What another crazy week!

Teamwork

I know by now we’ve all heard the tragic news about the helicopter crash carrying basketball legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven more people. It’s times like this where it becomes important to take a step back from the everyday hustle of life and appreciate all that you have. I bring this up because my instructor on Tuesday in my military science class showed us a video of Bryant, and for practically the rest of the class we talked about what it meant to be on a team, specifically focusing on the characteristics of a team. He stressed things such as trust, cohesion, determination, selflessness, leadership, and the importance of everyone succeeding together.

A squad or platoon in the military is much like an athletic team. There is usually a leader, or a captain, who directs the team and is able to handle any situation. One of the most important similarities between the two is the fact that at the end of the day, it is up to every single individual whether the group succeeds or fails; wins or loses. Everyone has a role to play, and they must be able to carry out this role in such a way where if they are needed somewhere else, they could carry out that position without a seconds hesitation.

Squad Tactics

This idea of teamwork, cohesion, and success becomes most prominent when talking about squad tactics. To understand what squad tactics are, we first have to know what the positions/roles are. In class on Tuesday, we talked about a squad which consists of nine people; a squad leader, an alpha team leader with an automatic rifleman, grenadier,  rifleman, bravo team leader, with another automatic  rifleman, grenadier, and rifleman. The squad leader is in charge of both teams, alpha and bravo, but if this person were to get injured it is up to the rest of the squad to adjust themselves accordingly. The alpha team leader would move to squad leader, the automatic rifleman for alpha would move to alpha team leader, and the rifleman for alpha would move to automatic rifleman.

After a few scenarios like this I was getting a little confused and lost, but the overall message and theme for this lesson was to learn the importance of being a part of a team, squad, platoon and always doing what is necessary to succeed and complete the mission.

Land Navigation

Thursdays class was a continuation of the prior weeks lesson which was land nav. Land navigation is all about understanding the terrain and how it appears on a map. It is important to know the symbols/physical features of ridges, saddles, depressions, hills, and valleys. We practiced finding these on a map and mapping the location using 4-digits, 6 digits, and 8 digits. The increased number in digits only meant the location of said land feature was more specific.

Land navigation for me seems like it is going to be one of the more difficult things to learn and utilize because of how complex it initially is. However, as you can see, these things once learned can prove to be extremely helpful and life-saving in the future. Even though it has been a crazy week, I can’t wait to learn more next week!

After taking a week to consider my passion idea, I’ve decided to incorporate both topics into one. So, for every passion blog I will have a little paragraph at the beginning explaining the technique I used to get a deeper sleep and calm some anxiety I was having, and then the rest of the post will be about my experience in the Army ROTC. I’ll talk about some cool things we did/learned that week, my thoughts on the whole thing, how I’m feeling about it, etc. just so more people can get a better idea of what it’s all about!

Anxiety/Sleep Tip

The nights before I had PT and had to wake up at 4:50am, I read a chapter of two from this new book I am reading- Little Women. Being off my phone for those 30 minutes before bed while reading really helped calm me before I fell asleep. My eyes would get heavy from reading which helped me in falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow instead of being kept up overthinking. I strongly suggest reading a fun, enjoyable book you like before bed and staying off your phone to really dive in to that deep sleep with less anxiety!

First Week of PT

When joining the Army ROTC program, there are a few commitments one is making. First of all, you have to attend PT (Physical Readiness Training) 3 times a week- Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. PT is from 5:45-7 on these given mornings which means I’m waking up around 5 to get ready to be there on time. Within the program there are companies- Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, and within the companies there are platoons, and within the platoon there are squads. This was all very confusing to me at first as the squad I’m in kept calling themselves C/2/1, but this simply means Charlie company second platoon first squad.

At PT we do a variety of things including long runs of 2,3, or 4 miles, relay races, sprint workout, stairs, calisthenic workouts where we do push-ups, sit-ups, squats, burpees, etc. At first it was overwhelming, but now it’s fun to wake up some mornings and workout with a huge group of people. The atmosphere is a unique one as while everyone seems serious, they like to joke around too.

Military Science/ Lab Class

Another commitment when joining this program is attending an MS (military science) class twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays while also attending a lab once a week on Thursdays. On these days, we are all in our OCP’s which is the camo uniform you may have seen people wearing around campus. As you can imagine, Thursday is my busy day when it comes to this program as we have PT, class, and lab.

The classes are a lot to handle at first, especially for someone like me who is not only a new freshman, but also started a semester later than the majority of the people in my class. While I keep up with the readings, take notes, and pay close attention to what the instructor is saying, it’s still hard for me to be on top of my game. I want to be able to answer any and all questions that are asked, but unfortunately the learning process takes a bit longer than attending a few classes. In these classes we learn things such as Battle Drills, Land Navigation, Squad Tactics, Critical Thinking, etc. All these things we learn help us for the labs on Thursday.

The labs I have attended so far have been off campus at the local National Guard Base, and somewhere else where there are woods and fields but the name has lost me. It’s pretty cold out there as we are still dressed in our OCP’s and it’s usually 25-35 degrees. Lab is from 3:35-5:30 and in this time spand we practice different drills and scenarios.

For example, at the first lab we practiced coming across an enemy in the distance and how to act. We had to crouch and walk silently, army crawl to and fro on the ground, and report back to our squad leader. We had to take notes consisting of the acronym S.A.L.U.T.E.- this info all pertaining to the enemy. The Size of the enemy (a single man or multiple people), Activity, Location, Uniform, Time, and Equipment (guns, vehicles, grenades, etc.)

This past lab, we were practicing what to do in a situation where we are under fire from the enemy and one of our soldiers gets hurt. We practiced a wedge formation (think of geese flying in a V). The first step is to pull security which means flanking around the injured and suppressing the fire with a barricade in the front. After fire is suppressed, tend to the injured by applying a quick tourniquet if necessary and moving them to cover. Once in cover, you perform M.A.R.C.H. You have to check for Massive hemorrhaging by doing a blood sweep, Airway, Respiratory, Circulation, and Head injury/ Hypothermia.

As you can see, there is so much to learn with everything we do between classes, labs, and PT. While this is overwhelming for me, doing a passion blog like this will not only serve as a way to express my passion, but will also help my keep track of everything I’m learning!

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