San Antonio, Texas

After the general portion of OBLC, there was a small graduation that lead our way into our tracks. The graduation was nothing special just an hour ceremony with generals talking and us (students) reciting the soldier's creed. The picture below shows a portion of the 350 students in the general section just prior to graduation.

Well Dale wanted to be at this ceremony so he flew out for that weekend. He arrived on THursday night and stayed until Monday morning. We had not seen each other since I came down to Texas so it had been almost 2 months. It was great seeing him, giving me a sense of home and normalcy.

The Friday night of graduation, my platoon was having a party at a bar called Howl at the Moon down on the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. This bar was cool because it was a dueling piano bar, something that neither Dale nor I had been to in a while. The performers were great and we had a great time. I did get alittle drunk but it was a celebration. The piano bar had what was called the phrase of the night and high roller phrase. Basically you paid either progressive dollar amounts to have some phrase written on a mirror for everyone to see. It was a great evening. We will definately return to this bar when in San Antonio again.

OBLC

Well since the first of August, I have been in San Antonio, Texas for OBLC (Officer Basic Leadership Course). This course is designed to introduce new officers (me) on what it takes to be an officer in military. The course is broken into 2 parts: general and track. The general portion was 7 weeks long and the veterinary track is 5 weeks plus 3 days. The general portion has soliders from all walks of life: prior service, direct commission, HPSP and all walks of duties: nurses, doctors, PA's, 70 bravo's, veterinarians, denstists, ect. It has been interesting. During the general course, we have classroom time and field training (ftx). During the class work, we learned basic drill and ceremony, army procedures, duties and customs.

The FTX's were the most entertaining. Normally the class spends 5 days in the field and comes back to base for the weekend. Well because labor day fell in the middle of our FTX, we had to spend 11 days straight in the field then back to base for 4 days then back into the field for 4 days. Keep in mind that there are no showers while in the field and the bathrooms consist of port-a-potties. So your thinking that can't be that bad, well having 507 people using about 30 port-a-potties in Texas summer is not pleasent. I also have a new appreciation for baby wipes.

While in the field we did all sorts of tasks and drills, most of which are representation of what enlisted soldiers do while at boot. Some of those drills were firing the M16, M9, MOUNT training (kicking in doors and shooting people) and plenty of medical related drills. Yeah there was long days and longers nights but the best part is I got to be friends with the best platoon, "freaken 5th"!!!

(sorry tried to add more pics but my computer is hating me today)