Apparently OTS is not over until we leave Maxwell

Last Friday the Goldhawks had a no-notice inspection by my flight commander. This was a problem because we had just been inspected by the MTIs (miitary training instructors- the guys with the "drill sergeant" hats) the previous day,AND we had to change from blues to ABUs at lunch time, so people took shortcuts and didnt really have their rooms in inspection order. Anyway, he waited for us to get back to the dorms and yell at all of us in the hall, and then proceed room by room what was wrong. After going down one side of the hallway, he said "Now for my favorite room- lets see." Myself and my two roomates knew exactly which room he was talking about. It was ours. One roommate was convinced we werent getting inspected so he left all his shit on his desk, didnt make his bed, didn't empty the trash can, etc. The counseling that happened in our room next was hilarious, and definately worth the OTMR (Officer Trainee Memorandum for Record) that went in our file. When I reported in to sign the OTMR for that, he said that there would be one more inspection- but he didn;t know who it would be- goldhawks, tigers, or hoyas. Anyway, the reason I'm telling you this story is there was another inspection by the MTIs yesterday for the upper class of all three suqadrons. Goldhawk rooms were all perfect. The same can not be said for the other two squadrons. It was so bad for the other two squadrons, in fact, that they had their privledge level knocked down from Phase four to Phase three. This means they can't wear civilian clothes any more, they have to formally report in, etc. It wasnt just bad, it was eally bad. The most ridiculous story had to do with a pizza box in a room- with pizza in it AND there was pizza crust in the toilet. I'm not sure what those people were thinking, but I can't really blame them. There is a general attitude of "not giving a fuck" at this point and most people are checking out mentally since we only have like 4 more days here and we have so much more freedom now that we have Phase Four privleges. We were reminded by the MTIs yesterday and parade practice that OTS is not over until we leave Maxwell.

6 Days and a Wakeup!

Theres only one week left. Commissioning and graduation is next Tuesday morning at 8 am. I mentioned in an earlier post, the one discussing the Commander's Run, Prop & Wings Ceremony, and Phase 2, that I got back to the room and found something under my flight cap. I said I would share what it was inthe future. Below is a picture of it. It's an engraved Second Lieutenant bar; something we will pin on in a week. 

 I have three guests attending graduation; My father, grandfather, and fraternity brother Lieutenant Drew Moyer, USN. They are coming into town on Monday, the day before graduation. Dining Out is that night. Thats a formal dinner held at a hotel downtown that is a military tradition. Its the first (and probably second to last time) I'll have to wear mess dress, which is the military equivalent to a tuxedo. It should be a fun event, even boisterous at times, that celebrates our time at OTS. 

Getting back to graduation, Drew said if I ever got commissioned, he would attend. Im holding him to that. He will administer the oath of office, which signifies, among other things, direct authority from the president. It has to be administerd by an officer, active or retired. My father and grandfather will then pin 2d Lt rank on me. Later in the morning there will be a graduation parade on the parade field (which we have like 8 hours of practice for this week), and then I'll get the hell out of Alabama.

CWT #2 and AEF Complete! No more graded measures!

Its Sunday, July 28th. Last week was a busy week. On Monday, we had our second comprehensive written test. I scored a 95. I mistakenly filled in the wrong two bubbles, and changed a correct answer to an incorrect answer, but who cares because at least its over. The next day, Tuesday, we departed for AEF. AEF stands for Air Expediationary Forces. It simulates a deployment where Cubans retook Gitmo, and lasted until Friday morning. We arrived and had to retake a base from staff using paintball guns and the techniques we learned involving small unit tactics. For lagter base defesne operations, some groups of trainees became the opposing force in addition to staff members. Aside from these base defense operations, most of the time was spent on ELPS (expedionary leadership problems). these are graded field leadership measures where you have 40 minutes as team leader to complete an objective. This tested ones ability to delegate, lead a team in formulating a plan, and then makig decisions to impliment that plan. What was interesting was we did not do anyting at AEF with our Flights. Instead we were broken into chalks (they were essentially the chalks from our info and advo briefs), consisting of people we havent worked with before. Overall we, Chalk 9, did pretty well. We got 5 mission completes out of 11 missoins, which was probably about average. AEF was probably one of the times at OTS where we actually had free time after ELPs and BDOs. This time was mostly spent napping, in the morale tent playing cards/games, or watching movies in the dining tent. Overall it was a fun experience. Ive included picturs below which show the camp, and the inside of our tent. The tents were big, but not quite big enough for 18 people. The only real problem with the tents was the constant A/C malfunctions which made it 90 degrees inside. Other than that it wasn't that bad. Tomorrow is TD 41. 6 more TDs (Seven days and a wake up) and OTS is all over. The upcomming week, the last full one, should be pretty easy but it will probably go by slowly since we are done with academics. We have a drill competition, which we havent practiced for, tomorrow, graduation parade practice every morning for like 3 hours, some breifings that obviously aren't testable since we just had our last test, and a bunch of outprocessing stuff to do.

Lower Class Arrival, TD-31 tomorrow

Its been a while since my last post. Its Sunday, 14 July. The lower class arrived on Tuesday the 9th. Its hard to believe it, but we were in their shoes about six weeks ago. I'll explain a little bit about their arrival day, and then share my thougts and observations. OT's (officer trainees) start rolling in at about noon. They park their cars and are greeted by an upperclassman. They are directed to a tent where they recieve an attache case, and are instructed on appearance (shirt and shoelaces tucked in, etc). They are treated politely at this point, and the stress is low. They then take their belongings to the "dojo." This is an artifical turf field covered by a roof, and provides some relief from the sun and heat. This is where the upper class inprocesses them. They proceed to a series of tables and get checked in, issued name tags, reflective belts, camel backs, apply for a STAR credit card if they need to,are given a pocket sized OTSMAN (OTS manual containing rules/regs and guidance) and a HAWK (a booklet of things that have to be memorized) etc. They also get instructed on the position of attention, etc. It was very visible that their stress was increasing. At this point they would be corrected by the upper class on things they were doing wrong. If these corrections came from commissioned staff, they were yelled at. One of the best yellers of the commissioned staff happened to be walking around, and as bad as I felt for the new OTs, it was amusing watching them get lit up for something they probably didnt even know they werent supposed to do, but thats all part of the game.I was amazed at the visiblly increasing stress levels these people were under. I don't think I was nearly as scared as they looked, but its hard to tell. Finally, after visiting all these tables, they were rushed over to stand in line. We remind them why they are here, and let them know that it is about to get intense. Once forty of them were lined up, they were walked (very quickly) the 1/4th mile to the dorm. I was one of the people who walked them to the dorm. This job sucked because it was hot- we were under black flag conditions. Anyway, once they got to the dorms they were met by the MTIs (miltary training instructors). These are the guys that people often refer to as drill sergaents in the flat brimmed hats. The OTs are lined up in front of the doors while the MTIs find a few to yell at. This serves to let them know that they are not special, and it doesnt matter what you were before you got here. They are then rushed up the stairs to their rooms to drpo their stuff off. they are then rushed back outside where the MTIs begin to teach them about drill (marching). Below is a video my room mate took out of the third floor laundry room window of such instruction taking place. I apppoolgize for the picture quality, as the video was texted to me, but the audio is good and thats really all that matters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBXmAPdLRyY Its nice having a lower class here since they are now the focus of attention. There is some added work, however, we now have to correct deficient behavior we see. We can't simply walk by and let it continue. So far this has not been too bad. I choose to use a constructive approach, and always treat the OTs in a professional manner. I'm still amazed at how scard/nervous they are around upper class. Last week we were briefed on how we should interact with them. It was explained to us that we were not supposed to create stress for them, but it was explained that we still would. This is definately true. I am the Squadron One mentorship officer. I solicited upper class volunteers to be mentors, and assigned 15 of them to the 45 lower class Goldhawks (I have to report 100% contact back up to the wing). We had our first mentoring meetings on friday. I also provided some tasty snacks and candy purchased with squadron funds since I think they deserved it. The sessions were well received. I filled in as a mentor for an upper classman who had family in town and cojuldnt make it. It was nice to put the mentees at ease and talk to them about how things have gone so far, answer questions (about stuff I could talk about- theres some stuff they shouldnt know about) about whats coming up, give them tips that might help them, and get to know a little bit about where they're from and what they are going to be doing in the AF. Since I was in charge of mentoring I gave myself three reservist pilots. One is flying C-5s, another KC-10s, and the third was C-130s. All airlift/tanker guys. Upcomming events: This week we have advocay briefs. These are briefs where we must take a position on an issue, write a position paper on it, and then present to the class. I chose an issue not on the list we were given; protests at military funerals. As repugnant as the individuals of the Westboro Baptist Church are, I feel they should be able to freely express their opinions and peacably assemble on public land. To target a group just because its message is unpopular is very dangerous. What if you had an unpopular message you had to share at some point? We also have Leadership Reaction Course at Project X. This is a graded measure were we are graded on our performance for one scenario where we are a leader, for al other scenarios we are either team members or safety observes. This is a site on the OTS campus that has a bunch of of "obstacle courses" in a 20ftx20ft cement "room" where we have to work as a team to move ourselves and our supplies from start to end. When we first got here we did two project X scenariosou. I was leader for one where we had to move from start over water to a 4 fot tall cement piling that was 1ft x 1ft about 6 feet away using a plank and some rope, to another piling about 6 feet away, and the onto a big pipe, and then go through the pipe. If you touched the water, or anything painted red it was a 30 second penalty and all members and equipment had to return to the start. This may not sound like much, but when you only have 20 minutes it is. Next week we have our second written test on monday. This is the last graded measure we have that goes into our overall grade. On tuesday we leave for AEF. This is our mock deployment where we live in tents, and have other graded leadership evaluations.

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July from the Welsh Parade field on the OTS Campus on Maxwell Air Force Base. 

Tips for Future OT's, Part I

I'll try to post an entry with all the tips I have for future OTs that I've learned in the last 5 weeks at Basic Officer Training (you will see me referring to the program as OTS and BOT.  Both are correct.  BOT is the program at OTS that commissions air force officers).  A few that I can think of now are below.  They will be random and not organized in any logical manner.  Maybe some day I will organize them.

-Live out of your laundry bag.  Dont waste time folding, rolling and displaying clothes when you only have to have one of each item in your drawers/closet for room inspection.  No one will look inside your laundry bag.

-Don't go without caffeine for longer than you need to.  Know what the OTSMAN says.  Also know that OTS commissionsed staff (namely your flight commander) can't approve caffeine for you until two weeks have passed. Conclusion: do something good as a flight, and get caffeine privledges early.

-Shirt garters- get the ones that only clip once to each sock. Dont get the ones I got that reqiure two for each leg.  Worst of all, dont get none.  You will look like a slob.

-Keep DIRTS towels handy in your dorm room so you can use them to wipe things clean before leaving , and as a shower bath mat. You can't put them in the laundry bin in the morning because if the laundry room gets inspected your entire floor will get a demerit.  They can be stored during the day by hiding them under your laundry bag, or you can shove them behind the desk hutch thing.  Just make sure they dont hang down to where they are visible through the holes that the cords for your computer run through.  I suppose you could also hide the above the ceiling tiles in your room, but we've never had the need to do that.  Also, if they ever looked up there you would have a hard time convincing anyone that they've been there for a long time if they are still damp.


-Taco Bell at the base exchange closes at 3pm on Sunday.  Get there before that.

 -You won't have much time for meals.  I tried to make all food into a sandwich.  This let me eat enough food to survive in the short period of time you are intially given to eat.

-If you bring food with you, like I did, you might be told you can't have food in the dorm past TD-2.  I don't think this is true.  Read your OTSMAN and figure it out, OT.  I just put my food in my civilian luggage, which gets locked up in a storage room, and got it later when we reached phase 2.


-DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, unless you really like ants, put open food or food wrappers in your CamelBak at any field excersizes, to include the confidence course, BELPS, blue thunder, ropes course.  They will find your food or empty wrapper (complete with tasty snack residue) and they will colonize the inside of your CamelBak.  They are everywhere.

Tips for the first few days:
-Lights on is 4:30.  Get up before this, put a towel under your door to block the light, and shave and get dressed.  You door WILL be pounded on at 4:30 and you will be expected to be outside almost immediately.

-Your room wont be inspected the first week.  Don't waste time trying to set it up.  Wait until the weekend for that.  Also, only make your bed once.  Sleep on top of it.  Often times you won't have time to make it in the time you have between physical training and breakfast and/or class.  This is true for all of OTS, not just the first few weeks.

-Make sure to know chapter 1 of the OTSMAN and Section 1 of the 24TRS supplement to the OTSMAN by TD-3.  If you don't know it fully by then, know it by TD-6.  Trust me.  You will be tested on it.  Also know your knowledge that you are required to memorize out of The Hawk.  Know it cold.  Trust me on that one too.  You will be asked to recite that, and it wont be in the clam setting of your dorm room.

Other Tips:
-Demerits don't mean that much.  Don't get too upset when you get them.  Just don't get more than 150% of the flight average, or 5 or more if the flight average is less than 5 or you will lose privlegdges.  (also, know that rule- you will be asked about it).

-OTMRs on the other hand, you don't want.  Too many in one category can get you recycled.

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Half Way There! TD-24

Today was TD-24 of a 46 day training program.  This means that, curriculum wise, we are half way done!  On a calendar day basis, we are not quite halfway there because of the 4th of July Holiday, (two weekdays that aren't training days).  I'm not concerned about that, however, because the time off will be nice. 

First, I'll discuss phasing up to Phase 3, and what’s happening next week.  Next week, on July 9th, the lower class shows up.  This means that, per the OTSMAN (the OTS manual that essentially governs our lives) we (the OT wing; that is all of class 13-07) can request Phase 3 status no earlier than 7 days prior to the lower class arrival.  The trainee wing staff submitted that memo last week, and it was approved effective today.  This means that we are now Phase 3.  This gets us off-base privileges.  We are all looking forward to getting off base this weekend for a few meals, and some beers (in accordance with the guidance published in the OTSMAN, of course) at some point over the 4th of July weekend.  Unfortunately, we were denied temporary Phase 4 status for the holiday weekend, which would have let us leave the local area, and would also let us wear civilian clothes while off base. 

Phase 3 also gets us one other nice privilege.  No more tight meals.  Ever. This means we can eat in significantly more comfort in the dining facility.  We still have to follow dining facility protocol for lining up, getting food, sitting down, and getting up, but at least the actual act of eating can be relaxed and we can converse quietly among our table. 

I mentioned that the lower class shows up next week.  This means that we will be where class 13-06 was when we showed up.  I know that sounds obvious, but it really isn't because our transformation has been gradual over the last 5 weeks, so I guess I didn't really notice it.  Stated differently, we are almost equivalent to the point where our upper class was when we met them....and they seemed pretty sharp.  We had a dry run for their TD-0 (the day they show up).  It went pretty smoothly.  My job is to move them quickly through the dorms, to their rooms, and get them to drop their stuff off and get back on the wall as quickly as possible.  This will involve things like yelling at the group (we are not supposed to yell at individuals, however we are expected to correct them)  Once they finish putting things in their dorms, they get turned over to the MTI's (military training instructors; or drill sergeants).  That’s when things will get real for them.  They will be yelled at by people who are extremely good at making themselves scary.  The astute trainees will realize that this is all part of the game, and the yelling isn't personal and to go along with it, act professionally, and make corrections.  The trainees that don't realize that this is a game might have a tough time adjusting at first.  Again, the upper class doesn't really do any yelling (don't confuse talking loudly with yelling).  It's our job to be mentors and set the lower class up for success for when they face certain stressful evaluations that will come their way in the first part of their training.

Anyway, this week we have started the combatives program.  We drill and fight for 2 hours each morning, from 5 to 7.  This means that I am sore and bruised today. So far all of the sparring has been from the ground (no standing), no striking, no small joint manipulations (fingers, etc), no slamming, etc.   We do submissions, however, and those can hurt.  Being a former wrestler definately helps when we go live.  My go to move in high school, the roll, works real well here because opponents often put their weight high my body (i.e. make their CG high) when I'm in the down position, making them easy to roll. 

Last week we did BELPS and M9 qualifications.  BELPS stands for Baseline Expeditionary Leadership Problems.  In this exercise, which is a graded measure, we go to a field and are given a mission to accomplish that requires us to use land navigation skills and leadership skills.  Each flight member has to be a leader once, and is graded on their performance.  It was exciting because not all the rules were told to the participants, so something might get you killed that you didn't know about.  When I was leader, I instructed the team to move with a low profile. One kid stood up, and he was incapacitated.  I then had to drag him to the next waypoint.  At this wayoint, our mission was to repair a radio receiver (i.e. reconnect some wires on an old DVD player).  Also unbeknownst to us was that if anyone touched the red wire, they would be incapacitated.  The two guys I assigned to repair the equipment both did this and were incapacitated.  Now we had three people out of our original 8 that had to be carried.  Anyway, I wont go into too much more detail, but the exercise put emphasis on leadership, and not really mission completion (which is only worth 1 point out of 28), so I still did pretty well.

We also did M9 qualifications.  For those not familiar, the M9 is the standard military sidearm.  I qualified, but missed expert by 4 shots to the body.  I got the requisite number of head shots for expert, and should have stopped aiming for the head when I knew I had met that requirement.  I'll go for expert when I requalify.

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