I realize I haven't posted in awhile, but I've been busy with school, ROTC, and of course, the return of ArmySteve! Anyway, I have been fully intergrated into Bravo Company, and am happily situated in 5th Squad. It is interesting now that I have had two squad leaders and am able to compare them and see what I like and what I don't. I guess that is really the point of making us squad leaders eventually, and we learn from experience of course. In lab the past few weeks we have worked on marksmanship. One class dedicated to learning the ins and outs of the M16, and the execution part last week, the actual shooting on the range. This was a very interesting and exciting experience for me, never firing a gun, let alone an assault rifle. On a related note, it was interesting to see the change in the somewhat laid back nature of ROTC to when we got on the range. It was obvious everyone was more on edge, and far more intense, with good reason of course. Thats it for now, I'd like to close by saying Hello and welcome to all of the new bloggers, I am glad to see this site is growing so much!

Finally, winter break, and a much needed break at that. My first quarter of college, as well as ROTC is over, and now I get to rest for three weeks, and after finals, I understand why we get breaks such as these. I won't have much to report for awhile, but I will likely have more questions and comments, so stay tuned.

I would like to take this time to say Happy Thanksgiving to all the men and women over there in harms way that want nothing more to be home with their familes. I can not say thank you enough, only I hope to see(and meet) all of you sometime soon.

Sorry for the lack of updates, school is really picking up as the quarter is winding down. Anyway, two weekends ago was our yearly Fall Field Training Excercise. It was heald in southern Ohio near Ohio University. Part of it took place on OU grounds, the other part took place at a farm owned by a Colonel. Perhaps the most exciting part of the FTX was that the MS1s flow down on choppers. My squad was lucky enough to go down on a UH-60, which is a pretty good experience especially for first time bird flyers. Once we landed we started with SMTs in the woods. This was a bit rough. We learned pretty quickly that you dont go around the thorn bushes... you go through them. My legs were pretty torn up when I got back on sunday, even though BDUs do a pretty good job of protecting you. After that we did rapelling. This was also my first time doing this, and it was a lot of fun, I look forward to doing more of it in the future. Next we rucked it a bit to our buses then drove to the farm. Once we got there we set up camp and then did LandNAV. It was well worth practicing espeically in the thick woods. Later that night we did Night LandNAV, which added a whole new element.... not seeing. The next day we packed up and rucked to our final spot where we worked on LDAs and SMTs focusing on squad assault. I would also like to mention that my squad won a competition for LDAs, getting us out of pushups, always a bonus. After we finished up their we took buses back to OSU. After ARR, after action review, the cadre had pizza for us, which was a very nice touch after living off of MREs for the past 2 days. After getting back to my dorm, a nice long shower, and 16 hours of sleep I was ready for class the next day. I will probably update this post as I remember more things about it, so until then...

Sorry for the late update, things are kinda busy around here. This week's lab was really starting to get into the good stuff. First of all, we had to wear our LBEs which made some of the stuff a little more difficult... more on that in a second. Anyway, it was indoors at the Field House and was broken into 3 sections. The first section was hand signals, some of which I knew thanks to Steve trying to teach me last year before he was deployed. Second was a camo demonstration. Which was a combination of face and hands and for our gear. I was going to volunteer to get all camoed up, but OSU has a rule where you can not go around campus in face paint of that sort. So I would have had to go back to the ROTC building to wash it off, unfortunately I have a class right after, across campus, that I already have a hard enough time getting to, so no camo for me. The third part was probably the most fun. We learned high crawl, low crawl, and movement drills. Then we did an assault course which we used everything we had learned. It was fun, but would have been better outside, we can thank the Ohio weather for the rain. That about does it for this update, other than Rifle PT bright(well, still dark) and early Monday morning.

This morning was the Battalion Activation Ceremony. It was at 0630 in place of PT, a nice change. It was rather exctiing because we are now "official" parts of the unit. Also all of the MSIVs recieved awards that they had earned in the Spring and Summer. It was kind of long because they rehearsed it all first. Which leads me to a few things I learned about the Army today. Number one, who rehearses ahead of time? Also, and more importantly, regardless of if the Army tells you to be there on time, or 15 minutes before hand... they always mean you should be there 15 minutes earlier than that. The time they tell you to meet is the time they want to start, so be there 15 minutes early! That is perhaps the most valuable piece of advice I have learned, and will be able to pass on anyone who follows in my footsteps, or is just enlisting. Overall the Ceremony was very good, Lt. Col. Gumbert our CO talked for awhile in a very informal setting. Though I have not met him on a personal one-on-one basis, he seems like a very approachable guy, I'm looking forward to talking Armor with him.

Well today was the first day I got to wear my BDUs. Only after putting the uniform do I begin to realize what it feels like to be a soldier. Even if it was only for a few hours, it was still a very interesting and unique feeling. It is interesting the looks you get when wearing the uniform aroung campus, and the way people treat you. Though because of the size and prestige of OSU's ROTC program, most people are used to seeing people walk around in full uniform. Anyway, as I started to say, today was out first Lab, which basically means we get to don the uniforms and act like soldiers, not just students. Today we mainly just did D&C (Drill and Ceremony for the civilians reading this). We started to learn the basic commands, marching, saluting etc. All stuff Steve tried to teach me before I ever joined ROTC. Also, I guess being in band finally paid off, marching like a pro lol. Ok, now its time to start complaining about the boots. Unbroken in combat boots suck! Not only are they uncomfortable as hell to start off with, I had to wear my uniform to two of my other classes because I do not have a long enough break in between to head back to my dorm. So after a few hours of wearing the boots, the back of my ankle is pretty much torn up. Hopefully I will be able to go to PT tomorrow morning, but right now it is pretty hard to walk. Thats all for now. I will update more later after my feet stop bleeding.

Yesterday was my first day of Military Science and the real start to the ROTC program. It was mainly just a chance to go over a little bit of what we will be doing this first quarter, and a chance to meet Captain Donald who teaches the MSIs. Captain Donald seems like a really great guy who has been in the military longer than most of my class has been alive. He went over a little bit of his time in the MPs, everywhere from Fort Hood Texas to Afghanistan. It will be an interesting and exciting first year as Captain Donald is really trying to change the course work for the MSIs, getting us out of the classroom even more, and doing things that will be useful to us as officers. I have PT starting monday morning at 0630, the real challenge will be getting out of bed, but I figure if I make it out of bed, and across campus, the battle is already halfway won. Also, on Tuesday is our first lab, meaning I get to don the BDUs, shine up the boots, and finally get my hands dirty. I look forward to it.