DS is one year in the Army

NorwichDad

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Actually it will be in two weeks. Some journey. It started with IBOLC with the unrelenting heat last summer. The Captain he had was exceptional with the sole focus that his men would pass Ranger School. Pretty much all in his group felt IBOLC was much harder than Ranger School. It was a lesson in hydration and managing heat. Most others in the Infantry would feel differently about that. Ranger school was also unrelenting from the food and sleep deprivation. It seemed to be a measure in having the ability of staying focused. You need to understand and complete your orders despite your own deprivations. As you get in the zombie state and loose focus it is called droning. Saw a friend walk over a large diamond back snake in this state. The diamondback must have been as shocked as they were and did not strike. Had a close call in the mountain phase with a rock ledge. Life can be a matter of inches. It is a dangerous business. At the end of Ranger school he was thirty pounds lighter. We took him out to dinner the night before graduation. He thought about having a beer but realized he was not allowed. Good thing he did not because his SGT came by our table and he would have been recycled into Florida for another 3 weeks. "Dont ever break the rules no matter how small. It just not worth it." Ranger Graduation is an incredible show and go to it if you are ever at Fort Benning. After Ranger School they give them a few weeks of light duty, some moved right to their duty stations. He entered another four week school. At that point they head off for their duty stations but he managed a transfer at the last minute. You start out on staff until they find you a platoon which he got a month ago. He has a seasoned group of sgts and good platoon. They are a great bunch he says. They played a little trick on him. They told him to show up for a meeting in his full dress ASU. A little initiation because all others would be in civilian clothes. A friend tipped him off and he came to their disapointment in civilian clothes. I said he should have played along. No, he said they need to think I know everything even though I dont. Bigger things ahead I cant discuss.

Good Luck to the Class of 2013 and the journeys they will take.
 
Congrats to your son! Great job on his getting through Ranger school and getting a platoon.
 
Congrats to you and your son Norwich Dad! Hard to believe it has been a year. My DS hopes to follow in your son's footsteps. Your son is a great role model.
 
Wow, how time flys by.

It's hard to imagine they have been commissioned for a year already. I guess I'll give my son's update.

Like NorwichDad's son mine headed off quickly after graduation.

Repoted to Ft. Rucker to start Aviation BOLC on June 1st. Over the summer he completed ABOLC, Dunker Training, and then went to SERE in August, a mix of hot and Hurricane. Primary Flight training started in September, he finished Primary the beginning of December. Instrument Training started right away. BWS (Basic Warfighting Skills) Flight training started the end of February and ended late March. At the end of BWS they totaled all the points and the students had there selection for the airframes they will be flying. Son was able to get his first choice, OH-58D Kiowa. Advanced Flight training in the Kiowa started April 16th, this section will take 19 weeks, or more depending on weather and flight time, he anticipates graduation somewhere around the first part of September.

It's been a long year and still more to go. It looks like he will have the opportunity to go to Ranger School once he graduates from Flight School. He still does not know where he will go after graduation, they have submitted their wish list and are now just waiting. The 3 places he put down are Hawaii (We're pulling for that one), Ft. Campbell, and Ft. Bragg, should find out soon. Just as NorwichDad said, he will either go to a staff position and wait until a PL slot opens or go straight to PL if available. Once at his new base he will continue with more Flight Training for a while.

Son will have an obligation to the Army of a minimum 6 years once he graduates from Flight School. A lot of new experiences to come I'm sure.

NorwichDad, congratulations to your son for all he has accomplished so far and best of luck to him in the future.
 
Wow, how time flys by.

It's hard to imagine they have been commissioned for a year already. I guess I'll give my son's update.

Like NorwichDad's son mine headed off quickly after graduation.

Repoted to Ft. Rucker to start Aviation BOLC on June 1st. Over the summer he completed ABOLC, Dunker Training, and then went to SERE in August, a mix of hot and Hurricane. Primary Flight training started in September, he finished Primary the beginning of December. Instrument Training started right away. BWS (Basic Warfighting Skills) Flight training started the end of February and ended late March. At the end of BWS they totaled all the points and the students had there selection for the airframes they will be flying. Son was able to get his first choice, OH-58D Kiowa. Advanced Flight training in the Kiowa started April 16th, this section will take 19 weeks, or more depending on weather and flight time, he anticipates graduation somewhere around the first part of September.

It's been a long year and still more to go. It looks like he will have the opportunity to go to Ranger School once he graduates from Flight School. He still does not know where he will go after graduation, they have submitted their wish list and are now just waiting. The 3 places he put down are Hawaii (We're pulling for that one), Ft. Campbell, and Ft. Bragg, should find out soon. Just as NorwichDad said, he will either go to a staff position and wait until a PL slot opens or go straight to PL if available. Once at his new base he will continue with more Flight Training for a while.

Son will have an obligation to the Army of a minimum 6 years once he graduates from Flight School. A lot of new experiences to come I'm sure.

NorwichDad, congratulations to your son for all he has accomplished so far and best of luck to him in the future.

He won't have to deploy, which he may or may not be happy about.
 
He won't have to deploy, which he may or may not be happy about.

You probably already know the answer to that one, now if you were to ask his mother, well....

He told us when we were down visiting him that it looked like Kiowa's would probably not be deploying by the time he finishes school.

You would most likely know more about that then us.
 
You probably already know the answer to that one, now if you were to ask his mother, well....

He told us when we were down visiting him that it looked like Kiowa's would probably not be deploying by the time he finishes school.

You would most likely know more about that then us.

The last OH-58D squadrons have deployed. They will no longer come to OEF.
 
Congrats NorwichDad and Jcleppe. What an exciting year!
 
The last OH-58D squadrons have deployed. They will no longer come to OEF.

Just curious, are you still flying the OH-58D, I assume so since your name is still Scoutpilot.

There sure seems to ba a lot of trash talk that goes on among the different airframes. Can't say that's anything new. His PMS during his senior year is an Apache Pilot, boy has he given his younger brother an ear full when he found out his older brother selected the OH-58D, it was his first choice.
 
Just curious, are you still flying the OH-58D, I assume so since your name is still Scoutpilot.

There sure seems to ba a lot of trash talk that goes on among the different airframes. Can't say that's anything new. His PMS during his senior year is an Apache Pilot, boy has he given his younger brother an ear full when he found out his older brother selected the OH-58D, it was his first choice.

Yes, there is a lot of talk in that way. Apache pilots aren't pilots. They're weight/balance who got bad grades in flight school.

I'll PM you about what I'm doing now.
 
Congrats to your son.

Graduating from Ranger School is something special. I don't know if they (Ranger School grads) still joke about it or not, but some of us that had misfortunes bantered you didn't attend real Ranger school, if you didn't recyle, Winter Ranger, or had Desert Phase.
 
Actually it will be in two weeks. Some journey. It started with IBOLC with the unrelenting heat last summer. The Captain he had was exceptional with the sole focus that his men would pass Ranger School. Pretty much all in his group felt IBOLC was much harder than Ranger School. It was a lesson in hydration and managing heat. Most others in the Infantry would feel differently about that. Ranger school was also unrelenting from the food and sleep deprivation. It seemed to be a measure in having the ability of staying focused. You need to understand and complete your orders despite your own deprivations. As you get in the zombie state and loose focus it is called droning. Saw a friend walk over a large diamond back snake in this state. The diamondback must have been as shocked as they were and did not strike. Had a close call in the mountain phase with a rock ledge. Life can be a matter of inches. It is a dangerous business. At the end of Ranger school he was thirty pounds lighter. We took him out to dinner the night before graduation. He thought about having a beer but realized he was not allowed. Good thing he did not because his SGT came by our table and he would have been recycled into Florida for another 3 weeks. "Dont ever break the rules no matter how small. It just not worth it." Ranger Graduation is an incredible show and go to it if you are ever at Fort Benning. After Ranger School they give them a few weeks of light duty, some moved right to their duty stations. He entered another four week school. At that point they head off for their duty stations but he managed a transfer at the last minute. You start out on staff until they find you a platoon which he got a month ago. He has a seasoned group of sgts and good platoon. They are a great bunch he says. They played a little trick on him. They told him to show up for a meeting in his full dress ASU. A little initiation because all others would be in civilian clothes. A friend tipped him off and he came to their disapointment in civilian clothes. I said he should have played along. No, he said they need to think I know everything even though I dont. Bigger things ahead I cant discuss.

Good Luck to the Class of 2013 and the journeys they will take.

Thanks, NorwichDad, for the update on your son's rigorous twelve months. I remember noting how your son didn't let any grass grow under his feet between his graduation from Norwich and his entrance into IBOLC.

And now please resolve an important issue. When I pronounced IBOLC as "EYE-Bowl-Sea", Cadet Delahanty scoffed at me and claimed it is "AYE-Bollock". Is he right?
 
It's more of an Eye-Bowl-Ick, which the emphasis on "eye".
Ah the finer points of pronunciations for military acronyms!
 
I had the good furtune to attend the Marshall Conference at VMI. It's a conference for top performing Army ROTC cadets, but they invited academies to be there (did not receive awards though). Because my roommate was the 1/c who decided who went to conference, and because I hadn't yet attended a conference, I got to go.

Really impressive group of ROTC cadets, and I enjoyed our time there, but I kept hearing about BOLC II. Does that still exist? How is that different from IBOLC?
 
Thanks to all

Thanks GoArmy and Philmont. Wishes of success for the future. Philmont I met your DS. He is a fine young man who volunteers and participates in all the ROTC orgs at Norwich. He is going do well.

Jcleppe, Best wishes to DS1. Aviation is the hardest branch to get. Congrats. Best wishes to DS1 and good luck to DS2 in CDQC. CDQC slots are very difficult to obtain. I sure DS2 has been in the pool quite a bit preparing.

Best Wishes to the Class of 13 in the future endeavors.
 
I had the good furtune to attend the Marshall Conference at VMI. It's a conference for top performing Army ROTC cadets, but they invited academies to be there (did not receive awards though). Because my roommate was the 1/c who decided who went to conference, and because I hadn't yet attended a conference, I got to go.

Really impressive group of ROTC cadets, and I enjoyed our time there, but I kept hearing about BOLC II. Does that still exist? How is that different from IBOLC?

This looks recently updated:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Officer_Leaders_Course

I am not sure of the recent changes. They eliminated/combined a phase of the course. I am not near LTs so I can't get the latest scoop.
 
Congrats to your son.

Graduating from Ranger School is something special. I don't know if they (Ranger School grads) still joke about it or not, but some of us that had misfortunes bantered you didn't attend real Ranger school, if you didn't recyle, Winter Ranger, or had Desert Phase.


A friend had said real rangers recylce and he did once.
 
Thanks, NorwichDad, for the update on your son's rigorous twelve months. I remember noting how your son didn't let any grass grow under his feet between his graduation from Norwich and his entrance into IBOLC.

And now please resolve an important issue. When I pronounced IBOLC as "EYE-Bowl-Sea", Cadet Delahanty scoffed at me and claimed it is "AYE-Bollock". Is he right?

Cadet Delananty is correct. I had the same issue with DS last year. And if you go in the summer to Benning, to quote Roosevelt E. Roosevelt from Good Morning Vietnam "The weather out there today is hot and shi##y with continued hot and shi##y in the afternoon. Tomorrow a chance of continued crappy with a pissy weather front coming down from the north. Basically, it's hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut. "
 
but I kept hearing about BOLC II. Does that still exist? How is that different from IBOLC?

BOLC II was phased out in 2009. It was a "general" transition BOLC meant for all officers not Chaplain/Medical and was held at Ft. Sill/Benning. After BOLC II you would head to your specific branch BOLC (III). In order to save money, they just integrated BOLC II/III and from what I hear BOLC II was kind of redundant anyway.
 
BOLC II was phased out in 2009. It was a "general" transition BOLC meant for all officers not Chaplain/Medical and was held at Ft. Sill/Benning. After BOLC II you would head to your specific branch BOLC (III). In order to save money, they just integrated BOLC II/III and from what I hear BOLC II was kind of redundant anyway.

If I refer to something that has been phased out, doesn't that make me old? :eek:
 
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