IOBC Journal

[RRDTm3]

Swear to God had the same dude come thru the suck around that time frame. he never wore t shirts or socks, in a patrol base he choked the shit out of this stud for falling asleep, literally dude shit himself. took all i had to pull this guy off the other dude, he was ranting about throats being slit because somebody during the war fell alseep in a patrol base etc, etc, etc. dude was a goddamn FREAK! He did not participate in hand to hand after the the first night. during pugils he destroyed.

[Jim]

I was in the advanced course with an Israeli LTC and a Saudi CPT. The Israeli eventually became a MG, commanding their Infantry School and eventually, I ran into the Saudi. He was a COL, the S-3 of the 2d Brigade, Saudi Arabian National Guard (SANG) when I was the Senior Advisor, SANG. Small world.

[PocketKings]

Swear to God had the same dude come thru the suck around that time frame. he never wore t shirts or socks, in a patrol base he choked the shit out of this stud for falling asleep, literally dude shit himself. took all i had to pull this guy off the other dude, he was ranting about throats being slit because somebody during the war fell alseep in a patrol base etc, etc, etc. dude was a goddamn FREAK! He did not participate in hand to hand after the the first night. during pugils he destroyed.

Might be him. His buddy with him was Ivan. Both were Captains.

We took Eddie and Ivan out to that pond with the 'Beware of Aligators' sign one weekend. We pulled out a 3 man Wal-mart rubber raft from our truck. They asked us what we were doing. We said 'we want to catch the aligator, and we need your experience.' There eyes got huge and they threatened to kill us.

Of course, we were joking, but we wanted to let them know that they weren't the only crazy ones. Welcome to America, Comrades!

[WhiskeyRiver]

Rangers,

One last thing, before I actually leave for Benning. A Ranger was good enough to end me some advice in a PM, regarding the pitfalls of OPSEC, and I wanted to pick your brains on the subject.

My goal for this journal is to be a guide to how to prepare for, and what to expect from IOBC. I don't intend for this to be a detailing of my personal beliefs or giving a play-by-play on 'we learned this tactic or technique today, and here's a play-by-play on how it's done and why and when we use it.' In other words, if I were to take a copy of it and sign it, I would feel comfortable letting my senior rater read it. Firstly, I like the idea of having a career, and there are too many stories of people shooting themselves in the foot with 'blogs,' and more importantly, someone who wants to kill me may be reading it.

So, if any of you can think of any major pitfalls in regards to OPSEC that I may encounter, please let me know. I'd rather hear it here, before I start writing an entry, than afterwards from someone in my chain-of-command.

[PocketKings]

You should be OK from the OPSEC POV. Nothing there is all that high speed, but it never hurts to be prudent. PERSEC you need to avoid. You never know who from your class might end up doing high speed stuff (or have done high speed stuff).

I think it's a good idea. I watched a lot of 2LTs fall into the pitfalls of having a paycheck and lots of time at IOBC. I also saw a lot of folks miss some great opportunities. We joke about meeting foreign officers, but they can be a plethora of knowledge and a blast to hang out with (teaching them what to ask girls in the bar, laughing at thier stupid clothing). You have a great shot at IOBC of asking stupid questions and getting into tip top shape. For all of the waste of time that IOBC is (and it is a lot of wasted time), it does have some merit.

One thing I wish I did more of - getting to know my classmates. It's not like I was a loner, I just was out for my personal military goals and not into 'social' hour. Well, years down the road I ran back into those guys and saw how cool they were. I also heard about a few those guys getting killed in action, or becoming bona fide heros. Makes me wish I'd have hung out a little more with them while we all could.

Also - I don't know what civilians or green suiters are running what, but be very careful. People have agendas in building 4. Some are out to help, some are out to hang another 2LT skin on the wall. This isn't ROTC where everyone wants you to succeed. This is a place that is just as political and petty as any other place. I only saw the student side, but what I saw I didn't like. If you can capture that aspect, you'd be doing your buddies a service.

[Jim]

Also - I don't know what civilians or green suiters are running what, but be very careful. People have agendas in building 4. Some are out to help, some are out to hang another 2LT skin on the wall. This isn't ROTC where everyone wants you to succeed. This is a place that is just as political and petty as any other place. I only saw the student side, but what I saw I didn't like. If you can capture that aspect, you'd be doing your buddies a service.

X2

[WhiskeyRiver]

Understood, Rangers. I've arrived at Fort Benning, so posts should occur regularly now. It's pretty much the same as I remembered it; except for the new Airborne School barracks that they're constructing. :( I would have settled for a mattress that didn't suck.

[gorilla army]

I have been following your blog, and I just wanted to say thanks for putting in the time to help future LT's. I start IOBC 17 APR 2011 and I am trying to gather as much information as I can to get prepared. Again thanks for the posts.

[deathtaco]

I've read your journal about 2.5 times now. Used your blog to help me with housing, questions I had and overall motivation.

Leave for Benning in a few weeks. Thanks for a good capture of your experiences.