gstudent99
5-Year Member
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2011
- Messages
- 34
I don't post much but I thought I'd post something about my son's CTLT experience so far.
He just finished his AROTC MSIII year and left for his CTLT assignment on Monday. I have talked to him several times since and I have never heard him more excited about anything. He has been there about 2 and a half days and he says he's learned more in those 2 days than during any 2 months of anything else (slight exaggeration I'm sure).
I think part of it is that he has never really been sure of exactly what real life is like after commissioning. He now has a glimpse and he likes what he sees. He enjoys the collaboration and friendship among the junior officers and also the close interaction they have with their platoons. He mentioned his observation of how they operate based on professionalism and proficiency rather than overt formality. He wasn't really sure how to describe this but it was different than he expected.
On a side note, he is a bit uncomfortable being called "sir" by the platoon members and the LTs don't want him to call them sir. While he doesn't feel he deserves it he has decided to just go with the flow.
The unit he is with is preparing for a 4 day field training next week where they will be conducting live fire exercises with some really big guns. I expect his excitement level will only increase with that.
His CTLT assignment is with a branch that he hadn't given much thought to previously. He has always said that he doesn't really cared which branch he ends up in but is leaning toward Engineer or Signal (he is an engineering major). Now he says he wants a branch that has some big vehicles to play with (I think this may be the immediacy of his environment talking).
He has always been a very easy going individual so it is strange to see this level of excitement. He will go directly from CTLT to LDAC so he has a packed 7 weeks ahead of him. I hope LDAC keeps up the level of discovery, however I suspect it will be a bit of a slow down.
Just thought I'd share some of his excitement for those who might be interested.
He just finished his AROTC MSIII year and left for his CTLT assignment on Monday. I have talked to him several times since and I have never heard him more excited about anything. He has been there about 2 and a half days and he says he's learned more in those 2 days than during any 2 months of anything else (slight exaggeration I'm sure).
I think part of it is that he has never really been sure of exactly what real life is like after commissioning. He now has a glimpse and he likes what he sees. He enjoys the collaboration and friendship among the junior officers and also the close interaction they have with their platoons. He mentioned his observation of how they operate based on professionalism and proficiency rather than overt formality. He wasn't really sure how to describe this but it was different than he expected.
On a side note, he is a bit uncomfortable being called "sir" by the platoon members and the LTs don't want him to call them sir. While he doesn't feel he deserves it he has decided to just go with the flow.
The unit he is with is preparing for a 4 day field training next week where they will be conducting live fire exercises with some really big guns. I expect his excitement level will only increase with that.
His CTLT assignment is with a branch that he hadn't given much thought to previously. He has always said that he doesn't really cared which branch he ends up in but is leaning toward Engineer or Signal (he is an engineering major). Now he says he wants a branch that has some big vehicles to play with (I think this may be the immediacy of his environment talking).
He has always been a very easy going individual so it is strange to see this level of excitement. He will go directly from CTLT to LDAC so he has a packed 7 weeks ahead of him. I hope LDAC keeps up the level of discovery, however I suspect it will be a bit of a slow down.
Just thought I'd share some of his excitement for those who might be interested.
