accountability report. In LDAC, and now BOLC, positions are assigned to actually get things done and ensure that the company is taken care of and gets the info from cadre. Apparently, these positions are evaluated, but I think the evaluation pressure was not as great as that of the LDAC type. They (cadre) don't even seem to care whether or not you have an OPORD ready for the day. I tend to have a draft in my leader's book, just in case for the planning process, but I haven't received a formal/initial 4856 counseling from my cadre advisor as to what my duties and responsibilities are as a student leader.
Regardless of whether or not you do get assigned a leadership position, just remember exactly for what those leadership roles are meant. Other than helping to train new Officers in the art of leading and understanding the roles of the actual chain of command, it really is a good system to have students take care of themselves, especially a big group (over 280 strong!). Most of all, student leadership positions are meant to imitate the leadership expectation of "taking care of Soldiers/your people". Cadre don't need to do everything when whole classes of us with college degrees come through every two months (in comparison, the enlisted training environment can feel so demeaning, like cattle, only because heaps of training must take place in such a drastically short amount of time and cadre are the ones taking care of personnel). Besides, I for one am very independent, and I take charge of my schedule, preparations for training, and am a serious, diligent student. I don't mind helping to keep accountability for my fellow BOLC students, and doing whatever it takes to assist everyone to get through and get something from the course. I hope most of them feel the same. It'll help making the training environment go smoothly with less stress. I used to be that PFC/SPC in the ranks, getting frustrated at not being taken care of, wondering what's going on, and being given little guidance or good examples. If I'm going to complain, I guess I'd better do something about it. That starts with giving my best if I have to lead.
For AMEDD BOLC, all sorts of new medical Officers are combined in a "common core" course (hence the name) to cover the basics of the Army's medical branches. There are a lot of 70Bs, of course, because they're the most common. Again, in ROTC-land, preparations are generally geared toward new LTs becoming eventual PLs. 70B will most likely emulate this expectation. For myself as a 65B (Physical therapist), I may manage as much as a few Soldiers, and if I ever have to take charge of a clinic, maybe a couple handful of civilian and NCO/Soldiers PT techs. Still, all this stuff is "good training". Also, in AMEDD BOLC, you will get a number of direct commissionees. These guys have zero experience of the military life (unless they were a dependent or JROTC but not SROTC). They will provide a different taste in the mix of flavors of folks you will meet (prior service, ROTC folks, etc). Be prepared to teach if you are prior-service, and have patience. If you're ROTC, also be patience and help these direct commissionees, and have patience for prior-service who do not have patience... As Officers, we must be willing to not only "lead" but to teach. It's kind of hypocritical to be demeaning to the less-experienced when we're SUPPOSED to want to help develop others...I guess not everyone shares this opinion. I care too much.
I've looked over the general course schedule, and it seems like pretty much everything I've learned in basic training and AIT (as a medic) and everything I've learned as a prior ROTC Cadet got all rolled into one. I am amazed as how my life has taken it's course; as if God had directed me to do this course, go to that school, get into this course here...all of which are relevant to what I'm aiming to do for a career. For that, I'm thankful. It's probably also just the general Army professional training that carries over into all types of training environment anyway.
I mentioned leadership. I was given a position that, thank heavens, I already had been through while in ROTC (yeah, yeah, ROTC...don't laugh- not all ROTC programs are equal, and I went to a small school with a really good rate of quality preparatory officer training). It's still stressful to some degree because it's getting organized for people from all sorts of directions, but, really, the hardest thing is to start it off for the rest of the course. Leadership positions do rotate (I don't know how often just yet) but to start out from scratch is hard as heck. Just like in ROTC, when leadership changes every semester, it's the process of finding any source of continuity (if you're lucky) and finding out what exactly you're expected to do by cadre, and still trying to familiarize your own self with BOLC lessons and preparations each day. I need to get a better grasp of using the S-shops (we have a Company S1 and S4 as well as PLT S1s and S4s- it's a good thing I also had experiences with S-shops, too!) I'm sure it'll smooth out as the weeks progress as and we all figure out the tempo. But right now, I've had homework to do after we had been released. Good thing I still had my old CO notes from last year...Right now, I've started a continuity CO book that will hopefully help and be continually filled with notes from the upcoming COs. My goal is just to get the ball rolling in helping the Company be as prepared as they can be (as I'd want to be) while I'm in this position.
So, I guess next week is technically week 1. My PLT has already met the Platoon Advisor, whom we answer to during our classes. I will get with the prior BOLC class's current leadership to gather more continuity intel, and then go from there. My class has a gmail drive account, which is awesome because it's free and it's not limiting in document sharing like Docshare (whatever it's called). That was my biggest question once we got a bunch of forms and directions...so glad someone else was thinking the same! So take note! So far it's working.
I'll try and keep this blog updated, when I can. I may not be as detailed later on, but I hope to keep it up on a weekly basis.
