Week One

Day 1

We were very busy on the first day. We had a 1.5 hour briefing in the morning then went upstairs to clean our rooms. Even though people had been sweating all day they couldn’t take a shower because of a lack of time. Next we went to the drill hall to be evaluated on military drill. We were there for almost three hours. We marked time like there was no tomorrow. I remember my body heat fogging up my glasses. I still dont understand how marching can possibly make me sweat so hard.

My section’s sergeant is a woman and to be frank, we are all intimidated by her. At the end of drill she made us do pushups. She did 10 one handed pushups while keeping a smile on her face. It was the epitome of fear.

After drill we had lunch and then we were sent to the barbers to have our heads shaved. One by one we filed in and lost hair clumps of individuality. They made us purchase various things we would need for the rest of our course. The total amounted to 200 dollars worth of goods. The whole thing took the entire day and when we were finished we had dinner and then were sent upstairs to go clean our rooms and polish our boots.

I volunteered to do then laundry for my section so I headed down 6 flights of stairs carrying 8 smelly laundry bags. I washed and dried the contents of each bag. It took the entire evening. Luckily I brought my LSAT book to study while I was there. From what I remember it was a fucking oven in the laundry room – close to 40 degrees. Spending four hours there was quite depressing and I felt quit dehydrated.

An entire day spent cleaning rooms and common areas and doing drill. We were told to wake up tomorrow at 0630 hours. I crashed on my bed without time to shower.

Day 2

First thing in the morning was physical training. We woke up to the barking of a master corporal. Apparently we are supposed to wake up no later than 0600 at the mega. He filed us into the hallway and intimidated a lot of the cadets. We grumbled later on about how we were ordered to wake up at 0630.

In any case we proceeded downstairs for physical training. It was quite hard – a circuit of pushups situps leg lifts planks and lunges. Each exercise was followed by a 0.4 kilometer sprint. Somebody threw up but no body could break formation to help her.

Next we headed upstairs for a shower then cleaned our rooms. We were inspected by our section sergeant then we filed downstairs for a stress management briefing. The instructor gave us time to relax and turned on an audio file with a man with a relaxing voice talking about mountains. somebody joked that it was Morgan Freeman talking to us in that recording. That class was a life saver. Many were already on the edge of fatigue.

Next we had another physical training period. We ran pretty hard for an hour. My section won a relay race but the prize was “pride”. I was half expecting extra time for showers. At shower time I slipped and fell, bruising both my knees in the process. I recoiled in pain and also missed my 8 minute window to take a shower and change. Rubbing against other sweaty men, I just changed back into my uniform still soaked in sweat.

At lunch I smelt disgusting and I lost my appetite.

This was followed by a briefing on winter combat, and then a class on how to tie Swiss seats – restraints made from rope that are used as harnesses for rappelling. They were bound so tight to our bodies that some people discovered bruises and rashes on their hips when showering later in the evening. We joked around slapping each other on our bruises – at this point anything other than training is fair entertainment.

As I did the laundry in the evening I got symptoms of a cold. I also bumped into a sergeant while marching in the hallway and was told to watch my step. I told him to fucking move out of my way. He had long hair and was wearing civilian clothing so I assumed he was a recruit. when I realized he was a sergeant I quickly apologized and wished him a good evening. I am anxious to see that nothing comes of this incident in the following days.

course is pretty bad but I’m getting a strengthened appreciation for every freedom I had in my life.

Day 3

It is the first of may. We started the morning at 0500 hours. We did a long run. The same girl from before threw up during the sprint portion. I am worried about her health but her determination in the face of difficulty gives me strength. My bruised knees hurt pretty bad so I appreciated every bit of morale strengthening I received for the barfing girl.

Next we ran up to our rooms on the sixth floor to shower and get ready for inspection. Our sergeant gave us 25 pushups at the end of each of our inspections. A master seaman told me to never say the number 22 again because it represents the vingt-deuxieme regiment and we are not good enough to say the number. I was told to pass it onto the rest of my platoon. The next person to say the number 22 will give me another 25 pushups.

Next we spent the rest of the morning being taunt how to properly polish our boots and do other menial tasks.

We ha lunch and then shuffled to the quarter master to be issued kit for the course. It took 8 hours and my legs were tired from lugging three bags full of equipment up to the sixth floor. I was also assigned the position of platoon commander for the evening and the next day. I had to organize the un packing of the entire platoons issued kit and the preparation of a standard for the fighting order for tomorrows field day fir leadership assessment.

My leadership position started off horribly. The common area became crowded with equipment and there was general chaos and disorders because we had a 30 minute time limit to get everyone their three bags of kit that were randomly piled into a small room.

Fortunately we succeeded and I was able to organize the platoon for tomorrow morning’s field expedition.

I have 60 pairs of eyes looking up to me for the next 24 consecutive hours. Will I be able to lead? I am nervous.

Day 4

Today is LPAC day – leadership potential assessment course day. We woke up at 0430 and I lead the platoon to breakfast. Then we filed out equipped with full fighting order. One person forgot their bush cap and so the entire platoon had to wait on her while the sergeant jacked me up fir failing to ensure everyone had their equipment. I found out that a close friend of mine couldn’t form up with us because he was sick and barfing. I later found out that he was diagnosed with bronchitis.

It started raining. We boarded the buses. I couldn’t sleep a wink the hour drive to the Farnham training area. Once we got there though we had a lot of fun. I got to slide down a rope from a tower to cross a river. I also got to rappel off a 34 foot tower.

Later we were tested on our leadership. We were given an obstacle and had to lead a section through the obstacle in 20 minutes. I did a bit better than average. Although I am disappointed at the outcome I am confident that I will improve my leadership capabilities throughout this course.

At lunch time we had barely twenty minutes to secure our kit, march tot the mess, clear out of the mess, and resecure our kits again. I still do not understand I got 60 people to do this in 17 minutes but my assessor commended me for it.

During LPAC four people lost various kit. I organized search parties to find them and luckily we found them all. The consequences of losing kit would have been lots and lots of pushups. I am glad I was able to lead the effort to search and find the equipment. The feeling I got when some platoon mates thanked me for saving them from an evening of pushups was unreal. I want to feel this way for the rest of my life.

I ended the day getting ready for tomorrow morning’s inspection. I passed off my position to my second in command. And felt relaxed for the first time in 24 hours.

Today I learned one important thing about leadership. Even though a leader has the power to command, a leader is also accountable for the performance of his people. Thus, the leader is much more dependent on his people than the people are. A leader must be able to squeeze out the last drops of performance from his people by persuasion in order to excel.

Day 5

Quite uneventful. We had morning physical training and a briefing on conflict resolution. We then went over how to set up our ruck sacks and gas mask carriers. Our first weekend commenced at 1600 hours.

Everyone is busy organizing the standard for the newly expanded inspection standard. I can’t stop looking forward to the weekend. They say we only have one physical training session and two inspections during the whole weekend.

That just about sums up my first week at the mega. I hope to be able to learn more about leadership in the weeks to come.

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