Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Training Tips

This is going to provide each and every soldier future soldier (Like My son) with some training tips they should comprehend prior to completing any task while in the United States Army. This is to be used as a guide and for no other purpose. These will be my ideas assisted by United States Army Manuals that I have gathered over my almost 20 years of Service.

1. Prepare yourself.
a. Get training guidance from your chain of command on when to train, which soldiers to train, availability of resources, and training site.
b. Get training objectives (task conditions and standards) from the source of which you will be using.
c. Ensure you can do the task. Review the task summary and the references in the reference section. Practice doing the task or, if necessary, have someone train you on the task.
d. Choose a training method. Some tasks provide recommended training methods in which you could use.
e. Prepare a training outline consisting of informal notes on what you want to cover during your training session.
f. Practice your training presentation.
2. Prepare the resources.
a. Obtain the required resources as identified in the conditions statement for each task.
b. Gather the equipment and ensure it is operational.
c. Coordinate for the use of training aids and devices.
d. Prepare the training site using the conditions statement and the evaluation preparation section of the task summary as appropriate.
3. Prepare the soldiers.
a. Tell the soldier what task to do and how well it must be done.
b. Caution soldiers about safety, environment, and security.
c. Provide any necessary training on basic skills that soldiers must have before they can be trained on the task.
d. Pretest each soldier to determine who needs training in what areas by having the soldier perform the task.
4. Train the soldiers who fail the pretest.
a. Demonstrate how to do the task or the specific performance steps to those soldiers who could not perform to standard. Have the soldiers study the appropriate training materials.
b. Have the soldiers practice the task until they can perform to standards.
c. Evaluate each soldier using the evaluation guide.
d. Provide feedback to those soldiers who fail to perform to standard, and have them continue to practice until they can perform to standard.
5. Record your results in your leader book.

If you follow these short and precise steps you will be learning the Army’s training method of Crawl walk run, rinse and repeat. This same format could be used in any organization that has a great demand on teaching and mentoring people to complete a given task.

If this has helped you or you would like to just some feedback please post me a comment, so I can continue to provide you with great information like this.

PS. If you are interesting in learning how to sign up for online surveys (Click here)
PSS. If you can read Spanish and like Spanish cooking recipes check out my wife’s page (Click here)

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Day 1 Basic Training

Well the story continues:

Day 1 of actual Basic training has arrived and I was cold missing home and my friends already. What have I done, was going through my head each and every minute. I was feeling out of place and confused at the same time. Things were going to be different. Heck I did not even have mommy to make me my breakfast or wash my clothes. (lol)

Well the drill sergeants picked us up and moved us onto the buses to head to our new home for the next 8 weeks. We go moved and shoved; this resembled herding cattle onto the truck. Everyone had at least 2 bags and was required to run and move onto the buss as fast as we could. All of this was happening while the drill sergeants were yelling and screaming in our ears. Calling us every name in the book. I even remember 1 kid breaking down and starting to cry. When we arrived at our new location it was a building about 4 floors kind of like a hotel look to it with balconies and the stairs on the outside. We got order to grab our bag and hit the pavement.
Upon reaching the pavement we had to dump all of our belonging onto the ground to have them inspected. They went through taking out things we were not allowed to have like tobacco products etc. 1 guy even has a pair of women’s panties. (That was a funny event) Once they were satisfied with checking everything and taking away all electronic devices and alienating us from the outside world. We have 2 minutes to pack it all up and follow him. Or we would get (smoked); I was thinking what in the world that is?
The yelling started again and then a new drill sergeant came running out of the building saying follow me. We grabbed our stuff and started running up floor after floor of this huge building. We started on the north side and ran the 4 flights of stairs then back down the other side around the building and back up the opposite side. This was kind of tiring we had all of our bags in our hands and it was like 4 am. After running the length of the entire building we went to another adjacent building were after running this on also. We started to get assigned our barracks. They were huge bays that slept about 12 people per room 6 bunk beds. The first thought I had was do I want top or bottom bunk. The top would smell the stench of the person from the bottom, while being on bottom bunk would smell the farts from the person up top. I took the top 1.
After dropping off our bags in the room we had to get ready for physical training I swear this went on all day long. Or at least my body felt like it did. Pretty much the entire day was getting yelled at doing a lot of push up’s and sit up’s. We did get to eat but only after doing 100 sit up’s and about 30 minutes of working on our abs. I think they were trying to make sure our bellies hurt so we would not eat so much.

So the journey has begun. I will keep updating this and going through my wonderful events in basic combat training. From my view in 1989.

Gringo

Friday, January 23, 2009

Fort Dix New Jersey

August 1st of 1989

I still recall the first day of basic training. We arrived very early in the morning. About 4 am I was tired and butterflies swarming threw my stomach. Surrounded by people that I did not even know now that was a trip of a lifetime. There were people from all race's and sizes and shapes. I felt very out of place.

Day 1 started out by filling more paperwork (tons of it) Going back over my entire contract and checking out my medical history. Pretty easy day.

Day 2 was more of the shots and injections and receiving all my uniforms and initial issue. (Basically everything I would need for the next 8 weeks) They gave us this Manuel and said read plus get your boots shiny and your uniforms ironed. I was lost in the sauce; I hated reading I did not know how to iron so I attempted to shine my boots. However there was this little punk kid (name not mentioned) who had done ROTC. He shined his boots in like 20 minutes it took me like 3 hours.
Pretty much for the first 5 days it was getting acclimatized and familiar with the new surroundings. We got yelled and screamed at almost every hour. Wake up around 4 am clean and do more cleaning. Read our Manuel and be prepaid for the weeks to come. They kept talking about meeting out drill instructor and how mean and nasty he was going to be if we did not shape up. If I recall correctly there was this crazy guy. (Imo) He brought a wigi board and would worship the devil. Was pretty weird he was taken away after about the 4th day. That was a relief.

Basically it as pretty boring stuff until the first true day of basic. All we did the first week was clean read iron. Rise lather and repeat. I look back now and realize they were getting us accustomed to the other people in a weird sort of way.

Well more to come in a few days I actually hate writing but its kind fun to think back on those memories. Even though they were 19 years ago.

Gringo

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Becomming a Man

Well I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a very cold and snowy day in Pennsylvania, we had just had a major snow store and my car (1969 Monte Carlo) had broke down. With this said I had to ride the bus (Uggg). I was dressed in my normal get up of the 80's long hair rock tee shirt and a jean jacket. However I also played football. (lol)

Some punk on the buss said Bittner you don't have the balls to join the service like me, I told him dude shut your trap i got more balls then you will ever have. Now comes the weird part. I got off the buss and within 2 minutes my phone rang (guess who) An Army recruiter. He ask my if I would like to become a mechanic and be in a topical paradise with 20 women for every guy. I said whats the catch he stated well you have to join the Army. O and by the way there is a $ 10k bonus for joining.

Well and from there the rest is history he came over I told my parents to sign the parental consent (I was only 17) and waited Until Aug 1 1989 to start my career.


BTW I dint tell my fiancee until the day I left for training. Kinda harsh huh.

Well stay tuned there is allot more to come in the Pursuit Of Happiness

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Whats in a Name?

Hello everyone.

Take the name Gringo for example, I was given this nickname when I was stationed in Panama. If you have not noticed by now I am a United States Army Soldier. While being in a foreign country was an awesome experience I also got a little tag line associated with me.

  • Gringo –noun, plural -gos. Usually Disparaging.
    (in Latin America or Spain) a foreigner, esp. one of U.S. or British descent.

However to most of the Panamanians it meant Green Go or (verde para fura)

I was stationed there right before the invasion or what we like to call "Just Cause"

The United States invasion of Panama, codenamed Operation Just Cause, was the invasion of Panama by the United States in December 1989, during the administration of U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and ten years before the Panama Canal was transferred from control of the United States, back to Panama. During the invasion, de facto Panamanian leader, general, and dictator Manuel Noriega was deposed and the Panamanian Defense Force dissolved.

My Intent of this blog is to express my feelings and just like the title says gain the Pursuit of Happiness that everyone wants and strives to achieve.

Threw out the following days, months and hopefully years I will lead you on my life, show you its ups and Major downs, so possibly you wont make the same mistakes that I have. Even better yet maybe you will excel and improve from my feats and insure that you obtain the Pursuit of Happiness you deserve.