Company and Regiment Personalities

MomWPgirl

10-Year Member
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Mar 9, 2010
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I have found it to be very interesting that each company and regiment seems to have it's own personality according to the cadets I have spoken with. Some are big on team-building, some on rules and restrictions, one may have an encouraging style while another may lead with an intimidating style. It seems to me each cadet may have different experience depending on company etc. Especially when they stay with the same group for all 4 years. Lots of variety of styles and personality. Was wondering how much is dictated or standardized. As a parent, I find the whole process facinating but was a bit surprised about this phenom. Any thoughts?
 
Well as of right now, all the rising Cows (juniors) get scrambled into different companies and then stay in those companies their firstie year. So they are not in the same company all 4 years.
 
I have found it to be very interesting that each company and regiment seems to have it's own personality according to the cadets I have spoken with. Some are big on team-building, some on rules and restrictions, one may have an encouraging style while another may lead with an intimidating style. It seems to me each cadet may have different experience depending on company etc. Especially when they stay with the same group for all 4 years. Lots of variety of styles and personality. Was wondering how much is dictated or standardized. As a parent, I find the whole process facinating but was a bit surprised about this phenom. Any thoughts?

It depends on the Tac, many times. When a Tac/Tac NCO changes the personality can change a lot. Over three years in my company, the personality noticed from being very gung-ho about intramurals to being a laid-back company with good grades but not much cohesiveness.
 
New cows can change a company a lot. A few firsties in my co hate the company now because it used to be chill, but the cows this year have decided to make it more hot.
 
It's largely dependent on TACs. For instance, during beast everyone had a different Beast experience (particularly at the range). Each company did certain things others didn't. I got to shoot approximately 1000 rounds during range week while other cadets who were in other companies didn't get to shoot as much. Our TAC (a green beret) wanted us to shoot. To the point that we weren't allowed to study knowledge for that whole week. We didn't even have set meal times. We ate between rounds of shooting. We shot from (literally) when the sun was up to when it went down. At night, we cleaned rifles.

Other companies, on the other hand, didn't have that experience because their TACs didn't put as much emphasis on it. Other companies got different SFR experiences. Some companies (So I hear) got helicopters during their SFR lanes. We didn't.

So, you are definitely right. Each company has a unique experience, and it is all dependent on the leadership.
 
It definitely seems many experiences and are arbitrary as so many things are company dependent. Cadets have less control over their WP experience than I had previously imagined. Have talked to some who are having a phenomenal time all things considered.....while others are miserable due to company assignments. Facinating......love watching and learning about the process!
 
It's largely dependent on TACs. For instance, during beast everyone had a different Beast experience (particularly at the range). Each company did certain things others didn't. I got to shoot approximately 1000 rounds during range week while other cadets who were in other companies didn't get to shoot as much. Our TAC (a green beret) wanted us to shoot. To the point that we weren't allowed to study knowledge for that whole week. We didn't even have set meal times. We ate between rounds of shooting. We shot from (literally) when the sun was up to when it went down. At night, we cleaned rifles.

Other companies, on the other hand, didn't have that experience because their TACs didn't put as much emphasis on it. Other companies got different SFR experiences. Some companies (So I hear) got helicopters during their SFR lanes. We didn't.

So, you are definitely right. Each company has a unique experience, and it is all dependent on the leadership.

That sounds like an absolutely awesome week.
 
Common Theme Military or Civilian Life

I have found it to be very interesting that each company and regiment seems to have it's own personality according to the cadets I have spoken with. Some are big on team-building, some on rules and restrictions, one may have an encouraging style while another may lead with an intimidating style. It seems to me each cadet may have different experience depending on company etc. Especially when they stay with the same group for all 4 years. Lots of variety of styles and personality. Was wondering how much is dictated or standardized. As a parent, I find the whole process facinating but was a bit surprised about this phenom. Any thoughts?

Indeed it is interesting this occurs in the military as well as civilian life. As a non-military person I would have imagined the tight structure of the military would have diluted the impact of personalities on the "job" at hand, whatever that might be. Speaking from a ka-jillion years working for small to extra-large civilian companies, the personality of the owner, the CEO, but mostly your day-to-day manager directly affects who is hired, promoted, and how you are expected to perform your duties. Our boy's CBT "war story" illustrates how personality affects training situations.

His CBT squad leader was a great believer in PT and drilled 'n drilled the guys until they were so physically strong they gained a rep as the toughest in their platoon. At morning PT they would whip thru the drills and while other squads were panting and dropping out, they completed the drills early and did them again. When they were bored in the evening these fools PT'd themselves! The upside? They really were tough. During March Back they were assigned to the end of the platoon to pick up the stragglers and keep kids from dropping out.

His war story? He managed to avoid the flu that hit CBT this summer until March Back. He loves to tell the tale of how he was able to haul others in trouble by having them hang onto his camelback handle while he painted the hills of upstate New York with vomit. He embelishes it further by noting he did March Back on less than a couple of hours of sleep 'cause he was assigned security (e.g, guard) duty, he found his partner asleep and didn't trust them to stay awake so he stayed awake all night to cover the duty. They were late arriving at the re-org/rest point so there was no break for the squad there. "Why were they late?" we asked. His squad leader had them travel through the heavy woods practicing combat movements as was the premise of the challenge rather than taking the established roads.

The whole of it all is that the squad became a tight, supportive group full of pride and a sense of accomplishment greater than I would have imagined.
 
Speaking from a ka-jillion years working for small to extra-large civilian companies, the personality of the owner, the CEO, but mostly your day-to-day manager directly affects who is hired, promoted, and how you are expected to perform your duties.

I agree. After 24 years in the AF and 14 years working for a Fortune 50 corporation, with respect to leadership, there are a lot similarities. The major difference is that when you go to a military meeting, it's easier to spot who is in charge!
 
That sounds like an absolutely awesome week.


It was (except for when it started to rain...shooting in heavy rain was interesting). And we spent most of it actually sleeping out in the field. From what I understand other companies didn't stay in the field that much during range week.

We saw H-co and F-co a lot, so maybe they did.
 
It was (except for when it started to rain...shooting in heavy rain was interesting). And we spent most of it actually sleeping out in the field. From what I understand other companies didn't stay in the field that much during range week.

We saw H-co and F-co a lot, so maybe they did.

I was in F co, Im pretty sure everyone was issued the same amount of ammo for range week, because I shot 1000 rounds minimum. Our company emphasis during range week was just 100% qualification on the 1st day. I dont think during beast they varied company training schedules that much because we all had to do the same things.
 
I was in F co, Im pretty sure everyone was issued the same amount of ammo for range week, because I shot 1000 rounds minimum. Our company emphasis during range week was just 100% qualification on the 1st day. I dont think during beast they varied company training schedules that much because we all had to do the same things.


Perhaps. There are certain Cadet's who've told me they didn't have an opporunity to shoot anything near 1,000 rounds.

The training shcedules were similar, but each company ran their own ranges so the way the ranges were run probably varied.
 
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