IOBC Journal

[WhiskeyRiver]

Rangers,

In a couple of days, I will be reporting in to IOBC. Among my friends and peers who commissioned at the same time as myself, and who branched Infantry, I have the earliest report day. We are also pretty much clueless (insert 2LT joke here) as to what to expect. Officers to talk to were a bit scarce, and didn't have a lot of advice for us. The PL milspace forum pertaining to Infantry seemed to have more requests for assignment swaps than anything else. Even the IBOLC website was a bit scant on information.

Since I'm the first of my social circle to get thrown to the proverbial wolves, we all agreed that I should keep everyone else updated on what to expect. So, I've decided to keep a journal online tracking my experiences. Not only do I plan on detailing daily activities (PT schedule, training, etc.), but I'll be offering my own observations and lessons learned. You can find the journal here - http://bolcjournal.blogspot.com/

As of now, I only have one post, describing what I'm doing to prepare. Once I report in next week, I will be posting daily, as my training schedule permits. Any advice, critiques, comments, etc. are more than welcome. I have thick skin.

Hopefully someone here will find use for this - if so, I've done my job. Enjoy.

Signed,
WhiskeyRiver

[Silverback]

Awesome plan...have fun

[The Holmchicken]

We are also pretty much clueless (insert 2LT joke here)

That'll never change.

[Slowpoke]

It sounds very interesting, I'm curious to hear your experiances.

And remember, the reason thoughts become cliche' is because they're true!

[Baseplate]

One suggestion I would make, recalling back when I worked at IOBC:

Don't stop a patrol to take a personal call on a cell phone.

When you put it like that, you make it sound like it is something bad

[rgrwest]

One suggestion I would make, recalling back when I worked at IOBC:

Don't stop a patrol to take a personal call on a cell phone.

When you put it like that, you make it sound like it is something bad

Hard to hide those damn things back then!

[KW Driver]

One suggestion I would make, recalling back when I worked at IOBC:

Don't stop a patrol to take a personal call on a cell phone.

Well, it's a technique

[dabeetrus]

Great idea, I leave for IBOLC in April so I have bookmarked your blog. Hopefully you'll have enough free time to post regularly.

[PocketKings]

What's funny about that, Zone, is that 11 years ago I too got into it with an Egyptian officer who was too good to hump a ruck. I pride myself on my lack of temper, but I lost it on that POS. The cadre just sat and watched, quite bemused.

Egypt. All downhill after the Sphynx.

[KW Driver]

funny, I used to think the Israelis were all kinds of bad-assed, until I saw what they were up against.


now, I have no idea how good they really are.

[PocketKings]

We had a Croat guy who was the exact opposite. This was '99, so very few of our instructors had combat time.

Instructor asks the class 'who here thinks they can set up a good ambush?'

Croat 'Eddie' raises his hand.

Instructor (laughing), 'OK hero, what makes you think that?'

Eddie goes on to explain in detail the U shaped ambush he led (his guys were on the third floor of a military complex with perfect plunging fire) using artillery to walk the opposing company towards them. This was a retalitatory strike for a hit the Serbs had done on his unit months before, killing 20+. Eddie's ambush wiped out the Serb company (80+).

His reward was to get to come to America to train with US soldiers when the conflict died down. In his country, you get 2 years of service towards retirement for every 1 year in combat. He was in combat from 1991-1995. This was 1999, so he had only 8 years to retire at the age of 34.