23 Jun 13. TD-18 tomorrow

I want to appologize in advance for the typos and seemingly random topics in this post.  I don't have much time to write it so I'll get down whatever I'm thinking about now and maybe come back and fix it up in 43 days after graduation.

Its Sunday.  Another week down.  This weekend was relatively slow.  Our student squadron commander, Major Dieter (this guy is STRICT, but fair and very professional), decided to pull our base privledges for Saturday and restrict us to the OTS complex because we've been slacking ever since the upper class left.  This whole thing is definately a game, and I think that was all part of it; give us some slack for a few days and then yank the leash back in real hard and jack everyone up for every little thing.  Come to think of it, there were a few days where everything seemed too quiet.  Usually commissioned staff sharks around on the "bomb run" (the long walkway between the academic building and the dining facility where flights hold and wait to enter the dining facility).  They usually quiz flights on their knowledge, watch for flight leaders to make mistakes marching their flights to meals, "correct" officer trainees by "speaking loudly" to them, etc.  But not for most of last week. Anyway, we (i.e. all of Class 13-07) were all told on Thursday that everything we were doing was not up to standards in terms of professionalism and procedures, and that it was going to start raining OTMRs (officer trainee memorandum for record). Those are essentially memos that go in your folder that document how you messed something up- and always require you to report to the officer who issued it.  Often times this can start what is called an "OTMR Waterfall" where you go in to get an OTMR, mess something up in the process, and have to come back for another one, mess up again, and the process repeats.  One kid in my flight got at least five OTMRs this way.  Anyway, just my luck- I was on the schedule to be flight leader on Friday (remember we were told on Thursday that it was going to start "raining OTMRs").  I ended up with one OTMR that day for a mistake entering the dining facility- I forgot to call "as you were" when I wanted to cancel an order. Thats the second one ive gotten since being here.  Not a huge deal because no OTMR waterfall ensued.

Aside from that, this past week consisted of one day in the field (I think I mentioned that in my last post), 4 days of classes, and our second physcial fitness test.  This was probably our busiest week of classes so far. I don't think i've discussed academics that much yet, so i'll briefly mention those.  We study three main subjects; leadership studies, profession of arms, and warfare studies.  W also have some classes on communication, but none of these are testable so everyone, myself included, ignores them.  This week consisted primarly of warfare studies lessons.  We covered the history of airpower from Post-WWI through present.  We also had some culture lessons geared at making us aware that we will have to go through even more cultural training if we ever deploy.   These lessons covered all the combatant command areas of responsibility (i.e. central command, Africa command, northern command, pacific command, etc.).  Fortunately (unfortunately?) these lessons are not on the syllabus for the next exam, so myself and many others did not pay attention.  Since these were given in a lecture hall to all 130 something members of Class 13-07, rather than in our flight room, this seemed like the right thing to do.

We had a number of leadership studies classes last week that i'm finishing up homework for this week.  The leadership studies curriculum contains subjecs geared towards managenemt, supervisison, and obviously leadership.   Lessons include conflict management, leadership authority and responsibility (interesting- this dealt with the legality of issuing orders and the sources of an officer's authority), change management, effective supervision, and stuff like that. 

The final sylabus area is profession of arms.  That includes subjects such as military law, UCMJ, cultural awareness, enlisted force structure, and other topics pertinent to being an officer in the United States military.

As I mentioned, we also had our second (out of three) physcial fitness test.  The test consists of abdominal circumference, a 1.5 mile run, 1 minute of pushups and 1 minute of crunches.  My score improved from a 97 to a 98.7; the highest in the flight.  I increased my pushups from 48 to 53, and my situps from 48 to 58 (58 is the max for situps).  My run improved from 8:53 to 8:38, however this did not increase my score because I already had scored the max.  Ab circumference was also maxed out.  The only place left to improve is pushups.  If I can do 15 more in a minute, for a total of 58, I'll max that one out too.  We did well as a flight also; our flight average was above 95. 

Our flight's PT score was enough to get us Athletic Flight of the Week, again.  This is good because our flight commander likes that sort of stuff'- he was a college football player.  Some other flight awards are given out such as academic flight and overall flight of the week. Other Goldhawk flights won those ones giving the Goldhawks another sweep this week, making the Goldhawks the squadron of the week, again. The rivalry between us, the Hoyas and the Tigers is healthy but the commissioned staff wants us to come together as a wing since the lower class will be here soon.


This upcoming week will be a busy one, and will be almost entirely in the field.  We have M9 pistol qualification on monday.  We have Baseline Expeditionary Leadership Skills on tuesday and wednesday (a graded field leadership measure) and a high ropes course on thursday.  The week after that we have a graded informational briefing, which I should do well in as long as I follow the standard AF info brieing format, because I'm used to giving presentations at work.

TD-13

I haven't had a chance to update this blog in a while because we've been pretty busy.  Since last time we reached Phase One.  We have since reached Phase Two, but first I'll discuss some other stuff we did since then. 

The acamdemics are in full swing.  We are spending a lot of time on the "Leadership Studies" curriculum.  Some of this stuff is interesting, other parts of it are terribly boring. None of this really matters though because we don't really have time to actually learn the subjects.  Instead we are concerned only with completing homework assignments so we would be prepared for the first test, which happened last Thursday.  I scored a 93.something %.  The Class 13-07 average was an 88 I think.  I shouldn't have missed the questions I missed, but thats in the past now so I'll have to work harder on studying for the second test.  This was the first of two CWTs (consolodated written tests) that we have while we're here.  These make up the majority of our overalll grade. Other things that factor into our grade are field leadership excersizes and pysical fitness testing.

Getting to Phase One was not easy (we came in at Phase Zero).  It consisted of a Phase One Evaluation where the upper class pulled us out of class unexpectedly, lined us up in the hallway and asked us individually to recite knowledge we were suppoesed to memorize, such as the Airman's Creed, OTS Mission, AF Vision, Code of Conduct Articles 1 through however many there are, quotes of the day, and so on.  Every so often some of us would be sent into "Cube City" where the commissioned staff offices are.  That area was artificially filled with additional commissioned officers and upper classmen to test our knowledge of bracing and passing procedures, and also our procedures for reporting in to an officer.  Normally, this stuff would be easy, but all the yelling tended to throw people off their game.  I came out of it unscathed, and didn't have to take a second loop through, even though I almost did by accident.

 Phasing up to Phase Two was much better than going from zero to one.  It happened on Friday the 14th at the end of what is called the "Commander's Run".  We went on what I'm estimating to be a 5.5 mile run (not a long run by my standards) stopping at a number of landmarks around the base that had historical significance.  When we stopped the historical significance was explained by our Lower Flight Commander and Assistant Lower Flight Commander (These are both upper class Officer Trainees who are selected to mentor and teach, using many techniques not the least of which is "talking loudly," us lower class trainees).  After that we would do some sort of excersize that had some relation to the historical aspect of the stop.  For example, there is a B-52 static display; we did 52 pushups underneath it.  Another example; there is a full size metal sculpture of the Wright Flyer.  We did four 120 foot shuttle runs to commemorate the distance of the Wright Brother's first flight (coincidentally, my left quad cramped so bad on the first one I thought I pulled it- muscle cramps have been a problem down here for me probably because of the heat/humidity leading to profuse sweating casuing a lack of electrolytes).  Anyway, after all these various stops we ended up at the Air Univeristy (AU) Headquarters.  This  building was actually where Air Corps Tactical School was located in the 30's.  Anyway, in front of that building is a prop & wings statue, which is significant because it was the original insignia of the Army Air Service in 1920, and is now given to Officer Trainees, AF Academy Cadets and ROTC cadets.  Anyway, after a speach by the OTS Commandant (hence the event being called the Commander's Run) the upper class pinned our prop & wings on us.  These insignia will be worn on our flight cap as part of our blues uniform while we are OTs.

Upon returning to our rooms we found that the upper class also put our Phase Two epaulets on our blues shirts, pinned another prop and wings on our flight caps, and also left a surprise on the inside of our flight caps which I'll discuss on August 6th after graduation.


With Phase two came some additional privleges.  We no longer have to brace the wall when passing commissioned staff or upper class.  The upper class has also been noticably nicer to us.  They now refer to us as "sir/ma'am" rather than "OT."  More importantly we can leave the OTS complex (but not Maxwell AFB).  This meant a trip to the base exchange.  For some reason I ended up buying all sorts of stuff I dont even like and never normally eat, such as cookies and red bull. Another nice thing was getting to wear our "privilege uniform" which is a polo shirt and khakis. That was the first time I've worn civilian clothes in over two weeks. 

 Phase Two also means that weekend meals are optional, so some of us ate at the golf course on Saturday.  Weekday dinners in the dining facility are also no longer tight meals, meaning we can talk, and we no don't have to sit at the modified position of seated attention (we can lean back, feet dont have to be at a 45 degree angle with the heels together, unused hands dont have to be bladed and grounded to the front of the knee, we get more than 3-5 minutes to eat etc).

Today consisted of field lessons where we learned tactical communication, land navigation and small unit tactics.  The rest of the week is almost entirely classes, but at least they get more interesting.  They are mostly from our "Warfare Studies" curriculum, and occur in a lecture hall with the entire class and are taught by a civilian (retired AF) lecturer (as opposed to most of the other classes, which occur in our flight room and are taught by our flight commander). This week's topics are airpower from pre-WWI all the way through the Cold War. 

In other news, the upper class graduates tomorrow.  Next week is M9 qualifications and some expediationary leadership excersizes; almost no classes for the entire week, so there is plenty to look forward to.

Its also much cooler this week. Last week it was in the mid to high 90's, very humid and sunny.  Apparently that's unusually hot for this time of year, even down here.  Needless to say, that heat combined with wearing ABU's (Airmans Battle Uniforms- long pands, undershirts, long sleeve shirts, hat, and boots) is not pleasant.  I routinely sweat all the way through them. 

Overall things are going pretty well.  I was told that the first two weeks really suck, and it gets better after that.  We are almost three weeks in at this point.  So far, that is turning out to be true.

TD-7 ?

I think it's td-7. I haven't had a chance to update this in a while because we've been do busy. We had our Phase One Evaluation  yesterday. It consisted of being asked our knowledge in a stressful environment (ie getting yelled at by commissioned staff and upperclass OT's.  We were also tested on our procedures for reporting to an officer, opening/closing class, and some other stuff.  The squadron, the. Goldhawks, passed! That's the first time a squadron has passed their POE on the first try. As a resultof passing we get to wear phase one insignia on our uniforms. 

The other two student squadrons failed (Tigers and Hoyas), and have to go through that again, which sucks for them because its really stressful , and there will be nupper class here because they have their mock deployment next week. That means commissioned staff only, which is bad for them. 

 We were also tested on drill ( marching) which we did not pass, so we have another eval on that next week if we pass,we will be allowed to march as a flight by ourselves, which is good because it takes eyes off us. 

TD-2 Down.

Before I start I want to state that I typed this on an iPhone. I apologize in advance for typos or short sentences, but its too tedious to be eloquent when typing on this thing. I was going to update the TD-0 post, but I'm too tired and that day was a blur. 

I will, however, take a moment to explain the the class structure. Class 13-07 is broken down into3 squadrons. I am in squadron 1, the Goldhawks. The hoyas and tigers are the other two. There are four flights in squadron 1. Imin flight 1-10. Much of our activities are done as a flight, including sitting in our flight room and memorizing stuff from a small book we must have on us (in a particular way depending on which uniform we have on- standardization is huge). We are always " in our knowledge" at the position of parade rest reading from these books when waiting outside the bathroom, for a briefing to begin, etc. it's futile sometimes though when you're that toted. I must have read the Air Force vision statement fifty times yesterday and retained about three words of it. Anyway, all our classroom instruction will take place in our flight room. 

 It's training day 2 now. Yesterday we woke up at 0430, and had to post outside our doors immediately. I don't really remember much else other than getting back at 2200 and having to type a memo before lights out. I sent it in at 2302, two minutes after lights out. I didn't catch anything for it today, but might at some point. Lesson learned- if you get something done after lights out, send it in at lights on at 0430 the next morning. Anyway, we did a physical fitness test today. I did well- too well I think. I wanted to not stand out too much. I ran the 1.5 mile run in 8:43. My fastest time ever. Not bad considering I hAve only slept for about 7 hours in the last two days. Hopefully there's room to improve.  After that we showered and changed into airman battle uniforms for the first time. We worked on marching for a few hours on the drill pad. I forget what we did after that, but I'm sure it included a ton of getting yelled at for doing stuff no one told you how to do. Had a breifi g from the Chaplin, and then another one from an MTI ( military training instructor, an enlisted drill sergeant). He was very good and entertaining. Much better that when he's watching us march someplace and sees someone mess up. 

Anyway, we got to eat our second meal in the dining hall for dinner. Too bad because MREs are actually pretty tasty. 

After dinner we were matched back to our flight rooms. We never walk anywhere outside- we only march as flights and only when escorted by an OTS upperclassman. If we can demonstrate the ability to march on our own we will earn that privilege in a few weeks. 

We lined up in the hall at attention by squadron and then had to call knowledge for a half hour. That's where an officer trainee (OT) sounds off and the squadron states whatever it was were supposed to yell. Today's objectives for knowledge was the Air Force mission, OTS mission and Air Force vision, along with a quote of the day. 

We're now back in our rooms and I'm trimming and burning threads off my ABUs. Demerits get handed out starting Monday and I want to minimize the number I get. Below is a picture.  

So far I'm finding this exciting, but its starting to wear everyone thin. The lack of sleep and constant activities is pretty demanding. 

TD-0 Complete.

It's about 10:30pm. I just got back to the room. I drove over from the hotel with another guy. We arrived at about 1. We checked in, got issued reflective belts, attaché cases, and camel backs. Once enough offs did that we were run, with luggage, to the dorms. When we got to the dorms we were greeted by yelling, and we had to quickly drop our stuff off. It's lights out so I gotta run but ill complete this entry when I have more time and a keyboard (this is hard on an iPhone. 

Flying instead of driving

During the three hour drive from where I live in Saratoga to my parents house in Pleasantville, NY I thought to myself "Why the hell did I think driving from NY to AL would be a good idea?"  I promptly called the unit's travel agency and booked a flight for Tuesday evening, as that was the cheapest flight (not that I'm paying for it).  I'll stay in a hotel in downtown Montgomery, AL on Tuesday night, get some breakfast with some future classmates, and show up at the base in the afternoon.

I spent a nice weekend at home with my family and friends, and drove back up to Saratoga on Monday (Memorial Day).  I've been having a problem with my cell phone; specifically, it sucks. While I was home I fixed that and upgraded from a flip phone to an iPhone 5.  This should enable me to share much more of my experiences since I will be partially cut off from the outside world.  Unlike basic training, officer trainees are allowed to have cell phones and use them after scheduled military training (0500 to 1700).  Since my gov't issued laptop wont have access to my Google account (which is how I write this blog) the cell phone should help.

Since I'm flying I have to fit everything into two bags, and an attache.  Come to think of it, even if I were driving I would have to do the same since everything has to be carried in one trip.
Believe it or not, everything I need is in that picture. Two sets ABUs, two sets short sleeve blues, 1 set service blues including service coat, 1 lightweight blues jacket, 4 sets physical training uniform, 1 set privilege uniform, 3 sets of civilian clothes, toiletries, all necessary footwear, and all accessories such as belts, nametags, etc.  I was surprised how it all fit into one large suitcase and a standard issue nylon duffle bag.

Leaving Town Today

I'm leaving Saratoga today.  I plan on spending a weekend with my family and friends down in Pleasantville before driving to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL.

Yesterday I completed outprocessing at Westover.  For those unfamiliar with the military, whenever you leave a base you have to outprocess.  This entails visiting a bunch of organizations on base such as finance, medical, family support, training, personnel (military version of HR), and probably a few more I forgot.  They make sure you have everything you need, and give you an envelope to bring with you to give to the next base you arrive at.  When you arrive at the new base you inprocess, which accomplishes the opposite of outprocessing.

I stopped at the base exchange and picked up the last of the uniform items I need.  I think, in total, I only spent about $300 on uniforms.  The unit picked up the other $1500.  I'll try to post a picture of all the stuff when I get home and lay it all out.  It's going to take some creative packing to arrange it in a way that allows me to carry everything at once.  Once I leave my car I wont see it again for several weeks; everything has to go in one trip.