CLC3 Day 38: Comedy is the cure

At 5:30 we began our test week for the GAFPB. We did the high jump, its alternate the long jump, and the shotput.  I didn't waste people's time with the high jump, and I didn't pass the shotput. Not a great day, but I knew these were my weakest events.

At 9:00, we started off with our periodic suicide awareness training. Rather than a PowerPoint presentation (the normal fare), we were treated to Bernie McGrenahan's "Comedy is the Cure" show.

It started off like a comedy show, but somewhere in the middle (and I still can't pinpoint when) it becomes his personal story and the lessons he learned. Nice change of pace.

For lunch the class had two promotions, and they paid for pizza. In the afternoon, we studied transportation calculations from FM 55-15. It was the same stuff I remember having learned in BOLC III back in 2009.

Back then, I got the math, but I didn't really understand the purpose. Now, after having been to Afghanistan, I not only understand the rationale -- I understand why it's pretty much useless.

FM 55-15 was written back in 1997. It doesn't take into account the change to the brigade-focused modular Army, and is only ever relevant when you're opening up a new theater. Plus, it's useful only to people who in planning, not the people actually running the convoy.

Compared with my company's experience in Afghanistan, it's also overly simplistic. These days we don't ship tons and tons of breakbulk cargo -- everything's containerized. And when we do, we're more likely to run out of space before we max out the weight. So calculating the number of companies required to haul short tons of pallets is silly.

Knowing the doctrine is not bad, but our experience in two theaters of war should be cause to update our 15 year-old manual.