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