Hello Class 50:

On the behalf of January’s drill student leadership, we want to thank everyone for your hard work, dedication, and patience during last weekend. We all worked hard between December and January’s drill in an attempt to make things smoother for us. I think that we, as a class, came together despite having our minds and bodies challenged in ways that we are not accustomed to. Nonetheless, that kind of training is what most of us signed up for – it will only brings the best out of us. Most of us are much more capable than we give ourselves credit. I hope that every one of you continues your enrollment in the program. Let’s make Class 50 the class to remember, as well as the class with the most OCs to graduate.

On a side note, many of you had kind words for me, as well as the other student leaders, after drill. Again, thank you, but we couldn’t have done it without your patience, hard work, and understanding. Unfortunately, because so many of us were exhausted after drill, we did not conduct an AAR for the drill.

During the weekend, I kept some notes, so that I could pass them on to the in-coming student leaders. Instead of posting them in this email, I will be starting a thread on our class website under OC Forums, which is under Things To Do. Hopefully, I will have them posted by Monday. I strongly encourage you to make productive comments/responses on the thread. This is just another way we can share what we learned during our weekend.

Remember to work on your physical fitness and health between drills; it will pay off when we are getting smoked.

Have a great rest of the month and please, do not hesitate to contact me directly (804.731.2382) if you need anything.


Sincerely,

OC Warren and your student leadership (OCs Newman, Ellis, Bailey, Reed, Ming, Johnson, Aliff, Carte, Valenzuela, Van Loon, and Vinegas)

“50th Sets The Standard!!!”

Leadership Lessons Learned January 2007 Drill Phase 0

1. When OCs enter classroom, OCs should take off gear and hang it on their chairs before ordered to “take seats.” This should/will become part of our classroom SOP.
2. When told to go outside for LDT (smoke session), leave map cases on desks.
3. When being smoke outside classroom or other locations, it is up to the CO or 1SG (or whomever is the senior leadership at the time) to request permission for class to return to classroom or other location.
4. When being smoked and TACs ask CO/1SG what he/she wants to do – ask permission to return to training or other drill activity being performed before being smoked.
5. ALWAYS request or ask for Changes/Additions/Modifications to schedule. For example, if we were not told to disassemble our wall lockers, we should request permission to disassemble into our rucksacks.
6. Remember to delegate to lower levels of responsibility.
7. Communicate vital information, such as uniform for formations and time for formation to female barracks or representative.
8. Know the required knowledge and be prepared to communicate it while under physical and mental stress.
9. Thoroughly know the OC guide, especially greeting to TAC Officers and NCOs.
10. Practice the TLP.
11. Think about the logistical needs of the class rather than at the individual soldier’s level. For example, when we did the APFT, I failed to bring a copy of the training schedule. Fortunate for me, I didn’t need it; however, there were many times when I was asked what our schedule was or asked to see it.
12. Memorize the training schedule, at least for the next 4-6 hours in advance.

There are many other lessons that I learned, but these are the ones I wrote down.

Please feel free to AAR me or any of the leadership from January drill – We all want to learn from each other.

Great list, Warren. All things we should try to keep in mind...especially the "while getting smoked" tips. I have a feeling these will come in handy.

One other thing I'd add to the list: communicating information quickly and clearly to your subordinates is a vital skill for any leader to develop. While you can always issue a FRAGO to modify information you've already put out, FRAGOs can tend to complicate things and confuse people as:

a) The FRAGO does not get disseminated; or
b) Multiple FRAGOs lead to frustration among the troops.

I'd recommend that the leadership always take a moment to think through and clearly communicate their decisions before issuing orders. This goes for big things (like developing SOPs) to small things (like communicating the uniform for the day).

Getting it right the first time is always easier than trying to change things mid-stream.