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.