Quote Originally Posted by tankersteve View Post
I would suggest working hard on the PT. A new 2LT is judged by his general fitness as much as anything else, when he arrives to his unit. In fact, at least when I went through OBC, PT was about the only thing a 2LT could expect to do well when he arrived at his first unit, given the quality of instruction then.

Don't focus too much on the APFT. Look at general rucking, running, and working with a load on. You don't have to be the biggest stud around (believe me, I sure ain't), but nobody wants a wimp for a PL.

If you hope to be combat arms or combat support, the land nav is also important. Do it alot to gain confidence. Try it without a compass, using just terrain association, if you have suitable terrain. This will help you at night, when feeling the slope of the land and seeing the silhouette of ridgelines can keep you on track even when you are not paying attention to your compass. But you need to be competent and comfortable, moving at night through terrain.

You need to be able to deliver a pretty decent oporder with very little for guides or notes. Practise, practise, practise. Create scenarios with fellow MSIIIs and execute a 5-para oporder, and have them critique it. Do the same for them - you can learn from their mistakes as well as yours. And do it with lots of time to add every detail, as well as in a time-constrained environment, where there is pressure to execute a good plan RIGHT NOW.

Finally, general academics - you have to graduate to get commissioned. Keep that in mind as you work toward your goal. It also is important for your position within your battalion as an MSIV. As an examble, I failed an optional class that I didn't need for graduation during my MSIII year. It was taking up too much time and I stopped attending. I should have been more deliberate in removing myself from the class, but that is another story. Point being, during the first half of my MSIII year, instead of being the S-3, I was just another senior, because of a 'drop-fail' on my academic record (that didn't even hurt my GPA very much).

Good luck.

Tankersteve
First off all Sir I want to thank you for the wealth of advice you have provided in this thread.

I did the MS 1 and 2 deal at my college since I started ROTC my second year of school having missed a year of it. Since the beginning I had a very hard time with PT, but I've made gradual improvement and I recently passed my PT with a 217 up from 130ish starting out. However, it needs to be much high then that. So I've been working hard over the summer to maintain and build more on what I've gained with an alternating workout of situps, pushups, pullups, and running.

I feel comfortable with how to do a terrain model kit/sandtable/Opords/TLPS overall. Squad and platoon tactics the same thing in terms of a general overview, however I feel I need to find a way to get more familiar with the details. And land nav I feel I should get out and practice beyond just using the programs I'm currently doing. Especially since I have a strong sense of direction.

Another thing I've had a hard time with along with PT and land nav is D&C, but I'm studying up on that alot also. Also I feel like land nav I need to be put in a position where I can get a chance to practice what I've been observing throughout my year in ROTC.

In terms of academics I currently have a 3.1. I had close to a 3.5 before the end of last semester, it went down because I didn't pay school enough attention as I should have during that time. I definitely want my GPA higher so I'm going to try to get into this coming semester with the goal of rebuilding my grade point average to it's former glory.

Branch-wise I'm aiming for MI as my top choice with Armored and MP as my second and third choices respectfully. And in this environment with talks of cuts, etc I feel I can't take anything for granted in terms of getting my top branch choice or active duty for that matter which is also far from guaranteed.

If you have anymore advice or opinions I'd certainly like to hear!