"Advanced Camp and Going The Miles"

Ah. July 4th upon us. And while most of us here in the U.S. bask in the holiday celebration , there are those busy defending out nation. Right now my son is at Fort Knox, Kentucky doing his mandatory Army ROTC training in which cadets from many colleges and universities converge upon the Army post to be evaluated as part of their eventual commissioning process. Now mind you, my son has been in the North Carolina National Guard since age 17 (infantry) and gone on real missions being activated and he has held leadership positions. He was scheduled for training at 2am today ( 6 mile ruck march) and I had some limited time to communicate with him. He had just finished a 12 mile ruck march recently at his university prior to Advanced Camp, and while not 50 miles, trust me, ruck marches with pounds of ruck sack and equipment can wear your feet , legs, and especially your calves no matter how short or long the distance. He wasn't so concerned about the physical challenge. Nope. He was concerned about "peer ratings" which all cadets must undergo during the Advanced Camp. Yup. Each cadet will be put in leadership positions and then graded by their peers which carries a lot of weight for the eventual ranking in Advanced Camp which in turn is also used for commissioning purposes (or so they say). I went through the same thing myself many years ago. I told him that despite my cadet training for four years and then six months at my officer basic course after commissioning, that all that training never makes you truly ready to lead. Upon arrival to my first unit in Europe I was thrust into a platoon leader position which had almost 78 people in my first platoon, and for a platoon, that is quite large. There I was, age 22, and now the real "peer ratings" would kick in. The point here: all the academic and field training never truly prepares you for real world events. In some situations, you either rise to the occasion or you don't. In life, all of us eventually go to our own "Advanced Camp" and upon arrival at our "units" we will have also trekked the miles of "ruck marches". The harshest critic of our "peer ratings" will be the ratings we impose upon ourselves. The End.