It doesn't feel like much has happened since last week, but in reality, we've reached the last stage of being a fish. On Tuesday morning, we went on a run to earn the guidon. I wish it had been some hard task or other, but because everyone had to stay in on the run, it was probably the easiest PT I've done since last semester. I'm not even kidding. We ran the normal course of a Corps Run (about 2-2 1/2 miles) in about 25-30 minutes. In comparison, when we did the Bloody Cross (a 5k or 3 miles) we came in at about nineteen minutes. I know that it sounds wierd that I would want to do harder stuff, but getting the guidon is a big thing. After the run was over, the three "guidon brothers" were announced. Of those three, one will be the actual guidon bearer, and the other two will be his backups. Whenever we go to formation or on a rn, one of them is carrying the actual outfit guidon. The rest of us are back to normal PT now.
The other major thing that started this week is fishead (pronounced fish head) training. Essentially, at each chow, and when we're at formation, several fish are selected to be sophomores for that training event. The purpose of this is to train us in training people. The objective is to be more familiar with training procedures when it's time to train our fish (scary thought, that).
In other news, last Friday we caught a squirrel. The tradition is that if the fish catch a squirrel and deliver it to the commanding officer, they get senior privileges for a week. The reason we didn't is because we only caught it because it came up to our floor for some reason. We were back from Friday morning PT and all of a sudden, a squirrel jumps out of the trash can. We did, however, get priviliges for Monday and Tuesday (which got taken away Monday night because of smart people doing really stupid things).
In other news, today is run-off elections for Student Body President and the junior yell leaders. The three senior yell leaders are Weston Wilcox, Casey Schaeffer, and Reagan Thompson. Reagan is a bit of a stand-out, since he's not a member of the Corps. There's a lot of cadets who are just as mad as they can be, especially among the fish, since a non-reg now gets to wear things that a normal cadet could only wear after two years of Corps life. Since he's a senior yell leader, he also doesn't have to go through many of the things Casey and Weston went through. The general opinion among the Corps is that Reagan hasn't earned his position as yell leader and is going to have a hard time proving that he deserves it. The good news, however, is that the write-in candidate for junior yell, John Busch, reached the run-off election with 39% of the vote as compared to about 18% for his nearest competitor (who, incedentally, is no longer campaigning because his twin, who also was running, didn't make it). Most of us figure that the Corps will easily take the junior yell positions.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Guidon Candidacy
Now that the fish class is an official part of the outfit, we are doing some new things. First, as stated before, we have junior priviliges for the week. That's going really well. It's quite relaxing to be able to walk in the hallway. That being said, we're still at the bottom of the pole, and we still have training meals and stuff like that where we have to act like fish. We were given a nice little framed certificate that we have completed outfit brass, and the brass itself. Outfit brass is virtually indistinguishable from Corps brass, with one exception. The brass in question is a crossed sword and fasces (if you don't know what that is, ask your ancient history teacher) under a shield with a helmet. The difference is that when the brass is on your collar (your left side, or the right side when someone is facing you) the helmet on Corps brass faces towards your back, and the helmet on the outfit brass faces forward. I may at some point take pictures to illustrate the point.
The really big thing we're doing now is Guidon candidacy. The guidon is the flag that is at the front of each outfit during a march-in or Corps run. Typically, when you watch a march-in, it will be the smallest flag held by an outfit. To be the guidon bearer is a position that holds much respect. It means that you have been determined to be the most capable of representing your outift in terms of physical fitness and other qualifications determined by the outfit. Right now, to earn the guidon, we are doing the most demanding exercises we have ever done. Currently, whenever we go running, we have to high-port (hold over our heads) a broom. Whenever we do pushups, we hold the broom upright with one arm and do pushups with the other. In case you're wondering, it's nigh impossible unless you're really good at pushups. I'm not. The person who will be guidon bearer should be announced at parent's weekend. I'm pretty sure (within one or two people) who will get to take guidon.
In the meantime, everything's fairly relaxed here. My only difficulty right now is reminding myself to study, now that the nine hours of personal study time has been reduced to five. I did, however, get a 95 on my last Political Science test. I'm pretty pumped about that. We get to take a day off of formation for every A we get in a three-hour course.
The really big thing we're doing now is Guidon candidacy. The guidon is the flag that is at the front of each outfit during a march-in or Corps run. Typically, when you watch a march-in, it will be the smallest flag held by an outfit. To be the guidon bearer is a position that holds much respect. It means that you have been determined to be the most capable of representing your outift in terms of physical fitness and other qualifications determined by the outfit. Right now, to earn the guidon, we are doing the most demanding exercises we have ever done. Currently, whenever we go running, we have to high-port (hold over our heads) a broom. Whenever we do pushups, we hold the broom upright with one arm and do pushups with the other. In case you're wondering, it's nigh impossible unless you're really good at pushups. I'm not. The person who will be guidon bearer should be announced at parent's weekend. I'm pretty sure (within one or two people) who will get to take guidon.
In the meantime, everything's fairly relaxed here. My only difficulty right now is reminding myself to study, now that the nine hours of personal study time has been reduced to five. I did, however, get a 95 on my last Political Science test. I'm pretty pumped about that. We get to take a day off of formation for every A we get in a three-hour course.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Brass Completion + Campaigns
About four hours ago, we woke up to the sound of sophomores in the hall. About two hours ago, we were standing in front of Sully with a new piece of brass on our collar. I don't even want to try to remember all that we did between those times, so you can just assume that it was the hardest bit of P.T. we've ever done. So basically, now that we have our Outfit Brass, all requirements are off, and we're back to just the normal routine of things, except that we have Junior Priviliges for the rest of the week.
We actually did come through the Brass push without ditching anyone, but the person who drags us down the most was not present for the last two days, when we really hit perfection. It's kinda leading us to believe that we couldn't have done it with him present. He and three of my other buddies were visiting Barksdale Air Force Base. They actually met some former Falcons there, and one came back to talk to us on Sunday night. He was the '05 commander of 16, and he said that we have a seriously squared away class for the most part.
The second thing that I wanted to talk about was the campaigns for yell leaders. This year is a lot more competitive than past years have been, especially for the Junior Yell positions. There are five yell leaders elected each year, two juniors and three seniors. Traditionally, all of them come from the Corps, but non-regs persist in trying to get a spot. Actually, I'm quite impressed with a couple of them this year. Two of the non-regs have started to do 24-hour yell practices. We ran by one of them this morning while getting our brass. The big news, though, is that one of the two Junior Yell candidates from the Corps was found to have DWI and possesion of marajuiana in his past, and stepped down as a candidate on Friday. His replacement came too late to be an actual official candidate, so the 5 for yell campaign (the five from the Corps) is trying to get a write-in candidate. It's never succeeded before, but we've got a seriously intense campaign going on. Now that Outfit Brass is over, our class is doing a lot of work to push this guy through.
We actually did come through the Brass push without ditching anyone, but the person who drags us down the most was not present for the last two days, when we really hit perfection. It's kinda leading us to believe that we couldn't have done it with him present. He and three of my other buddies were visiting Barksdale Air Force Base. They actually met some former Falcons there, and one came back to talk to us on Sunday night. He was the '05 commander of 16, and he said that we have a seriously squared away class for the most part.
The second thing that I wanted to talk about was the campaigns for yell leaders. This year is a lot more competitive than past years have been, especially for the Junior Yell positions. There are five yell leaders elected each year, two juniors and three seniors. Traditionally, all of them come from the Corps, but non-regs persist in trying to get a spot. Actually, I'm quite impressed with a couple of them this year. Two of the non-regs have started to do 24-hour yell practices. We ran by one of them this morning while getting our brass. The big news, though, is that one of the two Junior Yell candidates from the Corps was found to have DWI and possesion of marajuiana in his past, and stepped down as a candidate on Friday. His replacement came too late to be an actual official candidate, so the 5 for yell campaign (the five from the Corps) is trying to get a write-in candidate. It's never succeeded before, but we've got a seriously intense campaign going on. Now that Outfit Brass is over, our class is doing a lot of work to push this guy through.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Spring Break (Also Human Nature)
Spring Break is obviously here, since I've found time to put up a new post. Yes, my life was that busy. Here's a quick breakdown of an average daily schedule.
0530: Wake up for PT. First call at 0535
0630: Begin preparing for formation. First call at 0645
0700: Morning formation and chow
0730: Get chewed out for doing things wrong at chow before leaving for class
0800-1200: Attend class and eat lunch
1200: Return to dorm and panic, since no racks have been made (see last post)
1259: Turn in paper that says we have made all racks one minute before due
1300-1500: Personal study time (hereafter termed PCQ)
1500-1545: Prepare uniform for inspection (must begin inspection by 1545)
1545-1600: Prepare for afternoon PT (drink water, read the world's news, etc)
1600-1630: Meet with buddies in fallout hole and argue about who should have been doing what
1630-1800: Get smoked until we can't do anymore, then get smoked for looking limp
1815: First call for evening formation and chow
1900: Return to dorm and take shower, prepare for CQ
1915 or 1930: Start CQ
2200: End CQ, personal time technically starts, go to fallout hole to get chewed out further
2215: Personal time really starts, begin polishing for next day.
2230: Lights out. Discuss daily problems with old lady, get mad at each other, etc.
As you can see, this is a really tough schedule. While I do get a fair amount of sleep, the stress I'm under is really getting to me. Due to the snoring of my old lady and a really annoying sophomore (not that they're all nice, but this one is especially a pain) I had a pretty bad breakdown last Wednesday morning. But that's not what's been causing my real stress.
Why a new paragraph? I really hate human nature. But the purpose of the Corps of Cadets is becoming more and more clear. Yes, it helps deal with stress, and yes, it makes you a leader, but the source of the stress and the leadership experience is conflict with human nature. The reason we have outfit brass is to make all the deadbeats, chopouts, and lazy people show up under the spotlight of a tremendous task. Our biggest task is now to decide what to do with them. Do we ditch them and make our class more efficient, while ruining the ambitions of those few? Or do we keep them and do what we can to make them do their jobs and ultimately, become better people? As much as I would like to help them along, the few are making the task much more difficult for the many. After brass is over, I'll tell you what we decide to do and how it turn out. Don't expect that post for a while. We're a big class and take a while to make decisions. In the meantime, prayers for our collective decision-making ability and my personal witness are appreciated.
0530: Wake up for PT. First call at 0535
0630: Begin preparing for formation. First call at 0645
0700: Morning formation and chow
0730: Get chewed out for doing things wrong at chow before leaving for class
0800-1200: Attend class and eat lunch
1200: Return to dorm and panic, since no racks have been made (see last post)
1259: Turn in paper that says we have made all racks one minute before due
1300-1500: Personal study time (hereafter termed PCQ)
1500-1545: Prepare uniform for inspection (must begin inspection by 1545)
1545-1600: Prepare for afternoon PT (drink water, read the world's news, etc)
1600-1630: Meet with buddies in fallout hole and argue about who should have been doing what
1630-1800: Get smoked until we can't do anymore, then get smoked for looking limp
1815: First call for evening formation and chow
1900: Return to dorm and take shower, prepare for CQ
1915 or 1930: Start CQ
2200: End CQ, personal time technically starts, go to fallout hole to get chewed out further
2215: Personal time really starts, begin polishing for next day.
2230: Lights out. Discuss daily problems with old lady, get mad at each other, etc.
As you can see, this is a really tough schedule. While I do get a fair amount of sleep, the stress I'm under is really getting to me. Due to the snoring of my old lady and a really annoying sophomore (not that they're all nice, but this one is especially a pain) I had a pretty bad breakdown last Wednesday morning. But that's not what's been causing my real stress.
Why a new paragraph? I really hate human nature. But the purpose of the Corps of Cadets is becoming more and more clear. Yes, it helps deal with stress, and yes, it makes you a leader, but the source of the stress and the leadership experience is conflict with human nature. The reason we have outfit brass is to make all the deadbeats, chopouts, and lazy people show up under the spotlight of a tremendous task. Our biggest task is now to decide what to do with them. Do we ditch them and make our class more efficient, while ruining the ambitions of those few? Or do we keep them and do what we can to make them do their jobs and ultimately, become better people? As much as I would like to help them along, the few are making the task much more difficult for the many. After brass is over, I'll tell you what we decide to do and how it turn out. Don't expect that post for a while. We're a big class and take a while to make decisions. In the meantime, prayers for our collective decision-making ability and my personal witness are appreciated.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Outifit Brass Details (hint: it's not fun)
So earlier this week I told how Outfit Brass started. Well, now we have a few more details on how it works. Here is a nearly complete list of requirements for completion. Watch for updates if I forgot anything.
1. Each fish must get one perfect uniform inspection and one perfect hole inspection.
2. Each squad (4-5 fish) must have one perfect chow, to include getting to the table before the sophomores, finishing before them, and making no mistakes while at the table.
3. Each rack (bed) must be unmade and all sheets neatly folded and placed on the rack by morning formation. Starting at 9:00, racks can be made. All must be made perfectly by 2:00.
4. All upperclassmen must be greeted 3-deep for the duration of Brass push. See previous post for more info.
5. We will go on a unity trip tomorrow to work together for two days (coming back Sunday around 2:00) and get to better know each other.
6. Seven hours of Personal Call to Quarters (personal study time during the day) must be completed per fish per week. This amount may go up as the push continues.
7. Physical Training is much more difficult, and involves many exercises that emphasize mental, not physical, strength. For example, wall-sits, where we lean against the wall with our legs in the position they would be in a chair. It's torture after about a minute. I think we typically do it for five minutes at a stretch.
8. We cannot use mirrors for the duration of Brass. Any function that needs a mirror should be filled by a buddy.
As you can see, Outfit Brass requires perfection from the fish class. Basically, it means we don't get our Brass until they decide we're ready for it. I will probably have more to say about the unity trip when I come back. I hope it will be fun, but regardless, I will enjoy being away from the Corps for a full day.
P.S. Check out the new Falcon Sixteen Website. It's not done yet, but it's already looking better than the old one.
1. Each fish must get one perfect uniform inspection and one perfect hole inspection.
2. Each squad (4-5 fish) must have one perfect chow, to include getting to the table before the sophomores, finishing before them, and making no mistakes while at the table.
3. Each rack (bed) must be unmade and all sheets neatly folded and placed on the rack by morning formation. Starting at 9:00, racks can be made. All must be made perfectly by 2:00.
4. All upperclassmen must be greeted 3-deep for the duration of Brass push. See previous post for more info.
5. We will go on a unity trip tomorrow to work together for two days (coming back Sunday around 2:00) and get to better know each other.
6. Seven hours of Personal Call to Quarters (personal study time during the day) must be completed per fish per week. This amount may go up as the push continues.
7. Physical Training is much more difficult, and involves many exercises that emphasize mental, not physical, strength. For example, wall-sits, where we lean against the wall with our legs in the position they would be in a chair. It's torture after about a minute. I think we typically do it for five minutes at a stretch.
8. We cannot use mirrors for the duration of Brass. Any function that needs a mirror should be filled by a buddy.
As you can see, Outfit Brass requires perfection from the fish class. Basically, it means we don't get our Brass until they decide we're ready for it. I will probably have more to say about the unity trip when I come back. I hope it will be fun, but regardless, I will enjoy being away from the Corps for a full day.
P.S. Check out the new Falcon Sixteen Website. It's not done yet, but it's already looking better than the old one.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Still Alive
Outfit Brass push is here! This is the part of my Corps career where we prove to the upperclassmen that we are a fish class worthy to be called Falcons. This is supposed to be much harder than Corps Brass, where we were merely showing that we could be fish in the Corps. Corps Brass they actually had to give to us (though they have at times threatened to take it away). There is no such requirement for Outfit Brass. There are actually classes that have not gotten it in the past. Also, there is not deadline. Our juniors reportedly too six weeks, and our sophomores took about a wee and a half. I'm seeing a strong correlation between class size and length of Outfit Brass, so I don't expect to be done anytime soon.
To officially kick off Otfit Brass, we went to the MSC this morning (the place is deserted at 5:45) and read all the records of the Medal of Honor Winners. When we got back, after formation, we had to re-whipout to out seniors, since we are now greeting "three-deep". Three-deep greeting requires us to greet with name, hometown, and major. So basically, everyone's going to try to avoid the quad when there are likely to be seniors present. I expect that in the next few days we will also be greeting juniors and then sophomores three-deep. In the three hours since formation, at least three lists of seniors with major and hometown have been sent out on the fish listserv. At least we've got some idea of what we're doing. I expect we'll start going over them like campos in the near future.
In other news, I'm actually doing well in all of my classes. I just got out of an exam for my SOMS class (it's supposed to teach us how to be direct leaders, but I haven't actually learned anything yet) and I think I did pretty well, considering I spent all of five minutes studying for it. Organic chemistry and Calculus three are both doing alright, and I'm pretty sure I'm beating my junior who's in Cal 3 and my sophomore in O-chem. I absolutely destroyed my Poly Sci class, and should get a bag-in for that on Thursday. Air Force classes are pretty fun right now. A couple of weeks ago we got to train on M9's, which are the standard issue pistol of the U.S. armed forces. It's hard to shoot straight with a pistol. We're also preparing to give sample briefings on leadership and teamwork (whee).
To officially kick off Otfit Brass, we went to the MSC this morning (the place is deserted at 5:45) and read all the records of the Medal of Honor Winners. When we got back, after formation, we had to re-whipout to out seniors, since we are now greeting "three-deep". Three-deep greeting requires us to greet with name, hometown, and major. So basically, everyone's going to try to avoid the quad when there are likely to be seniors present. I expect that in the next few days we will also be greeting juniors and then sophomores three-deep. In the three hours since formation, at least three lists of seniors with major and hometown have been sent out on the fish listserv. At least we've got some idea of what we're doing. I expect we'll start going over them like campos in the near future.
In other news, I'm actually doing well in all of my classes. I just got out of an exam for my SOMS class (it's supposed to teach us how to be direct leaders, but I haven't actually learned anything yet) and I think I did pretty well, considering I spent all of five minutes studying for it. Organic chemistry and Calculus three are both doing alright, and I'm pretty sure I'm beating my junior who's in Cal 3 and my sophomore in O-chem. I absolutely destroyed my Poly Sci class, and should get a bag-in for that on Thursday. Air Force classes are pretty fun right now. A couple of weeks ago we got to train on M9's, which are the standard issue pistol of the U.S. armed forces. It's hard to shoot straight with a pistol. We're also preparing to give sample briefings on leadership and teamwork (whee).
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Welcome back to the Corps
After a long Christmas break and relaxation time, I'm now back in the Corps. I had a good time over Christmas, went skiing, and tried to teach certain of my buddies how to ski. In the process, I got to actually relax with upperclassmen, instead of being a fish constantly. The trip to Colorado is a twenty hour bus ride each way, so we watched a lot of movies, did some reading, and slept as much as is possible on a bus. Breckenridge was beautiful, and we got an entire foot of snow while we were there. It was interesting watching the juniors and sophomores, since they were snowboarding instead of skiing, and didn't like powder very much in consequence.
I've been back here for about two weeks now, but it's only just now starting to settle down to a "normal" Corps experience, with a couple of exceptions. First was that Sunday marked 112 days until final review. If that doesn't mean anything to you, realize that I am in the class of '12. To mark this historic occasion, we had fishead day yesterday. Basically, we got to act like sophomores for an entire day. We were "chicken dropped" with our upperclassmen, meaning we could call them by their last names without saying sir, and we didn't have to run around in the hallways. Additionally, the sophomores did what they could to tell us what new things go on during sophomore year. It was a more relaxed day, and I learned a lot. Today's a bit more annoying, since Monday was 111 days until final review, and our sophomores are class of '11. Today, therefore, is butthead day. The sophomores ('heads) get to act like juniors (butts) for a day. Let me tell you, they're enjoying it a lot. They can smile and joke around us, and they're doing a lot of it. We're expecting that the juniors will also have their day tomorrow, but it probably won't be that much different.
This semester, I'm taking fifteen hours, the same amount as last semester, but now it's a more consolidated schedule. I actually have time to do things this semester. I will also have more free weekends, since there's no football games. Unfortunately, the classes I have are also harder (o-chem and cal 3) so I'll be studying more. Apparently I will also have more Corps responsibilities later in the semester in preparation for outfit brass (I'll tell you more when I know more) so studying is going to be harder to squeeze in.
I've been back here for about two weeks now, but it's only just now starting to settle down to a "normal" Corps experience, with a couple of exceptions. First was that Sunday marked 112 days until final review. If that doesn't mean anything to you, realize that I am in the class of '12. To mark this historic occasion, we had fishead day yesterday. Basically, we got to act like sophomores for an entire day. We were "chicken dropped" with our upperclassmen, meaning we could call them by their last names without saying sir, and we didn't have to run around in the hallways. Additionally, the sophomores did what they could to tell us what new things go on during sophomore year. It was a more relaxed day, and I learned a lot. Today's a bit more annoying, since Monday was 111 days until final review, and our sophomores are class of '11. Today, therefore, is butthead day. The sophomores ('heads) get to act like juniors (butts) for a day. Let me tell you, they're enjoying it a lot. They can smile and joke around us, and they're doing a lot of it. We're expecting that the juniors will also have their day tomorrow, but it probably won't be that much different.
This semester, I'm taking fifteen hours, the same amount as last semester, but now it's a more consolidated schedule. I actually have time to do things this semester. I will also have more free weekends, since there's no football games. Unfortunately, the classes I have are also harder (o-chem and cal 3) so I'll be studying more. Apparently I will also have more Corps responsibilities later in the semester in preparation for outfit brass (I'll tell you more when I know more) so studying is going to be harder to squeeze in.
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