Basically I gave up on reading the posts on NTC because it seemed they were
going nowhere and just cluttering the mail box. Then I realized I didn't
care because they wasted my time. I never said how I felt on the subject
because it didn't matter that much to me.
Everyone sees everything through their own perspective. Whether their
view is through rose colored glasses or through cracked jaded ones its all
the same thing. ALso if you go into it expecting it to be bad chances are
that it will end up being horrible. Personally I wanted to go and was afraid
at the time that I wouldn't be able to go because of changes at the national
level.
I was seventeen and only able to go because I had completed my GMA and
all the prerequisits. It was something that I had wanted to do for a while.
I had been through JLTC and AJLTC and done all sorts of training camps. It
was time for me to take my training as a leader even though I had been in the
position already.
When we got there we were each put into patrols and told to finish,
basically being left alone. Each one of us it turns out woudl have some
problem, bad knees, a clostomy bag, and me being 17 made us into what we
would jokingly call a "gimp patrol." For some people that would make them
look down on themselves and think that there would be unable to actually
complete. For us that meant that we would press on and try harder. We had
our hardships, but we worked as a team and were able to finish and graduate
proudly after actually doing everything we were supposed to and very little
of what we weren't supposed to do.
People see it as some sort of midievil torture device, but NTC is the
complete opposite. Its a learning experience. The leaders were off doing
there own thing while we took care of ourselves. We learned what it was
like (some of for the first time) to be a boy in a patrol. We learned how
NOT to treat the boys and how to be good commanders at the same time.
These are the same things I learned in JLTC and AJLTC. We learned so
many other things but the most important information we learned was that
being a good leader meant being there WITH and FOR the boys. RR is not a way
to make you look better by spending a weekend resting by the fire while the
boys run through the woods. Its leadin them on a nature hike, teaching them
to fish, make spears, traps, and fishhooks, and basically being a roll model.
I think the greatest lesson that NTC and every other camp I have gone to is
very simple.
NEVER MAKE A BOY DO WHAT YOU WOULD NOT BE WILLING TO DO
XKeithX
"All the sacrifices made for nothing
Don't show can't believe it
Want to show that I'm good for something
I can't you won't let me
Are you running cause your words won't heal me
Because you can't accept me"
_______
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