Fort Benning Week 1

Well I just finished up with the first week of IBOLC here at Ft. Benning Georgia. We started on Tuesday because of Labor day and did mainly administrative things for the week. We did do a CWST (Combat water survival Training test) and a PT test. I have gotten alot accomplished this week even though I was somewhat sick with an allergic reaction to something, and poison ivy that got infected. I’m still working on getting everything squared away for Ranger school, and I am also trying to get into Airborne school which might be tough, but I have a shot right before Christmas. I am really glad that I had the chance to come home and see most of my family and friends before I left. Well one week down, only 12 more to go (for this course). Until next time…

Hope everyone is well!

Nick

Moving to Fort Benning

Well things have ended in Ft. Sill. The last couple weeks were alot more intense and fun. We ran convoy operations and worked for 24 hours, so there wasn’t much sleeping going on. I left Oklahoma on the 21st of August with my roommate, and stayed in Little Rock, Arkansas that night, then proceeded to Birmingham, Alabama the next night. Form there I drove to Ft. Benning and arrived here on 23rd of August. When I checked in a got a fairly nice room that I will be calling home for a while. Since I’ve been here I’ve just been getting familiar with the post by running errands and waiting until my flight back to Oregon which is Tomorrow, 25th of August. I will be home for about a week, until the 31st, then it’s back to training. I hope everyone is well, and I hope to see as many of my friends and family that I can when I get home.

Week 4

Sunday, 3 August: Just got done with another week here at good ol’ Fort Sill Oklahoma. So far we have done training in combatives, rifle marksmanship, Advanced rifle marksmanship, and MOUT. Week five we focus on land navigation and convoy operations. We spent the entire last week in the FOB and we will be going out there again for part of this week and most of next week. I am looking forward to week 6 where I will be the platoon leader for the entire week, and that week is supposed to be the most intense. In my down time I have been visiting the surrounding attractions. last weekend I went to Dallas and this weekend I went to Oklahoma City for the first time. I am meeting some great people and having a good time. I miss all of my friends and family but hopefully will be able to see them soon. Only 3 more weeks left!

Ft. Sill Oklahoma, Week 1 and 2

Well, I got here on the 6th of July and been here for about a week and a half now. The day I got here it was very hectic. After driving for 12 hours I figured there would be a chance for me to check in and get settled, maybe shave and change clothes, but I was a little late and had to bust my ass to do all that stuff. It also didn’t help that they had my first and last names inverted and it took them an hour to figure it out. But since then everything has ran smoothly. The first week was dedicated to mainly in processing, which included doing things like drawing blood, dentistry, getting shots, and receiving many briefings introducing us to all of our leadership. I am assigned to Delta Company, 3rd Platoon, 1st Squad along with 11 other lieutenants. The second week has been much more productive. We have been doing combatives in the morning and getting classroom instruction in the afternoons. I have been leading the combatives  training for the past two days, and will continue for the rest of the week. I was lucky enough to be the only one in my platoon who was combatives level 1 certified and that is the reason I’ve been assigned to instruct the classes. All in all things are going good for now. We usually get off duty by around 4 or 5 o’clock everyday, and get weekends off. So I got that going for me, which is nice. The weather has been hot and humid and I don’t see it getting any cooler throughout the next couple months. I hope everyone is having a good summer and everyone is well. If you want you can send me an e-mail at nicholas.conley@us.army.mil and some people were wondering what my address is, so  here you go:

 

1Lt Conley, Nicholas A.                                                                                                                      D Co 1/22nd FA BN (BOLC II)                                                                                                           Attn: 3rd Platoon, Class A09-88                                                                                                         PO Box 825Ft. Sill, OK 73503

 

Good bye for now

-Chops

MY PLANS

With my college career over, I hardly get a chance to breath until I’m on my way to my next adventure. Lately I’ve been telling my friends my plans, and there is so much going on that they say I need to write down where I will be and when, so they can keep track of me. So to keep in touch with people and to keep somewhat of a journal of my experience I am going to use this blog. As of right now this is my schedule as far as I know at this point.

 

June 17 – Arrive in Boston/drive to D.C.

June 19 – Baltimore Orioles vs. Houston Astros

June 20 – Washington Nationals vs. Texas Rangers

June 21 – Drive to Philadelphia/Philadelphia Phillies vs. L.A. Angles

June 22 – Drive to N.Y./N.Y. Yankees vs. Cincinnati Reds

June 23 – N.Y. Mets vs. Seattle Mariners

June 24 – Drive to Boston/Boston Red Sox vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

June 25 – Arrive in Oregon

June 30 – Depart for Colorado

June 31 – Arrive in Gunnison CO

July 6 – Depart CO for Ft. Sill Oklahoma/Arrive that day

Aug 21 – Graduate from BOLC II/Depart for Ft. Benning Georgia

Aug 22/23 – Arrive in Ft. Benning Georgia

Aug 24 – Fly to Oregon

Aug 30 – Graydon’s Wedding

Aug 31 – Fly back to GA

Dec 4 – Graduate from BOLC III

Dec 4 – Jan 17 – ?

Jan 17 – Report to Ft. Benning for Pre-Ranger School

Feb 1 – Graduate from Pre-Ranger

Feb 2 – Ranger School

Apr 3 – Graduate Ranger School

May 1 - Tentative Depart for Iraq

 

ENTREE #9

http://www.youtube.com/IraqDocumentary

On this site you will soon be able to view our documentary in its entirety as well as some other clips not included in the documentary.

Project Introduction

The Iraq War: A Student Perspective was created off three students interest and curiosity about what students think of the war and whether it affects us.  We personally wanted to interview a vast array of different and diverse students that come from all backgrounds.  We took our journalism and multimedia knowledge and decided to do a group documentary, which could capture the thoughts of many students on film. Once we decided on our multimedia format and topic, we then came up with questions to ask all 67 students. With Nick’s occupation in the National Guard we were able to get quality interviews from soldiers themselves that served in Iraq, which helped to provide insight to see what it was really like being in Iraq.  We also interviewed Megan, a student who has grown up in a military family and is marrying Derrick an ROTC cadet and a student that will be deployed when he graduates.  These three students, Nick, Devin and Jenna tried to maintain the professional journalism stance by creating a non-biased documentary telling the stories and opinions of many students.  We hope that we touched the lives of the New Media Communications 301 spring term class.  We personally learned a lot from this documentary and we hope that you all do to. Now lets take a look into the lives of the three creative, new media students.
Nick Conley is in his fifth and final year of college. He started his college career at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, NM where he played baseball and earned his commission as an officer in the United States Army. After graduating with an Associates of Arts degree.  He then moved back home to Oregon and attended Linfield College for a year. Conley transferred to Oregon State University where he has spent the past two years and will graduate with a Bachelors Degree in Liberal Studies with a focus in New Media Communication. For the past three years he has been a member in the Oregon Army National Guard where he is now a First Lieutenant. After Graduation Nick plans on going to courses for the military and by May of next year he is scheduled to be deployed to Iraq with the Oregon Army National Guard 41st Brigade. Conley brought his knowledge of the Army and his film skills to the project.  It was his stimulating questions to soldiers that brought the soldier prospective to the project.
Devin Robinson studied film for two years after high school before becoming jaded with the Hollywood system and the LA way of life.  Robinson did some traveling in Europe, returned to Oregon and became a waiter.  After a few months of that he decided it was time to go back to school.  Now he is in his senior year and studying New Media Communications at Oregon State. Robinson was enticed into this war documentary project because of the age similarity between the common college student and the common US soldier and what they thought of each other. Film and video are his favorite mediums and he was happy to bring his  technical and aesthetic knowledge to the project. He was the creative, master producer where his film skills shined like the Hollywood red carpet.
Jenna Santelli is graduating from Oregon State in a week and half with her study in New Media Communications.  She is going to be moving to Utah in a month to start her journey working at Salt Lake Community College in the Sports Information Department where she will continue her passion for writing sports. Santelli’s dream is to become a travel writer and travel world one article at a time. She has been to Thailand where she volunteered and kept an active blog. She also studied Spanish in Costa Rica. Santelli submitted her resume and this project to a National Geographic Correspondence Program that would help jump start her travel writing career.

Questionnaire Totals

1. Questions:

    

   Age: 23, 21, 20, 22, 22, 23, 23, 22, 23, 23, 22, 21, 21, 23, 56, 21, 20, 20, 23, 25, 22, 22, 22, 20, 24, 19, 21, 43, 25, 21, 21, 25, 24, 19, 19, 20, 22, 19, 23, 21, 22, 26, 19, 19, 20, 19, 22, 21, 23, 20, 30, 20, 21, 21, 24, 21, 21, 21, 23, 49, 24, 20, 22, 21,

    

   Avg. age: 23.0

    

   1. Know anyone?
      1. Y: 33   48.5%
      2. N: 33   48.5%
      3. Age: 22, 19, 20,22, 26, 41, 25, 24, 18, 24, 22, 25, 22, 23, 24, 21, 29, 23, 50, 25, 23, 24, 26, 22, 21, 23, 25, 26, 23, 24, 20, 23, 30, 21, 22, 25, 21,
      4. Avg age: 24.7
      5. Died: 2   3%

    

   1. Scale 1-10 how important – 9, 3, 8, 5, 4, 8, 1, 8, 8, 5, 9, 10, 10, 7, 7, 8, 5, 8, 6, 7, 1, 2, 10, 8, 8, 6, 8, 7, 5, 7, 7.5, 10, 8, 10, 5, 8, 10, 2, 7, 8, 9, 4, 8, 8, 7, 8, 2, 3, 4, 7.5, 4, 7, 9, 7, 9, 9, 8, 10, 4, 5, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10
      1. AVG: 459/67 = 6.85

    

   1. Affect your vote?
      1. Y: 54   80.6%
      2. N: 12   17.9%
      3. u/k: 1   1.5%

    

   1. Affect your financial future?
      1. Y: 45   68%
      2. N: 19   28.8%
      3. u/k: 2   3%

    

   1. Why join?
      1. Financial: 44   42.7%
      2. Patriotism: 26   25.2%
      3. Family Tradition: 10   9.7%
      4. No other options: 10   9.7%
      5. Something Memorable: 6   5.8%
      6. Video game culture: 1   .97%
      7. Structure: 1   .97%
      8. Future: 5   4.9%

    

    MILITARY QUESTIONS:

    

   1. Age:
      1. 19: 1
      2. 20: 5
      3. 21:
      4. 22: 9
      5. 23: 7
      6. 24: 5
      7. 25: 3
      8. 26: 4
      9. 27: 3
      10. > 27: 6

    

   AVG Age: 23.86

    

   1. Rank:
      1. PVT: 4
      2. PFC: 5
      3. SPC: 18
      4. CPL:
      5. SGT: 7
      6. SSG: 4
      7. SFC:  4
      8. CDT: 4

    

   1. Enrolled in college?
      1. Y: 25   58.1%
      2. N: 18   41.9%

    

   1. Has the army helped or hindered you going to school?
      1. Helped: 17   45.9%
      2. Hindered: 7   18.9%
      3. Both: 13   35.1%

    

   1. Do you feel college students properly recognize the military?
      1. Y: 14   37.8%
      2. N: 23   62.2%
      3. Pos: 6
      4. Neg: 3
      5. Both: 7

    

   1. Have you been deployed?
      1. Y: 19   44.2%
      2. N: 24   55.8%

    

   1. Do you feel you know why we are fighting?
      1. Y: 36   87.8%
      2. N: 5   12.2%

    

   1. Reason for joining
      1. Financial: 21   20.6%
      2. Service: 33   32.3%
      3. Education: 28   27.5%
      4. Family: 15   14.7%
      5. Nothing better: 5   4.9%

ENTREE #8

Hi again, the day has arrived and tonight we will show our video. We worked for several hours yesterday editing and putting in stats and other info in the video. We met in Hovland Computer lab and watched the rough edit, which was about 17 minutes long, then we used that and added an took away a couple clips. We put in all the text we needed to convey the message we were trying to send and also put in some background music in parts. We only have a couple of small things to do today to get ready. Last night all the people who were in our video should have gotten e-mailed to invite them to the showing of our video tonight at 6:00 pm. We are also writing our biographies and introduction to our project today. To make last minute edits to our video and to fine tune a couple things, we will be meeting in Hovland again today at around noon. I am really excited to see people’s reaction to the video. I will be putting on a link to you tube where we will post the video in the near future.

 

ENTREE #7

Our group exchanged some e-mails today updating each other on our progress over the weekend. We are planning on meeting tomorrow, Monday, to look at the rough film that Devin put together. I plan on doing some research to help our with our survey stats that we have. More to follow.