Let's talk.

I got off the phone with my Unit Administrator and apparently I have been charged, rather than paid for having missed a mandatory weekend drill (battle assembly).  I am PISSED and here's why.  Apparently following enlistment, reserve soldier's have a 90-day grace period in which they are not obligated to attend weekend drills.  I knew no such fact.  But in all fairness, I new that the drills were taking place, but I was not informed that I was a.  getting paid to attend drill yet,  b.  that they would be mandatory prior to basic combat training, and c.  that I would be charged/fined for not attending a drill.  So here it is, I'm off on the wrong foot. I only got around to starting in-processing at my unit last Wednesday. I'm really annoyed right now.  So I'm gonna give my recruiter an ear full today.  

Lesson learned.  Address all nagging feelings when something feels incomplete and don't depend purely on anybody when given information.  Research EVERYTHING for yourself because in the end, you take the fall for it and you HAVE to shutup and put up.  And conversely, when I become an NCO (non-commissioned officer) or officer, I will make it a point to make sure those under me are well informed as much as it depends on me.  It will not be fair that they get punished for my failure to divulge something that needed to be known.  In battle, this gets people killed, especially in light of how people get killed anyway even when everything is done right.

I was instructed to practice and have The Soldier's Creed memorized by the next Future Soldier Training day. So I set my camera up and practiced with it recording. 

I've been following this development as closely as I can and it seems that these changes are for the better.  The elimination of unnecessary tasks and drills from BCT seemed necessary in my mind, especially when I see that bayonet training is still happening.  Soldier's don't even carry bayonets on their weapons anymore.  Physically speaking, I bet there are definite benefits to bayonet practice, but in that same time spent poking a stationary tire dummy, a far more relevant skill can be learned.  And I think the same applies for the rest of the phased out tasks and drills.

Here is an excerpt from the TRADOC (Army Training and Doctrine Command) release that was put out yesterday, March 29, 2010.

"We now have a list which has been unanimously approved by all Army commands universally," said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, TRADOC's deputy commanding general for Initial Military Training (IMT). "Some of old tasks and drills introduced in basic training were not relevant - they were not things most Soldiers would use at any point in their careers. They'd see it one time and then never see it again." The old tasks and drills list were organized under headings such as "shoot," "communicate," "urban operations," and "move and fight," and contained roughly 32 tasks, 207 subtasks and 12 battle drills. The new list is streamlined, with 15 tasks, 76 subtasks and four battle drills, organized under the headings "shoot," "move," "communicate," and "survive and adapt."  Read more...

To download the PDF of the new tasks and drills, click here.