What's your take on CIET

sheriff3

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DS will be finishing CIET soon. Overall impression of his experience is so-so. He has said he has learned some things and has been able to polish some other thing he already knew. It's great to be able to interact with other cadets from all over the country. His biggest complaint is the sheer amount of down time. Some days they sit in their barracks for 6-8 hours waiting to do a 1 hour class. I realize its the first year but I hope CC seeks honest feedback from the cadets and cadre to tweek the training so the cadets can get the maximum benefit next year.
 
Earlier Regiments of CLC complained about the sheer amount of down time during the tactical lanes and the result ended up being the new Regt's had to set up a COP with a traffic control point with a variety of details that had to be manned and maintained whenever we weren't conducting operations. Be careful what you wish for.
 
I have heard nothing about down time from DS in the 5th regiment. (ending this week.)
 
DS never mentioned downtime. he said he enjoyed it more than CULP.
 
DS never mentioned downtime. he said he enjoyed it more than CULP.

Really? That's a shocker as CULP has been the highlight of my son's entire ROTC experience so far. However, he is currently (last day today) enjoying CTLT at Fort Bragg where he is attached to the 82nd Airborne. Actually was able to participate in live fire building entry/clearing exercises today. He was thoroughly unimpressed with CLC to the point that the National Guard option started looking like a viable option. CTLT has turned him back around to AD.
 
DS was supposed to go to Ukraine for CULP, but then Putin happened...so he was sent to Romania kind of last minute and had less than a stellar experience. I think the National Guard equivalent in Romania did not expect their arrival. Word from CLC is that there is a lot of standing around and about half of the training is a review of things that his battalion covered in labs etc. So far his best experience with ROTC/USA was his nine week internship in Stuttgart this summer. He was the first intern to arrive so he had his pick of assignments...plus he got to see Paris, Prague and Tel Aviv. My kid has it tough.
 
DS was supposed to go to Ukraine for CULP, but then Putin happened...so he was sent to Romania kind of last minute and had less than a stellar experience. I think the National Guard equivalent in Romania did not expect their arrival. Word from CLC is that there is a lot of standing around and about half of the training is a review of things that his battalion covered in labs etc. So far his best experience with ROTC/USA was his nine week internship in Stuttgart this summer. He was the first intern to arrive so he had his pick of assignments...plus he got to see Paris, Prague and Tel Aviv. My kid has it tough.
According to your comments, Ft Knox must be conducting two CLCs. The one you describe and the one my DD attended where she experienced very active and full training days and nights. She found it challenging and awesome. Attitude shapes ones experience.
 
Yes, cardinal21, I'm sure your little darling has a superior attitude and that this alone allowed them to have a better experience than all those other inferior cadets. That must be the only possible explanation for the discrepancy. It's not at all possible that different cadre, regiments, and quality of prior training could affect the experience at ALL.
FYI nofodad, I heard the exact same thing from 8 cadets who just finished.
 
DS was supposed to go to Ukraine for CULP, but then Putin happened...so he was sent to Romania kind of last minute and had less than a stellar experience. I think the National Guard equivalent in Romania did not expect their arrival. Word from CLC is that there is a lot of standing around and about half of the training is a review of things that his battalion covered in labs etc. So far his best experience with ROTC/USA was his nine week internship in Stuttgart this summer. He was the first intern to arrive so he had his pick of assignments...plus he got to see Paris, Prague and Tel Aviv. My kid has it tough.
According to your comments, Ft Knox must be conducting two CLCs. The one you describe and the one my DD attended where she experienced very active and full training days and nights. She found it challenging and awesome. Attitude shapes ones experience.

There are several potential explanations as to why my DS has not been challenged by CLC. My first reaction was to give his battalion cadre the credit for preparing him properly... you must know something about his attitude that I don't.
 
Yes, cardinal21, I'm sure your little darling has a superior attitude and that this alone allowed them to have a better experience than all those other inferior cadets. That must be the only possible explanation for the discrepancy. It's not at all possible that different cadre, regiments, and quality of prior training could affect the experience at ALL.
FYI nofodad, I heard the exact same thing from 8 cadets who just finished.

I was discussing this thread with DD and she made comments to me about her first hand experience at CLC that I summarize below.
I was part of 5th Reg that graduated on the 20th. Yes, I agree that the experience differs for every cadet that attends CLC. These experiences vary based on the cadre assigned to each platoon. My father only heard stories about what my platoon experienced. Yes, nofodad's son more than likely had a completely different experience than mine. It is true that other platoons had some down time while some platoons did not. My platoon was not allowed downtime due to cadre decisions. If cadets were caught sleeping or not doing priority of works, then we were in trouble and often given an extra class. During field time, it was the same. Some platoons had more privileges than others. Some cadets in our platoon complained because they saw other platoons being allowed to do things we could not. However, most of us appreciated what our cadre did. Even if we were restricted more than others, our cadre did what they thought was best for our platoon. That principle applies to all cadets that attended CLC. It was ultimately up to cadre how cadets spent their time. As for cadets' attitudes, I believe we all tried to be positive about CLC. We all encouraged each other no matter what platoon or company you were in. CLC was a great learning experience. The ROTC Class of 2016 had to face a major change in cadet summer training. All cadets did great!
 
I'm going to be honest, my ms2 is a natural born cynic with an eye through a "could be better" lense. He loved CIET!! (Can't recall if he was second or third regiment). I think that everyone's mileage may vary but he (who appreciates a well worded complaint) did not have a single negative.
 
My son also loved CIET. He was 1st regiment. He said not much down time, had good cadre, food was tolerable. Even after several weeks, we are still coaxing stories out of him!
 
Yes, cardinal21, I'm sure your little darling has a superior attitude and that this alone allowed them to have a better experience than all those other inferior cadets. That must be the only possible explanation for the discrepancy. It's not at all possible that different cadre, regiments, and quality of prior training could affect the experience at ALL.
FYI nofodad, I heard the exact same thing from 8 cadets who just finished.

I was discussing this thread with DD and she made comments to me about her first hand experience at CLC that I summarize below.
I was part of 5th Reg that graduated on the 20th. Yes, I agree that the experience differs for every cadet that attends CLC. These experiences vary based on the cadre assigned to each platoon. My father only heard stories about what my platoon experienced. Yes, nofodad's son more than likely had a completely different experience than mine. It is true that other platoons had some down time while some platoons did not. My platoon was not allowed downtime due to cadre decisions. If cadets were caught sleeping or not doing priority of works, then we were in trouble and often given an extra class. During field time, it was the same. Some platoons had more privileges than others. Some cadets in our platoon complained because they saw other platoons being allowed to do things we could not. However, most of us appreciated what our cadre did. Even if we were restricted more than others, our cadre did what they thought was best for our platoon. That principle applies to all cadets that attended CLC. It was ultimately up to cadre how cadets spent their time. As for cadets' attitudes, I believe we all tried to be positive about CLC. We all encouraged each other no matter what platoon or company you were in. CLC was a great learning experience. The ROTC Class of 2016 had to face a major change in cadet summer training. All cadets did great!
Must depend on which group they were with. DS is 9th Regiment, says he is having a blast.
 
My DS is in 7th Regiment and is enjoying it all, other that sheer exhaustion. But that comes with it. He has brushed up training on somethings but then has been able to experience other training. So I guess it does depend on what type of training opportunities that is offered at different schools. All in all he is enjoying it and learning a lot, and that is what matters.
 
Just wanted to point out that some of these posts are about CIET and some are about CLC. Generally I've heard much better things about CIET, which seems to be the trend on this thread also.
 
Interesting article regarding CST written by a Captain who worked there this year.

http://taskandpurpose.com/2-major-o...ocial&utm_campaign=share&utm_content=tp-share

That reads like he has put more thought into the process than anyone else up to this point. Excellent article and couldn't agree more. Especially about the tactics it takes to defeat the enemy and the part about basic training creating more dedicated cadets.

DS told me they should do away with ROTC and just run people thru OCS.
 
DS has been frustrated with AROTC for a couple years and for many reasons. One consistent complaint came whenever his battalion participated in JFTX with other battalions. The lack of skills in some battalions according to him was disturbing. I think the article is terrific and the solutions the author lays out make perfect sense. Hopefully CIET or some other vehicle like it will provide a unified curriculum that will even out the discrepancies that exist with the current model. It's possible that the reason that CLC has more issues than CIET is because the cadets participating in CLC were trained in the old LDAC model. I think for years for some battalions the only concern was training cadets to perform well at LDAC. Then for better or worse theres a new set of rules to follow. Oh well I guess there will always be a need for guinea pigs.
 
DS has been frustrated with AROTC for a couple years and for many reasons. One consistent complaint came whenever his battalion participated in JFTX with other battalions. The lack of skills in some battalions according to him was disturbing. I think the article is terrific and the solutions the author lays out make perfect sense. Hopefully CIET or some other vehicle like it will provide a unified curriculum that will even out the discrepancies that exist with the current model. It's possible that the reason that CLC has more issues than CIET is because the cadets participating in CLC were trained in the old LDAC model. I think for years for some battalions the only concern was training cadets to perform well at LDAC. Then for better or worse theres a new set of rules to follow. Oh well I guess there will always be a need for guinea pigs.

DS was an MSIV this past year. At his school the IV's basically got pushed aside and taken out of leadership roles because the cadre was concerned about getting the MSIII's up to speed, but yet the III's didn't have the tactical training so it was all kind of a cluster. I know not all schools were like his.

I understand that in transition phases someone is likely to get short changed, but his PMS did them no favors this past year.
 
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