Module Charlie: How to make the hard, harder

Well, I've been back for about 3 weeks now and I'm almost finished with the third chapter in my MI BOLC experience, Module Charlie (Mod C for short). This one has been a lot of fun; similar to the way in which Mod B was fun. You see, Mod B was fun because I didn't realize until then how intelligent MI personnel really need to be. The S-2 is the battalion intelligence officer and they are the subject matter expert on the enemy, the terrain and weather, and all civil considerations (read: they need to have an answer for whatever strange question the commander asks about these subject areas no matter how obscure or irrelevant). That's a lot to figure out! We're like baseball batters; if we hit the ball 30% of the time then we're doing pretty damn good. And that's a stat that's been given to me by my instructors.

So how do you make all of that more complicated? Make it an unconventional enemy and mash all three categories together in the same operating environment so that everything affects everything else all at the same time. This is what makes Mod C so interesting!

My class has been training in Level 1 Combatives for the last two weeks, which is the Army's hand-to-hand fighting method. It involves a lot of ground wrestling and it's really fun! Since I'm already Level 1 certified, I got to help out as an Assistant Instructor along with the three other guys in my class who are Level 1 certified. But now it looks like the four of us might be able to jump in with the MI Captains to get Level 2 qualified! Which would be really, really exciting. For reference, there are only 4 levels total.

Got to see my girlfriend this weekend, which was a lot of fun. It was really good to see her! We went to Cochise Stronghold on Saturday and climbed for a while on this 140 foot tall rock, then climbed to the top and watched the sun start to set. Sunday we hung out for a while before I had to take her to the airport. Lots of fun.

Ranger School preparations are going strong. I'm working hard to put my body in shape and train up on various tasks that I will be required to perform. Been finding more and more people who have passed Ranger School, too, and I'm hoping that they'll be able to offer me good information about preparation and the school itself.

Hope everyone else is doing well!