Flight School

Well, it's been quite awhile since my last post, but I have a good excuse. I've been flying. Also, please excuse any random order to the thoughts on this, and the following posts. I've been trying to write this portion of the blog for months now and I just threw this together as fast as I could to get the information out. I will have more updates soon.

Where I've Been

Up to now I've been going through the prerequisite courses required before beginning flight school, WOCS, BOLC, DUNKER, and SERE-C. All-in-all they took about five months to complete. You can read about those in my previous posts so I won't spend anymore time on them.

Where I am Now

Flight School - Primary

In August I started the first phase of flight school called Primary. To say I've been busy is an understatement. I'll do my best to break things down so you can understand my daily routine and a bit about what I've learned so far.

To start, I'll establish a framework so you understand what I'm talking about here on out. After completing SERE-C, flight students are put into a class. Classes start every couple of weeks, and there are only so many slots per class. If there are more students than slots, some students get bumped back into the next class, as was the case for me and some of my fellow classmates.

Each class is separated into two different "Flights," which meet at alternating times. One flight meets in the morning (morning shift), the other in the afternoon (afternoon shift). This is because there are only so many aircraft on the flight line. I was placed in Raven Flight, arguably the best flight in Ft. Rucker Primary.

Each flight is headed by a flight commander, an assistant flight commander, and a bunch of instructor pilots (IPs). Every flight commander is different in how they run things, and every IP is different in how they run their operation. Just know, that before we meet any of them we've already heard horror story after horror story about how they will belittle you, yell at you, and make you feel stupid every minute you're there.

The Nickel Ride

The Nickel Ride is a tradition long standing in the military. It signifies the first flight. Each student must obtain a nickel with their birth year on it and present it to their IP. The exact meaning of the Nickel Ride is unclear. Two possibilities are:

1. Early in the 20th century a person could get a ride in an airplane outside a convenience store. The cost was a nickel. You weren't actually flying the aircraft, it was just a ride for you to enjoy. My Nickel Ride was exactly that.

2. Back when aviation was unregulated anyone could purchase an airplane and fly around. Plane owners eventually started giving rides to folks that cost a nickel.

There are other theories out there. I am dedicated to finding the true meaning, though, because I find traditions to be a very important piece of the military.

On August 23rd I had my Nickel Ride. It was awesome. The skies were clear, blue, and full of sunshine. My IP did most the flying and I was able to just sit back with a giant grin on my face. I was given a few opportunities to try flying the TH-67 Creek in straight and level flight. I did so well my IP asked if I had any fixed wing time prior to coming down to flight school. I did, but 13 years ago.
(My buddy Brian's wife Ashley made me this the day of my Nickel Ride). I am so grateful.

So what is the TH-67 Creek and how do you fly it?

This is a generic photo I took off of Google of the TH-67 Creek. We're not allowed to have cameras at the flight line. This is the first TH-67 that made its way to Fort Rucker, and it is still active.

The TH-67 is a modified Bell 206B3 JetRanger. If you google one you'll notice the skids are low on the TH-67. I don't know why, they just are.

Flying one of these is no easy task, they are incredibly squirrely. Small inputs do big things. When I say inputs I am talking about the collective, cyclic, and anti-torque Pedals. The collective controls the "power" of the aircraft. If you made no other inputs and pulled up on the collective, the pitch of the blades would change to an angle that would produce more lift and bring the helicopter to a hover or to a climb. It is called power because as you raise the collective, and the pitch of the blades change, the amount of torque applied to the engine/transmission. Too much or too little power and you'll have a bad day. The cyclic controls the pitch and bank of the aircraft. It is located in between your legs and looks like a joystick. Think of a fighter jet and you'll know exactly what it looks like. The cyclic controls the forward, backward, and lateral (left and right) movement of the aircraft. You can literally fly backwards or to the side by using the cyclic. During forward flight the left and right inputs control bank (leaning one way or the other). Finally, the pedals control the direction of the nose of the aircraft. At a perfect hover a right pedal input will turn the aircraft to the right, and vice versa.

The Day-to-Day

Everyday started out exactly the same. When I was on morning shift my wake-up time was around 0315 (that's 3:15 am). I made breakfast and had to get to the bus stop by 0430 to make the bus that brings you to the airfield. It was a pain in the butt, but at least I sat at the bus stop during the summer months and didn't have to worry about the rain or cold too much, unlike in SERE.

When I got to the airfield I went into the briefing room (a classroom). I filled out a performance planning card based on the weather that one of the other students briefed. After that the flight commander grilled us with questions about aircraft performance and emergency procedures. These were to be repeated verbatim out of the operator's handbook for the aircraft. Needless to say, every morning was very stressful.

After that the commander released the students to be with their IPs. My IP, let's call him Rich, didn't like to spend time talking about flying while we were together. Mostly, we talked about guns and current events. From there we went out to the aircraft and preflighted it. A preflight is just an inspection to make sure the rotor blades won't fall off the helicopter in flight or the engine doesn't appear as though it will somehow detach itself from the aircraft. After preflight we started it up and took off.

During the Primary phase of flight school we are taught all the basics of flying. Hovering, which is the hardest part, is drilled into us from day one. From there we went into more complex maneuvers such as run-on landings, autorotations, and max performance takeoffs. Two times during Primary we are tested in the aircraft by what are commonly referred to as "Checkrides." These checkrides are practical exams where someone other than your IP flies with you to evaluate how you're doing. Along with evaluating your flight performance these evaluator IPs grill you with oral knowledge questions: "What is the procedure for an engine compressor stall? How about engine fire in flight? Talk to me about airspace weather and communications requirements." Needless to say, these evaluations are incredibly stressful.

I did very well both of my Primary evaluations. I feel as though I got screwed on my first one, because I had the hardest grader of them all, but I still ended up with a good score. The reason is, they take the grade your check IP gave you, then they average it with what your normal IP "put you up with." My IP gave me phenomenal scores, so even though I got a terrible grade from my check IP I still ended up doing fairly well. On my second checkride it just went smooth and I ended up with a fair grade.

Each day we flew to what are known as "Stagefields." They are small airports specifically designed for helicopters. They generally have four or more lanes (like a runway but smaller), and a control tower. I got a lot of experience working on my radio calls, which are actually very intimidating at first. Anyway, at each of the stagefields there is a stage house where we would go and study, or talk about how our flight went for the day. We did this because each of us had a "Stick Buddy," another student who flew with the same IP as us. When one person is out flying around, the other is in the stage house. Below is a picture of the group of guys I was always on the same shift with throughout Primary. I love these guys. We are all very driven and motivated aviators trying to get the most out of flight school as we can. For sure, the people you spend time with down here can make or break the experience and I will definitely stay in contact with these guys for years to come.

After our second checkride we were done with Primary. It turned out to be 8 of the busiest, most stressful, most exhilarating weeks of my life. Flying came naturally to me during this phase so the stress was a lot lower than it could have been. I praise God for the experience and look forward to what He's got planned for me next.

SERE

So here I am, five weeks from my last post, and I completed SERE. Was it all I had hoped for and more? Of course. I'm glad I went in the middle of July. It was as you would expect in Southeast Alabama in the middle of summer HOT! It rained every day and when it wasn't raining the temperature was around 90+ degrees with humidity over 85%. If you're going to go, go all out.

Now the question is, what did we learn? All I can really talk about is the survival portion of the course. For me, having grown up in the suburbs without a lot of survival experience, the course taught me a lot about which plants to eat, which bugs are ok to dine on, procuring and purifying water, building shelters and fires, and of course trapping and eating animals. If you were any kind of boy/girl scout growing up you undoubtedly learned these same skills, however, I hated scouting and never got to that point so this was all new to me. The difference is how we apply the knowledge. This definitely wasn't just some boy scout weekend adventure in the woods. I will leave it at that and let your imaginations run with how the rest of the course went. 

The weight loss everyone is curious about. I lost quite a bit of muscle, and you can really see it in my face. The thing is, I ate so much at the chow hall that I gained a good amount of fat and my actual weight loss was only a couple of pounds, but the average weight loss is about ten pounds.

All right, real lessons learned here:
1. Knowing you're going to be hungry for days seems to alleviate the actual feeling of hunger.
2. When motivated by the mind to do so, the body can accomplish much bigger things than we imagine.
3. The owls in Alabama sound like giant dying monkeys at night... Creepy...
4. Banana spiders are nasty. (See picture below)
5. You get a lot of time to think, make sure you discipline your mind to think of things that will motivate you.

That is a full grown banana spider. They are not harmful, but they freak you out when you walk through their webs which are kind of like walking through a web of bungee cords.












I had one goal while in SERE and that was to eat a snake. Because it rained so incredibly much I only saw one snake, and we were not able to get it. It crawled up into a log and we couldn't pull it out. Ah well, maybe I'll scour the back yard for some.

This course reminded me of the Bible verse Matthew 4:2 - "After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry." This is in reference to Jesus. Wow! I hardly made it a few days, and here this guy went forty.

So what are my final thoughts on SERE? Canned answer: "It was the best training I've ever received, but I would never want to do it again." This statement is actually true. I learned a lot of cool things, but it was not the most pleasant course I've been through.

I've been trying to ease back into working out and it's not going well. You lose a lot of strength from not eating for so many days.

What am I up to now? Studying for Aeromed which starts for me in about a week which is immediately followed by flight line, which is the reason I came to flight school in the first place. FINALLY! My buddy, before I started this process, told me that all the bs I had to deal with prior to flying was totally worth it once you get into the cockpit. I'm excited to see if that's true or not, though I know it will be.

I'll update the blog soon with my trip to Minnesota that I took while waiting to start Aeromed, as well as what flight line is like.

Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC)

So I gave you the rundown of Warrant Officer Candidate School. I left out a bunch of stuff, just know it sucked, and now my class and I are moving on.

What's happened since then...

I had a few days off after WOCS and I came home to attend the wedding of two of my good friends back in Minnesota. It was a great wedding and I was blessed every minute I was home.

I came back to Alabama to attend my second class called Basic Officer Leadership Course or BOLC (pronounced BULL-ICK or BOWL-ICK) for short. It's essentially just a class on how to be an Army officer in the Aviation field. It consists of four written exams, a field week where we shoot the M-16 and M-9 pistol, prepare and execute a convoy, and finally sit through a bunch of classes that should help us become better officers.

A typical day during BOLC looked like this:
Morning Physical Training (PT) at around 0600 to 0700.
Hygiene from there, and then class at 0800 until around 1700 (5 PM). In actuality, the time we got out of class depended on what was going on that day. Sometimes we'd be out at 1700, and other times we'd be out at 1600.
Nights and weekends were ours.

BOLC started with four written exams right out of the gate. The first four weeks or so were spent in class all day learning this, that, and the other thing, followed by my two roommates and I sitting down and studying in the evenings. This proved to be a pretty good strategy as we all did very well on the exams.

After the four exams we went into a week of field exercises which included two shooting ranges, and a number of simulated convoys. A convoy is when we drive our military vehicles from a start point to and mission point if you will, and back to a finishing point. Along the way we were thrown into situations where we had to react to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), ambushes, suicide bombers, etc... Throughout the mission we were graded on how well we maintained communication with each other, the aviation assets we had, as well as our own internal communications. Now that we are officers, mission planning was heavily graded since that is more of what we will be responsible for in the future.

From there we spent the rest of our time in the classroom. For at least a week, though, we spent half the day in the classroom, the other half doing Combatives. Combatives is the Army's approach to hand-to-hand combat. It is a mixed style of martial arts that encompasses jiu-jitsu and striking techniques similar to what you'd see in MMA.

Prior to flying all students must complete the "Dunker" training. The training consists of being strapped into a mock aircraft cockpit, being submerged underwater, flipped upside down, and escaping the aircraft in different situations. One situation is one in which your door is trapped shut, and you must make your way across the cockpit and get out the other door. The following are some pictures of the training (WARNING, you're about to be bombarded with photos):

This is a picture of all of us waiting to start dunker training. The entire training is performed in our uniforms, boots, tactical vests, and helmets.

The beauty of the helmets is they have buoyancy to them, so they aid in your survivability in the water.

This is a picture of the Minnesota crew.

 
And here I am, alone on a life raft by myself. Oh well, lots of room to spread out.

This is me being hoisted out of the water by the rescue harness that we would use on a real mission. It is not a comfortable ride, but it gets you to safety.


















So what else has gone on? Well, we had a trip to the museum on post. It's a pretty cool museum that gives the entire history of Army Aviation. Afterward we visited a hangar with some of the Army's coolest history:

This is the Comanche helicopter. It was originally designed as a reconnaissance helicopter. It is stealth and thus very capable of fulfilling that role. However, the Army decided it would be nice if it could fulfill the attack role as well. It was outfitted with weapons and grew too expensive to continue on with the project. Though we don't use these helicopters, they are amazing machines.

A view from the rear of the Comanche.

The unique tail on the Comanche.

This little guy is an experimental aircraft the Army came up with in the 60's called the Bell 207 Sioux Scout. You actually entered the aircraft from the nose which opened to the side and you crawled in.

 It looks like an aircraft out of a terminator movie or something.















Finally, we took a trip to each of the airfields down here to explore the different Army helicopters. It gave students who were undecided as to what they wanted to fly an in-depth look into what each aircraft has to offer:

This is the Black Hawk, it is what I am currently slotted to fly.

 The glass cockpit in these is awesome.

Next we have the Chinook. An impressive lift aircraft that is actually the fastest and most powerful in our inventory:

This guy is the OH-58D. It is an observation helicopter that is outfitted with weapons to protect itself and the ground troops if need be:

This is an incredibly agile aircraft. I encourage you to youtube videos of this guy in action. It's a lot cooler than it would seem.

 As you can see, I'm a little big for the OH-58, but whatever, I would fly it if they let me.

As you can see, it's not a very large helicopter at all.

Finally, the crowd favorite Apache: need I say more?

I took a trip down to the Naval Air Museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station, but I will write on that more later. I have a bunch of Navy aircraft pictures.

So as BOLC comes to a close, what is next?

Survival School. In the military it is known as SERE-C, or Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape. It is three long weeks of some of the toughest training we'll go through as soldiers. Because of the nature of the lessons taught in the school the information is considered Secret and is not able to be published. What you'll find on the internet is a lot of speculation as to what actually goes on during the course.

Yes, we will learn to live off the land, be starved and sleep deprived, and yes, there is a prisoner of war camp where we will be "brought" and put through our paces. However, the details of that information is classified. So, while I can't give you specific details as to what we will be doing, just know, this is the stuff Bear Grylls does on his tv show "Man vs. Wild" and then some. Maybe I can ask for a cameo appearance in one of his future endeavors when all is said and done.

Right now the weather in Alabama is HOT, and wet and I don't expect a change in the next few weeks.

During the next three weeks I will not have a phone, internet, or any contact with the outside world. So, if you feel like it, send some prayer my way. Pray that I find food, encouragement, and learn as much as I can from all the instruction I'll receive.

SERE-C is the final step before we start flying. It has been a long road up until now, and I am sure the next three weeks won't just fly by. I do know, though, that there is light on the other side and am very excited for the challenge SERE will pose. I'm also excited to be done with all these "checks in the boxes," so that I can finally start what I came down here for, flying.

I will post a before and after photo in three weeks when all is said and done.

Sorry this post is kind of all over the place, but it's the day before I start SERE and I have a lot to write and don't want to spend all day perfecting it.

Wish me luck, and I'll see you in three weeks.

- Josh

Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS)

Quite a few weeks have passed since I last updated my blog. Please forgive my absenteeism, but I've been a bit preoccupied.

When I last left off I was ready to head off to Warrant Officer Candidate School. Well, I made it through, and it was, and wasn't, what I expected. But what did I honestly expect? I expected it to be stressful, which it was. I expected it to get little sleep, which I did, and I expected it to be frustrating, which it was. What I didn't expect was to what extent it would be frustrating.

Throughout the course I kept thinking to myself, "How am I going to explain this course to people when I get out?" The answer came to me about 4 weeks in. I can sum up the entire course in one word: RIDICULOUS!

I will do my best to describe Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS) to you in this post, but I doubt I'll do it any justice. Also, as ridiculous as the course was/is, I did meet some great people and had fun at a few points so what's written here is more of what stuck out to me as ridiculous. Overall, it was a good experience.

If anyone is looking to go to Warrant Officer School, I will do my best to outline some things to keep in mind while you're here so you can do well in the course.

All right, that's enough qualifying, let's get down to business.

Warrant Officer Candidate School is either a five and a half week, or a seven week, course that takes an enlisted person (see ranks below) and makes them a warrant officer in the Army.

Warrant Officer is a unique and seldom heard of rank in the military, and we're located between the enlisted ranks and the Commissioned Officer ranks. I won't go into great detail, but I will say that Warrant Officers are technical experts in their field, and Commissioned Officers are general officers who can basically work in any field. All you need to know is this, if you are an aviator, and you want to focus on flying, Warrant Officer is the route you want to take.

Let's dive into what WOCS is actually like. If you're in the five and a half week course it means you were an E-5 or higher on the enlisted rank chart. If you were in the seven week course you were an E-4 or below, or got screwed as an E-5 and up and just got stuck in the seven week course. Why does this matter? Sergeants have been in the Army awhile and know many of the simple things you'll do during school. The seven week course includes a lot of high school to flight school people who don't have much military experience and need to work on their marching and other basic Army skills. In either case, however, the school is tough.

The entire school is centered around a manual called the "WOCSOP," Warrant Officer Candidate Standard Operating Procedure. This manual has every possible situation you could think of encountering during school along with an exact procedure on how to handle that situation. The following is an excerpt from the "Dining" portion of the SOP:

"Center your main entrée plate from left-to-right and ground against the tray edge closest to you. Place your knife approximately one-inch away from the right side of your main entrée plate, grounded to the tray edge closest to you, parallel
to the outside tray edge with the cutting edge facing your main entrée plate. Place your spoon approximately ½ inch to the right of your knife with the bottom grounded to the tray edge
closest to you and the utensil parallel to the outside edge of the tray. Place one fork approximately one-inch away from the left
side of your main entrée plate, grounded to the tray edge closest to you and parallel to the outside tray edge. Place the second fork approximately ½ inch to the left of your first fork with the bottom grounded to the tray edge closest to you and
the utensil parallel to the outside edge of the tray. The fork on the outside is considered a salad fork and the fork nearest your main entrée plate is considered your dinner fork, both utensils should be used as such. Ground each drink glass along the top right edge of the tray with an approximate two-inch separation between them. When you have an auxiliary bowl or dish, such as a salad or dessert, ground it to the upper left corner of the tray. If you have a second auxiliary bowl or dish, ground it
below the other bowl or dish."

I can't lie, when you read through this book it's comical to think that we went through all of this stuff. That excerpt above is just a sliver of all that was in the manual. It also covers how to make your bed, how to fold your socks, how to stencil your name on all your stuff as you previously saw, and when you can and cannot run in the company area. There is a lot of information in that manual and you are constantly tested on it and punished for now following it exactly. Is there a point to it? Absolutely, this type of tedium teaches attention to detail, a quality every officer in the Army should demonstrate, but at the time it's just annoying and induces quite a bit of stress.

A lot of people ask, "Was it like basic training?" Yes and no is my best answer. In basic training Drill Sergeants run the show. They are what everyone associates with "Boot Camp." (Picture is of a Marine Drill Instructor, but it serves my point) The Drill Sergeant's job is to ensure you learn the basic's of becoming a soldier. Things like: how to march, how to shoot, how to move when the enemy is shooting at you, throwing grenades, and enough about fighting to not die in a conflict. Drill Sergeants wear a signature brown round hat.



In WOCS, TAC Officers (called TACs) run the show. TAC stands for Training, Advising, and Counseling Officer. Their job is quite different from a Drill Sergeant's in that they aren't there to teach you much, more to assess. They apply stress and assess how you deal with it. TACs wear a signature black baseball hat.

The difference between Basic Training and WOCS lies in the purpose of the two courses. The purpose of basic training is to break you down, meaning to get rid of your civilian habits and thoughts, and build you up into a fully functioning soldier. Let me emphasize the building you up portion of Basic Training for this is a key difference in the two courses.

If you're attending WOCS, you've already been broken down and built up. The course is geared more at assessing your team-working ability, as well as how well you handle stress. The entire course is designed to stress you out, not to build you up, so if you're planning on going through it check your motivations behind your decision or you will be in a world of hurt as you go through.

So how did they stress you out? In a nutshell, give you more to do than you can accomplish on your own and not enough time to accomplish it all. What does this do? It forces team work, and that is probably the biggest takeaway of the course... Learn to work as a team with your fellow officers/soldiers, because you will need to rely on each other in the real world.

The Course Breakdown:
Our daily routine looked something like this (some specifics were left out so this a loose schedule):
- Wake up at 0530. Let me emphasize to you the fact that when a wake-up time is given in WOCS it does not mean 0529, or 0531, it means 0530... Don't get caught awake before then, or lying in bed after then.
- We would have physical fitness for awhile, then after that we had approximately ten minutes to shower, put on our uniform for the day, and clean the barracks. What makes this difficult is when you have very few shower stalls and over sixty men who need to shower at the same time. We literally hopped in and hopped out and that was our shower for the day.
- From there we marched off to breakfast and then to school for most of the rest of the day.
- School was great because our instructors were laid back and knew how "bad" we had it back at the barracks and they made school as fun as they could. We actually learned a lot of great American history which is vital for any leader to know.
- After school, we would march back to the barracks where we would sit outside in a place with some picnic tables and wait to go to dinner. During this time we would mostly study for our tests, but we also sat around trying to figure out how our stuff would be thrown about in the barracks and wondering if we would be in trouble for not having our wall locker display properly set, or having our pants on the hangar just right, or fearful that we left a button unbuttoned on our uniforms hanging in our wall lockers. It was actually a pretty stressful time.
- After we marched to and from dinner we would go up to our rooms and check the damage. It was actually funny coming back home and seeing our stuff thrown around, because the TACs got pretty creative in how they "rearranged" all of our stuff. I will put some pictures up to give you an idea of what we would find. (See the pictures below)

 I won't lie, coming home to this was also a highlight, just seeing what was different from day-to-day was pretty funny.
- We were not allowed to touch anything right away. We usually put our book bags up and went back downstairs for some TAC time. This usually involved our TAC Officers telling us what life is like as a Warrant Officer, and then a demotivating speech would usually follow that.
- After that we would clean our barracks, and some other buildings around our area. As you can expect clean-up was designed to be somewhat stressful as well. We had 3x5" cards with specific information that had to be displayed on them, with specific locations for each of these cards in accordance to the room/building you were cleaning, and very specific measurements for where/how things were written. If the TACs found something was wrong with the formatting, which they usually did, or the content of your 3x5" cards they would write all over them and you had to rewrite them. There were weeks where we rewrote the cards every night. Along with the 3x5" cards went inspection sheets, 8.5x11" sheets again with very specific things that were to go on them. All the information regarding all 3x5" cards and inspection sheets were outlined in our WOCSOPs. Every time you cleaned your area of responsibility you also brought a ruler, a pen, two-sided tape, and your SOP so you could properly rewrite all your cards.



- After cleaning we had mandatory study time, which many of us actually appreciated. This was a one hour block set aside every night from around 8:45 - 9:45 pm. We were to be seated at our desks and studying. If caught doing anything else we got into trouble. If we wanted to leave our desks for any reason, we had to write a locator card on a 3x5" card so if a TAC saw an empty desk they could look at the card and know where we went; this includes the bathroom. Myself and a few others took this time to get together into a study group to constantly quiz each other for the entire hour. That tactic worked well and our group always scored high on the tests. For anyone thinking of going to WOCs I strongly encourage you to form and utilize study groups.
- After study time we had personal time. This was supposed to be the time we used to correct our deficiencies. If we had buttons unbuttoned on our hangars we were often given memorandums to write. In more extreme cases of infractions we had to write essays. This was all supposed to be done on personal time, not during class, not during study time, not during any time other than your personal time. The memorandums and essays had a very specific format, as you can imagine, and were to be hand-written using a ruler and ruled paper. They were to have a letterhead centered on the top of the page and 1" margins on all sides. This is not easy when you're hand writing something. They also needed a signature block so many spaces below your last sentence. Trust me when I tell you, you want to avoid getting into trouble at all costs, it only makes your stress increase exponentially.

Lights Out:
- Every night at exactly 1030 we lined up in the hallways at the position of attention. We recited the Soldier's Creed, sang the Army Song, and sang our class song. The class song was something we had to come up with and sing for the school Commandant. Not sure why, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.
- At exactly 10:45 the command "Lights Out" was given and everyone scrambled to climb into bed to wake up the next day and do it all over again. Some nights, however, we made some sort of mistake, and soon after going to bed we would be brought outside and given corrective punishment, called "smoking," and sent right back to bed dirty and sweaty.

Specific Activities:
- Our first activity was a car wash. This wash is something all candidate classes must do on a Saturday in order to raise funds for all the things we would have to pay for, like class shirts. The car wash lasted eight hours and is actually pretty fun. Of course we had ours on a rainy Saturday but we actually did quite well.

Every couple of weeks the new classes coming through WOCS hold a car wash. Even if it's raining people line-up to support the candidates. Having gone through it myself I understand why we did so well. The school is difficult, and the community of Warrant Officers is small. It's like a fraternity and everyone comes out to support each other when it counts, and believe me, during the car wash it counts.

Rights:
Everything that makes life convenient and comfortable for you is taken away at WOCS. You have no phone, no internet, to tv, no coffee, no free time, and no family. It's part of what makes WOCS so "special." You do, however, have the opportunity to earn back each one of those things, except for family. Our class was terrible at working together so we earned most of our stuff pretty late in the game, but when we finally earned caffeine rights we were excited:

Why was it so special? Try living in a stressful environment, only getting around most six hours of sleep per night, and then having to sit through eight hours of PowerPoint driven classes all day and not falling asleep.






We had to earn everything. When we march in the Army we sing cadences. It's an old tradition and we love to do it. When you first start WOCS you are not allowed to sing cadence. Marching to chow and school sucks when all you can do is count, "One, Two, Three, Four," every time your left foot hits the ground.

The Field:
Like any good Army school there is a week long field exercise where we get to do what the Army does so well, train for combat. It's a time where you put away all the marching and school work, and you focus on what makes a soldier a soldier.

We started with an air insertion in our training site. I'm going to be a pilot so how could I not love a flight on a Chinook?

For a lot of these guys it was their first time on an Army helicopter, so it was pretty cool for everyone.

 During the week we held various training simulations where we would go out on patrol and encounter enemy fighters. We were the enemies for our classmates, and we had free reign to design our own missions so this was actually pretty fun.

 My favorite portion was the Leadership Reaction Course. We were given minimal time to complete a task we have never seen before, using only the tools and items available at each station. It challenged the person in charge to think creatively and quickly and made for some really fun obstacles to overcome.

 Of course, what good is any WOCS exercise without a little smoke session thrown in by the TAC officer most obsessed with fitness? This guy played semi-pro football and really knew how to work us, but it was always fun with him leading the sessions.

On a hot day these exercises are very difficult, but if you want to be a stud at pushups and situps you'll knock'em out anyway.

 This is our TAC officer motivating us by doing all the exercises with us. True leadership is when the person asking you to do something is out there leading the charge.

Toward the end of the course the Commandant of the school (guy wearing black) came out and ran us into the ground. He's 51 years old and can run better than most people from 18-50. We did a five mile run at around a seven minute pace. We started with 74 people and came back with six. This guy is a machine.

I'm in the front right of the photo, was very fortunate to be one of the six, but I wanted to quit pretty bad for about half that run. That flag up front is called a guidon. I carried it for half the class, and during this run all six of us who made it back shared the responsibility of holding it. It's not light when you're running fast and far. It's essentially a flag on a solid wooden post that is steeped in military tradition. It goes before all formations and the carrier of it is called a Guidon Bearer.

Our shirts are blue because our class color was blue. We needed to come up with a class emblem and motto to go on the shirts and the guidon. We were the "Mustangs," and our motto was, "Earned the Hard Way Sir!" We had to shout that motto every time we were called to the position of attention while formed up as a class. This was an attempt to instill some sense of pride in our class and all the work we had done. The picture is our class sign we had 48 hours to create. I don't have any pictures of the completed sign, but it was pretty cool.


We did a bunch of other fun things, but I won't bore you with everything we went through. To sum up, I guess all I can say is that our class held true to our motto and we earned our Warrant Officer rank the hard way. This was not an easy course, though I don't doubt that if you prepare yourself you can make it through no problem. For those of you thinking of making the switch to Warrant Officer I will recommend you get into pretty good shape before starting WOCS. The amount of physicality of the course caught me by surprise, and though I always try to maintain a high level of fitness, the course was more difficult physically than I expected.

Also, come prepared mentally. WOCS is full of Type A personalities who got where they are because they are driven and confident individuals. You will need to learn humility and realize you cannot complete this course on your own you NEED to work as a team to do it. If you don't, and our class struggled with it, your experience will be much harder than it needs to be. We struggled with gelling as a team. We had so many seasoned NCOs in our group that people were trying too hard to lead everything, and were spending no time on being a good follower. I guess my best advice for anyone thinking of coming to WOCS is to learn to "Shut up and color," and come physically prepared. If you can do those two things you will have no issues with WOCS.

I put a bunch of information up and I understand a lot of it may not make any sense. If you have any questions or just want to know more about what WOCS is like just post a comment.

Expect another post soon updating where I am currently with my training.

- Josh