LDAC 2013

Just spent $26 to send $18 worth of candy and shaving cream to LDAC. It would have evened out, but I forgot the beef jerky.

That kind of efficiency should qualify me for a high position in government.
 
EDelahanty said:
Just spent $26 to send $18 worth of candy and shaving cream to LDAC. It would have evened out, but I forgot the beef jerky.

That kind of efficiency should qualify me for a high position in government.
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Nah. you would qualify only if you spent an additional $18 to send the beef jerky. Then you would be qualified for Congress!
Thinking ahead a couple of years for my DS, should one assume the Cadets do not have access to buy stuff on base? I know getting pkgs is a nice thing, but wondered about what they have access to buy on their own.

PS... how is that Jack doing?
 
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LDAC really that much easier?

I was surprised to hear that LDAC is supposed to be easier than previous years. I received my daughter's first letter today and she said a lot of cadets failed their PT test and automatically got N's for the camp and she said about half of the cadets failed their day land nav and about half failed their night land nav. This sounds like a lot of failures. I don't know how those cadets did on the make-up course.

I do have to say that I am very proud of my daughter as she is doing well and she passed PT and scored a 95/100 on land nav. (She found all points, but one was a secondary one.)
 
Lizzy said:
I was surprised to hear that LDAC is supposed to be easier than previous years. I received my daughter's first letter today and she said a lot of cadets failed their PT test and automatically got N's for the camp and she said about half of the cadets failed their day land nav and about half failed their night land nav. This sounds like a lot of failures. I don't know how those cadets did on the make-up course.

I do have to say that I am very proud of my daughter as she is doing well and she passed PT and scored a 95/100 on land nav. (She found all points, but one was a secondary one.)
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Not to be that guy but I have been around LDAC for a few years and it has gotten easier. If cadets are failing LN and the APFT that is on them.
 
Interesting statistic from the accessions folks given during the briefing I saw for 1st/2nd Regiments; for fy13 cadets who wanted active duty and had GPAs above a 3.0, only 3% were referred to reserve duty. I want to say that of those in the 2.2-2.6 range (number might be a little off, going from memory) 18% were able to get AD. I have no clue if that includes garaunteed AD SMIs. That said, the model has radically changed this year. I want to say there were 7 or so branches that had garaunteed active duty programs for certain degrees with a 2.75+ GPA. It'll be interesting to see how this year group falls. I can't say that I'm excited to be a gueneapig this go around.

e: Also, they gave some clarification on how the removal of the dead zone will work. Branches fill as they normally would (up to 55% or whatever the number is with ADSO) regardless of OML placement. The remaining allotments are decided using the DA branching model. So even if your branch of choice fills up at the 30% OML line with ADSO and you're at 31%, you may still wind up getting it through the branching model.
 
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AscoreD said:
Has anyone heard as to how the new land navigation concept (clusters/grouping) is going with the cadets? I'm curious to see how this all is playing out.
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My daughter is there now in the 7th Regiment and has (1) week to go. We've rec'd a few letters from her and she is actually enjoying herself a great deal fro the most part. She wasn't really a tomboy but grew up *very* active and always pushing her limits. Her favorite part has been the obstacle/confidence courses.

Land Nav, especially night LN, has always been a thorn in the side for my daughter but she passed both on the 1st try. Her school had never taken the cadets out to shoot rifles so she was concerned about qualifying but she passed that the 1st time as well.

She's commented more than once that they are getting 5-6 hours of sleep and showers only 3 days so far. She goes back and forth on whether the MRE's are acceptable.
 
Received a brief note from Cadet Delahanty today. I wasn't certain we would hear from him, even though we had included some addressed, stamped envelopes.

Other than a shortage of sleep, he is faring reasonably well. He passed land nav, though his score on the day portion was low enough to preclude recondo. He noted that more than a third of the cadets in his squad failed night land nav, which he says he aced.

He was a few pushups short of a 300 score on the APFT, which he can live with. The LDAC APFT had been preying on his mind for almost three years, and now it is behind him. Combined with the elimination of stress over recondo, I imagine he'll get a lot out of the next few weeks.

He was stunned by the awesome presence of Mt. Rainier in the distance, as I had been years ago when I lived in Seattle. Even more stunning was the ravenous way his mates demolished the box of candy I mailed. I had figured that any treats I sent would be shared, so I sent a lot.
 
EDelahanty said:
Received a brief note from Cadet Delahanty today. I wasn't certain we would hear from him, even though we had included some addressed, stamped envelopes.

Other than a shortage of sleep, he is faring reasonably well. He passed land nav, though his score on the day portion was low enough to preclude recondo. He noted that more than a third of the cadets in his squad failed night land nav, which he says he aced.

He was a few pushups short of a 300 score on the APFT, which he can live with. The LDAC APFT had been preying on his mind for almost three years, and now it is behind him. Combined with the elimination of stress over recondo, I imagine he'll get a lot out of the next few weeks.

He was stunned by the awesome presence of Mt. Rainier in the distance, as I had been years ago when I lived in Seattle. Even more stunning was the ravenous way his mates demolished the box of candy I mailed. I had figured that any treats I sent would be shared, so I sent a lot.
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Glad they key stressors are behind him and he did so well on night land nav. I'm sure he'll do well in the remainder of LDAC and learn a lot. He sounds like a great kid and a great future officer.
 
EDelahanty said:
Received a brief note from Cadet Delahanty today. I wasn't certain we would hear from him, even though we had included some addressed, stamped envelopes.

Other than a shortage of sleep, he is faring reasonably well. He passed land nav, though his score on the day portion was low enough to preclude recondo. He noted that more than a third of the cadets in his squad failed night land nav, which he says he aced.

He was a few pushups short of a 300 score on the APFT, which he can live with. The LDAC APFT had been preying on his mind for almost three years, and now it is behind him. Combined with the elimination of stress over recondo, I imagine he'll get a lot out of the next few weeks.

He was stunned by the awesome presence of Mt. Rainier in the distance, as I had been years ago when I lived in Seattle. Even more stunning was the ravenous way his mates demolished the box of candy I mailed. I had figured that any treats I sent would be shared, so I sent a lot.
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We have gotten two letters from out daughter, also in the 13th with Cadet Delahanty. We live in Seattle and can attest that the weather has been very nice so far and Mt Rainier has been very visible.

She got through land nav and her APFT. Her APFT was just a few points lower than her final APFT at college. I think the 13th might suffer from the longer delay between end of school and start of LDAC.

Overall we're hearing activities are fun, lots of marching and many blisters across her platoon, no showers for 5 days and it is cold at night.
 
EDelahanty said:
Received a brief note from Cadet Delahanty today. I wasn't certain we would hear from him, even though we had included some addressed, stamped envelopes.

Other than a shortage of sleep, he is faring reasonably well. He passed land nav, though his score on the day portion was low enough to preclude recondo. He noted that more than a third of the cadets in his squad failed night land nav, which he says he aced.

He was a few pushups short of a 300 score on the APFT, which he can live with. The LDAC APFT had been preying on his mind for almost three years, and now it is behind him. Combined with the elimination of stress over recondo, I imagine he'll get a lot out of the next few weeks.

He was stunned by the awesome presence of Mt. Rainier in the distance, as I had been years ago when I lived in Seattle. Even more stunning was the ravenous way his mates demolished the box of candy I mailed. I had figured that any treats I sent would be shared, so I sent a lot.
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That is very similiar to how my DS did two years ago. Best wishes on Branching.
 
I have finished LDAC training as of today. I graduate on Tuesday, so if anyone has any questions about it feel free to ask here or PM me. There were a number of changes this year
 
To clear up the cluster point land Nav thing, the only thing primary vs secondary points matters for is Recondo. To just pass, you simply need 4/6 for day and 2/4 for night. It does not matter if they are primary or secondary except for Recondo, where you need a total of 80 points for both day and night and be a first time go.

The course is easy. They give you like 16 known points on the course which is pretty much an answer key. I never touched my compass and got all my points. People fail when they second guess their pace count, don't use a map correctly, don't use attack points, or bust time. 33% of my platoon failed either day or night their first time, which is sad.
 
-Bull- said:
I have finished LDAC training as of today. I graduate on Tuesday, so if anyone has any questions about it feel free to ask here or PM me. There were a number of changes this year
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Congratulations. Glad to see you back.

-Bull- said:
To clear up the cluster point land Nav thing, the only thing primary vs secondary points matters for is Recondo. To just pass, you simply need 4/6 for day and 2/4 for night. It does not matter if they are primary or secondary except for Recondo, where you need a total of 80 points for both day and night and be a first time go.

The course is easy. They give you like 16 known points on the course which is pretty much an answer key. I never touched my compass and got all my points. People fail when they second guess their pace count, don't use a map correctly, don't use attack points, or bust time. 33% of my platoon failed either day or night their first time, which is sad.
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Your mention of 33% of a group failing a Land Nav exercise the first time seems to be common. A couple of questions in that regard...

1) Are these folks failing the second time as well? (i.e. do we have a larger number of "N"s coming out this year than normal?) Or do they figure it out the second time?

2) The ones figuring it out the second time - is it because they become more familiarized with the lay of the land (attack points) or is it because they are getting corrective coaching to help them learn their skills?

3) Your humble opinion - is this test valid to determine whether a cadet separated from his unit (this is not a group activity) could actually navigate in an unfamiliar terrain to find a known place where he can find support?
 
Thanks, goaliedad!

I'm graduating with an overall E and company honor grad so I had a pretty good camp.

I don't know an exact stat for second time no go's, but it is significantly less than first time no go's. We had 15 fail first time and I think about 5 of those were second time no go's.

1) the above should cover that pretty well. From what we've been told, stats look about the same for ratings as last year. About 17% N's, 74% S's, and 8% E's.

2) Yes. If you fail, you stay and get retrained and retest the next day while your platoon moves to advanced land nav (a complete joke of a day). This year they had each cadet wear a GPS tracker so they can trace all of your steps. If you fail, you go sit down with cadre and they look at your route to see what the problem was. Most failures were because people tried to dead reckon instead of attack points or they didn't move quickly enough and busted time. The course requires long movements between each points. By retest day people realized what they needed to fix for the most part.

3) Yes and no. The points are all off of roads and trails so you don't really encounter any terrain. It does require long movements to each point which can be challenging. I felt the test was difficult enough to where you need to be proficient with a pace count and map association (since there isn't any terrain), but you don't really need to use a compass at all.
 
-Bull- said:
Thanks, goaliedad!

I'm graduating with an overall E and company honor grad so I had a pretty good camp.

I don't know an exact stat for second time no go's, but it is significantly less than first time no go's. We had 15 fail first time and I think about 5 of those were second time no go's.

1) the above should cover that pretty well. From what we've been told, stats look about the same for ratings as last year. About 17% N's, 74% S's, and 8% E's.

2) Yes. If you fail, you stay and get retrained and retest the next day while your platoon moves to advanced land nav (a complete joke of a day). This year they had each cadet wear a GPS tracker so they can trace all of your steps. If you fail, you go sit down with cadre and they look at your route to see what the problem was. Most failures were because people tried to dead reckon instead of attack points or they didn't move quickly enough and busted time. The course requires long movements between each points. By retest day people realized what they needed to fix for the most part.

3) Yes and no. The points are all off of roads and trails so you don't really encounter any terrain. It does require long movements to each point which can be challenging. I felt the test was difficult enough to where you need to be proficient with a pace count and map association (since there isn't any terrain), but you don't really need to use a compass at all.
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Congratulations!!
 
So Bull....what Regiment and platoon were you in? I only ask because we're anxiously awaiting a call from our daughter in the 7th Regiment and it appears you have Internet access so do you have access to your phone as well?

Congrats on doing well at LDAC. I know my daughter said she had an overall E as of Day 10 but we haven't heard anything since.
 
I'm in 8th Reg. Some of us got our phones back, but some platoons have not for various reasons. Also, we've still been busy during the day and were only supposed to use our phones after duty hours.

Also, there's no way someone could know they have an overall grade by Day 10, it's just way too early in the cycle. She most likely got an E on an individual evaluation. Those then get compiled and the Regimental cadre write your CER and give you the overall rating. About 8.3% of cadets got overall E's last year. From what we've been told, it's around the same again this year.

On a separate note, a few of you parents would have loved to sit in on the accessions brief. There's been a few changes this year.
 
-Bull- said:
I'm in 8th Reg. Some of us got our phones back, but some platoons have not for various reasons. Also, we've still been busy during the day and were only supposed to use our phones after duty hours.

Also, there's no way someone could know they have an overall grade by Day 10, it's just way too early in the cycle. She most likely got an E on an individual evaluation. Those then get compiled and the Regimental cadre write your CER and give you the overall rating. About 8.3% of cadets got overall E's last year. From what we've been told, it's around the same again this year.

On a separate note, a few of you parents would have loved to sit in on the accessions brief. There's been a few changes this year.
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OK, spill the beans... What's changed?
 
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