ARMY OCS Week 1

This week I officially classed up with Charlie Company for Army Officer Candidate School at FT Benning. It has been a long process. For those of you who know, I was in the Navy up until June 1st of this year, June 2nd marked my first day as a U.S. Soldier, though I was not on a base until the 3rd of June.

The Army life isn't so different from the Navy life, at least so far as school environments are concerned. You go to bed, wake up, and eat at the times you are told to do so. You wear the Uniforms you are told to, and you PT the way you are told to.

There are slight differences here and there, for instance when you are speaking to a NCO (Non Commissioned Officer) you will stand "parade rest" in the Army, unlike the Navy when standing "at ease" your hands will be behind your back not in front of you. It is the little things that really make the difference.

This is not a gentlemen's course, it is an Officer Training Course. We are being trained to become Officers in the US Army, we are therefore warriors. For all the the people in other branches ie Navy, Coast Guard, Marines, and Air Force be sure to learn army lingo before you come if you haven't already. Despite what it says on http://www.goarmy.com if you are picked up for Army OCS you will not be going to Warrior Transition Course or WTC. This is currently only a requirement if you are going enlisted to enlisted.

Our week so far.

Monday: Wake up 0500 must be in proper PT Uniform and outside in formation by 0520 so we could be at my old residence the HHC Trailer otherwise known as Hells Holding Company for our APFT height and weight checks. We did lose some people for this, so please be aware you must be within the regulations there is no wiggle room.
The rest of the day was mostly taken up with classes and briefings.

Tuesday: Initial APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test). Wake up again 0500 get formed up march to the PT field where we took the test. At the field we were broken up into 18 separate groups of 10-12 people and performed our events.

In order Push ups, Sit Ups and then we march to the track for a 2 mile run.

I won't lie, this was my second time doing this. My first APFT was in June, I failed my Pushups and I was sent back to HHC for 30 days of remedial training to come back and try again. Today however I surpassed my minimum with more than 80 seconds left on the clock, the issue the first time apparently was my form. Be careful make sure your arms go to below parallel, and that you fully lock out on the way up.

Sit Ups: Make sure you can do your sit ups and that you can in fact do enough of them. The person who I held the feet for performed over 20 more push ups than I did yet was unable to perform even 50% of his required number on the sit ups. As consequence he was pulled from the class and hopefully will be afforded the same opportunity as myself and class up in 6 weeks with Echo Company.

2 Mile run: It is hot in GA, more importantly it is Humid in GA. Very humid, if you are not used to the Humidity get used to it, and run a lot. In the navy I was running sub 11 minute 1.5 mile runs. Here in FT Benning my first 2 mile was 22 minutes that was just awful especially considering there was a time in my life where I could run a 2 mile in 11 minutes flat. My required time is 17 minutes I ran it in 15:47 roughly 45 seconds faster than I did a month ago. It is a respectable time for my age but one that I intend to improve on before I leave here. Final goal for the course should be sub 14 minutes. By this time next year I would like to get back to sub 12 minutes and eventually try to get to the 10 minute barrier.

In the Afternoon we finalized our Platoon structure and moved into our rooms. Our class was only overbooked by 8 people with 180 as our total number. After APFT failures and other drops were taken care of I believe we are now down to 171 with room for 1 more person.

Wednesday: Surprise early wake up for the Drug test. Not a surprise for me other than the fact I got up at 4:30 instead of 3:30 like I did for the previous class. As far as I know nobody tested positive and we are all still in the class.

After the drug test it was on to more briefings and more classes.

It was on Wednesday that I was named the Platoon S1. As long as I work at this task I be in this particular leadership position for the entire course. It is administrative and very similar to what I already did in my old command. I have already constructed an Access Data Base for Company use and I am working at stream lining procedures to make things simpler and take out a lot of the extra work that is currently being duplicated throughout the old system.

Thursday: Bolton Obstacle Course. We had a few minor injuries here and there but nothing major. As far as I can tell this is a first. All injuries and other drops get sent to HHC and since I lived there from June 11-August 9 I can honestly say many injuries occur on this course. The most common places are on the Weaver, and on the Monkey bars. Both are well known for breaking legs. Personally I have a nice sized welt on my left ankle from when I swung down to the monkey bars and my leg continued into the support beam. Nothing broken. I participated in all events however I was unable to successfully complete 3 of them. Grading doesn't matter so long as you attempt each event. I earned the lowest total you can at 70 out of 100 points.

After Bolton we marched to CIF for our TA 50. And we put everything away. If my memory is correct, and I wish I would have written this information down we had another class, ate dinner cleaned and went to bed.

Friday

Today we officially became students. We had breakfast and then we ran back and got ready for our formation and Student Change of Command Ceremony. At this Ceremony we were officially given our class "Guide On" flag for you non military types. The responsibilities from the Company leadership were turned over to our Student Chain of Command. The Regular leadership will still be observing us and training us but our movements are directly under our own leadership. This is after all a leadership course.

After the Ceremony we had a class and went to lunch. Post lunch we had to march up to a pool for our CWST or Combat Water Survival Test. We swim 3/4 a length of a pool in full uniform to include boots and a weapon. If we succeed then we go on to the second test jumping from a diving board blind folded with weapon in our hands. You must keep positive control of that weapon for the entire event otherwise you are done and have to change and wait for formation. The final even has you fully strapped into a molle vest and rifle in your hands. You are to jump into the water, fully submerge yourself and then ditch your equipment while under water. If you resurface while the equipment is still on you fail.

I failed this final event. It wasn't that I am a bad swimmer, I just didn't get myself far enough under water to begin with. For next time if there is a next time I know how to do this event better.

The good news is that not a lot of people even made it to the second event so I gained 10 points in the competitive list for branch choosing when the time does finally come.

Saturday: Early wake up for our Combat Skills Training Brief. We will be learning Close Quarters Combat fighting while we are here at OCS. I won't get into the specifics but I am glad that this is an official program. I hope the Navy adopts one as well.

We had a Land Navigation Course as well as a course on safety and Pre Combat Checks and Pre Combat Inspections.

Sunday: 0530 wake up 0630 formation. 0700 breakfast, 0740 formation. 50 push ups because it took us 31:30 to eat our breakfast and it should have taken us 30:00 minutes. 0800 everyone is released. I have to stay and work on my S1 paperwork for a bit so I don't fall behind. Some people had to stay with me so I could complete some spreadsheets requiring their information.

At this point I am signing out. Recall formation for the day will be 1620. I will try to post throughout the week otherwise next sunday.


-BrotherLeRoy

To start the Discussion

The following is basically where I stand on a host of issues taken from the Freespire Forums. Please do not go over there and continue the discussion as it really is ill fitted for the Freespire Community but fits perfectly within the confines of discussion within this blog. Feel free to comment away, provided profanity is left out. Remember Politics is not a personal game but instead a means of using power.

Political discussion is best when it surrounds effective communication and clarity of ones views. Note if you find the original post I have gone in and edited my many spelling and typo mistakes in an effort to make this far more clear than just the quick spurt of thought that erupted from my finger tips originally.

[quote=grathganor]That is not quite true though understandable how you could come to the conclusion. National Debt is better thought of as a percent of National Wealth. While it is true that our debt has grown, in relation to the total wealth of the nation it has gone down. Keep in mind too that Bill Clinton never paid down the National Debt, he (with the help of the 104th Congress that left him little choice) worked on paying down the National Spending deficit. The debt was never actually paid down in any real fashion.

Before we start finding ways to pay off our debt, most likely a Democrat would vouch for raising taxes while simultaneously increasing Government Spending on Government programs, we should consider how to best avoid a recession. Since we have not truly entered a recession, it would be better to lower taxes across the board. Lowering taxes brings in more tax revenue this is historically true and a much easier way to start paying off the debt.

Edit: Note that lowering taxes is hardly a Republican invention. When JFK was President he lowered taxes by nearly 30% across the board. I would argue for lowering it just by 15% to start with if that showed signs of working continue by incremental decreases of 5% to a tax burden not to go below 15% on the "Rich" taxes as they are would pretty much remain Zero for the "working poor" and the "middle class" should lag around 10%. This of course on the basis of staying with our so-called "progressive tax" system, as some of you know I am much more in favor of a flat tax or fair tax approach covered elsewhere please don't repeat discussion here.

The next thing would be spending cuts in order:

1. Start cutting is Foreign Aid to countries outside of our direct war involvement. Those that we are occupying or that are assisting in the "War on Terror" (poorly named since terror is a tactic and we are truly at odds with "Islamic Jihadism", though a true Jihad would not be fought this way).
2. Government Handouts again in order

* Corporate Welfare Reform
* Civil Welfare Reform

3. Start opening room for drilling in anware while simultaneously lowering the fines
for the production of Nuclear Power plants.

* Nuclear Power is how France fields most of their energy needs it is efficient and it is relatively environmental safe.

* Damn the treaties we have on nuclear fuel with the rest of the world. Instead of storing the spent rods recycle them into weapons grade material to be used for said means. As it is China has been flaunting to us they have missiles that can reach LA since 1999. Do you think they would make such a weapon without the desire to use it?
* Don't enter into any more International Environmental treaties period. There is no reason we cannot regulate ourselves and businesses that wish to operate within our borders (within reason), however the nations we are competing against don't care about the treaties (such as China and India) and are producing far more Carbon than we are.

4. Create tax incentives for environment friendly vehicles.

* Increase the tax break for people willing to purchase hybrids particularly American Hybrid Vehicles. Perhaps scaled so that there is a break to purchase a hybrid and a greater tax break if you purchase an American make.
* Give a tax break to auto makers who are producing more environmentally friendly vehicles.

5. Provide Tax incentives to Oil Companies (yes oil companies) that produce more
refineries.

* The last Oil Refinery I could find was built in the 1970's here is one link to reporting on this (Biased link I know) http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntn12966.htm
* Initially lower some of the environmental regulations for the production of such new plants in an effort to make them a more attractive an investment for Oil companies to produce.
* Work with States to get rid of the Ethanol mandates in fuel. While it appears to be more Environmentally friendly on the surface it produces the same if not more Carbon Emit ions in the process of making it. And the hidden cost produced by Government mandated corn purchases is driving up the cost of Corn, as well as all animal products that rely on corn for feeding.
* Double the funding on renewable fuel research in the form of grant money, offer tax incentives for projects on: Hydrogen Cell research, Compressed Air Engines (if I remember correctly France has a few Compressed Air Vehicles, I remember this from some environmental research place I visited a while back)

6. Most important in my book and not because of my job, my line of work was
chosen because I honestly believe this is the most important role. Reinforce
the role of National Defense.

* On September 11, 2001 we were attracted by a vicious and evil foe. His name was not Ossoma Bin Laden (though he was the leader of the cause) but instead Islamic Jiadism. While many of us wish for us to get out of Iraq, the truth is Iraq is tied to the War on Terror, not directly to Bin Laden but to Islamic Jiadism most definitely.
* World War II ended in 1945 yet we still have a military presence in Germany, Italy, and Japan. We stayed in part for purposes of rebuilding commitment as well as a more strategic front in the looming threat of the Soviet Union.
* Today we cannot just pull out of Iraq for the same reasons above. We owe it to ourselves and to Iraq to stay and help rebuild. Rebuilding provides the stability that Iraq needs to be a becon of hope modeled with freedom in mind but in the form best suited for their people.
* We owe it to ourselves to stay because a stable Iraq is a less likely breeding ground for terror.
* We should stay because staying reinforces our international credibility. Yes this is important, loss of international credibility is part of the reason Bin Laden thought we were in a weak enough position to be attacked in the first place.
* We should stay for the Strategic point of the looming threats of Iran, and China. Iraq is a good launching point for both campaigns, particularly since our European bases are not required (nor our presence requested with a more stable Russia) and real estate we are leasing at increased costs anyway.

While I am concerned about life, and think that it is an important issue it is not my voting issue. I just feel that it needs to be articulated . As for Gay Marriage, I hardly believe that a homosexual couple that desires to enter into a life long commitment should be denied the legal rights of marriage, I do however believe that Marriage is an institution designed by God for Men and Women (in other words give it everything but the name and I will be happy)[/quote]

Back from the Dead

Ok so I have not posted in a long long time. To be fair for some of this long time I have been unable to post, however this was for a total of 4 months starting from December of 2006 going until March of 2007. I have slacked off in the worst way.

The resurrection and why? The Former Friars Den Project was not working I renamed this Tactical Chess for my new name. While I am working on formating my personal site it made sense to gravitate back to here with a URL thttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifhat people who have read me know to go to.

The future URL and it will be working for here shortly is www.tacticalchess.info.

In the mean time I recently while allowing my passions get the best of me started a debate on American Governance in a forum better suited as it was designed for Linux, Specifically my preferred flavor of Linux, Freespire.

Not a Terrorist?

I have been absent for yet another stretch but I heard this on my way to work yesterday. After a night of smoking cigars with my brother before he went back to Kuwait I decided I probobly should post and direct people to the blogger of the year.

Oh yeah Saddam is no terrorist yeah right.

Blogger Wedding

In less than two weeks I will be entering Holy Matrimony with my best friend. She has known me for years now and I cannot wait.

Saturday March 25th is the special day. I won her heart long ago, and she won mine. Rejoice and be glad.

The olympics are dead to me.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with what is being called the biggest "gaffe" in sports history. Linsday Jacobellis, a US snowboarder (and someone with whom you may have seen in Visa commercials) had a commanding lead in the inaugeral boardercross finals in Torino. She was on the last leg and went off a jump, did what is called a "method" (grabbed her board) and then fell when she landed. This fall caused her to lose the gold medal and take silver. Even with the fall, she was so far ahead that the winner barely won.

You might have seen all the negative press she has gotten, and how much the media has bashed her for this.

Disappointing? yes.

Worthy of all this negativity? NO!

Lindsay, On behalf of the American people, I would like to apologize for not embracing you as a silver medal winner....but as a gold medal loser. I am appalled by this repsonse. You are a young girl (20) in a sport where doing what you did is commonplace. It is unfortunate that you fell, however it doesn't make you less of a competitor in my eyes (unlike the many eyes of my fellow Americans). You won a medal on the biggest sports stage in the world! Congrats!

Am i ashamed of you? No....I feel bad for you. I can't imagine what you must be going through. You have to live with this for the rest of your life. As for us spectators? We will probably forget about it a year from now.

What I am ashamed of is the way that the media has handled this. I am ashamed of how they feel slighted by what you did. Like you robbed them of a chance to say "I am the best!".

In the day and age where the meaning of the olympics has changed so drastically, this is not fair. Athletes are not competing to represent their countries anymore. They are competing to be the best in the world....regardless of what country the losers are from. When did this change happen? I don' know for sure, but what i do know is that it is a negative change.

The olympics have lost the mystique that made them special to me. I could care less anymore. You don't represent me anymore.....you represent yourselves.

I am happy for all the medal winners. I am proud of every one of you..........even though you are getting paid to win.

Tookie

About a month ago, Stanley "Tookie" Williams was executed under California's death penalty. For any of you that don't know tookie, he was one of the original founders of the gang called the crips. He grew up in south central LA where as a 16 year old in 1971, Tookie and Raymond Lee Washington founded the "crips" as a protective force against the gangs in the city. Soon after however, the crips became what they were created to protect against. They became what we know the crips to be today: violent, criminal, and disrespecting of authority. The gang grew and by 1979 it had members all across the state of CA. In that same year however, Tookie was arrested and in 1981 convicted of murdering 4 people and sentenced to death row.

This is where the negatives end.

During 6 1/2 years in solitary confinement, ending in 1993, Tookie looked inward and started upon the long arduous journey of changing his life and trying to attone for the violent legacy he had created.

"I unchained my mind, and I did so through prayers and extensive study. I had to seriously question whether I was a human or a beast. In choosing not to be a beast, I discovered my humanity. I became autodidactic, self-educated -- a critical thinker." (www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2001/03/tookie_williams.html)


"He's written Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence, a series of eight readers aimed at urban youth, and Life in Prison, a biography detailing the isolation and despair of death row. In collaboration with his editor, Barbara Cottman Becnel, Williams also started the Internet Project for Street Peace, which links teens from the industrial, largely black town of Richmond, California, with peers in Switzerland, teaching them computer literacy and encouraging them to share their experiences in avoiding street violence." (www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2001/03/tookie_williams.html)

In 2001 Tookie was nominated for the nobel peace prize.
------------------------------

Enough of the backstory. I think it is horrible, disgusting, and appaling that Tookie was actually put to death. Yes, he did do somee horrible things in his life, but the postive things he added to this world far outweigh the negatives. I feel that Tookie adequately showed that he was a changed man and capable of benefiting this world even if just from the confines of his prison. He did more good than 95% of the people living today will ever do. I find it disgusting that people who have done less and committed more have gotten lesser sentences.

Don't get me wrong, I feel that that Tookie should be punished for his crimes (and yes, I do advocate the death penalty), but he SHOULD NOT have been executed. The things that he did in prison should have gotten him a stay of execution.

(I will add more to this later, I am too worked up to continue writing.)

more photographs

This is a pic post give me time to caption them i'm just putting them up now. For those of you uninterested in pics i'm sorry but Patrick is a bit preoccupied with his little girl than to write or do anything else.