To all the QP's, i ask you kindly to share your memories of year 1 on a team

doc22584 · 07-31-2006, 12:34

To all the QP's out there i ask you to reflect back to the years when you were the FNG on the team.

Thanks

**Jack Moroney (RIP)** · 07-31-2006, 13:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by doc22584

To all the QP's out there i ask you to reflect back to the years when you were the FNG on the team.

Thanks

Damn son, I have problems reflecting on what I may or may not have had for breakfast and you want me to go back 38 years!

x SF med · 07-31-2006, 14:57

I second COL Jack - and it's only been nearly 22 years for me - although I still remember Kevin McA - the Sr B (Actually he was an 11C... Heavy Weapons, I was an 11B, Light Weapons) - I still have nightmares.

doc22584 - you must have just gotten to a team, or are trying to prep while still in the course.

I don't think I'm going to say anymore- you are still in the course, once you graduate, you'll find out - It takes the 'initiation ceremony' before you get that kind of info.

**The Reaper** · 07-31-2006, 15:09

For the first year, it was like drinking from a firehose.

Like the SWCS training never stopped, but with guys who were your friends, mentors, and peers for instructors, and with real consequences hanging in the balance.

You learned fast and worked hard, not for yourself, but because you didn't want to let any of these guys down.

And you need a pick-up truck, because of all the beer you will have to buy.

TR

doc22584 · 07-31-2006, 18:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by x_sf_med

I second COL Jack - and it's only been nearly 22 years for me - although I still remember Kevin McA - the Sr B (Actually he was an 11C... Heavy Weapons, I was an 11B, Light Weapons) - I still have nightmares.

doc22584 - you must have just gotten to a team, or are trying to prep while still in the course.

I don't think I'm going to say anymore- you are still in the course, once you graduate, you'll find out - It takes the 'initiation ceremony' before you get that kind of info.

Im still in the course. Just figured id throw the topic out there and see what everyone had to say.

mffjm8509 · 07-31-2006, 18:44

but here are some milestones......

Day 1. Team Sergeant made me introduce and talk about myself for 5 minutes as soon as I walked into the Team Room........IN RUSSIAN!

Week 1. Built a pallet for the first time for deployment......"why are we taking skis to Turkey?"

Month 1. Deployed to Turkey/N. Iraq for 90 days for SAR/UW operations (lots of fast roping, range time, helo ops, rockstar stuff!

)

Month 1. Breifed USASOC Commander and CSM on mission planning/live launch for SAR

Month 2. Assisted in the development/writing of 6 week SUT POI/MTP

Month 2. Assigned to brief all incoming USAF Aviators on USSF SAR procedures

Month 3. Spent Thanksgiving depoyed with ODA 056. Had Thanksgiving Dinner in the "GB Club FWD", Incirlik AFB. Shared a 1/2 Gallon of bourbon with good friends.

Month 4. Redeployment, 100% Inventory. (they dont teach you that at the 18C course)

Month 5. Decentralized Winter training. ( "if this were an SFAS event I would've quit" ....... me after completing a 35 mile xcountry ski movement, the first time I'd ever been on skis)

Month 6. Winter downhill training at Ski Sunlight...probably the best 2 weeks of my career to that point. One of our best kept secrets.

Month 7. HALO school at YPG

Month 8-10. SF ANCOC/OI course

Month 11. Demining mission into Bosnia-Herzegovina. The best month of my career up to that point.

Month 12. First year complete. By far the best year of my career to that point. I learned more about being an SF guy from my Team Sergeant and the other guys on my Team. Those are lessons I still draw from today. Friendships were forged that are as strong today as they were then.

I'd do that first year all over again!

lksteve · 07-31-2006, 19:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Reaper

And you need a pick-up truck, because of all the beer you will have to buy.

and if you are an engineer sergeant, you need to haul stuff you sto...obtained for the team...

i remember L1 through about L7...i remember (vividly) how much of a pain in the ass it was getting parachutes out of trees at Turner DZ...i remember there was no such thing as a Viking Dry Suit (Viking Damp Suit, yes,,,Dry Suit...nope) i remember being half-scared to death of screwing up an IV i was trying to run on the Detachment Commander...i had a team sergeant that never yelled, never seemed pissed and WAS NEVER SATISFIED...not with me, not with himself, not with anyone or anything...

and i remember the combinations of half the locks on mop lockers at Fort Devens...

the year i was a detachment XO was far, far worse...and a lot more fun (not to mention expensive...the XO is always buying the beer...)

**Jack Moroney (RIP)** · 07-31-2006, 19:39

Okay, I'll play

It was the anniversary of my third year in the Army with six months time in grade as a CPT. I stepped off a Huey in the middle of the Central Highlands to take over A-246 in a place called Mang Buk, this was going to be the first of two A-Teams I was to command in Vietnam in one year. Each was going to be totally different and everything I knew was going to be put into play the first week on the ground. I learned more from those outstanding soldiers in my first month than I had learned from anyone or any other experience in my life up to that time. I cannot begin to even explain the awesome level of reponsiblity I felt having been given the command of a team with all that it entails and you know what my biggest fear was-letting any of these guys down in any way. The hardest thing for me to do was to not take out every patrol or participate in every recon. It took my Team Sergeant to grab me by the stacking swivel real hard one day to remind me that we all had a good working relationship and they did not want to have to break in another "new" guy after stuffing me in a body bag. I learned something new everyday where ever I was. I couldn't learn enough. I checked everything, fired everything, sent the daily sitrep, broke msgs, debred wounds. I stood back and let my NCOs do their jobs and had them teach me virtually everything about anything they could. We trained counterparts, worked with our indig, were indoctrinated into their tribes, participated in their ceremonies, we were not one of them but we were definitely part of them. The saddest day of this part of my first year on a team was leaving them because the Group Commander decided I needed to go straighten out another A-team because he was so impressed with my folks at Mang Buk. I told him that we were good because we were a team and if he really wanted me to straighten out another team he should allow me to take the team that we had built together. He said no, I said good bye, my wife didn't know I had been given another team until a heavy package came for her in the mail of Thai Bronze Ware that my team had sent someone to Thailand to buy for her as a thank you. So for the remainder of my first year I took command of A-244 in a place called Ben Het and that started off with me getting blown off the helipad the minute my feet hit the ground. This was a tough assignment for a different reason. While the Group Commander might think you are the team's saviour, a bunch of guys who were totally busted because of the death of one guy and the capture of another living in a hell hole are not likely to look upon you as anything other than just another officer who will probably also get relieved. This was one of those times when you just had to set the tone right off the bat, which I did that night by responding alone to a ground probe on one of our OPs by driving like a wild man up to the top of the OP, taking a 60 mm mortar away from the yard that was supposed to manning it and walking rounds down the gully where the intruders were making their probe. Came back to find a bunch of long faced folks wondering if I was nuts and it took about a week but things fell into place and the team came together. It was a different setting, with different challenges and different folks, but good soldiers all who were intially distrusting of officers in general. I continued my old ways of learning all I could, but this time I had many battles to fight with higher headquarters, my counterpart who was a NVA mole, the 4th Infantry Division who killed more of my folks then the NVA did, and that constant nagging fear of making sure that I did nothing that would let these guys down or get them killed. My year ended much the way as it started, with a Huey ride away from a bunch of guys that I knew were in harms way but now I could do nothing about it. A couple of months later tanks hit the camp, but were stopped by the mine field I had put in without permission. There was talk of courts-martial until the 5th Group realized that they had gotten credit for killing a PT-76 and no one wanted to admit that some no-necked CPT did not have persmission to do something that should have been authorized in the first place. Now I could fill in the blanks about both places, but that would take a novel that no one would really want to read and many would not understand because I am not skilled enough to paint the picture that pays the appropriate level of respect and honor I hold in my memories of some of the finest soldiers with whom I have ever served.

x SF med · 07-31-2006, 21:16

COL Jack-
Drive on. No way I will even attempt to follow that up. Compared to what you did getting through your first year, my 1st yr was just minor fraternity hazing.

Firebeef · 07-31-2006, 23:53

I'm sure men who reported to teams in the 60s and since '01 have (had) hairier experiences, but since we're on the subject, I'm willing to share.

Month 1. reported to Ft Carson, only thing was, 2nd BN was enroute from Devens. My Co was enroute from Incirlik, Turkey. They were just breaking ground on the Emerald City which would become 10th Gp, so spent a lot of time scrounging all kinds of stuff to make a home in WWII barracks. I had a SR Commo with me for 3 weeks.

Month 2. Went to Language Tng. Continued to scrounge, team began to come together. Became the SR Commo.

Month 3. Deployed to Germany with Team as a CLT (now LCE). Because of my language ability, I was tasked with liasing with the Division Staff officers of 5th Panzer Division...in German, only a few months out of the Q course.

Month 4. At the end of above exercise, our Team got to spend several weeks at Frasdorf house, climbing and mountaineering and really becoming a Team.

Month 5. Returned To Carson, scrounged more, team climbed Pikes Peak in the seasons first significant snowfall. Team: awesome!!, Pikes peak in the snow: sux!

Month 6. WET. Winter Environmental Training. Helena, MT and Bridgers Bowl MT. They really pay us to do this?!?!?

Month 7. Decentralized WET in Rimini, MT and then a BN FTX in Montana (see thread: WORST WET's) hard landings hurt, teams becoming brothers are priceless.

Month 8. Slovakian Fam tour to Carson. I'll bet they still use examples of our OPFUND as how NOT to do an OPFUND. (They told us to show them a good time, right??) Deployed to NWT, Canada (now Nunavut) to work backside for one of the most incredible FTXs I've ever been on. Kugluctuk, Yellowknife, Coppermine and riding a snowmobile on the Arctic Ocean at night. When they say Blizzard, u better find some shelter.

Month 9 & 10: Deployed to Rendina, Greece and trained with Greek SF. Opa! At end of deployment, my TM SGT and I were tasked to Site Survey Slovenian SF at Kocevska Reka, Slovenia fpr a follow on mission. Apparently they liked us as the Slovenians insisted we stay an additional 7 days. We were ready to come home, but diplomacy prevailed and we stayed another 7.

Months 11 & 12. Definetly slower pace; Language again!! Intensive planning began in earnest for future OPS. Ohh, and Jumpmaster School!!

Like mffjm, those guys are all still my brothers, and I'd relive that year again in a heartbeat.

**Jack Moroney (RIP)** · 08-01-2006, 04:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firebeef

Month 4. At the end of above exercise, our Team got to spend several weeks at Frasdorf house, climbing and mountaineering and really becoming a Team..

I really liked Frasdorf. We used it a couple of times for training.

**Razor** · 08-01-2006, 08:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack Moroney

Now I could fill in the blanks about both places, but that would take a novel that no one would really want to read...

Sir, I have to respectfully and vehemently disagree.

x SF med · 08-01-2006, 08:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razor

Sir, I have to respectfully and vehemently disagree.

+1

**18C4V** · 08-01-2006, 09:21

Like the Reaper said it's like drinking from a firehose.

I signed in to my team as the senior 18C (no jr on team) two weeks after SERE. After two weeks of PMT, we were in A-stan in 2002. My jr 18C two months into our deployment came to our team just like I did, straight out of the Q. Lucky for us two cherries that our team sgt was a 18C who quickly reeled us in alot. I spent most of my first year in A-stan on two firebases and I went to SF ANCOC right after we came back.

Firebeef · 08-01-2006, 09:42

I'd love to hear more of the good Colonels stories as well!!! (Frasdorf was an awesome place, Sir!) I'd love to hear some 1st year stories from the last 4 or 5 years as well. I'm sure they have a different perspective than the Cold war or 90s, but are essentially the same theme, drinking from a firehose, and knowing that becoming a member of an A team is probably the best expeience most men will ever know.