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00:00our job is to fight and win America's wars period so whether it's in a training environment or in
00:14real combat it matters that you put in a hundred percent effort all the time and if you think
00:18about it doctrinally we're taught to fight at a three-to-one ratio and today was a one-to-one
00:23ratio which reflects real peer-to-peer combat so I think it was more realistic today so how does
00:31this how does CLDT prepare you for real war teaches you about grit and how to pull through
00:43when everything's hard when everything's stacked against you you need that mental fortitude to
00:49look at one another and say we're gonna win I don't care that it's one-to-one odds
00:53we will find a way to defeat the enemy I think that's probably the most important weapon that
01:00the U.S. Army can have is cohesion because in many examples of smaller forces taking out a larger one
01:06because it was a cohesive group of people who all trusted each other with their lives and because
01:13of that they're able to do extraordinary things when we create a force where our senior enlisted
01:20and our junior officers are able to make decisive action it makes it really hard for those on the
01:27other side to combat us because if they take the this most senior ranking person down it doesn't
01:33matter the United States Army is by far and away the greatest ground fighting force that the history
01:38of the world has ever seen but we can always be better we want to widen that gap between us and our
01:43adversaries as much as possible to make it so we can destroy them quicker than they can destroy us
01:48the point where hopefully they're so scared of us we won't even have to go to war
01:51how does this prepare you to fight and succeed in the big army because the purpose of West Point is
02:04to train you to be an officer once you graduate um the training that we're doing here today is is
02:09quite reflective actually of what we'll be doing with our units once we once we take over of a platoon
02:14of our own so once we leave this place once we go to uh officer training for a few weeks and and
02:20leave uh and take over a platoon we'll be more in tune with the men and women that will be leading
02:26given that we're going through very similar training that they are if someone asks you to explain what
02:31CLDT is in 15 seconds what would you tell them it's the last real tactical development you're going to
02:37get before you go into the army and so it's both kind of a reality check it's know where you're at
02:44physically mentally but that's also a good training exercise do you think that no other country nation
02:51anyone does in the world no one has the resource that we do no uh no one has the fighting capabilities
02:58nor force that we have and doing this just flexes on the idea that we are now so prepared for anything
03:04that comes to us comes against us that we have the capabilities of people that are familiar with
03:10what to expect as well as those that are confident with what they do for myself i've traveled to most
03:17other military academies across the world and i really have learned to appreciate how much in
03:21u.s government how much effort they put into the united military academy as well as our other branches
03:27in the military and recognizing understanding what they put on the table is recognizing also what
03:33they expect out of it how does cadet leader development training make you the best possible
03:40soldier west point gives you a lot of cool opportunities where you genuinely learn how to
03:46work as a team you learn how to motivate people you learn how to get people to do the right thing and
03:52i think this is one of the best opportunities to do so CLDT has changed the way that i look at being
04:00soldier by just making me aware of how much the army is really a big team um CLDT is
04:12one of the first details where everything you're doing depends on someone else like your grade and how
04:20you perform is wholly dependent on what they're doing if they're doing their job right if they're
04:27keeping security if they're working hard or giving their best performance everything depends on
04:34somebody else and that's truly unique because it doesn't really happen often um and this detail has
04:41really made me realize that when you're on that field when you're in war you're looking to your left
04:48and your right your brothers and sisters to help you you gotta trust them you put your liking their hands
04:54and that's something special that's that's a bond that can't be broken and for me going into the
05:02force and keeping that in mind i think it just expresses that the army really is a place of
05:09cohesion and unity and and brings people together a melting cot of people together and i can't look at it
05:18any other way some of us are going to be expected to do this kind of stuff day in and day out and if
05:25our nation calls for us to go to some sort of conflict we need to have that have those military
05:32skills built up so we're ready to do whatever it takes i think CLDT is so important because it allows
05:40us to put our training into action we we all know how to plan missions we all know how to execute missions
05:45on paper right but executing them to this level CLDT is the only opportunity that we have of cadets
05:53and it really prepares us for what's to come
06:01why does CLDT make you the most lethal force on the face of the earth and we've been in in the suck
06:10the grit sleepless nights days in days out but we know what it takes and we have to now
06:15after this training continue to harden ourselves iron sharpens iron and sharpen that that spear that
06:21when we take control and we're leading that we are lethal we learn what combat is going to take
06:27or that how to act under sleep deprivation how to act when we're hungry and then not only just focus
06:32on ourselves but focus on everyone else around us who's sleep deprived and hungry and motivate them
06:36to be lethal and take take action to the enemy take ruthless aggression so we can fight and win
06:41america's wars how does this training enhance lethality of our men and women in uniform
06:47first and foremost i think it gives you some grit you can't be lethal if you can't endure what it
06:52takes to war fight just every day you're rocking every day you're under your own weight you have
06:57everything you need to survive and you have to plan everything we do is planned by ourselves we're
07:03given a mission and then we have to figure it out so the lethality is increased by just giving you all
07:08the basic hard skills that you need to have to be able to endure what it takes to not get killed
07:13and if you can't get killed it's easier to kill the other guy there's a good quote that i think
07:17really applies here and it's that you don't rise to the occasion you fall back on the highest level
07:22of your training so that once you do get out in the field and you end up in a tough situation or some
07:28kind of fight what you have to do is simply muscle memory and not something you have to really think
07:35through and delay on let's talk about lethality how does the training that you received here
07:42make you the most lethal fighting force being a warrior and living that sort of lifestyle isn't
07:49something you just decide to do one day we've we've been given missions we've been given things that
07:55we've had to do over these nine days and every single time you know we've had the option of not
08:01doing it um i don't know how that well that would have gone for any of us if we decided not to
08:06but we got up and we chose to do it when indirect fire hit our patrol base at 10 30 on a friday night
08:15in uh in the middle of july when most of our peers are probably not doing what we're doing which is
08:20sleeping in the middle of the woods um there wasn't a single person in our patrol base that
08:25looked up and went back to sleep or just said i don't want to do this anymore every single person
08:29within two or three minutes had their full uniform on had everything in their rucksack and had it on
08:33their back and was sprinting down a hill to get to our uh our rally point so i'm a better warrior because
08:41when i have to deal with stuff like that downrange um i know i've been here before having resilient
08:47leaders is really important so being able to push through those physical those mental um
08:52maybe even spiritual like blockages you're having is really important being able to bring that into
08:57a thousand different future leaders every summer i think is really important to creating a fighting
09:01force that's always ready to push through that that last effort that next stop that other forces may
09:06be more inclined to get hung up on rather than complete missions through and i genuinely believe that
09:12the army spends a considerable amount of effort in investing in its future leaders and at the end
09:17of the day future leaders ensure that the army continues to be lethal i think a big reason why
09:23we're such a lethal force is because everyone knows the mission everyone knows to carry on and everyone
09:29trusts their leadership what's the toughest part of cldt i think for me the toughest part of cldt is learning how to
09:40navigate all your tasks with only a few hours of sleep the physical aspect you can always train
09:46physically but most of the time you're giving your body proper rest and nutrition will take all that
09:51aspect out and it's a little bit more difficult to be able to think clearly you kind of have a
09:56cloud over your head while making decisions and trying to keep everybody motivated at the same time and
10:02trying to be that morale booster so definitely the mental aspect came in
10:06and not only does it force yourself to have grit but as a leader and in that role you have to be
10:11focused on everyone around you and making sure that they're okay to push through and they have that
10:15grit and you're that leader in the front to show them that there is a light at the end of the tunnel
10:19and that there's a reason to keep pushing and keep pushing through no matter how dark it is
10:24it's kind of a proving ground for a lot of new tech um and we're looking at how we can apply that new
10:29tech um and sort of get in on it and get the get the jump on it before the the next potential major
10:34conflicts of the things that we know about um food sleep hygiene what has your life been like
10:45over the last nine days none of that really i mean i haven't showered in nine days sometimes i don't
10:52have time to brush my teeth which sounds pretty disgusting you know i'm used to eating
10:56food that's okay not getting really comfortable not getting really comfortable sleep but i think
11:04that's training us to get comfortable to the uncomfortable
11:09a little less than 12 hours ago and we were getting attacked in our patrol base at 1 a.m
11:1415 minutes into my sleep my turn to sleep and sometimes you kind of lose a sight a little bit but
11:23when you have like a purpose like that and you remember that if i wasn't there then somebody
11:29else might have been in that situation it keeps you going the reason why in the first place we were
11:36woken up um is because i think i had to do something with our security and keeping security up um and and
11:43just always staying prepared and and being ready for those tough situations um so yes it was an inconvenience
11:51and yes it did suck but it was teaching us a greater uh lesson to to stay um to stay vigilant
12:00when we do these things there's a lot of emphasis on kind of the physical aspect of it of carrying
12:05heavy weight and and going long distances but it's really the the mental kind of fortitude that you
12:11build from those experiences that that really stays with you so um i think that that is what builds our
12:16lethality right when you're physically degraded when you're carrying heavy gear and when you still have
12:22to perform a mission set that you can have the mental clarity to actually uh succeed uh and focus
12:27on what you have to do and i think cldt does that to a t all of a sudden we had to work with people who
12:32we hadn't worked with this entire time and of course all of us are low on sleep and we're all hungry and
12:38tired so trying to figure that out was a whole nother level of mental gymnastics and leadership
12:44because it's one thing to lead with the person that you were in the foxhole with for a week
12:50and it's another thing to have to suddenly leave with somebody brand new if you're the person that
12:55people are looking to if you stay motivated they will follow you um and so just just sticking it out
13:01gritting it out and getting through it was the best tool i had the toughest moment specifically over
13:07the last nine days one of the big things about cldt that's different than some of the other trainings
13:13is that we're doing things with actual real weaponry so not just these m4s that we're holding but
13:20light and heavy machine guns uh different kinds of explosives uh rocket launchers in some cases and
13:26so we had all that added weight on our backs i was carrying the m240 bravo up that hill at night
13:33under night vision goggles um for me that was a very physically taxing moment um at the time i was like
13:40no you just keep going uphill you don't know when it's going to end and i think for me the uh you
13:46know the good thing about it is that i didn't quit um i persevered and you know we got to the top we
13:50got to the ambush site um but i can't just stress enough how physically exhausting it is to carry that
13:57weapon system up a mountain up a hill and then to continue the mission afterwards because the mission
14:02isn't complete that's only like halfway there so i think that was probably the toughest moment for me on a
14:08physical example sir i think morale in the platoon is very high right now and i think that morale is
14:13a crucial aspect that often gets left out um physically we may be hurting uh we may be tired
14:19we may be hungry but uh as long as the spirit of the platoon is there and we're we're ready to go
14:24uh i think everyone will be ready and i know they are and how does cldt influence that spirit
14:34i think cldt influences that spirit because it puts you in situations in which morale is one of the only
14:41pieces that can pull you through teamwork is one of the only pieces that can pull you through um you know
14:46everyone here has been challenged on this detail in ways that we never have before and we've had to
14:52find things mechanisms other people to help us through it and so those shared experiences build
14:58that bond uh and and it builds that morale over time and so going into this crucible we all have a
15:05kind of shared picture we all know where we've come from and where we're going uh and and the the
15:11experience and and and the just the happiness and the fulfillment of the detail will definitely shine
15:16through we all do military training during the school year and we all take military classes that
15:28educate us on sort of the academic or intellectual portion of how to run these operations but in a
15:35practical sense when we're out here and we're running these missions we don't have any of the resources we
15:40have available in those classes or in those exercises we don't have army doctrine we have
15:46we have what we carried out with us and we have each other and i think that being able to fight when
15:52that's all you have you have to lean to the people the left and right of you and you have to rely on what
15:57you know and you have to realize that it's not going to be a hundred percent perfect every time but
16:01you can still get the mission done uh when conditions are scarce or whether it's nighttime when
16:05you're hungry when you're tired i think that really kind of builds the the warrior aspect of what we're
16:10trying to get here at clvt what did this training teach you that you had not learned until now
16:16you really have to understand every perspective and that's why you get put in every role whether
16:21it's a member of squad a squad leader a platoon sergeant or a platoon leader you have to understand
16:26the perspective of everybody in that platoon in that unit from the lowest member to the highest
16:31member what are they actually experiencing on a long movement in the middle of a night ambush
16:37how can i better their life and their ability to do their job as a leader that's what i learned most
16:44about um there's this perception or tends to be a perception on officers that they stay in the rear
16:50more direct and coordinate the battle but the way cadet leader development training works is that it puts
16:55you a future officer into the into the heat of the moment uh so that you you think quick on your feet
17:00as though you are ready so that you are more in tune with what your soldiers experience out on the
17:05front lines how did cldt change you as a soldier it changed the way i go about being a soldier in
17:18the way that it broadened my perspective when you're in those sucky moments and when the road marches
17:24along and you're hurting and all you can feel is the pain you start you start to kind of tunnel vision
17:32in on just myself like i'm gonna make it i'm gonna keep going i'm gonna keep fighting and you work so
17:37hard on motivating yourself but what i really learned is that the best way to kind of keep going is to
17:44actually look to the person next to you and check on them see how they're doing and cldt kind of demands
17:51out of everybody if you just tunnel vision and try to motivate yourself it sometimes could not be
17:57enough whereas if you work on motivating the team and the squad next to you it's enough to keep you guys
18:02going to the end of the objective or the mission why are you a better leader a better soldier because of
18:09cldt i'm a better leader and soldier and warrior because of cldt because it confirmed to me that my
18:18intrinsic motivation is unwavered by harsh conditions it's unwavered by by the the sleepiness and and the
18:27famine and just the wanting to relax for a second um you know none of that matters because my intrinsic
18:38motivation to uh defend those that are important to me and defend the country i love will outweigh all of
18:46it um i'm unapologetically patriotic and so when i'm sitting here and i'm going through these things
18:53and and i'm going through the moments of waking up at two three four in the morning
18:58and thinking why am i doing this all i have to tell myself is that someone out there across the globe
19:06is trying to hurt those that are important to me trying to hurt the country i love and i will not let
19:11them um and and so that mindset stayed the entirety cldt and i can't ever imagine a goalie you have 20
19:19people that are looking at you um in your every move to see how you're going to react to certain
19:24challenges uh and how you're going to help them get through the day um they're all looking at you sir
19:28so tell me how you overcame it based on what you learned here or what you learned at west point
19:32yes sir i think overall it's just embracing the opportunity um there's a leader in all of us and being
19:39able to to sit back understand what is going on for the day what you need from your subordinate
19:43leaders um and persevering through through whatever challenges there are um and utilizing those around
19:48you that's the biggest thing i think this teaches you teamwork um and it's gritty it is gritty for sure
19:54but it's gritty together i think that's what matters being actually responsible for those elements
20:00when they go on the attack you know being behind the gun being the one assaulting through the objective
20:05those skills are what we've been working on every single day every single night for the last
20:10nine days and so that immersion into the tactical world i think is the the biggest piece
20:20yeah i mean prior to cldt i've taken three years of military science courses which is a lot of just
20:25planning and was doctored but once you get out here in the field you're getting really hands-on
20:31getting time with hands-on of using the equipment and putting it into practice
20:37all 32 of us are tired and hungry and hurting um but the reason i think that we are prepared and
20:43there's nothing that's going to stop us is because i know that no matter what i'm going through i have
20:4931 other people around me who i can count on to push me through and that all 32 of us unanimously feel the
20:55same way um and so no matter how bad it gets no matter how uh sorry we feel for ourselves there's
21:0231 other people who are willing to pick you up and drag you all the way to the end um and so i just
21:06really can't see a way in which we're not prepared
21:08less point has put us through a 47 month experience of trials and tribulations that have
21:23cultivated to making us better people better leaders better people of characters um and
21:31this experience has just taught me that i'm capable of whatever i put my mind to you don't really get
21:38the satisfaction out of the easy paths like everything that i've looked back on in my
21:43experience at west point has very much been the stuff that has been the hardest has been the most
21:48fulfilling and the most worthwhile adapting to an entirely like new schedule where you're expected to
21:54act a certain way like we are disciplined as cadets but it's being tactically disciplined is a
22:00completely different realm that we don't get much experience in or like like they were saying like the
22:07lack of sleep like we don't eat very much like it's very hot all the time and it's just like
22:13planning planning planning half of things don't go the way we want them to and so it's just a massive
22:19like you need to learn how to adapt to change you need to learn how to like overcome when things don't
22:24go the way you want them to to still be successful at the end of the day like it's only gonna suck if you
22:30make it suck but if you have a positive attitude and a positive mindset it's not that bad um i think
22:37that my mind is stronger than than i i think or i thought it was right um we've been presented many
22:44scenarios missions and challenges here and every time i saw one i would say to myself there's no way
22:49i could do that no they woke me up after only sleeping two hours i said there's no way that i could go a
22:54whole day right now um but you know being put in the place in those situations and give being given
23:00the opportunity to push myself to that extent um really showed me that i am much more capable
23:06emotionally physically um than i give myself credit for the biggest lesson i learned is the importance
23:11of individual discipline i let my team down earlier when i fell asleep on the rifle while pulling security
23:17at night and uh there's so many things that you need to be individually responsible for when you're a
23:24soldier or when you're a leader so just physical fitness tactical discipline or even having like
23:31the right mindset and the right attitude and not pushing negativity on your peers they always say that
23:38the army is just a team sport i think learning how to be a good teammate and a good follower and a good
23:44leader um just in any situation you're put in kind of helps you in the future to where once you kind
23:50of gain the trust of your battle buddy then you guys can do a lot more than you can decay if i could
23:55come here and challenge myself i would develop not only academically but mentally physically morally
24:00militarily and i feel that um in coming here and doing these hard things and taking that hard path
24:06i'm developing myself more as a person um when you really sit down and look at it like all the hard
24:12challenges make you grow as a person and really make you look in deeper within yourself west point has
24:18taught me not to fear failure but to embrace it because you always end up growing and coming back a
24:27better version of yourself what is the value that clt teaches you more than any other if you can only
24:36speak of one value or trait or characteristic what would you pick and why i would say character sir i think
24:48it's truly a blessing to to suffer and in something that you choose to do it's it's the reason that
24:53we're all here so i think uh having this opportunity um to test your character when you're tired and when
24:59you're hungry uh and looking to those around you i think that's that's the whole deal here i would say
25:04adaptability sir because there's going to be a lot of different situations you find yourself in and you're
25:09not going to know how to react in every single scenario but you're going to have to adapt and overcome
25:13just be the teammate that you want the side to say the left into the right of you uh being a good
25:18teammate is picking up the heavy weapon system when you have the opportunity to pick up the lighter one
25:22or being the person that stays up late to help with the um the briefings because you want to be
25:27be there for for the people around you
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