I do realize that it's a schoolhouse reality, and that USMC OCS is different than Army OCS, but the fact remains that you are ill-prepared to lead a unit (not you in particular, just OCS graduates) And saying that it's your platoons job to train you how to react to the real world? good job with that. half the butterbars coming out of OCS are so full of their own shit that they don't listen, and the other half disregard it out of hand because they feel they know better. it's the enlisted/officer gap. the enlisted grunts know what's going on, but the officer thinks he knows better, just because he's got that butterbar. nevermind the fact that the Sergeant has been in the military for 12 years and has been deployed 10 of those 12 years. Again, it's not a jab at you. I actually think you'll do fine. it's the other 99% of college kids who do it that don't/won't listen to people that know better, and end up getting people killed. And BTW, my LT had been in the corps for a year and a half. So it's not like he was a fresh face. He was just too stuck on himself.
OCS is a crock because it in no way prepares you for actually leading a squad or platoon of men. Yes, you know how to technically go about your business, but it doesn't teach you not to fuck with a groups cohesion. I can't tell you how many butterbars show up as a new platoon leader and fail miserably. Case in point, my LT in Iraq. Great guy, knew his shit, but he was in no way prepared to actually lead. What most butterbars need to realize, is that the guys they're "leading" often know more about what's going on than they do. Hell, I had to, as a combat corpsman, put my foot down and tell me LT that we were not going to go do a recon patrol down an unsecured road. it took me going to the fucking captain to get the LT to see what I was saying. And that was that a recon patrol, for the area and size he wanted to go into, required half company, not 3 squads with the corpsman bringing up rear guard with a fucking 9MM. And he wasn't the only one. I can't tell you how many butterbars got sent back to the states from my battalion. most of them after getting good marines killed. so it's not that I don't trust your leadership, I just don't trust OCS to give you the kind of experience you need to keep your men alive.
I know how that catch-up game works, myself. I've started playing on-and-off while looking for a job these days, and I'm almost at 77 now, but still am so damned far behind everything that I dunno why I'm even bothering some days. Glad to hear that you have lots to keep you busy, too! Let me know how it works out with the setup thing--have you seen a picture, or anything?
there are a hell of a lot of hippies here in OR, that's for sure :( But I smell AWESOME, dude. Seriously, you should check me out (in a totally non-gay way, I mean). So what are you doing until January? That is a fucking loooong time to sit on your butt and get soft again. WoW? :)
no luck with the job hunt so far? that's shitty :(
you should definitely move to WA ASAP--i'll be moving up there for sure, and Theresa plans to move up in that direction as well so our whole thing won't be keeping me from making the move either. Do whatcha need to, mang!
