COT Week 2

Well, the second week of COT is complete. It feels like it’s been a month. That may be due to the fact that each day here equals two days anywhere else. When your day starts at 4:30 and doesn’t end until midnight, it ceases to feel like a long day and instead feels like two days. Oftentimes, I check my watch to see if it is almost lunchtime, only to discover that it’s only 8:30. That ain’t fun.

At this point, the hardest part is staying awake in class. The yelling has subsided somewhat and we have been granted greater freedom. But when you’re working on 2-4 hours of sleep for 2 weeks straight, it can be a bit difficult to listen to an auditorium lecture on leadership skills. As it turns out, the Air Force recognizes that it is virtually impossible to make it through these classes without getting a bit drowsy, so we are permitted to stand in the back of the auditorium if we feel sleepy. My former roommate (he moved out – I’m alone now) refused to stand up because he was afraid of falling down.

This week, our Flight Officer in Charge (FOiC) moved into a student wing position and I became the FOiC of Bravo Flight. I know that this doesn’t make much sense, so I’ll try and explain. There are 140 students here at COT. At first, the staff runs everything. They tell you what to do and when to do it – oftentimes in a “direct” manner. Gradually, by design, the students begin to take charge. The entire class (all 140 students) is called the student wing. There is a student wing commander (who, in our case, is a lieutenant colonel). There also are wing commanders in charge of specific areas (academic, PT, drill, etc.). The student wing is divided into student squadrons. There is a student squadron commander. The squadrons are further divided into flights. The flight is the main grouping here at COT and, in our case, consists of 15 students. There is a FOiC who is in charge of the flight. This week, the FOiC of our flight was moved into a wing position. Yours truly became the new FOiC for Bravo Flight. It’s going pretty well. I am lucky that the former FOiC did most of the heavy lifting before I took the position.

We had a test on the OIs last weekend. I missed one question. It was very silly. I did not read the question carefully enough and messed up military time. I did fine, but I wasn’t happy making such a careless error. For future COT students, make sure you read questions and answers carefully. This particular question appeared to be about something else, but really was just about military time. D’oh!

We did one smart thing as a flight this weekend. Well, I think it was smart – it was my idea. Since we’re not going to wear our blue uniforms for a week (we have not yet worn these uniforms), we took the blue shirts to the base dry cleaner so that they’ll be nice and pressed by the time we have to wear them. I think we’ll all look sharp and save some time. I’ll let you know how that goes.

One thing people might want to learn before coming here is the Air Force Song. You’ll have to sing it and if you memorize the words before coming here, it will save you some precious time in the first couple of days. You need to know the first verse only. You can listen to it online by clicking here. It goes like this:

Off we go into the wild blue yonder,
climbing high into the sun
Here they come zooming to meet our thunder
At 'em boys, giv'r the gun! (Giv'r the gun, hey!)
Down we dive spouting our flame from under
Off with one helluva roar!
We live in fame or go down in flame
Hey! Nothing'll stop the U.S. Air force!

It’s simple and easy to learn – better to do it now than at 1:00 in the morning during Week 1 of COT.

This weekend we were given off-base privileges. My wife visited and we had dinner and stayed a night in a hotel. It was a great break from COT. Apparently all COT classes are not so lucky. My sponsor told me that his COT class didn’t get privileges until the third weekend. So, in future, don’t expect your privileges. I also should note that we were unsure of whether we would get off-base privileges until Friday afternoon – I think they wanted us to sweat it out a bit.

My wife also brought banana bread that was enjoyed by the entire flight during our study session – they all loved it and told me to thank her. I thanked her, but I’ll do it publicly – thank you! We have the first of two tests on Tuesday. The academic portion is fairly easy, although it is complicated by the complexities of my schedule. I have so many other responsibilities (especially now that I’m a FOiC), that it becomes difficult to fit in the academic stuff. Which brings me to my conclusion – I need to stop blogging and start studying.