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Originally posted by GunnarWhite:
Sorry if I am beating a dead horse or this was answered in another section but I have looked and looked but have not found the answer. I will be attending WTC on 27 May and then heading to Benning for 11X. How does it work for PS people joining a PLT halfway through their OSUT? It seems kind of strange that these guys have been together for 10 weeks and then some outsiders join the gaggle. And are qualification badges permitted at WTC and AIT ? Thanks for taking the time to read this.
My experience from 1982 and not a lot has changed in the culture (about 50% of the training has changed since then though).
The IET Soldiers don't care. To be honest so few prior service join a OSUT platoon around week 8-9 that your just treated as a replacement for the IET Soldiers that dropped or went AWOL.
You'll be lucky if there is more then 3-4 PS per Infantry OSUT platoon. The only thing you will really do as a Company will be Road Marches, Bivouac and PT. Everything else will be Platoon level in Infantry OSUT. Just like a normal Infantry Company.
So for the most part you will not see the PS in other platoons except in passing during the Duty Day. Not sure how it works after the duty day because I was never PS on Sand Hill but I read from other IET Soldiers you get released to do whatever. The IET Soldiers are restricted to barracks after the Duty Day.
The IET Soldiers will look up to you as a BTDT and ask you for some tips in a attempt to make their lives easier. Usually the CoC briefs you on what you can and cannot do for or with the IET Soldiers (I was told that by the PS that joined my platoon in 1982). They want the initial experience to be as tough on the IET Soldiers as it was on you.....basically.
The toughest part on you will be keeping your mouth closed when you see mistakes being made by the IET Soldiers and not trying to help them out when you see a train wreck comming. Thats what I was told by the PS in my platoon. Again, they were under instructions not to help us too much.
We had a E4 from the 82nd Airborne in our OSUT platoon (MOS reclass) and he wasn't getting any rest at night because of all the Airborne wannabes peppering him with questions about Airborne School and the physical fitness standards.
More then 20 years later....I still remember. Scary, isn't it?
