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I'm back; what, no parade?
Topic Started: Apr 18 2004, 06:33 PM (108 Views)
doctortobe
Speak softly, and carry a 57 megaton stick!
I'm back from the FTX, and what a time I had! We met up at UCO at 1000 and rehearsed the actions we would take as we boarded and left the Black Hawk. We then set up a 360 degree security perimeter as we waited for the helicopters to show up. During that time, the media was all over the area. I had my picture in the paper and was on the news. We boarded the Black Hawks and made the 98 mile trip to Lawton in about 40 minutes. After arriving, UCO was instantly the most popular university at the FTX due to our being the only ones to travel in such a fashion.

The first day was devoted to setting up our bivouac and being briefed on the events of the next three days. Nothing eventful really happened.

On the second day, we took our Land Navigation written exam and executed Day and Night Land Navigation courses. I only missed one question on the written exam and managed to find 7/8 points on the Day course and 4/5 on the night course. This made me one of the top scoring cadets in my school. It was not a simple task however. In both Land Navigations, I frequently had to bypass water refill points to make it to the small markers that had the numbers that proved I had found the point. I was extremely dehydrated after both courses and only avoided being carted off by the medics by toughing it out and treating my own heat exhaustion. Also of note is the fact that I was able to pass my night Land Nav despite the fact that my red lens flashlight broke 15 minutes into the test (I never really used it anyway, but I was really pissed off).

On Saturday, we went to the Squad Tactic Exercise (STX) lanes. These are a series of scenarios such as Recon, Ambush, and Move to Cotact that test your ability to lead a Squad. There were nine members in my Squad and each of us was to take the role of Squad Leader in one of the nine lanes. All of us ended up getting at least a Meets the Standard on our respective lane, (there are three grades 'N' Not to standard, 'S' Meets the standard, and 'E' Exceeds the standard) but for some reason or another I was given the most difficult lane in the course.

As this FTX was merely a learning experiance for cadets before they go to Advanced Camp (now called "Warrior Forge" :sick: ), the OPFOR (Opposing Force, in this case consisting of Fort Sill Infantry) mostly stayed in their positions grouped together and allowed us to go through our tactics to see where we needed to improve. However, on my lane, not only was the OPFOR spread out, but they were constantly changing position as well. I ended up killing the three enemies, however I lost two of my squad members. This was due to an error on their part however ( one turned their back on an enemy faking "death" and the enemy threw a grenade killing himself and two members of Alpha Team) so I was not penalized for the loss. In the end, I managed to make an overall S with Es in some areas and no Ns. This surprised me as I was expecting to rate horribly because I had not killed the enemy in a timely manner like the other Squad Leaders did.

I later found out that this lane was meant to throw an insane number of variables at the SL to make sure that they can think on their feet. I actually impressed the seasoned warriors of the OPFOR with some of my tactics to counter them. Of course, I was just pulling stuff out of my @$$ and was trying not to panic as they tried to flank us. It's nice to know that, even though I am going to be a doctor, that I have a bit of soldier in me (my instructor is now trying to get me to branch Infantry).

The third day was uneventful and the only activity we did was to clean the M-16s we used in the previous exercises. Blanks are much dirtier then regular bullets so we spent a great deal of time getting all the powder residue out of the bolts and barrels of the rifles. After this, we all boarded a charter bus and went home in luxurious comfort (I was asleep within minutes and Major Ingram took a picture of me asleep with my mouth wide open). Upon reaching home, I found that I had three ticks on my body. Two were very small ones that I thought were only scabs, and the third was in the joint between my leg and waist so was easily missed by casual inspection. As such, I will be taking antibiotics to combat any kind of infection I got from the pests. I also have put medicated cream on the chigger bites I have accumulated.

In the end, UCO outshone all the other schools (OSU, OU, Cameron U, and Texas Tech). In the written land nav test, UCO only had one failure (the cadet was starting to feel the effects of multiple MREs on his bowels and had to circle random answers so he could reach the latrine in time). This failure was later made up. All other schools had at least 7 failures on the test with an unknown number made up. We also beat the other schools in Land Nav course scores and STX grades. This goes to show that UCO has the best ROTC program in the region.

I will probably post pictures on this thread as they are posted on the UCO ROTC homepage. I would love to answer any questions and to hear any comments you have.
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Cool Vulcan
Captain
Glad you had a good time. What paper were you in?
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doctortobe
Speak softly, and carry a 57 megaton stick!
The Daily Oklahoman. It is circulated state wide. I would post the picture here, but the online archives require you to pay $8.95.
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Cool Vulcan
Captain
Thats steep. You should keep that newspaper for later on you could show your children of what their father looked like when he first signed up.
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fireh8er
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I'm Captain Kirk!
Good to hear your safe and back home!
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Minuet
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Fleet Admiral Assistant wRench, Chief Supper Officer
Hail the conquering hero! :kiss:

Hey you didn't blow up Canada. Thanks!
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doctortobe
Speak softly, and carry a 57 megaton stick!
I just want to say that I'm sorry about your tree Min, I seriously did not think that the jet stream would throw the shot that far north. Fortunatelly, it seems that nothing of Bill's was harmed (unless he is a Texas Tech fan).
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Minuet
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Fleet Admiral Assistant wRench, Chief Supper Officer
The tree hasn't fallen over yet. There's still tommorrow night's game (when did we start talking sports on this thread?)
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captain_proton_au
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A Robot in Disguise

Now that your back Doc, can u explain this?

I found it in my back yard a couple of days ago, did u have anything to do with it??





























Posted Image
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doctortobe
Speak softly, and carry a 57 megaton stick!
Not really sure, go poke it with a stick a few times and see what happens.
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gdog243
Rear Admiral
Welcome back Doctorbabe.

That was a quick assignment, but it's good to know your back home safe and sound.
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Fesarius
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Admiral
Doctortobe,

Welcome back. :)
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