Good Afternoon Dragoon Family Members and Friends – Hey, hey, it’s the end of another AWESOME week of Basic Combat Training here at Fort Leonard Wood; your loved ones are one step closer to completing their goal to become a U.S. Army Soldier and you are one week closer to completing your “first deployment!” It was a beautiful sunrise this morning as we started our day bright and early with Physical Readiness Training – but man, did it sure get hot as the day went on! It’s about that time for me to address the topic of mail for our new Family Members and Friends (no pun intended by the way) – We routinely hear from Family Members and Friends around the third training week (typically the Soldier’s been away from home for around a month at this point) that their Soldier is not receiving any mail, but that Family Members / Friends are writing every day. We also hear around this same time speculation that we’re holding mail as a form of punishment. First and foremost – we do NOT hold mail from Soldiers; it’s a federal offense for us to do so. We pick-up and deliver mail every day the brigade mail room is open (Monday – Friday). We have a very small brigade mail room that services mail for over 3,500 Soldiers each day, so they can’t hold / store mail for long periods of time. So – why is your Soldier not getting mail and it’s the middle of the third training week. Primarily it boils down to the reality of time and distance. Here’s the trend we typically see. The Command Sergeant Major and I speak with every incoming class around their third or fourth day; keep in mind by this point they’ve been a the Military Processing Center (MEPS) for 24-48 hours or more and the Fort Leonard Wood Reception Battalion for at least 3 days (a minimum of eight days away from home by the time we speak with them). When meeting with them I ask, “How many of you have NOT sent a letter home yet.” Normally, about 1/3 of them raise their hands acknowledging a letter has not gone home yet. In the same light, we provide Soldiers in their first week with us letters from the chain of command with the mailing address on it. The Soldiers receive as many letters as they want for addressing. We collect them up and put them in the mail by the end of the first full week (at this point they’ve been away from home about 10-12 days). It takes anywhere from 3-5 days for a letter mailed from Fort Leonard Wood to get anywhere in the continental United States (so if they write their first letter to you the day we see them, the earliest you should expect to see it is around two weeks after they left home). Incoming mail takes longer to get to your Soldier – about 7 – 9 days in a perfect world with all the stars aligned and no federal holidays. I know that the post office will tell you that it gets to Fort Leonard Wood in 3-5 days; trust me – after doing this job for more than a year, it takes between 7 – 9 days for incoming mail to get to your Soldier (going back to our example, if you put a letter in the mail the same day you receive the first one from your Soldier, it’s going to take 7-9 days – by this time your Soldier’s in his / her third training week). You may have received several letters at this point saying “Hey, I’m not getting any mail; how come you’re not writing…” We typically see incoming mail increase about half-way through the third training week based on the example I outlined above. It’s not uncommon for a Soldier to go a week or more without receiving mail, even if you write every day, and then get a boat load all at once. Again, we don’t hold mail. You can help the process by NOT sending anything certified, express, or overnight mail. It will NOT get to your Soldier any faster, in fact, it actually slows down the process because your Soldier has to depart training to sign for it; and it costs you extra money. Priority mail is the best way to send something. Since I’m on the soap box currently…photos – we post at least 20 photos of the week’s training on Saturdays by the end of the training day. We are NOT required by any Army regulation or policy to post ANY photos, but do because we know that you want to feel somewhat connected to your Soldier. We have a VERY SMALL staff and none of us are professional photographers – our primary responsibility is to train your Soldier and accomplish that training safely. As such, we do NOT take individual requests for pictures and get what we can when we can. Because the platoons in each company complete the same training each day and week, we only post photos (and updates) by company in their respective photo album. If you’re still trying to figure out what platoon and company your Soldier is assigned to the first place to check is the address – each company has a letter designation (A thru D or F) followed by 1st Battalion, 48th Infantry (or 1-48 IN). If you go to the “Battalion Commander’s Permanent Photos” album on the photos tab you can see the various platoons and companies in the battalion: https://facebook/media/set/?set=a.135110446511663.17084.135092849846756&type=3#!/photo.php?fbid=566174876738549&set=a.135110446511663.17084.135092849846756&type=3&theater. If your Soldier’s address does not have a “1” followed by “48” somewhere in it, he or she is NOT in our battalion, but another unit here on Fort Leonard Wood for Basic Combat Training. This information – along with several other key areas related to Basic Combat Training and Army life – can all be found by checking out the various posts on the ‘Notes’ tab. I highly encourage you to take the time to read the posts we have there for you. Off the soap box and on to today’s training update: Alpha Rock (Week 1): It’s the end of the first week for Alpha Rock!! Today they had their first opportunity to learn about building and strengthening their personal resilience – they’re ability to not only survive during periods of adversity, but THRIVE. Over their remaining time in Basic Combat Training they’ll have several Resilience classes that help us reframe our thinking, thinking that sometimes causes us to lose focus, unnecessarily expend critical energy, and fail to achieve our goals. One of my favorite resilience skills is “Hunting the Good Stuff” – looking for something, no matter how big or small, that happened in the course of the day. When we continually “Hunt the Good Stuff” we have a better outlook on our current circumstances. During my inbrief with new Soldiers, I challenge them to write down their “Good Stuff” every day and by the time they’re through, they’ll have a HUGE list of some pretty cool experiences while in BCT. Guess what? Family Members and Friends can do this too! Bravo Bulldogs (Week 9): Mr. Clean and Simple Green are in full abundance in the Bravo Bulldogs barracks today as they’re knee deep in cleaning for Monday’s final inspection. Charlie Comanches (Week 2): Today the Comanches started their day with their first diagnostic Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). I ran the 2 mile run course with them (only 20 or so Soldiers out of the more than 200 in the company beat me – I’m old, fat, multiple knee operations, with a messed up back, by the way). Soldiers must pass the end of cycle APFT if they want to graduate Basic Combat Training. Believe it or not, 90% of the APFT is mental – Soldiers have to have the personal self-discipline and drive to push themselves each and every day during Physical Readiness Training. If they don’t they will NOT be successful when it comes crunch time. I gotta tell you, pretty disappointed in some of the effort I saw on the run course today. They spent the rest of the day at the Physical Endurance Course negotiating a series of highly challenging obstacles (ropes, tires, barbed wire, etc) as a test of agility, muscular strength, and endurance. This physically and mentally challenging event is designed to build your Soldier’s confidence and assess his / her overall physical fitness. This one’s a smoker… Delta Dawgs (Week 8): The Delta Dawgs completed their Combatives Training today getting in the ring for “King of the Pit.” They also had their final Resilience class on learning, identifying, and appreciating their own personal strengths and those of others. When we recognize our own strengths as well as those of our teammates, we learn to appreciate how diversity and differences make our team that much stronger. Foxtrot Warriors (Week 5): The Warriors also executed their next Modern Army Combatives training session and had some enhancement and reinforcement training in preparation for next week’s Basic Rifle Marksmanship qualification. As always, look for photos to be posted by the end of today in each company’s respective photo album (Bravo, Charlie, and Delta are already posted) Have a great rest of your Saturday! “By Force and Valor!” LTC Anderson, Dragoon 6
Posted on: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 20:40:45 +0000