Ok, so after some "enlightenment", I have decided to rewrite this blog. This one should be less whiny, and will focus more on what the Army life is really like in the field, and what it's like to be doing your own thing with a family at home. So, of course, NTC is just a beast of a different color compared to the rest of the Army training, or even deployment. Its a game that is already rigged for us to lose. I'm still unsure why they do that. It's probably to stress us to a point we are unfamiliar with, but I think it's probably more than that. The Army, as a whole, is completely unaccustomed to failure. Mostly because we don't fail, but also because we are not good at it. I have yet it meet a leader that is willing to accept failure, let alone is ok with the idea that failure might occur by any measure (which is usually when they create a higher standard than what the Army has and their is any inkling that it may not be fully met). So I think it gives leaders a chance to understand that failure is a possibility, even when we are trained and our doing our best.
You may be thinking that the game isn't rigged, and that its all just perception, but it really is. Everyone is monitored by these OC's (Observer/ controller) that tell the OPFOR (Opposing Forces) what we are doing and how we are reacting. It's the only thing that makes sense! Because the OPFOR literally know our every move before we make it. The battle was definitely lost.
Most of what we did was go and pick up supplies from the TISA, then push them to either the BSA or just all the way to the units that need them. We mostly pushed food supplies, fuel, construction materials, ammunition, and repair parts. There were normally at least two convoys on the road at any one time, and occasionally three or four. My job was to track them and record when they reached certain check points or their location and wait for them to get back on the road. And of course, receive reports if they came into enemy contact. After the first week, the OPFOR pretty well quit hitting us and focused on the frontline battle so it made our lives much easier.
I also got moved from battle captain-ing to planning, which is really my bread and butter. I mostly spent my time working on planning our movement from "the box" back to where we were first received, where there are showers and a PX and gut trucks to feed us. Our battalion was the first to get back and the first to be in line for pretty much everything. We had to make sure that we got everything turned in or we pretty much couldn't leave. So it was really great that we were pretty much ahead of the curve on everything. While we were executing, I got the joy of being the TC (mostly just meant being a passenger) in a HMMWV with no doors and broken heat during a two hour drive in 19 degree weather after sitting in it for three hours before movement. But such is life...
Our lessons learned from the experience: Overall NTC was a success. We identified our shortfalls, are realigning our section to make the team we are going to deploy with and I can honestly say, I am more excited to deploy because of our leadership. We are expecting some new additions to our team, but I'm sure they will be great, whenever it is that they get here!
(p.s. The images aren't mine. I never took pictures while I was there because I did most of my work in Secret areas which meant no cameras and no phones. So I never carried around a camera and thus, never took any pictures).
