Bubbles

Bubbles, those dreaded down times between portions of flight school! While there are still some bubbles, many have been reduced and nearly eliminated. Students used to take 18 to 24 months to complete their training and might wait in bubbles for months between portions of training. Now, nearly all flight students are done in less than 18 months with many being done in just over a year. The longest bubbles at this time are about a month in length. So, what should students expect during a bubble? The Army tries to make use of their soldiers and students can expect some taskings. Most are sent to either Funeral Detail or the SERE Detail. A majority of the Funeral Detail is taken care of by the warrants who gained prior experience between WOCS and BOLC. That leaves a lot of the LTs for the SERE Detail. Students who are assigned to Funeral Detail will spend a couple hours a day practicing (after their initial couple days of learning what to do) and will go anywhere within a three or four state region around Alabama to provide honors at funerals as they are needed. There is usually lots of time off but funerals kind of have a way of being unplanned. The SERE Detail students will have a set schedule, but it will be all hours of the day; SERE does run 24/7 after all. For both details, there is time off, however, getting a pass can be a nightmare as it has to be approved by the detail and by B Co. Pass or no pass, there is plenty of free time to study or make up some time with the family you’ve hardly seen during the blocks of training.

HOST - Swim Test and Dunker

As a weak swimmer, one of my greatest concerns prior to coming to BOLC was passing Helicopter Over-water Survival Training (HOST) or dunker training. I was unable to find much information online concerning what was required so hopefully I will be able to provide some here. Searching YouTube for HOST Dunker provides some videos of the training being conducted. Some are great for learning what to expect, others are not so helpful. At this time, the way the program is set up is as follows.  Students in-processing to Fort Rucker for flight school are encouraged to begin working on completing their swim test and dunker training prior to entering BOLC, however, new regulations require a flight physical before these blocks of training can be completed. If you have enough time to get the physical and still make it to the swim test and dunker you are golden. The swim test is required prior to dunker. It consists of swimming around the perimeter of the pool, treading water, doing a drown-proofing drill, and inflating a PFD while in the water. The instructors will work with students to make sure they are comfortable with the exercises and performing them correctly. Ironically, stronger swimmers often have more trouble with this as the dunker school uses proprietary strokes and will not permit the use of more traditional strokes students may already know. Those who fail to pass the swim test after a reasonable amount of coaching will be brought back on a future day to work one on one with an instructor to perfect their technique. Once the swim test is completed, students are authorized to return for the dunker portion of the training. The morning is spent in a classrooom to cover water survival techniques and learn the use of the emergency breathing device (EBD) carried on helicopters. The second portion of the day is devoted to the water portion of the dunker training. Students begin by learning to use a regulator, both while right side up and while upside down under water. If you have never used a regulator before get a snorkel and try it at a pool, it may save you from getting dropped from the class before it has even started. Also, it is highly important that you be comfortable having your nasal passages flooded with water. If you are uncomfortable in the water this is one of the key things you should probably work on. The next interation is conducted using a stationary device in the shallow end of the pool. Students are strapped to a chair and flipped upside down and then required a conduct a number of exercises including day and night exercises and breath hold and supplemental oxygen exercises. When everyone has completed this stage, the helicopter simulator is used to repeat the same exercises in the deep end of the pool Students are given three strikes in the shallow end and then have three chances in the deep end training. Failing to correctly complete any three events in either the shallow or deep water portion will result in remedial training and redoing dunker at a later date. If the remedial is taken more than 30 days from the time of the initial dunker training the entire classroom portion must be retaken as well. The dunker remedial training is conducted soley using the shallow water trainer. Students may come back as many times as necessary (other training permitting) to work on their comfort in the water and their technique. Students who know they are weak swimmers may also come in before they have had their dunker classroom exercises in order to complete comfortability training, though they will not be permitted to use the oxygen or conduct all the exercises that are required for dunker. A very small number of students do fail out of the aviation course because of the swim test and dunker, but the personnel at the HOST school will do everything in their power to make sure students become comfortable and are able to pass the training. Anyone with the dedication to keep trying will pass.

Aviation BOLC

The first of the many schools involved in becoming an Army Aviator is the Aviation Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC). This course is seven weeks in length and provides an introduction to the world of Army Aviation and the basic knowledge that is required to become a successful Army Officer. Most BOLC classes are composed of both Lieutenants and Warrant Officers with some of both coming from Active Duty, Guard, and Reserve components. The members of the class will remain together until primary aircraft selection. The exact order of BOLC varies by class but all BOLC classes are similar. The first three weeks of BOLC consist solely of classroom exercises covering a wide range of topics from assault and attack operations to ground vehicle maintenance to supply operations. There are four tests during this time period: aviation tactics exam, combat vehicle identification (CVID) exam, combined arms doctrine exam, and a maintenance/sustainment exam. The next week is "field week." During this week the officers conduct land navigation, M-16 qualification, M9 qualification, and convoy operations. The week following consists of classroom in the morning and combatives training in the afternoon. The last week is spent continuing classes from the week before over topics such as counseling, OERs, ORB, SERE inbrief, and UCMJ. None of these are testable with the exception of the UCMJ class. Following graduation from BOLC, there is often a period of time, known as a "bubble" before SERE school starts. In the past these bubbles could be months in length. Current changes in flight school have narrowed most bubbles to a few weeks or less. If there was not time scheduled into BOLC for it, this bubble is an opportunity to complete flight physicals and the swim test and HOST (Dunker) training.

In-Processing

You finally made it. You worked hard all through ROTC, you were selected for Aviation, you got your orders, and you are enroute to Fort Rucker, the home of Army Aviation. Now what! First and foremost, you need to know the Army authorizes you up to ten days of pay for a hotel room while you are searching for a place to stay. When it comes to housing, you will have the option of either living on base or receiving BHA pay to rent a place in one of the surrounding towns of Enterprise, Daleville, Ozark, or even further away if you are willing to drive. If you come down a few days before your report date you can use your ten authorized days of time in a motel to do some home hunting. On the day you actually report show up early. If you are lucky, you can get everything done the first day and then have a couple more days to relax and get your life in order. All the main places you need to in-process are located in building 5700, the Soldier's Service Center. Once you are finished there, stop by the few locations that are not housed in 5700 and you are done with your central in-processing. The next stop is the 1-145 Aviation Training Regiment HQ. You only have a couple offices to stop by here, one welcome brief, and then you head over to B Co. HQ to fill out some paperwork for them. Once all your in-processing is completed, most Soldiers have a few days off before their classes begin. This can be a good time to complete additional requirements such as a flight physical, a dental exam and, if those are both completed, the swim test and dunker training. There will also be times set aside to do these in the future so don't get too concerned if they are not completed before the beginning of class. As long as there are no hiccups the entire in-processing should be relatively painless and you will be ready to begin the first stop of flight school - BOLC.

Senior (MS4) Year

The senior year doesn't count a lot toward your accessions process or your branch choice, however, you will be responsible for training your cadets for THEIR accessions process. Most of what you are doing for yourself is related to preparing for commissioning and heading off to BOLC followed by your branch training.You will find out, usually during the middle of the fall semester, what branch you received and whether you were selected for active or reserve duty. You generally won't get your orders till near graduation. Don't stop a job or anything like that till you have orders, but be prepared to leave within as little as a week of getting your orders. As soon as you get your orders go to the move.mil site and start getting your move to your new duty station scheduled. The Army moves like molasses and will take a MINIMUM of three weeks to get it processed. It stinks being at your new duty station without any of your stuff. Trust me, I speak from experience! Prior to commissioning you will need a new ASU outfit. The best placed to get it from is Marlow White. They have packages specially designed for new commissionees. Something else worth mentioning; you can get your CAC card while you are still back at your school or you can get it when you reach your first duty station which will be Fort Rucker. There are a lot of other nuances but trying to cover them exhaustively would be nearly impossible. The areas mentioned here will at least get you started on the right path and may keep you from some of the areas I had trouble with.

Physical Requirements

All cadets wishing to branch into Aviation must pass a class one flight physical. This will be completed at LDAC. The standards can be found in AR 40-501 chapter 4. There are two areas of concern that I had to work my way through that may be of concern for others. First, vision requirements are laid out in paragraph 4-12. The standard for visual acuity for pilots is 20/50 far vision and 20/20 near vision. I personally did not meet this standard so I looked into the requirements for corrective surgery. PRK has long been permitted by the Army and LASIK is now being approved as well. There may be an extensive recovery period  so it is advisable that you get the surgery done early. I had mine done in December which did not leave me an option to get a second correction done if necessary. The second concern of mine was size requirements. I'm a big guy and people had told me I would be too big to meet size requirements. I read the size requirements in paragraph 4-16 and thought they were right; I certainly exceeded the arm reach max of 5' 4", sitting height max of 3' 4", and crotch height of 29 inches. Come to find out, these sizes are the requirements for the smallest of the Army helicopters, the Kiowa. It is still possible to fly other airframes. There are many other physical requirements listed in the AR. They all boil down to one basic requirement, you must be in great health and in top physical condition if you want to get into aviation.

AFAST

All cadets wishing to branch Aviation are required to take the AFAST. The AFAST is the Army Flight Aptitude Selection Test which is taken during the junior year before going to LDAC. The test is like no other test you have ever taken. The Army provides DA Pam 611–256–2 to all test takers to help familiarize them with the test but it is a limited overview. The AFAST is composed of a number of subtests. The first subtest is instrument comprehension. Given an artificial horizon gauge and a compass, the test taker must select which of the five plane silhouettes matches the readings on the gauges. The practice tests have very crude drawings, the silhouettes on the actual AFAST are much clearer. The second subtest is the complex movements test. You will be shown a dot in a circle and a point indicating where it originated. Using curved lines of varying widths you must indicate how far and in what direction the dot was moved to bring it into the circle. You MUST practice this ahead of time. The movement designators can be confusing and you only have ten seconds to answer each question! The third subtest you will be given is basic helicopter and flight knowledge. You need to know your stuff but it is pretty basic. To prepare for my AFAST I read the free FAA Rotorcraft Flying Handbook. Another recommended resource is the Principles of Helicopter Flight. The fourth subtest is the cyclic orientation test. You will be given a series of three views from a helicopter cockpit and must choose which cyclic orientation would cause a helicopter to move in that direction. The fifth and final subtest is called the mechanical functions test. This evaluates your knowledge of basic physics via a wide variety of problems. It is highly recommended that you obtain a AFAST study guide and complete a practice test or two before you take your AFAST. Probably the best study book is Peterson's. You can get the 6th edition on Amazon or get the newer edition for 1/3 the price directly from Peterson's. You  must obtain a 90 to pass your AFAST and can score up to 170. Once you have passed you are not allowed to retake the test for a better score. If you fail there is a six month wait for one, and only one, re-test opportunity. Once you pass the AFAST you will be put in the system for a flight physical when you attend LDAC the coming summer.

RECONDO

Getting RECONDO at LDAC is significant. It is something you can specifically prepare for ahead of time that will set you above your fellow cadets. What does RECONDO entail? The first and, for many, most difficult aspect of RECONDO is the LDAC PT test. The grading at LDAC is likely much harder than any college and most cadets can expect to score significantly fewer pushups than they usually get. RECONDO requires that you get 90 points or more on each portion of the PT test for a total score greater than 270. The second hurdle is to score 80% or better on each portion of the land navigation test. That means a 16/20 on the written test, 6/8 on the daytime land navigation course, and 4/5 points in the nighttime land navigation course. Throughout LDAC, RECONDO cadets must not get an overall N on any STX lane or any overall dimensional Ns. Note that it is possible to get an N or two on an evaluation and still get RECONDO. Finally, many people forget that cadets will lose RECONDO if they have any failures to train. This means no falling out of marches; no refusals to do any of the training; and on all of the tested medical events, obstacle course, etc, there is only one retry. It may sound difficult or even impossible to get RECONDO but it is achievable and the extra half point on the OML is worth it when the accessions process is completed!

Accessions Process

The whole branching process and how cadets are chosen for a particular branch is complicated. No worries, you will go over it twice; once before and once after LDAC. According to the 2011 ROTC accessions OML model; 40% of a cadet's OML score came from cumulative GPA, 4% from on campus physical fitness, and 1.5% from extracurriculars. That leaves nearly 55% of the OML to be calculated from junior year performance alone. About 32% will come from performance at LDAC and around 23% will come from your leadership performance at school. What is important to know is that the top 10% of cadets are given their first branch choice. Make sure you are in that 10%! Being in the top 20% will probably get you your first branch choice by using what is called an ADSO, Additional Service Obligation. You will have to apply for it and, assuming you get it, will commit an additional two years to the Army in exchange for getting your first branch choice. If Aviation is what you really want this option may be your golden ticket. Additionally, when you are at LDAC try very hard to qualify for RECONDO. Getting RECONDO adds half a point to your overall OML and can move you anywhere from 50 to 200 places on the OML which may make the difference between Aviation or not. Also, you don't have quite as much control over it, but being in the top 5 in your platoon will add an additional full point to the OML. Getting both RECONDO and top five will set you well on your way to Aviation!

Junior (MS3) Year

This is it, the big year that will either make or break your ROTC career. If you prepared well it will be relatively easy. If you slacked off in previous years you may end up struggling. There are a lot of things in general to do this year; along with a few special requirements for those hoping to branch Aviation. Again, it can not be reiterated enough, keep up the GPA and the PT scores; however, there are additional factors at play this year. Cadets in their MS3 year are evaluated in different leadership positions throughout the school year and attend a month long Leadership Development and Assessment Course (LDAC) at Fort Lewis, WA over the summer where they are give additional evaluation. Key areas tested at camp include: leadership in varying positions in garrison and on missions, physical fitness test, and land navigation written and practical tests. Prior to leaving for camp, cadets make decisions concerning which branch they want and later, at the beginning of their senior year, they get a chance to see how they did at LDAC and can make any last minute changes. At the end of camp cadets are given an overall "E", "S", or "N". Getting an overall "E" is not  a requirement to branch aviation but it certainly helps! Cadets wishing to branch Aviation must take an Army Flight Aptitude Selection Test (AFAST) prior to LDAC. This is usually given at the end of the first semester in order to allow time for a retest if necessary. Not taking or failing to pass the AFAST will automatically eliminate a cadet from Aviation. This is a broad overview and there are a lot of details to many of these activities. I will cover the details in greater detail in later posts.

Sophomore (MS2) Year

Sophomore year in ROTC is somewhat a continuation of the freshman year. Again, the primary focus is on grades and physical fitness. While LDAC is still a ways off, many cadets get an opportunity to go to an Army School such as Airborne or Air Assault. Going to these schools provides additional points on the order of merit list (OML) that will be used to determine if you get into Aviation or not. Of course, getting a school slot is usually based on the OML to begin with so the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Make sure your GPA and PT scores already put you in the rich category and you will be fine. The sophomore year is also a time to get some extra preparation in for the upcoming critical MS3 year. While it is possible to learn everything you need to know your MS3 year, the information will be more deeply ingrained and second nature if it is really committed to memory this year. This is the last year of "freedom" before the constant evaluation of the MS3 year. Prepare well cadet!

Freshman (MSI) Year

The first year of the AROTC program is the experimental cakewalk year. The only obligations are regular academics, PT three mornings a week, and participation in occasional activities. The biggest things for the MSI cadet to pay attention to is grades. Aviation is one of the most competitive branches and academics currently count for 40% of the accessions packet. Thankfully, I was a studious freshman and maintained a 4.0 throughout the first year. It is far easier to keep a good GPA than to try to get one later. A GPA below 3.5 is getting kind of iffy for branching Aviation and a GPA under a 3.0 means your chances are slim indeed. Start the first year off right and the rest of the route to aviator wings will be that much easier. Also, the MSI year is the time to get physically fit if you did not enter the ROTC program in peak physical shape. Physical fitness test scores count for 15% of the overall ranking system. PT scores are not as influential as academics but physical fitness is nothing to blow off either.

Army Aviation Via ROTC

There are a number of paths into Army Aviation. Because of life goals, the path I chose was the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps. The ROTC  program is designed to train college students to commission as officers in the United States Army following graduation. Participation in the program adds an additional time obligation of 5-10 hours a week throughout the school year. Following graduation, cadets are commissioned and serve at least four years of time on Active Duty , or in the Army Reserves or National Guard. Cadets branching into Aviation have a six year obligation due to the extra time involved in flight school. While it is easier to branch Aviation in the Guard or Reserves I chose Active Duty in order to avoid juggling a civilian job and military duties. I began my Army career in Fall 2007 at Maranatha, a small school with a satellite ROTC program out of UW-Madison.