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comment by goobster
goobster  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: I'm back! And, alive! Not that I wouldn't be.

Hoorah 101st! My brother in law was a paratrooper with them.

I got to work a lot with the 1st, when I was in Kosovo. (The Big Red One!)

Like others, I am curious to hear what the learning environment is like. Crawling around under barbed wire while under fire is what the movies always show, of course, but I'm more interested in the academic side of things. So any insight into the classroom side of the experience would be fascinating to hear about...

Good work!





nowaypablo  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hell yeah! Our Bravo company was the big red weenie.

I can give you my schedule for this year to give you an idea!

1st semester:

Calc

Psychology for Leaders (kool-aid drinking 101?)

Composition

Adv History of the Middle East (because I chose to study Persian and validated US History)

Fundamentals of Aquatics (aka Rock Swimming, I'm apparently a shitty swimmer) but by 2nd semester I'll be taking survival swimming, aka Plebe Drowning. Plebes are freshmen.

Chem

Semester 2:

more english

more math

IT 105

Military Science (this is a very complicated, in-depth thing that I"m not sure about but I take it for 4 years. It covers everything from politics to individual unit tactics, field stuff, etc.)

Plebe Boxing

Military Movement (basically gymnastics)

Physics 205

1 or 2 more things whose course codes i can't decode

----

My teachers are a combination of civilian professors (mostly PhD as if that matters) and active duty officers, Majors or above. They're all notably awesome while being absurdly challenging. I take 18 credit hours a semester to start, and I'm also supposed to be starting persian this semester. It's not on my schedule because I'm considering switching to Arabic, there's a legendary little old Arab man who teaches the class and I'd get an opportunity to chill in Morocco for a bit.

There's an instructional system in place that is opposite any other college I've heard of so far. It's called the Thayer Method, and basically, we learn everything on our own before the class for which it's due, and the class time is solely to bounce questions and get further insight on the subject matter that we're already expected to know. Sounds pretty stupid in my opinion but I don't know anything yet so my opinion is invalid.

We apparently have the "#1 most accessible instructors" in the US. Basically, teachers have been known to snowmobile from their nearby homes to their offices to meet cadets for additional instruction if the roads are snowed over during the wintertime. They're really there for us, and with a maximum class size (intro or otherwise) of 23, it's pretty cool shit.

We have all sorts of uniforms that are all sorts of awkward and consist of all sorts of microscopic bits and pieces that are never where I left them and always crooked. It's part of the learning curve. But we look good!

Each class is strictly divided and fraternization (befriending up or down a year) is a no-go. This is because throughout each year, cadets gain responsibility and rank as they transition from following to leading larger and larger groups. A plebe has no rank, a yearling is a corporal and is assigned a plebe to guide through their first year. A cow is a sergeant and can lead a squad or an entire platoon. A firstie can lead a company or take another executive company position, or be selected for regimental staff and take command of cadet life at West Point.

The way this works is that every summer is dedicated to some sort of very very intense military training. Beast is this summer. Next year I'll either be selected for Airborne school, Air Assault school, and after a 2-week break I'll be going to Cadet Field Training (super-beast). The year afterwards, I will take Cadet Leadership Development Training and then become cadre (leadership) for the 1st or 2nd half of Beast, which is when I'll be selected to lead a squad or a platoon within the 8 beast companies. During the school year after Beast, I'll have the same job in my academic companies (think of them as tiny frats, 8 companies of 4 platoons to each of 4 regiments). It gets more complicated after that as they transition to firsties and start doing some much more real shit.

It's a lot of stuff! Sorry for the giant block of writing, this was actually pretty nice to write out because I can see it all laid out for myself now too :D You should see how much I started writing on fucking paper during Beast. I've almost never written a personal letter before, let alone pages upon pages whenever I had time.

What were you up to in Kosovo? If it's sneaky beaky stuff feel free to PM me, I definitely have top secret clearance., The rep that helped me on my applications served out of West Point in Kosovo in the Corps of Engineers. It's fucking awesome that your brother is with the 101st- there's a girl in my beast company that was attached to the 101st as a pashto interpreter.

user-inactivated  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    There's an instructional system in place that is opposite any other college I've heard of so far. It's called the Thayer Method, and basically, we learn everything on our own before the class for which it's due, and the class time is solely to bounce questions and get further insight on the subject matter that we're already expected to know. Sounds pretty stupid in my opinion but I don't know anything yet so my opinion is invalid.

good professors try to teach this way, and it usually lasts up until they meet their not-so-good students

user-inactivated  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You picked the wrong major. It wasn't unusual for my classes to start with 30 students and have 3 by the midterm. Helping people decide that business school was more their speed was not considered a bad outcome.

oyster  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I had a grade 11 science teacher who tried teaching this way, it went terribly but he gave me a good mark since I never complained like the kids who rightfully gave a shit about their education.

goobster  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The Thayer Method makes a lot of sense to me... in war you are going to be thrown into situations with no map and no plan, and you are going to have to figure it the fuck out. So teaching you to try on your own first, and then get direction when you need it, makes a lot of sense to me. Survival 101: Figure this shit out now! :-)

Thanks for the rundown. That was EXACTLY the kind of insight I was looking for into your experience. Gonna be amazing... what a personal journey!

Oh... and my brother-in-law WAS 101st Airborne paratrooper. Now he's a chef.

When I was in Kosovo I was a civilian contractor who made souvenirs for the PX stores on all the military bases. So I wasn't military, but I had a military ID (that was basically a get-out-of-jail-free card) and could come and go from all the bases in the area, as I wished. We basically made all the souvenirs there... t-shirts, coffee mugs, patches, engraved Zippos and pocket knives, etc.

I got stuck in an artillery situation once. Driving along some road in Bosnia (probably), and there are some weird noises outside the truck, but the stereo is up and we are just driving along... when I notice these POOFS of dirt and smoke on the hill in front of us... and I slow a bit... more POOFS here and there, and I see the roof of a building collapse. So I come to a stop, roll down the windows, and listen.

There is artillery firing somewhere, but I can't see it. And they are bombarding the hill in front of me. Which are small BOOMs followed by big POOFs of dirt and smoke.

Not knowing what else to do, I park and watch. Eventually the shelling stops, so I start driving again.

Never did see anybody military around...

nowaypablo  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That airborne tab he's rockin is a primary source of motivation for me. The sound of artillery is pretty wild. While we were qualifying with M4 rifles on a shooting range, upperclassmen were training on the mountain above us and were learning how to use artillery at the time. I didn't see the contact but I heard it loud and clear.

I can't imagine what it's like to see something like that, knowing it's not a bunch of college kids doing a training exercise.

necroptosis  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Fun fact, the 101st hasn't actually been an airborne unit since the early 1970's. They lost their airborne status and transferred over to an air assault division (main difference being infil method changed from jumping out of planes to fast-roping out of helicopters). The 82nd Airborne is the only non-SOF airborne division left.

....Basically the 101st is full of dirty dirty stink nasty legs (just like nowaypablo... for now)

nowaypablo  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Tru. But they got the patch thooo.

On that note, one of our FTX's had a group of NCOs with straight-up tower of power, scrolls and tabs going all up their shit. They were responsible for sneaking into our camps (while we were supposed to be pulling security) and 'killing' each member of a total of 3 platoons, one patrol base at a time, with a red sharpie, from behind. One SF guy literally bumped his nose up against an m240b and the god damn new cadet on the other end of it didnt notice.

necroptosis  ·  2786 days ago  ·  link  ·  

There is a certain charm to the kickin chicken. Maybe it's the history, maybe it just looks cool. Either way I've always liked that patch.

Hah, classic. I bet that's the most fun those guys have had in a while.. Nothing like a little snoopin and poopin. To be fair to the cadet, 240's do make excellent pillows. Sleep deprivation is brutal. We had a guy fall asleep on an ambush line.. Cadre took the barrel off his saw and let him sleep. After the 240 wakeup poor guy assaulted through half the objective before realizing he was missing half his weapon.

Great to hear you're enjoying West Point. Sounds like a blast man.