Sunday marked the beginning of the second part of BCT - Jacks Valley. A lot of this post will be explaining/describing Jacks Valley, mostly taken from WebGuy.
"Jacks Valley is a 3,300 acre training complex where the Basics will
spend the majority of 2nd BCT. The location is the valley north of
North Gate Boulevard. They go out there, pitch big tents, and camp out.
What do they do out there? Remember when we were young and watched
movies like Private Benjamin, Stripes, Officer and a Gentleman, etc?
All of the running over obstacles; falling in the mud; crawing through
dirt. That's it!"
Here's a video of WebGuy at Jacks Valley pointing out various areas: http://www.usafawebguy.com/blog/hour-kill
Sunday morning the basics marched for over an hour to get from the cadet area of the USAFA grounds to Jacks Valley. My mom said the distance is about 4.5 miles.
Here's an aerial view of the squadrons marching out:
Above is a picture of Nathan's Squadron marching out. He is half hidden behind the second cadre member from the right, below and to the right of the airplane nose.
Once the basics got to Jacks Valley, they had to set up the tents they will be sleeping in for the next couple of weeks.
Here's a blog post about it: http://www.usafawebguy.com/blog/jacks-valley-set-projected,
a local newspaper's photos from the day (link courtesy of WebGuy): http://gazettephoto.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=1039105&CategoryID=47303&ListSubAlbums=0&thisPage=1, and a couple WebGuy videos of basics setting up camp: http://www.usafawebguy.com/blog/initital-jacks-valley-set and http://www.usafawebguy.com/blog/pitching-tent.
Today, the "fun" part of Jacks Valley started. Here is a link to an informative WebGuy blog post about what the basics will be up to: http://usafawebguy.com/blog/explanation-jacks-valley-activities.
This morning, Nathan's squadron did Self-Aid and Buddy Care. Here's how WebGuy described it:
How that works is that the have four tents set up, one for each flight. There is a team of cadre demonstrators in each tent. When a flight of basics comes in, they tell the basics to have a seat on the ground and they begin teaching the basics about first aid, etc. If the task has a "practice component", like learning how to carry an injured party, then the leave the tent and practice the carrys they have learned about.
After the flights cycle through all four tents, the cadre begins a "simulation" of a battle environment, complete with smoke grenades, sounds of explosions, and sounds of gunfire. The basics move from one station to another, demonstrating what they have learned.
So, the first part (in the tents) is relaxing and informative. The part in the "simulation" is stressful.
And here are some pictures of Nathan during the relaxing part :)
And here is a description that Webinator (a teammate of WebGuy's) wrote for today:
Just to recap the activities for today, the Basics started breakfast at 0500. By the way the squadrons have to 'stairstep' mealtimes since the location for meals at Jacks Valley does not have quite the space that Mitchell Hall has to accommodate almost 1300 Basics at one time. So, half the squadrons had breakfast from 0500 - 0600 while the other half had breakfast from 0600 - 0700. This would pertain to Lunch and Dinner as well.
The morning activities consisted of Self Aid & Buddy Care, Assault Course, LRC, Obstacle Course, CATM, Flight Drill, Airmanship Day, Confidence Course, and BCT Squadron Photos. The afternoon activities consisted of Weapons Drill, BCT Squadron Photos, Honor Lessons, and Retreat Formation.
Currently, the Basics are working in their areas and preparing for set-up for night time. They will shower one last time, then TAPS at 2100.
Nathan's squadron didn't do all the things listed there - there are 10 squadrons, and they have to take turns. So he just did SABC today. WebGuy warned that some activities (like LRC) are bad for taking pictures. In other words, there may be some days when there aren't any pictures of Nathan :(
That's all for tonight!
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