BLC the final days

Got busy the last couple of days so this is about a week late.

Day 16

Today our Informative Essays were due. I had already turned mine in days in advance scoring 91%. Also due was a public speech on the essay. This was my incentive to finalize the essay. I had finished the public speech shortly after the essay, it was fresh on my mind and left me plenty of time to commit the speech to memory. After reading through the grading rubric, it was going to be difficult to fail!

We started the morning with speeches and ready to get it out of the way I went second. During my rehearsals, I was coming in around 7 minutes, about a minute short of the minimum of 8 minutes. The time constraints were only worth 5 points out of a possible 100. Prior to the first speech of the day, our facilitator said if you gave a good brief, touching on all your information, time wasn't going to hurt you unless you went drastically over the 12-minute maximum.

After watching the first person go and the position of the facilitator, I realized there wasn't a podium to position the laptop for the presenter's notes in PowerPoint. This was going to be difficult to reference without turning away from the audience. Making the best out of the situation, I was making good time and hitting all my points, until the Summary slide. I didn't look back to reference the notes and had completely forgotten a section of notes. Between this and the nerves, speaking fast, I had finished in about 5 minutes but wasn't too worried about a measly 5 points. So I confidently walked towards the facilitator for my score and commentary. I also wanted to add this is the same instructor that had colorful and demotivating comments. He had little to say but good job, 100%. This was much better than my expectations, I was thinking about 90%. However, after watching the remaining class, I had done much better than the majority.

As the day progressed and the high reaching close to 80°, the lack of working AC was making the classroom miserable. An afternoon of the heat and amount of water I was drinking I had managed to make my stomach hurt. The class coming to an end I passed on the DFAC because the thought of eating was just making it turn more. I returned to the bay, showered, and laid down to watch John Wick from my computer that was suspended from the bunk above. Afterward, my eyes were good and heavy and I simply put my headphones in and caught up on some sleep.

Day 17

Today we were able to report in OCPs at 0630 with no PT, this was quite the treat having done PT 16 days straight. This meant we got an extra hour of sleep! I had awoken to feel quite rested, but hurting from being in the bunk that long. As 0630 approached a member of the cadre entered the class, asked if we had everyone and released us to breakfast. With everyone knowing there was no PT and a late class start there were many who had indulged themselves with alcohol a little too much. I knew there was going to be some sort of inspection to see if there were some irresponsible people, but they were safe for now as we walked to chow. But I was feeling confident that it wasn't over yet.

As we returned from breakfast we started in on our Conducting Individual Training, another public speaking event where we as NCOs were tasked with training the rest of the class to the standard. This let me down a little that there were no inspections. All the talk that was made and threats and they were following through with none of it as if they didn't want to know. This was allowing the childish immature skate by with no repercussions. The CIT portion was going in alphabetical order so I was scheduled third. After my public speaking yesterday I was feeling good about today. I did ok, and was aware of one of my deficiencies, and was walking over to receive my grade. Instead, the first thing was an issue I wasn't tracking, but as luck had it, it was the only issue. The final score of 96%. Next up was one of the biggest drinkers from the previous night. He had moved quite sluggish the entire morning, feeling every little noise and seeing every light the haterade. You could just look at him and tell he was in hell. Needless to say, he didn't do well at all on the class. He had passed but it wasn't but by the bare minimum, and anyone looking to fail someone wouldn't have had a difficult time with the number of issues he had.

Day 18

 Another early fun filled PT morning, ugh. Today I noticed that my new nickname was the "All knowing Jones." Not quite sure what started this but could definitely get used to it. With all the official grades being graded, the days seemed to just get longer with no end in sight. To finish out the next couple of days were 2 reflective essays on what 2 classes helped us the most at BLC. Minimum word count of 500. This was like pulling teeth trying to take the past 2.5 weeks of uselessness and break it into 2 500-word essays of how the supposedly helped me. I managed to BS my way through one on Counseling and how it was helpful to know there was more than just negative and initial counseling. Also learned that every counseling has to be followed up on to be completed, did the counseling do what was intended. Never in my 19 years have I ever had a follow-up on a counseling statement. The next paper I did on Public Speaking and wasn't having much luck. I turned it in about 30 words short, but why really exert any real effort on something not worth a grade?

Graduation Day

The previous days even though they seemed long didn't really have any eventful things to write about, I had watched half the class watch YouTube and Netflix the entire time, so I joined them. As we walked down the hall the final morning the two corporals in front of me were stopped by an E7 and asked: "What time do you need to be in the auditorium for rehearsal?" Both stumbling to find words looked back and saw me about 3 steps behind and I quickly provided an answer, with a reassuring smile the E7 said "OK". Continuing down the hall I hear a faint, "Jones the all-knowing." As we congregated in the auditorium, the cadre were trying to figure out what is going on. For people who have been doing this and only getting 4 days off, between classes, they sure didn't look like it had been done before. Directions were finally put out and we started moving to take seats. As they simulated the calling of names, every time they changed how we needed to stand. This went on till about lunch. Reporting back one hour before graduation we rehearsed once more, again changing things up. With people starting to show up we sat quitely waiting for it to start so it could end. Everyone received a coin along with an empty yellow folder, that was taken at the end. The folder was all very pointless.

In the end, this course was made for young, new Soldiers, with little to no writing abilities to learn and was not intended for 95% of the students in my class. Many having over 5 years of service, they had learned what an NCO was and how they should act, wither or not they acted this was a different story.