Posted on Mar 30, 2014
What is the most challenging course you've ever taken?
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SFC (Join to see)
coming from a signaler I feel your pain. I've had to stand over the shoulder of many of soldiers and read the answer " is it a, coughs B, c, or d."
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I would have to say it is a toss up between Ranger school and Field Sanitation. I had to deal with a whole bunch of $h!t in both.
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SSG (Join to see)
1LT Eric Rosa, besides 0 Day and the 12 mile march at the end, AA is more mental than physical I think. Phase II is hands on and the Alpha 22 bag gets the majority of no-go's. It got me dropped my first time through and luckily on the second time I got the fuel blevits, howitzer, cargo net and water buffalo.
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1 month winter package at the Mountain Warfare Training Center, great training, high altitude and single digit temps to below freezing wind chills was no fun
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LTC (Join to see)
I did the Mountain Survival Course at Bridgeport - 24 days (12 of which are "survival phases"). One of the best courses I've had the opportunity to take; without question, the best cadre of any school I've gone to; and definitely a grueling course (walking up a snow side of the mountain with a mule pack isn't fun).
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Capt Jeff S.
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the level of physical fitness required to get through Marine bootcamp. Our wrestling practices in high school drained me more. The running was not a problem because I also ran cross country and track in high school and so it was actually more work to try and keep my pace slow to maintain in formation with everyone else while on the runs.
OCS, however, was a different animal. It's more individual effort. By that time, I was already a 300 PFT'er and literally was worried about my body falling apart because the level of competition was higher and you were always pushing yourself to your limits trying to beat everyone around you. I went through Bulldog OCS which is a 6 week compressed version for the guys going through ROTC and you skip drill training and jump straight into evaluations because you're already supposed to know how to drill when you get there. Likewise they don't take time to acclimate you or build you up physically. You are expected to be in shape when you arrive.
In bootcamp and at OCS, I never saw the utility of PT'ing in the morning right after you finished eating breakfast. It just made no sense to have stuff in your gut while you were busy doing calisthenics and putting yourself through an obstacle course, endurance run, etc.
Am not going to second guess the wisdom of the folks that do the scheduling but my instincts tell me that it probably would be better to not PT the guys right after breakfast and perhaps throw in a training class to take up an hour so that your food has time to settle...
OCS, however, was a different animal. It's more individual effort. By that time, I was already a 300 PFT'er and literally was worried about my body falling apart because the level of competition was higher and you were always pushing yourself to your limits trying to beat everyone around you. I went through Bulldog OCS which is a 6 week compressed version for the guys going through ROTC and you skip drill training and jump straight into evaluations because you're already supposed to know how to drill when you get there. Likewise they don't take time to acclimate you or build you up physically. You are expected to be in shape when you arrive.
In bootcamp and at OCS, I never saw the utility of PT'ing in the morning right after you finished eating breakfast. It just made no sense to have stuff in your gut while you were busy doing calisthenics and putting yourself through an obstacle course, endurance run, etc.
Am not going to second guess the wisdom of the folks that do the scheduling but my instincts tell me that it probably would be better to not PT the guys right after breakfast and perhaps throw in a training class to take up an hour so that your food has time to settle...
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Sgt Packy Flickinger
When I went through boot camp we had an Olympic swimmer fail swim qual and a world ranked boxer wash out.
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Amn (Join to see)
No boot or basic is the same as it used to be. It's all about safety, sarc, and offending the wrong person. Total bullshit now
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Pathfinder was a tough one. A lot of math and formulas to remember. If I had to do it all over again, I would have definitely read up more on the course and the skills they teach. That may have may made it less stressful...or maybe not...;)
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1SG Steven Stankovich
Tracking on that SFC John Gates, the only test that I received a 1st time GO on was the RSO test. It was a long course...lol...
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1SG (Join to see)
I second that! Early morning study sessions at Mugsy's coffee shop with all the bright 1/2LTs is what got me through it!
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SFC (Join to see)
Pathfinder with out a doubt was the toughest...but believe it or not SFC Gates there is no longer a "final test" so now they can memorize, test, and dump the info. It is still a difficult course but I do not believe it is like when we went through...wow I have turned into an "old timer"
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