Friday, May 23, 2008

BOLC II - Last Week and Final Thoughts

So the 7 week adventure/endurance expercise draws to an end.


Equipment has been cleaned and turned in, a whole day is allocated to cleaning weapons, goodbyes are exchanged (though in the standard Army tradition of schools very few will keep in touch). Though you will probably run into them later at other schools or at the oddest places. We had our final release run (4 miles at a 8:45 pace) on Wednesday, met the DCG of the base, and then made sure our paperwork is inline.

BOLC II has been an interesting and frustrating experience. I can understand why the Army added this course. It brings people from all commissioning sources, everything from those with extensive enlisted experience to wet behind the ears straight out of college (and the academy). Everyone comes to their branch with different experiences and this also forces the different branches to mingle (we had pretty much every branch here that has to attend except for Legal) and work with each other to build cohesion as well as cross-train each other. I would say that I came out a stronger soldier, but I think that there are things that they could have done differently that would have further enhanced the leadership building that these new leaders require.

A short 12 hour drive home (HAH!) and then I can relax until Tuesday, when Signal BOLC III starts.

2 comments:

CRXDrew said...

I really enjoyed reading about your experiences at BOLC. I'm just about done packing up for it. (My report date is on the 6th of July.)

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