Today I had a fellow LT that I was in my platoon at Ft. Lewis last summer send me a Facebook message asking me for advice on Signal BOLC. Thought it would be cool to post what I answered to him on here, since I'm playing the whole "catch-up" game anyway!
HIM:
hey buddy, im trying to go signal, should get it, but was wondering if you could give me a rundown of signal bolc. how long, where you are living, weekends, anything i could study to prepare, etc. thanks
ME:
hey man, it's all pretty cool down here. i'm going to be graduating on ____________. augusta is a great "hopping off" point to visit a lot of different areas: atlanta, charleston, savannah, etc. so i've enjoyed that on the weekends. went to charleston this weekend and last weekend i went to atlanta. the airport here has connection into charlotte and atlanta as well for when you want to get out of town for the weekend.
ft. gordon is very much a growing post, so they're still lacking in being able to house all the officers while here on tdy. i spent the first two months here off post in a holiday inn and now am in a hotel on post. with that said, you'll be surprised to see how big the post is and the px, comissary, etc are all nice.
for the course work, a lot of it will go right over your head, but it's not too hard to cram it in for the tests. basically the idea is to get a good understanding of how to plan based on the capabilities of the of the equipment.
i have a lot of fun with the other lts and the overall tempo here is nothing too stressful.
the course here is 4 months long (mine was ___________), and over that time there is a very varied order between each class. i shared my google calendar for the course to your ako email. you'll need to set up a google account to access it though. if you have any questions about the acronyms on there let me know.
when it comes to studying to prepare i'll recommend you a few things, but keep in mind you'll likely be okay even if you don't study up:
-read a book from sublist 1 or sublists 2 of the the csa professional reading list OR just find a military-relevant book you're interested in. there's a very short memo book review that is turned in about a month or two in.
-there is a short memo biography required.
-there is a presentation you do on a subject of your own personal interest (they're just trying to gauge public speaking). it's about 10 minutes long. for me, i just did mine on army social media.
-there are only three "hard" parts of the course:
1) CISCO. Just google it, or look up stuff on skillport (through AKO) if you really want to be a stud. Any general knowledge will help you from being clueless. A small skill that is difficult to comprehend is how to subnet a network. Learn that early and you'll look like a genius.
2) Security +. Same as above. You can get yourself a certification while you're here if you come ready to roll with it.
3) JNN. This is the "meat and potatoes" of the actual Army side of communications. If you can understand how Joint Network Nodes and Expeditionary Signal Battalions set themselves up down range at least a little bit before you get here you will be ahead of the power curve. Check out s6.army.mil for some ideas on that.
Much of the rest of the course has no high stress tests. Just show up and do what you can to learn. There are some minor quizzes along the way, but many of them (and actually even the 3 parts i mentioned above) are open books or open notes to varying degrees.
the "hooah" stuff you do here includes:
-German Proficiency Badge - as long as you can score a 270, you can get a shiny new ornament for your blues in your free time. just google the badge. there's separate pt for those who want to go for it. i got it easily and from what i remember you're a big runner so you'll have not problem getting it.
-Combatives
-Range Qual - They breeze you through. Short day, no problem.
-Convoy Ops - I'm starting this tomorrow. It's only a two day thing so it can't be too hard.
-Signal Stakes - Can't tell you much about this yet, cuz I haven't done it, but it's the culminating event in which you go with your squad between different sites on foot and plan communications to brief to the commander.
-Radio systems - Towards the end you'll actually get some hands on (which you will be happy for due to a lot of Death By Power Point) with some of the equipment.
Any more questions, just let me know man.
