BOLC/WOBC

BOLC/WOBC for aviation seems to change every couple of years or so.  When I went through aviation BOLC (Basic Officer Leadership Course) and WOBC (Warrant Officer Basic Course) were combined.  So, Lieutenants and Warrants were in the course together.  The problem is that some of the classes in BOLC are the same as they are in WOCS.  Also, it is definitely geared toward commissioned officers and not warrants.  All of our cadre were commissioned officers and I think we only had 1 WO instructor.

Now, WOBC is separate from BOLC and the cadre is made up of warrant officers.  It is also split so that you do part 1 of WOBC after WOCS and part 2 after your advanced aircraft course.  This also makes a lot of sense since some of the classes (the ones they moved to the end) are OPD (Officer Professional Development) courses that will help you when you get to your unit.  Teaching them a year and a half before you leave Rucker doesn't really make sense.

Anyway, BOLC is a pretty easy course if you apply yourself.  It's nice in the sense that you go home every night, and the days aren't really that long.  My class was 8 weeks long, but now they've shortened it to 5 or 6.  The first 3 or 4 weeks are all academic classes.  Everything from CVID (Combat Vehicle Identification), to Attack/Recon tactics, to logistics and CAB (Combat Aviation Brigade) formation.  It's a nice change from the classes in WOCS, since almost all of them are aviation related.  After that is field week.  It's a great field week too because again, you go home every night and most days are half days.  The last couple of weeks are OPD classes, and a tour of the airfields.

The biggest thing that I didn't really think was a big deal at the time, but ended up being a big deal later, was that BOLC is the first course during flight school that counts toward your OML (Order of Merit List.  The OML is what determines what aircraft you will fly.  Basically, starting in BOLC, everything you do is given a point value and graded.  Whoever has the highest grade, or OML score, will get to select their aircraft first.  So if there's only 1 chinook and you really want chinooks, you better be top of your class.  At the time I went through, BOLC was worth 30% of the overall OML score.  The graded events during BOLC are as follows:

Academics
There were only 4 exams that we had during BOLC, but each exam covered multiple subjects.  There was one exam that was worth a lot of points, and it was pretty difficult.  This was the Aviation Tactics Exam.  There were failures almost every exam.  If you fail an exam, you get one chance to retake it, however you will receive a 70% for that exam regardless of how you do the second time.  This can really hurt your OML score if it's on the Aviation Tactics Exam.  Studying is a must.

Field Week
During field week, you will go to the range (9mm and M16), do a ruck march, land navigation, and a
tactical convoy.  You will be scored on the 9mm range, M16 range, ruck march, land nav, and receive a leadership grade.  I had never shot a 9mm before BOLC, so the first time was at the range.  The range isn't difficult, but some of the targets were faulty.  The M16 range is a standard range, nothing special.

The ruck march is pretty easy as well.  You use an assault pack instead of a ruck so it's that much easier.  I don't remember the distance.  BOLC land nav was a little easier than WOCS land nav.  There were still 3 road points and 1 off the road point, but even though it was not a self correcting course, many of the point signs had the 8 digit grid written on the back from previous people who have used the course.  That was really helpful!

The tactical convoy goes into your leadership grade.  The goal is to plan a tactical convoy including an OPORD (operations order), and a brief using the sand table, and then actually take the HMMVs and complete the convoy you just briefed.  This is done as a team, so everybody doesn't have to do the OPORD and briefing, just a few people from your class will (probably LTs). 


At some point during BOLC (probably the last couple weeks since there's so much free time at that point), you will have to go to Lyster Army Health Clinic and get your class 1A Flight Physical.  Even if you just got one a month ago, if it wasn't at Rucker, you have to go again.  You will also probably do HOST (Helicopter Over water Survival Training), AKA Dunker.  I did it during BOLC, some people did it after BOLC.  It's only 1 day long and I'll talk about it in another post.

That's about it for BOLC.  Make sure you study, and try to do well on the field week stuff so that you can start off at the top of the OML.  After BOLC comes SERE, so enjoy your nice climate controlled, dry bugless house while you can!