STEX

Yesterday we had our first order over a Sand Table. We were acting squad leaders and briefed platoon order (there are three squads in a platoon). Then we broke into small groups and discussed what should be our considerations when writing our own order. After that, we were released for the evening and left to write our squad order to be briefed around a sandtable in the morning. I got to work on my order right away and finished about 2 hours or so later. Even knowing exactly what I was going to write, it still took that much time to write it all out on notecards for the brief.

The next morning, you could see the effects of the order. Apparently people had stayed up most of the night to get the order finished and it must have been very anti-climatic because there were 13 people around the sand table to brief part of the order and only 6 paragraphs to brief. I ended up briefing a small subsection; Commanders Intent. I did fine considering it was my first time, however in my head I was thinking, "Why can I not talk in complete sentences?" I didn't feel nervous, but I sounded nervous.

After the STEX (Sand Table Exercise), we had classes for the test of the day on Fire Support Planning. It was a firehose. We also went over a class on "how to plan training". It usually is at the end of TBS, however they moved it to the front because they're going to use our training as an example of the planning involved in training. For example, after Field Exercise 1, we will discuss the planning involved in the EX and how it fits into the over-all scheme. Sort of a peek behind the curtain.

I have the Endurance Course today at 0800. Its a 5 mile-ish course that you run in full cammies with some combat gear and a backpack full of more gear (maybe 40lbs total). Plus you have your rifle. There are some obstacles and ropes to climb up and down. I'm not too nervous since I have 90 minutes to complete it and we're not being graded. If I don't pass it in 90 minutes then I'll just have to come out more for some required practice. In order to get out of Mike Company, I had to run the course with 30lbs and no rifle and I ran it in 65min. I'm in much better shape now (thanks to the rifle range runs) so I am hoping for somewhere around 80minutes. Either way its a perfect day for it since its nice and cool and I think we're getting out early.