This week was a bit of a doozy. We had some medical recertifications, learned how to use machine guns and Javelin missiles, drove tanks in full-sized simulators, and did a couple obstacle courses. Each of these took a full day from 5am until around 6pm when we would have a couple of hours to eat and get ready for the next day. Starting last Friday, we had our 5 day Field Training Exercise, or FTX. For the first two days of the FTX, we learned about patrolling, basically how you live and conduct raids in places where the enemy might be. For the last 3 days, we lived in patrol bases, staying hidden while attacking […]
CFT Week 1
After graduation I had a week at home before flying back to West Point to start 4 weeks of Cadet Field Training (CFT). Early Sunday morning, we loaded ourselves and all of our stuff onto huge trucks and moved a couple of miles away from the main campus to Camp Buckner. At Buckner, we live in Squad Bays, long buildings with lines of bunk beds and wall lockers. The next day we started three days of rifle shooting, bivouacking (military for camping) at the ranges over night. We had an evening and night back at Buckner before leaving for two days of Land Navigation. We spend a day getting used to the terrain before waking […]