Week 3, Day 3
Physical Fitness Diagnostic (PFD)
Today we had the makeup PT test, also known as the PFD. For people that failed this, they went home. Our wing had a handful of people go home. I can’t say it enough, be good with your PT before you get here. Be better than good! Shoot for a 90 or better. Start aiming for this now.
Going home for failing a fitness assessment is a silly reason to go home. Your physical fitness is one of the few things that is in your control. All of the criteria for the test is available online from the e-Publishing web site (I also did a blog post about it). The Air Force Fitness Assessment isn’t terribly hard, it is just something you have to work for. However, it is can be very easy to fail. Bottom line, this is good advice to be well prepared for the fitness assessments in OTS.
I despise the Air Force Fitness Assessment but I have learned to get over it and just accept it as a reality. Like I said, failing a Fitness Assessment is the quickest way to get yourself kicked out of not only OTS, but the Air Force as well. In the operational Air Force it takes a few failures before you get to that point but I’ll just say it is much more detrimental for an officer to fail than an enlisted member. (SR)
Briefing 1
Today we did Briefing 1. Each brief must be between 5 and 9 minutes. You do your briefing on the same topic as your Paper 1. You brief in front of the whole class. Best thing to do for this is to practice your brief at least 5-10 times before you give it for a grade. And, make sure you are doing it out loud. It may seem cheesy doing this in your room, but it’ll help you a ton.
This is good advice. The basic layout of the briefing is intro, three main points, then conclusion. The 5 to 9 minute requirement is a hard requirement, you will fail if you stop too early or go too late. My only comment on this is to not over-prepare. Prepare your briefing in a way where you truly know the material, but don’t over-rehearse it. The problem with going over it too many times is that you start to memorize what you want to say and it ends up coming out scripted. Either way, it can be stressful to stand in front of people and brief but to be honest the briefings in OTS really aren’t that bad. (SR)
Coffee Break
This evening the chaplains put on a “coffee break” after dinner where there was coffee and desserts.
OTS is a stressful time so it is really important that you take care of yourself both physically and mentally. Take advantage of the time you have where you can relax and recover. I personally never attended the coffee break since I was so busy, but I was quite the hermit on Sundays. My roommate and I would go back to sleep after accountability on Sunday and I would do laundry, relax, and stream my church service on my laptop. (SR)
Week 3, Day 4
The day after Briefing 1 we got the requirements for Briefing 2. It is similar to Briefing 1 in that you use the respective paper to do the briefing. Where Paper 1 and Briefing 1 was an informative topic, Paper 2 and Briefing 2 is an advocacy topic where you are trying to convince your audience to do something.
This is all good info. This is also a good example of how Air Force wide Professional Military Education works. The requirements are clear and the assignments build on each other. I have always found the progression very logical and straight forward. (SR)
We started a multi-week project called “Critical Think Tank.” This is where a group of 4 people think of a topic on how to improve OTS. It is not a graded, high pressure assignment. It is really just a slow project where cadets can identify a problem about OTS and then propose a solution to the problem.
I didn’t do this but I have heard about this and I am really glad they are doing it. OTS is a very fast-paced course where the instructors are moving just as fast as the cadets. In previous Professional Military Education courses I have taken by the time you do the end of course feedback you are just ready to graduate and move on with your life. The fact that they have a dedicated class to talk about these issues means that squadron leadership is open to change and eager to hear your feedback. (SR)
Today we had our first briefing that wasn’t about academics; but, was about the different benefits of the military. Today was about the GI Bill and the educational benefits. While it was a nice overview, this is something you’ll want to learn a lot more about before you come to OTS. They give you this quick briefing where you have to make a decision between the two different GI Bill programs, and you have like 2 minutes to decide. It’s awful for something that is that important, and is a career long decision.
I replied to this one to ask for more information. For those who are not aware the GI Bill is a program where because you are a veteran the government will pay for you to get a college education and sometimes even professional certifications. I am an old-timer so I joined the Air Force prior to the Post 9/11 GI Bill so I started with the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB). My decision was to choose if I wanted to keep the MGIB or transition it to the Post 9/11, and I chose to transition it to Post 9/11. If you are interested in this topic pick my brain because I have been meaning forever to do a blog post about this. I am not sure what this person had to decide, but I will do my best to let you all know. (SR)
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