Summary of 94e Training thus far

I hope my readers will excuse my absence. I know that there aren't many people keeping up with my blog right now but I am sure one day people will wonder if I forgot about this thing or not. I have been here at AIT for a couple of months now and I think I can give a pretty good summary on what we have done here so far.

1. 3 Days of shop operations. You are going to be introduced to Technical Manuals and how to do paper work. YES it's seriously 3 days of learning how to do paperwork. This is where you realized you signed up to be a technician and part of being a technician is learning how to navigate through thick manuals and quickly. You may never know how to fix every problem but you will learn to find the information that you need so that you can.

2. 2 weeks of BET ( Basic Electronics Training ) - This course is called the blue screen of death. You sit in front of a computer and read material like you would find in a text book and do tests and quizes like you would an online class. There are experiments where you take circuit boards and connect them to a board that simulates faults in them. You will use a multimeter, oscilliscope and a function generator. The course is designed for people with no electronics background. You will go from cartoon pictures explaining to what electricity is to calculating voltage drops, impedance and comprehending technical schematics in just two weeks.

A lot of people complain about how boring this class is. Don't listen to them. If you signed up for this MOS because you are actually interested in electronics bet will be fun. Plus everything is relaxed and done at your own pace BET.

The biggest problems students experienced in this part of class was staying awake and following written or verbal instructions. People who fall behind in class can attend what is essentially study hall in the evenings. Often times the instructors will do paper work to make it mandatory for you to go and you get in trouble if you don't show up. By this point in BET we lost 2 people who get recycled to a previous class.

3. 1 Week of Trouble Shooting - During this week we returned back to the classroom we did shop operations in. During this week they give you a piece of radio equipment and a schematic for it. We colored the schematic so that we could more easily understand the different components and then learned about the critical areas of interest on it. Afterwards we used two large, grey box shaped pieces of equipment to diagnose faults in the subject radio piece and begin trouble shooting. For our final test at the end of the week we had to sit down at a desk, use the equipment to diagnose where in the radio the fault probably was and then use a multimeter to find the exact fault while referring to the schematic. We had to do this successfully 2 out of 3 times and fill out the correct paper work in order to pass. This was probably the most technician like thing I have done in the army so far and I enjoyed it. But I'm not going to lie a lot of us were sweating bullets on that test day.

Currently we are in the secure building. I will discuss more on this later.

Updatessss

Unfortunately it is February already and I am still a phase IV. To be honest I am not entirely sure if I will ever pass the run on my PT test soon enough to enjoy living as a phase V here at Fort Gordon. Little did I know how different my life would be if I had signed up to be a 25Q and gone to signals across the field.

There are 20 people in our class. We just finished BET ( Basic Electronics Training ) and we are working on radio trouble shooting in a different building now. Several soldiers in our class still need to make up work from BET but the instructors don't seem to be worried too much about it. There is one soldier in our class who most likely will be washed out or classed. He was 6 days behind in BET around the time that we were supposed to be done with the class. From what I understood from the rumors, he just wasn't getting it. While we were in class yesterday, our instructor called on him to answer a question; he didn't have a clue what the answer was. My heart sank as I watched him struggle to keep from bursting into tears. No one wants to be that soldier that gets washed out of the army or reclassed. It was very sad for me to watch because I have been "that guy" before and I know what it feels like :/

Friendships

The thing is, a lot of friendships here are formed out of necessity and convenience.

Back to Basics

This holiday weekend allowed all of us at the 73rd to enjoy sleeping in late, letting our rooms get cluttered and enjoy living in the army without much stress. I just got back from our 1800 formation to find that all of our regular cadre had returned and read to do business. The 1st Sergeant gave a real inspiring speech about leaving our "baggage" (you know, problems at homes and things that would distract us from graduating) at home. I was really impressed.

Then we got introduced to our new platoon sergeant. There was another sergeant there as well. To be honest I am not sure which one is our new platoon sergeant. They both seem very firm and determined to whip some discipline into their soldiers. I hope that I don't catch any heat.

Back to basics is this inspection thing that happens here at Fort Gordon where basically everyone turns their rooms and wall lockers into emasculate little museums on Friday and then some high ranking officers and NCOs come in and inspect them. Well this weekend the Sergeant Major of our Battalion AND the Sergeant Major of the post are coming to OUR barracks to walk around and see how clean and shiny everything is. On top of that the Sergeant Major of the Ordnance Corps will be here also. Holy heart attacks batman!

My weekend at the 73rd

Overall a four day weekend at AIT is pretty bad ass. Twice we got to sleep in late. Once until 0600 and today we got to sleep in until 0700. I skipped breakfast because the DFAC (read cafeteria) opens up an hour or so early. I decided that I needed the sleep much more so than the food. So today I slept in, picked up trash and went hungry.

Being a phase 4 at at AIT is seriously the pits. Make sure when you leave basic that your PT scores are as high as they can be because you don't want to not phase up because you can't do a basic 60% passing on your PT. Of course if you come to the 73rd then you will need to do 70% as well as a bunch of other crap. Again like I said, from what I hear Signals across the field has it much easier compared to us. I wish I could write about what life is like as a 94E yet but frankly I am still too new here to say anything.

My first week here at AIT has been filled with a lot of emotional turmoil. I was split ops. When I came home from BCT I was sent home for two months because I had renegotiated my contract. During the time that I spent at home during Christmas and Thanksgiving a lot of my "issues" had been exacerbated by the stress I experienced in BCT. I ended up coming home, breaking up with my girl friend and treating other friends and family poorly. It wasn't that I'm a dick at heart. I truly am a good person. I had just given up keeping myself in check and was tired of feeling persecuted all the time for my "quirks" that don't hurt anyone.

Everything came crashing down when I was acting impulsive and inconsiderate for the duration I was there and finally became drunk and belligerent towards the end of the night. My ex-girlfriend lost all respect for me as well as my other close friends. Frankly some of them aren't my biggest fans right now. For days my friend's opinions of me seem to spiral wildly downhill. I was so heart broken in it I felt like I had lost everything in life. I felt deeply despondent for a few days.

Last night I talked to my mentor and the center figure for my circle of friends. He clarified that a lot of the things he wanted me to change were actually my impulsive behavior. He didn't think I was a dick, or a bad person or even a sociopath. Just thought that I was failing not to think about my actions enough. I felt much better because I know those are things I can change. Those aren't the "quirks" that I am sensitive about. I feel like the next year is going to be a great time for me to improve myself and finally become the man I've been wanting to grow into.

I have decided to make a lot of changes. I want to make new friends and spend a lot more time at church. I intend to quit smoking and drinking ( so far very easy to do as a phase IV ). I need to really grow as a person and I think that the opportunities for me to do that aren't near home anymore.

First Day of Class

Here is the outline for what was the schedule for my first day of class today. I speculate this will be the routine for many days to come.

0400 - Wake up

0450 - PT Formation. PRTs today and muscle failure.

0630 - Breakfast break and Barracks maintenance.

0710 - Squad detail. Clean the showers.

0730 - Motor move to school.

0820 - Class

1130 - Motor move to lunch.

1250 - Motor move back to school.

1500 - End Class. Motor move back to the company area.

1645 - Formation. Then Dinner.

1845 - whitephase formation ( for noobie no privilege people like me ).

After this formation we are usually made to do some kind of stupid detail like kick rocks or pick up trash. Most of the time is spent just waiting for the sergeant to come and make announcements.

I usually have some free time right about now. Enough time to go on the net for a bit and take a shower and lounge around. Upper phase people are running around the company area in their civis enjoying their time off that they've had all afternoon.

2130 - Last formation and then dismissal to go to bed.

The best thing you can do after 2130 dismissal is to go right to sleep. So far the biggest challenge in AIT is staying awake during all the tasks you have to do.

My class that I am taking is Shop Operations. Today we learned how to navigate through a technical manual and process paper work associated with shit we have to fix. By the way, Echos fix a TON of stuff. Since we got combined with Limas we have to fix both regular army radios and equipment in helicopters. One of the skills we have to learn as an 94 series is to learn how to fix something just by referencing the manual. There is more to it than you would think.

***edit 12 feb 12*** Actually, Echos might not actually fix that much equipment for our job. We might be capable to fix a wide variety of machines. But when ever I talk to someone on the other side it sounds like all we will work with are SINCGARS. Food for thought.

I'm happy about the path I've chosen. I think that I will be good at fixing electronics and that the experience will allow me to pursue a good career in the future. My life as a 94e will probably be a far cry from being an army ranger or air borne infantry. But I wouldn't be happy at anything I wasn't good at.

Inprocessing

Today I literally spent the whole day doing death by paperwork in a classroom of about 200 new soldiers. We did everything from our life insurance form to our travel voucher. When I say all day I literally mean from 0630 to to about 1600. Lots of people couldn't stay awake and got smoked or made to stand in the back of the room during the briefing and finance. The Command Sergeant Major and the Brigade Commander gave inspiring speeches and talked about the basics of why people fail here at Fort Gordon. Our only mission here at Fort Gordon is to pass classes, pass PT tests and get OUT of here and into the operational army as soon as possible. They talked a lot about the issues soldiers encounter while they are here. Suicides, shootings, illegal drugs, sexual assault (it happens to men MORE than you would think) are all "issues" that people run into here at AIT. I will go over more about the Commander and the Sergeant Major said about that stuff later as well as some statistics. I'm tired now and I'm hoping to be passed out by 2200.

Tomorrow is my last day of processing and I should be done by 1100. I will probably be put on some phase IV detail for the rest of the day. Classes are supposed to start Wednesday.

Intro

First and foremost I am writing this blog to help future soldiers make decisions and prepare themselves for their AIT at Fort Gordon. I hope that I do a good job of objectively presenting information and details that my readers will find useful. However, I am in kind of a transitional period in my life and some of my posts may come off as emo or mopey. To help you as the reader scan for solid facts and useful nuggets of info I will format such content in bold letters like this. Angsty rants will get formatted into something else when I can think of something clever to to style them in.

Also, you wont find any information on this blog that isn't supposed to be public. I wont tell you how to circumvent policies or how to do any kind of shenanigans. Privates are plenty capable of getting themselves in trouble and they don't need any help. If you are that kind of soldier I hope you will perform an integrity check so you can stop being such a shit bag. And I'm damn sure not here to post classified information or talk badly about other soldiers or NCOs.

I just got here. That means I am still a total noobie at everything. Maybe that will turn out for the better and my noobie perspective will provide good insight. However I do have some useful information for someone that is about ready to ship.

1. MOS 94e and MOS 94L are being combined. If you signed up to be a 94L (Air Traffic Control Equipment Repair) then you are going to be absorbed into the 94e program when you get here.

2. Training for 94e is now 18 weeks instead of 26 weeks. That's a good thing to. When you read more on my blog and understand what it means not to phase up and earn your privileges then you wouldn't want to waste 2 months here either.

3. If you are a 94 your ass is going to the 73rd Ordinance Battalion. So far it seems like the leadership and the quality of our battalion is very high. But then either I am lucky or every BN says that about themselves.

4. Rumor: If you are a 25 series you go to a different battalion that has much easier requirements to phase up. Here at the 73rd part of your test to "phase up" and earn privileges again is to score a 70% in every event on the PT test. The rest is just memorizing chain of command, slogans and general army knowledge. Be advised that if you are suffering from injuries or just don't have a big enough heart to pass the PT test you are going to be stuck with time wasting details and formations while your battle buddies go out to party on the weekends for the duration of your AIT. At least here at the 73rd.

I hope this helps someone. I will continue to amend my introduction page so that this info doesn't have to be dug up by anyone.