Hey!

Just to warn you right now, this is going to be a long entry because a lot happened this weekend. So proceed with caution :)

So, as usual, I worried too much. Shock, I know, but it's true.
I was much more nervous about the FTX with ROTC this weekend than I needed to be.

I had to be at Alumni Hall for 2:00 on Friday afternoon, so after I got out of Civ at 1:20, I grabbed a quick lunch from Slavin, tossed on my uniform, did a final check to make sure I had everything, and headed over. I wasn't sure that I had my alice pack (which is, basically, a really big backpack) put together correctly, but it turns out that it's something that goes mostly according to personal preference. If it's easier for you to quickly get your poncho out of one pocket than out of another, than put it in that one.

When everyone had arrived, we were issued our M16's and MRE's for the weekend. Yes, the M16's were real, but they were only loaded with blanks (explosive charges without the actual bullets) and we had a ten meter firing restriction. For the entire weekend, we were totally responsible for the complete care and constant surveillance of our weapon. The only instance that the rifles left our sides was when they were collected for the time it took us to complete the land navigation courses (though afterwards, they were immediately reissued to us). The weapons always had to be within eyesight and arm's reach (even during the night, so we all slept with the rifles in our sleeping bags).

"MRE" stands for "Meal Ready to Eat", and it's the standard food issue for soldiers in the field. They come in different varieties; there are all sorts of chicken, beef, and pork dishes, and there's also pasta, omelets, etc...
MRE's come with the main meal (which can be heated through a bag that chemically reacts to create heat when it contacts water), a side dish (potatoes, rice, etc...), a cookie, crackers, or another type of snack, and usually a candy. They also come with different sauces for the meal, and every single MRE has a small packet of salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, gum, a napkin, and other small things I never used.
MRE's run pretty darn high on the calorie count (in the thousands for one meal), so it's not recommended that you eat a lot, especially in a short amount of time. I ended up breaking mine down into the different sections, throwing away the boxes so I wouldn't have the extra weight (however miniscule, it all adds up), and eating different pieces here and there.

Eventually, it was time to load up onto the bus and make the hour or so drive to Fort Devens. About fifteen minutes away, we "camoed up." Yes, we applied the infamous camo paint to our faces. Like every aspect of the field, some people hate it and some love it. I wasn't really bothered by it, especially since I forgot, after a while, that I had it on.

When the bus dropped us off at Fort Devens, we pulled our alice packs on over our LBE's (which are belts and suspenders with two ammo pouches, two canteens, a compass, a flashlight, and a field dressing, which is basically a little pouch of first aid supplies) and we started the two mile march to the point where we'd establish our patrol base, or makeshift headquarters.

I spent most of Friday night conducting three hundred sixty degree security (you and the other people you're with form a circle, facing outwards, with the leaders at your back in the middle, and you keep eyes and ears out for anything suspicious). Each person lies in the "prone" position--on the ground on their stomachs with their rifle at the ready. During this time, my superiors made schedules of who would eat when, what time everyone could go to bed, and who had security at what time.

So while I ate my MRE, my battle buddy was next to me, in the prone position, keeping watch; when I finished, we switched. We set up our sleeping bags shortly thereafter and went to sleep--for a while. I was woken up at two in the morning because it was my turn to conduct security. So I pulled my boots back on, strapped on my helmet, grabbed my rifle, and patrolled our circle for an hour, until it was time to wake the next person.

Everyone got up at 5:30 on Saturday morning and we had until 6:00 to pack up our sleeping bags, organize our alice packs, and take care of hygiene. As you can probably guess, there are no showers set up in the middle of the woods, so if you wanted to wash up, you better have brought some baby wipes.

For the next few hours, we conducted squad sticks lanes--where our juniors were given a mission to carry out. One of the missions they received, for example, was to conduct an ambush of the enemy (our seniors).
These missions were pretty cool to see firsthand, but I was also very confused. I didn't understand half the terminology that was being thrown around, and I think it was hard for the 3's (the juniors) to have to stop and explain things step-by-step to the freshmen even when they had a time limit and were being evaluated.
Now, one word that you hear over and over and over in ROTC is "camp." The summer before their senior year, all of the 3's in the nation go to Fort Louis, Washington, where everything they've learned in ROTC is tested. They have to pass a PT test, a written land navigation exam, a day land nav course, a night land course, etc... Camp is extremely important because all the cadets who've signed a scholarship contract with the Army can't commission (become an official officer in the military) until they pass camp.
Obviously, after all the time you've put into ROTC, you want to be able to commission--and most cadets are more excited about their commissioning ceremony than about graduation.
The better you do at camp, the more likely it is that you'll be able to branch where you want in the Army. For example, if you're dying to be in the infantry, a very competitive branch, then you better have a good spot on the OML (Order of Merit List)--which you get through good camp scores and a good GPA (which is worth forty percent of your overall "grade"). Cadets who make it into the top ten percent of the OML are guaranteed whatever branch they want, so things get pretty competitive.
That's why you can't escape the word "camp" in ROTC. The juniors are constantly tested and evaluated at FTXs and such in order to prepare them for camp.

In any case, we had a short lunch after we carried out some missions, and then we had a practice land navigation course.

The people organizing the course have set up points in different spots in the area and each cadet has to find as many points as they can. You have a compass and a protractor, and you're given a map, the coordinates of the starting point and of each point you have to find. It's up to you to plot those points on the map, figure out the distance between them, figure out the path you're going to take, and shoot an azimuth on your compass (which means that you have to figure out the direction to head in by degrees. If your protractor tells you thirty degrees, hold the compass in front of you, wait for it to stop spinning, and if thirty degrees is to the right, go right).

I'm happy to report that, during the day, I found five of the five points! Some of them were in crazy areas with wickedly overgrown vegetation, but I managed to beat my way through the shrubbery, find the point (a sign, in this case), and write down the sign's number.

Night land nav was a different story, however. I totally lucked out during the day because none of the points I had took me through the swamp behind the start point--most of them were off the main road. As fate would have it, though, my night course was very different, and after getting a little muddy and very frustrated, my partner and I decided to abandon the point in the swampy area. So, equipped with just our red-lens flashlights (which are way too dim for my tastes), our maps, protractors, and compasses, we decided to try to find any of the other four points assigned to us. It was so dark, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, and I spent most of my time with the flashlight pointed at my feet so I could see where I was walking. During the day, when you know you're in the general area, you can just look around for the sign. At night, though, you have to practically walk into it, dead-on.

We only managed to find two points of five, but I thought that in itself was pretty impressive for two people who had never done land nav at night, before.

After land nav, the squads reestablished their patrol bases, and that night I was lucky enough to have the second shift of security. I had just gotten my sleeping bag all set up, and everything organized, when the person before me came over to tell me I was on in five. So I patrolled for a half hour that night (12-12:30), woke up the next person, and slept until six.

On Sunday, we did a platoon mission--the same as the squad ones, only bigger because then, more than one squad had to coordinate with the other.
When we encountered the enemy, I somehow ended up as a guard to one of the prisoners, and it was interesting to see how an EPW search is conducted.
After every mission, we conduct an AAR (After Action Review), where everyone discusses what was right and what was wrong. Since it was the last event of the FTX, a few freshmen were asked to state some of the things they'd learned.
Well, I learned that I have a LOT more to learn. Is four years going to be enough!?

On the bus ride back to PC, everyone fell completely and totally asleep.
At school, we had to disassemble our rifles, clean every single inch of them, and put them back together. Mine passed inspection on the first try, and then I just had to wait for everyone else to finish.

We were dismissed around 4:00 Sunday afternoon, and I headed straight for my dorm room. There, I shook out my clothes and equipment, tidied them up, put them away, and jumped in the shower. Afterwards, I headed out for dinner, came back, did some homework, and then started writing for this random blog that I have to post on every Monday and Thursday...
Maybe you've heard of it...