If you joined the military full-time you would be grooomed, scheduled for a school date, and sent off to a variety of schools and boot camps to prepare you to be an officers from day one. In the ARNG, you are required to meet drill obligations once you swear in. But you may not go to Officer Basic or other prep classes for years. What do you expect until then? What is drill like?
One of my favorite anecdotes I've ever read is from a new JAG officer (lawyer) that was posted on the ARNG forums:
http://www.nationalguard.com/forums/showthread.php/19149-First-Drill-Direct-Commission-JAG
I know there are lots of people out on the internet who wonder what that first drill will be like. And there are lots of enlisted folks, ROTC graduates, or OCS graduates who can tell them the stories of going to training, and then showing up at your unit. For us directly commissioned folks, however, there's no initial training. There's no orientation meeting. There's no indoctrination. Put on your camo and go to work. So, for those who are considering a direct commission job, here's how my first drill went down (caveat: every unit is different, so your mileage may vary).
The only information I got from my unit was an email from one of the Majors in my section, and it said essentially, "Show up at 0730 wearing your Army Combat Uniform. Bring a Physical Training uniform also, because the unit is taking the make-up PT test this weekend." I got no itinerary. I got no information about who was in my chain of command. I got no directions about how to put on a beret, tie my boot laces, salute, or even enter the building. Turns out it wasn't a big deal.
I showed up at 0715, and the first thing that happened was some junior enlisted soldier saluting me. I knew enough to know I was supposed to salute him in return, so I did. (My silver dollar is going to an NCO I go to church with, so no break in tradition for the salute). The enlisted soldier didn't laugh at me, at least not to my face, so I presumably acquitted myself well with the salute. A Specialist who happened to be standing at the door of the building led me to the JAG area of the building.
My unit is the headquarters of a Major Command (MAJCOM), so it's pretty much all officers. I walked into the JAG cubicle farm and there were a Colonel and a Major there who informed me that my boot laces were done improperly. I fixed them.
My CO eventually found me and led me to the drill hall to sign in for the weekend. We then stood in formation out behind the drill hall, whereupon I played "Monkey see, monkey do" and tried hard not to be noticed. At formation, another full-bird Colonel attempted without much success to "fix" my beret. I'm still not sure what I'm doing wrong with it, except to say that it's wrong (because people keep telling me that). I've read the instructions on how to wear it, and to my untrained eye it looks correct. Clearly, it is not. The First Sergeant made some announcements that I did not understand in the least. There were acronyms, unit designations, times, and locations involved.
After formation, my CO said we were due to get flu shots. So my first legitimate Army activity was to get stabbed in the arm by a very large man.
I got a sponsor, another new-ish First Lieutenant who joined the unit six months ago. I think the CO was trying to get my sponsor to learn his way around the unit as much as he was trying to help me. We took a tour of the building, which essentially meant nothing to me because it's all just a huge cubicle farm with real walls every so often. My sponsor's military ID card is screwed up, so I can't get an Army Knowledge Online account until either I or he gets a new ID card, which we can't get at our own unit despite the fact that it's a MAJCOM.
Then we spent the rest of the morning watching a suicide prevention video that made us all want to commit suicide. Actually, it was pretty good information, but presented in typical bureaucratic tedious style.
In the afternoon, I got to observe some lawyering. I watched two separation hearings. One of the soldiers got kicked out of the Guard, the other one got to stay. It looked pretty much like regular civilian lawyering, except everybody was wearing camouflage pajamas.
The day ended with officer call, where the Chief of Staff for the entire unit met with all of the officers... which is most of the people in the unit. It was sort of a "welcome to the new fiscal year" meeting, but since I wasn't familiar with the old fiscal year it was sort of over my head. The Colonel met up with all the new lieutenants and gave us the "you'll be running this place someday" speech.
After drill, the JAGs all got together to watch the Auburn game, drink beer, and eat ribs. A good time was had by all, including the newbies like me.
Sunday was another formation, and I started to understand some of the announcements. I went to the church service, which was surprisingly small for a group of people in Alabama. I soon understood why; the chaplain is more in the counselor mold than the preacher mold.
After church, I got to do some actual lawyering! Day 2 on the job, and they're giving me something to do where I'm actually trained to do it (by the law school, not by the Army). So we did some paperwork that is probably boring to everybody except lawyers, and I'll spare you the details. The point is that I got to do something productive. Now, the Lieutenant Colonel who was supervising me will probably have to do it all again just to make sure I did it correctly, but it was still nice to be doing something productive.
At 1300 on Sunday, the in-processing briefing took place. Essentially, a sergeant gave us a checklist and said, "Go get this filled out." The folks from the Security section came down and filled their part out directly after the briefing. All of the other sections of the unit were at some training deal elsewhere on Fort McClellan. So imagine all of these new lieutenants (three of whom are direct commission and have NO IDEA what is going on) wandering around a military installation essentially aimlessly, looking for people to fill out paperwork. Paperwork we do not understand. Not to mention, we don't even know who we're looking for. We found about two of the twenty people we were supposed to find, and then we turned our paperwork into a sergeant who will in theory help us find people next weekend to get the rest of it completed.
At 1500, we had another formation, got some more announcements (by this time I was starting to understand most of the announcements), and then got dismissed. The lawyers all headed back to the JAG area to finish up some things, and then we all went home.
Needless to say, the new Lieutenants (2LT and 1LT alike) got made fun of relentlessly. But it was all in good fun, and the same people who were making fun of you would also help you out two seconds later and show you how things were supposed to be done. It was very strange being in a place and an organization where I knew nobody and nothing, but everybody was pretty helpful in getting me squared away. It's amazing how many people, even longtime Army people, know absolutely nothing about the direct commission process. As far as they know, everybody wearing officer rank has at least been to training of some sort, has an AKO account, and knows the basic acronyms. More importantly, they have no idea that you can skip 2LT and go straight to 1LT. I got asked several times, "How did you get to be a 1LT and not know how to do X?" Or I got a look that asked the same question. I just had to repeat to everybody I met, "I'm brand new. This is my first day in the uniform."
I know this was a ridiculously long post, but I wanted everybody to know what my first drill was like. Hopefully, some newbie direct commission officer will come along and read this post and either (a) learn something, or (b) not feel quite so uncomfortable about going to his first drill with absolutely no knowledge whatsoever.
As you can see, everyone is nervous and feels unprepared their first drill. I must confess, I did a LOT of reading before my first drill. And thanks to the above post and other's help I was a little more prepared.
>>PLACE HOLDER, I WILL POST MY ENTIRE FIRST DRILL ACCOUNT HERE AT A LATER DATE
So there you go, that's what the first drill looks like for a JAG and a Medical Officer.
Check out the "Newbie Pearls" post for tons of resources and a growing list of basic tips for you to blend in on your first drills.
If you have a fun story about your first drill, please post in the comments, or send in an email. I will post it to the page to help others.
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