Posted: 1/20/2008 10:13:09 AM EDT
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Wahoo. I just got back from the Warrior Leadership Course put on by the 154th RTI at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center. Some thoughts: The Good- 1) The classroom instruction was excellent, presented very professionally by the instructors in a manner which everyone could easily grasp. 2) Course content for the first week was very comprehensive. The course materials were dated 2007, and much(but not all) of it was very useful. 3) Instructors actively encouraged group discussion, and solicited opinions from previously deployed Soldiers about the course material. 4) The classroom environment was very professional. 5) Field chow was hot and plentiful during STX, and consisted of marmite-MRE-Marmite. The Bad- 1) Some of the courseware tended to center on TTP's which are no longer used in the current conflict, which elicited some comment from the previously deployed students. 2) The STX, which made up the entire second week of the course, was an unqualified farce. A) No adequate provision was made for accommodating the Soldiers in the field; i.e. the tentage and bunking were completely catch-as-catch-can. Many of the Soldiers attending were not Combat Arms, and the primitive conditions tended to distract them from the missions at hand. 1) The tentage was a sorry mixture of 1960's vintage canvas and 1980's vintage A-Frames and GP Small's, none of which were complete. I personally had to go cut tent poles from sapling trees in order to get our tent to stand up. We were all, male and female alike, literally piled on top of each other during the sleep cycle. 2) The poor conditions did have the distinct advantage of making everyone appreciate the comfort of the barracks. B) Tentage was not equal to the task of protecting Soldiers and their gear from the elements. Incomplete nature of the tents contributed greatly to the large amount of leakage when the rain hit on the second day. This provided further distraction for the non-CA Soldiers(And elicited considerable comment from EVERYONE when the temp dropped to 25 degrees.) There was much wailing and gnashing(or chattering) of teeth. 1) Tempers and attitudes flared as the weather got worse and ourt gear got wetter. I was one of the lucky ones who packed an extra poncho and some lawn and leaf bags(which I gave to Soldiers who had no tarps or ponchos. C) The STX lanes concentrated on movement and assaulting through wooded areas in the classic 1980's style. There was little in the way of current doctrine or TTP's, and no attempt was made to reflect any considerations from the current warfighting environment other than to call the temporary OPFOR students "insurgents" and plant very badly done "IED's" on the sides of the roads. The TTP for dealing with an IED was simply to adapt the "React to Indirect Fire" drill, and run a simulated 300m away from it. Other lanes paid similar lip service to actual GWOT TTP's. D) The staff got increasingly "Drill Sergeant-ish"as time went by, which for some was hard to take, considering that we were all NCO's and the worst offenders were instructors who had never been overseas. 1) Lockdown procedures began the instant we arrived, and accomplished little or nothing in the way of leader education. Welcome to BCT all over again. 2) parter-assisted bodily functions were the norm, with all students required to take Battle Buddies to the Latrine. Ridiculous in the extreme, and yet another BCT anachronism which could have happily fallen by the wayside. More follows. |
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Congrats Sgt I went to WLC at Ft. Dix about a year ago. To echo some of your observations, I thought that classroom material was pretty well presented and informative. The living conditions in the field were fine for us, we had a heated GP medium w/ cots. However, I was very opposed to the practice of males and females living together. Hell, for that matter, I was opposed to CA and Non CA living together. I, like you, got tired of the Non-CA students very quickly. I was also annoyed at the BCT mentality of WLC. The instant lock down and BCT treatment was just further proof of the weakening of the E-5 grade in the Army. We are supposed to be NCOs, yet we are treated like E-2s straight out of AIT. Once again, Congrats! |
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This reply is for SSG R, of A/490th CA: Your account isn't accepting site IM or emails, so this is the best I could do... And to anyone else about to attend WLC, take what you can use from this info, and do your best! Here's the skinny: The first week is all classroom, and they will be cramming a shitload of information down your throat in a big hurry. Be prepared for LONG days and little sleep. The SGL's will do barracks inspections every morning of class week. Remember how to do "Hospital Corners"? :D Refresh on Troop Leading Procedures, OPORD's, WARNO's, OCOKA and all that HOOAH stuff, because they will expect you to know it chapter and verse in the field. There is no written test anymore, it's all field evals, and they grade hard. Keep a good attitude and you will do fine. Practice your PT formations, and if you can get a copy of FM 21-20(you can download it from AKO), get one and go over the rotations, stretches and exercises. They grade hard on this, so make sure you're comfortable with it. If you have any doubts about Land Nav, go to www.550cord.com and DL their interactive Land Nav tools. The instructors use them, and they rock. Get your own compass, and make sure it works! The ones they issue here are hit-or-miss. Bring a good, sturdy folding knife, like a CRKT M16-14ZSF or equivalent. When it's raining, your MRE pouch will be as slick as owl shit, and the only way to get it open is your teeth(Don't ask me how I know this). You may have to chop down a sapling tree or two to fashion tent or tarp poles(I did), so make sure your blade can take some abuse. Bring a DMT or Lansky folding diamond sharpener in Fine grit to keep your blade sharp. A dull blade is a PITA, and dangerous in the field. You can bring a small fixed blade if you have one, which will work just as well. I just happened to have a good folder. Be prepared for horrible accommodations, as the tents are a sorry mixture of 1960's and 1980's surplus, and none of them are complete. We ended up lashing three different types of tent canvas together to make our tent, with predictable results. We slept in freezing puddles for three days, so bring a poncho to wrap your inflatable sleep mat in(it absorbs water). If you can't get a poncho, get a box of those enormous Lawn and Leaf garbage bags to make tarps with; you can slit them up the sides and they will then be the perfect size for a waterproof ground sheet. You can also waterproof your ruck with these bigass bags. Don't forget your "Gaiter, Neck", gloves(two pair if you have them; Nomex CVC/Flight gloves work great, and are really warm for such thin gloves), COMFORTABLE boots(Do not bring new boots to the field, whatever you do), fleece hat, Silk Weight undies, polypros and any thing else you may have that will keep you warm without too much bulk. You'll have to carry everything you need for four nights, so pack smart. If you don't have a good, spacious, comfortable ruck, may I recommend the Camelbak BFM. I lived out of mine for the entirety of the STX, and it was awesome. It's $170.00, but well worth it if you have to carry a lot of crap. You don't have to bring IBA, but you MAY need your ACH/Kevlar. We didn't wear our Kevlars in the field(JOY!), but the guidance can change, so bring it. If you have the old LCE/LBV, bring that with two canteens and a fanny pack to store your wet weather gear if it dries up or warms up. I used my E-tool carrier, slung in the back,centerline on my pistol belt between my canteens, to store broken down MRE's; you can fit almost an entire MRE in there, plus a spoon. Leave the E-tool in your duffle bag. The MOLLE canteen pouches are the perfect size to store a tightly rolled-up polypro top. Bring your Gerber or Leatherman, if you have one, and a good long hank of 550 cord. Health and beauty: Bring carmex or some kind of chapstick, because the wind kicks up out in the STX area, and you will have little protection from it. Zicam is good to have if everybody starts getting sick, because most people are filthy dirtbags and don't wash their hands. baby wipes are worth their weight in gold out there, because the Porta-John man doesn't always re-stock the terlet paper. Bring a couple of tiny bottles of Germex or other hand sanitizer, because those shitters can get almost Iraq-like in their nastiness. Feet: Take plenty of good synthetic or real wool socks(NOT cotton socks; they will KILL your feet). The "Hot Beverage Bags" that come in the newer MRE's will hold one pair of socks just fine, and you should carry one pair with you at all times becuase the training area is a sea of mud in some places. POWDER YOUR FEET! Get some of those 2 gallon Ziploc bags and pour a goodly dollop of foot powder in it, then roll it up, squeezing the excess air out. This packs nicely, and in much less space than a bottle of foot powder. With this setup, all you have to do is stick your feet one at a time into the bag o' powder(just like battering up a piece of chicken) and then on with your socks and boots. The bag contains all the powder, so you don't get it all over the barracks floor(which you won't really have time to clean up) or the tent floor, and it wastes less powder, too. Once you're done, you roll it back up and stow it away. Magnifique. Use the rest of your big Ziplocs to store your change of undies and shirts, and the rest of your socks. Take the outer and black layers of your three-part sleep system, because when you go to sleep, your metabolism will slow down and your body temp will go down. It's already cold enough outside, so if you don't keep warm during your (short) sleep cycle, you will be utterly miserable. I tossed the stuff sack and rolled my black layer into a big ball into the bottom of my Camelbak, then I still had room for many pairs of socks, two undershirts, two t-shirts, a complete set of ACU's(which I never used) and another pair of boots(Also never used; they would have been soaked as wet as my dirty uniform within ten minutes, anyway, so why change?). The Camelbak BFM has MOLLE loops all over the outside of it, and I added two SAW pouches to the exterior side pouches, and that helped me to carry much extra stuff. I strapped my Bivy bag layer of my sleep system to the outside straps, and on the otherside went my sleeping mat. You can carry a ton of shit if you use your imagination, and in rough waether, it's good to have extra waterproof stuff! Bring two duffle bags, because when you get back from STX, you ain't gonna feel like meticulously packing, and you won't have time to do that anyway. An extra duffle will let you simply toss all your stuff in there and roll out. Bring lots of portable, nutritious pogey bait! I brought three boxes of granola and protein bars, and they really helped during the more physical parts of the STX. A little extra energy goes a long way when your freezing cold and soaked to the bone. Wally World has these bars called Caribou Coffee, and they rock. Clif bars work well, and taste like real food. Whatever kind of morale-boosting foods you like, bring enough to last four days. PT test: Get thee to the local bicycle/fitness/running shop and buy a carton of "GU" energy gel packs! They will keep you from bonking out during the APFT events, and will help to keep you from getting sore afterwards. I shaved a minute off my run time with these, and they work! Doing an APFT on an empty stomach SUCKS, and these are a great way to give yourself a little extra advantage. My formula is thus: One gel and a couple of sips of water before each calisthenic event, and two gels with a little water before the run. I don't know the science of why it works, but I know that it does. Stretch like hell and drink nothing but water the few days before your APFT. RTI grades PT VERY strictly, and if you miss any event by even one rep or one second, you'll have to re-test. Let me know if you have any other questions, and I work here at CSJFTC(I'm right across Lee Avenue from RTI), so if you need anything during your cycle, call me at this number: (601) 466-8295 (Ask for SGT Hatten) and I'll do my best to round it up for you. The SGL's don't mind students getting outside assistance with supplies and such as long as it doesn't interfere with the classes. Good luck, and give 'em hell! SGT Hatten |