After 1 year, 10 months as a SSG and a dozen 4187s, I am scheduled to attend BNCOC common core (all the BNCOC I can get for my MOS) next month at Ft Lewis.

This could be a pain in the ass for these reasons:
1. The packing list says I need a wet weather jacket when I am not assigned any TA-50, and have no means of aquiring one through official channels. This pretty much means a 2 1/2 hour drive (each way) to Ft. Riley for some shopping. 670-1 says I can wear the black all-weather coat instead but I'm not going to be that guy.
2. I don't have orders yet. I won't get orders until a week before my report date. That falls on the 4 day weekend leaving me very little time to react once I get them.
3. The nearest major airport is almost 400 miles away. If they don't fly me out of the regional airport the Army is looking at some serious milage and parking fees once I submit my travel voucher ($100 for a local shuttle, or $500 to drive). I also have heard nothing in regards to my travel arrangements other than one e-mail that asked A: do you have a travel card and B: do you prefer to fly or drive (Yeah, I love 2 day drives from Kansas to the west coast )

No big deal, I'm happy to finally go. 6 days after my report date I enter the secondary zone. There is a reasonable chance that I could get picked up for SFC within the next year (seems they haven't learned their lesson yet).

Well that's the news from Camp Warcrimes. I'll be out of the net next month and will report when set.

Wow...$500 to drive 400 miles? What in the world do you drive to have that bad of gas mileage

Army pays $.45 per mile, 800 miles for the round trip. Also have to take in to acount airport parking for 3 weeks (expensive)

Well, I'm leaving in the morning.
Finally got all the paperwork together today (needed the signed checklist, then the signature authority, the waited for FedEx to deliver my plane tickets). I get to fly out localy so that saves some headache.

I'll be out of the loop for a couple of weeks. Try not to have too much fun without me (or if you do take pictures).

Good luck

I'm back, and graduated. I'm fairly disappointed with the course as a whole and also not too impressed with the acadamy.

The academic portion was too easy, especially the operational terms and graphics portion (I feel dumber having taken that test).

The staff was not prepared to handle the number of students that arrived. In-processing took far too long.

Better pre-course communication could have resolved a few problems. I had to change my flight twice to comply with their requirements. Some soldiers (WLC and BNCOC students) were waiting at the airport for over 6 hours for transportation.

The billets were in poor repair. All of the electrical outlets were loose; we had to have one soldier in the buffing team hold the plug in (side note: how in the United States Army do you get to be a SSG without ever buffing a floor???) Air conditioning would have been nice too in July. I won't complain about the quality of the billeting (I've had worse), but I had the expectation that it would at least be to par with PLDC that I took 6 years ago.

End result:
Block 13: Achieved course standards
Block 14
b: Oral communication: Superior (due to years of public speaking training and experience)
e: Evaluation of student's research ability: Superior (due in no small part to ArmyStudyGuide.com)

Next on my agenda: Combatives level 1 certification (yeah right), Battle Staff (not likely), and ANCOC (don't hold your breath)

well cograts on finishing it up