I select... Infantry!

I am now "branched". The ceremony was Friday, and during this ceremony we select the Army branch (areas) we will serve. A second lieutenant right out of training will probably become a platoon leader. I stepped up, took a gold pin featuring two crossed rifles, turned to face the room, and called out, "I SELECT! ...INFANTRY!" The room erupted in some of the loudest applause that day. This was unexpected from me. My captain was ecstatic: "That's what I'm talking about, Wolf!!" He's infantry too.


For Thanksgiving I took a random road trip. I'm currently resting at a Day's Inn in Ashland, North Carolina. It's relaxing. After this I'll be going back to Fort Benning and into the field for 2 weeks of training. Since I'll only have a single short break in the middle, I predict a lack of posts between now and then. I'll try to post here once or twice more before the holiday ends.

Video Security

Note: Any videos I take at OCS will not be public to the internet. If you're a personal friend and have a Google account (Gmail, You Tube, Blogger, etc) simply let me know the email address verbally or by email and I'll add you to the people who can view my posted videos on this site!

Combatives with choke out!

OC Edwards choked out OC Foster during a combatives sparring match. The speed (and disadvantageous size difference) was pretty impressive. Striking was not allowed. Both combatants began on their knees. Mouth guards were worn.

The Chow Hall

I'd like to introduce you to the chow hall. Below you see the line. We keep it tight and don't talk. While still we're at parade rest and we snap to attention each time we move. It's actually a lot more casual than Basic but still pretty organized.

This is the serving line. Sometimes the food is still warm when we get dished up. I really like it when that happens.

This is where we eat. We fill the hall from the back left, to the right, and then forward. No speaking unless you're a top three. There are only ever three of those.

This is where the trainers sit. The guy smiling is SSG Harris. The woman is our company commander, CPT Haynes. After I asked for permission to take a picture, SSG Harris declared that he's Santa Claus and said I'd be welcome to sit on his lap. I politely declined.

After chow we do a number of chin ups and push ups before running to the barracks.

At the barracks we do more push ups before we're allowed to enter.

And that's chow! :)

Anna: A company a few buildings over (Alpha Co) has a beautiful lawn with flowers, colored gravel, and a bench. The immediate neighbor (Charlie Co) has a massive sandpit for volleyball. Our area is boring and ugly. Maybe we can change this!

Bolton Obstacle Course

Bolton Obstacle Course is a fun course designed to measure physical ability, balance, and upper body power. I passed all obstacles with full points. I also took a lot of pictures. To view an enlargement of any picture, simply click the picture! :-)

Here we had to step over wooden bars. Use of hands and falling over or toughing other bars is all unauthorized. I'm short (in case you didn't notice) so I had to hop, grab the bar with my butt, and swing my legs around. Very comfortable. ;)

Flipping over a tall wall:

Here I am flipping over a tall wall!

This is just a really tall ladder. I didn't take any striking photos here, but Spinali snapped this one of me:

OC's Kohlmetz and Andrews, I think. You just slide across logs that are rolling and get to the end without falling off.

Directions are to climb up a rope, walk across narrow slats, climb a ladder, and then climb down a rope mesh.

OC Billings:

Here we simply slid down a tall rope on a slant. OC Puhalla:

OC Puhalla:

OC Spinali:

OC Spinali:

OC Trevino:

OC Trevino:

OC Trevino:

OC Billings:

OC Andrews:

OC Wolf (me) and OC Kohlmetz (right side):

This obstacle is called "Tough Nuts" and you lose if you touch any wood! OC Williams:

Here you climbed up one end of a tilted ladder and down the other. OC Spinali (landing hard):

OC Andrews:

OC Diaz:

OC Diaz:

OC Billings and OC Spinali:

OC Trevino and OC Spinali:

OC Puhalla:

Here one must not touch the bar with anything but hands. OC Andrews and OC Kohlmetz:

OC Billings and OC Diaz:

OC Williams and OC Trevino:

OC Wolf... hey! That's me!

OC Trevino is balanced.

The monkey bars in the background are part of this same obstacle. This is OC Dalton:

This is The Weaver. You go under one bar, over the next, and repeat. The structure as a whole goes up and then down. From the top down you can see Williams, me, and then Billings.

Infantry Tactics (in the classroom)

This is an Australian Sergeant Major discussing decisive point and mission. I wasn't going to post this since I thought it might not be allowed, but then I found this same material posted publicly on Fort Benning's ibolic page, so it seems to be acceptable. However, if you wonder why my content usually skirts or obscures information like numbers of soldiers, land layouts, etc, it's because even when information is unclassified, if I (as an officer) amass US tactics and training in one place, I could be assisting people I don't want to assist.


Each fire team developed a plan of defense or a plan of attack and presented the plan to the whole company plus several cadre with extensive experience in tactics.

Anna: No. :) We have not dumped Gatorade on our commander's head after a successful battle. It's a good idea, but generally I err on the side of caution with people who carry large weapons. In sports you're safer because your coach is probably less fit than you and you can run. In the Army, a fair portion of your promotion potential is based upon your fitness, so your commander might be pretty buff.

A pickaxe in my left and a camera in my right!

I took yet more pictures! Woot! First, I took a picture of my most valuable tool: a Red Bu~ er, I mean, The Ranger's Handbook! It's pretty cool if you want to learn how to determine edibility of wild plants, perform lifesaving, or conduct battle drills and deliver operation orders. I'm sure you want to do all those things. This was one of the first real pictures I took with my new camera.

We did a lot of area beautification this evening. That's an every-other-day sort of task around here. We edge with pickaxes, mow, paint symbols / doorways / walls / stairwells, and rake everything.

Infantry Tactics (in the field)

OC Mueller started the day by briefing us on pertinent information.

Today our workout routine was marching around rough terrain all day.

OC Mueller is relaxing too much.

We had to develop a complex plan to illustrate how we will defend Bush Hill from an enemy attack. We have a light infantry platoon at our disposal and must protect OBJ DOG (objective "Dog", which is a subset of our company commander's objective "Rooster"). Much of our instruction regarded placement of machine guns, observation (which involves both cover and concealment), and call for fire (artillery). There's a lot that goes into a plan like this. You don't just dig a trench in a circle and fill it with people. You use terrain and tactics! By our plan, we are defending a 500 meter diameter circle of land from an enemy with roughly the same firepower. Will it be effective? Well, I think so... but I won't know for sure till the war games tomorrow. Here are some shots that my team used to discuss lanes of fire. They won't mean a lot if you aren't a team member. Sorry.

This is our guide standing on an important stump. (We know the exact coordinates of this stump.)

This is a hydration station.

This would be a perfect picture if I'd gotten the Skiddles.