Foxholes and Dogtags

Confidence Course

The confidence course was much fun. It would have been more fun if the entire platoon did it. However, I got stuck doing the Confidence course with Light Fighters.

Confidence Course is just that. A confidence booster, done using a series of excercises that have a little edge to them, usually all physical in some way or another, often utilyzing heights. You climb, run, jump, slide, crawl etc. It is also a morale booster, and everyone is generally in good spirits at the end of the course, yelling and cheering and sounding off with their respective platoon mottos or what not.

This didn't quite happen with Cold Steel.

What happened is thus. During the "fun week" where we do all the "fun stuff" such as
Pugils, Bayonet, US Weapons, etc, your company gets detailed to do KP. Because this training isn't exactly priority is why. Which sucks. Confidence course was when my platoon got detailed to do KP. So half of the Platoon was gone.

This was remedied by putting the remainder of Cold Steel with the other Platoons. I got stuck with Light Fighters.

I have a rant about this one. But for some reason, I think Cold Steel Drills were pissed at us or something. This entire week they seemed particularly angry. What's kind of cool about the confidence course is that its a morale booster, and it's a team builder. The companies that took part in Confidence course really strengthened as a team, it seemed to unify them. Cold Steel suddenly became the red headed step children. We just tagged along, the few of us there from our respective platoon just hanging out and watching the rest of Light Fighters have a blast.

This, in a lot of aspects, ruined the confidence course for Cold Steel. Light fighters, however, weren't to mean to us. I hear the Mad Dawg Tag-alongs got particularly harsh treatment from their platoon. Recon lucked out. Our Drill Sergeant was with them so they got to chill with him, and Recon found out just how cool he was (the other platoons were petrified of him before this week)

So anyway, while the other platoons were involved in this bonding experience, Cold Steel felt left out in the cold. We commented on it after the fact with our drills and asked about perhaps going back to the Confidence course later as a unit. The drills said they'd think about it. It never happened.

I personally think that things like the Confidence Course are very important in basic training. When one joins the army, this is what they expect to do. This is what people look forward to. And it is a confidence builder, a team builder, etc etc.

This experience, if anything, hurt Cold Steel as a team. And left a lot of sour feelings after the fact.

Confidence Course

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