Episode 75: How The National Training Center Turns Chaos Into Cohesion

Think the Mojave is just heat and hardship? It’s a teacher with a mean streak. We walk through the National Training Center from the first checklist to the final bus ride, translating real-world friction into practical steps you can use to build combat power, protect your people, and keep the mission moving. From the official packing list to the “real” one that keeps you functioning, we share field-proven gear, foot care, and small comforts that prevent big problems. Then we head into RSOI to cover Prepo yard truths, PMCS that actually sticks at turn-in, and the paperwork details that save you from owning someone else’s faults.

Crossing the berm flips the switch. We dig into how heat, cold, and dust degrade performance, why battery discipline and weapons maintenance matter more than you think, and how OPFOR punishes lazy tactics. Urban operations at Razizh, call-for-fire, casualty play, and convoy stress test everything from logistics to leadership. You’ll hear why there’s no magic trick to “beat the box,” just disciplined fundamentals, aggressive execution, and a team that knows its roles when chaos hits.

On the back end, regeneration brings accountability and relief. We map the cleaning, inspections, turn-ins, and AARs that bring a battered formation back to fighting shape—and the patience required when details pile up. By the time you’re counting gear for the last time, you’re carrying more than dust. You’re carrying tighter cohesion, sharper skills, and a shared story that builds better soldiers and better teams. If NTC is on your horizon, this guide will spare you avoidable pain and set your unit up to perform. Subscribe, share with your team, and drop your best NTC hack or hard-learned lesson in a review.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why NTC Matters
• 1:07 Episode Setup And Scope
• 2:10 Packing Lists That Actually Work
• 6:45 Comfort Items That Save Sanity
• 12:04 Food, Fuel, And Field Hacks
• 14:46 PCCs, PCIs, And Connex Loadout
• 15:44 Building Combat Power At RSOI
• 18:20 Prepo Yard Tips And PMCS Pitfalls
• 22:20 Dispatch, Comms, And MILES Setup
• 24:10 Crossing The Berm Into The Box
• 26:00 Heat, Cold, Dust, And Sleep Deprivation
• 28:30 OPFOR Reality Check And Urban Ops
• 32:30 Cohesion Through Shared Hardship
• 33:40 Exiting The Box And Bottlenecks

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

You have now survived NTC. Whether it's your first or 35th time, you've survived it, right? So you're gonna be bringing home some hard-learned lessons. Uh, you're gonna have tighter cohesion, and you're gonna have stories that you're gonna tell for years. And you're gonna every time you go to NTC, you're gonna be like, Well, my last time at NTC, or I've been to NTC so many times, you're gonna get the NTC gurus, right? Even if I've I've caught myself saying the same thing. Well, last time, or you're gonna catch someone saying, Oh, when you're in the box and we're navigating, they're gonna be like, Oh, that's where we are. Oh, yeah, I remember last time we went around this and other stuff. And you're gonna have those stories. So I say all that to say this. NTC isn't just like another training event, to be honest with you. It's kind of like a rite of passage, especially if you're in the BCT world. It's uh physically uh brutal, it's mentally draining, it's professionally demanding.

SPEAKER_01: 0:58

Roger Sarn!

SPEAKER_00: 1:07

Welcome back to the Roger Sarn Podcast where we talk all things army, and I'm your host, Sarn Cruz, and today we're talking NTC. Now, this is one of the most intense, unforgettable, but absolute necessary experiences that I think a soldier needs in their career, and that's the National Training Center, and this is in Fort Erwin, California. Now, if you've ever wondered what actually happens before you step into the Mojave Desert, because that's where it is, or how units build their combat power, or what the box actually feels like, or how you come back from NTC in one piece, this is the episode for you. So I'm gonna break down NTC from start to finish, from the prep phase and the packing, um, the combat power, the building combat power phase, the full rotation inside the box, and then the regen phase before heading home. So let's get into it. So, number one, you're gonna start by preparing before you even leave. So NTC in reality, in reality, it starts long before you hit your boots on ground or in the sand, if you will. So before you even get on the buses, before you even load these aircrafts, there's like real work that goes into the prep phase. So every soldier knows that uh the packing list is pretty much their lifeline. But experienced ones, ones the real ones who've been to NTC know that there's a real packing list. And this is gonna be the stuff that makes the actual rotation survivable. Now, don't get me wrong, there's always a general packing list, right? There's always going to be the packing list that you get either sent via email or on your text in the group chat, and for some reason, I don't know why, for some reason you guys just refuse to download it or save it, whatever it is. But there's an actual packing list, and then there's the packing list. Alright, so let's start off with your army issued essentials, right? There are no shortcuts to this. You're mainly gonna have a lot of your OCIE stuff, right? You're gonna have it cleaned and pre-checked. So when you get over there, because it's gonna get dirty, but you don't want to leave with stuff being dirty and then it gets sandy and dirtier, and now it's just wrecked, okay? Another thing that I would say that you need to do is you need to pack extra socks, extra boot laces, extra boots, and foot care. Okay, so how I pack is I pack for every day that I'm there, I have my shirt, I have a set of socks, a pair of socks, and then I have the underwear, and I'll roll all that in one. So every time I pull out my shirt, I'm pulling out a day's worth of stuff, or maybe two or three. I don't know, it all depends. But generally, I shower every couple days. Batteries. You're gonna need more batteries than what you think. Like when it comes to your headlamp, you're gonna use that the entire time. Someone's gonna forget batteries, someone's gonna go there without PMCS in their headlamp, and they're gonna have a trash headlamp, and you're gonna have to give them batteries, your battle, bro. They'll probably take a flashlight with the red lens, because red lens is huge, and that flashlight will probably be jacked up, so you'll probably have to use that. It's many things, right? You have one, two headlamps, however you do it. Make sure you take more batteries than what you need. Then you're gonna have your weapons cleaning kit, because a lot of units will wait till they get back, but once there's downtime and they start seeing you not doing too much, weapons cleaning is gonna be on the list. So just go ahead and get ahead of the eight ball and just go ahead and take your weapons cleaning kit with you. Another thing that's part of the OCIE that people overlook or they say, you know what, I really don't need it because we're in the desert, and that's your wet weather gear. Right? You're in the desert, but NTC itself will surprise you. And not only that, right? In our last rotation that we just got back in October, November, it rained for like four days straight. Rain stopped. I was like, I've never been on an NTC rotation that it rained, but it decided to rain. So a lot of people, including myself, I didn't have my wet weather gear. So I just had to thug it out. Another thing is you're gonna need your wet weather gear for when you're in the wash rack. Okay. And the next thing I would say towards OCIE stuff is have at least bare minimum four uniforms. And here's how this gets broken down, or how I break it down. I have a travel uniform, and then that travel uniform, I'm using it all throughout the the combat, building combat power phase until we get in the box. Once we're on our way to the box that day before, I'm already changing into my uniform that I have for the box. So it's gonna be a travel uniform, two box uniforms. So you're in there for two weeks. I use one for one week and one another week, and then I'll do a regen uniform. And while I'm doing my regen time, I'll wash my my first travel uniform and I'll use it to travel again, i.e., travel uniform. So four uniforms: one for travel and uh build comp combat power phase, two for the box, and then one for regen, and then recycle the first one. Okay. And then the last thing I'm gonna say is, and I didn't do this in any of the NTC rotations, so I was I've been in the uh CAV for five years, and in the five years, I've done four NTC rotations, and this rotation is the only rotation that I actually took a um light fighter tent with me. Take a light fighter tent. It's one, you can use it if you're in the in the box, but two, you can use it while you're in the Ruba because you sleep on the cot and people make the whole joke of tent inside a tent. Yeah, I get it, cool, whatever. But it's more for privacy. If you want to just lay down, you want to talk to your significant other without anyone looking and all that stuff, you want to watch something, no one's watching you, you want to scroll, no one's sitting there just in your stuff, or you just want to disconnect and you don't want to see nobody. And that's when you just get in your tent and you relax and you just be like, that's it. Okay. So another thing, some other things that you can take is like they're like small convenient items that's gonna pretty much save your sanity. And these are gonna be your baby wipes. You need baby wipes, I don't care. Don't be a nasty and not take baby wipes and say, I'm gonna thug it out, or I'm gonna just use bird bath and use my uh water source and just hit the hot spots. You can't hit the hot spots effectively. You you your butt cheeks will be like Velcro if you don't take no um baby wipes. I'm gonna tell you that right now. You're gonna need foot powder. You'll be surprised how many people, how their feet get so nasty, and then they can't do anything about it because they decided not to have any foot powder, so they're all moist and stuff. Because a lot of you guys are not gonna change your socks for some reason every day, and then all that moisture builds up, and now your feet are just all messed up. But if you have some foot powder to help you out, plus it keeps your feet from stinking badly. Your feet are gonna stink because you're wearing boots all day. But yeah, you're gonna need moleskin. Trust me on the moleskin. Before you leave, either order some on your own or go to your medics before you leave. Your medics is are gonna have some, but you're only gonna get it when you go to see them. And if you're not hurt inside the box, you're probably not gonna see your medics a lot. And a lot of times, medics, we just have excess moleskin, moleskin from 1989, and we're just trying to get rid of it. So do that. So have your headlamp, like I told you before, your headlamp is what you're gonna need. Not just not just a flashlight. Have a flashlight, but have your headlamp on top of that and take extra gloves. There's no way around it. I would say the majority of the time, you're gonna get fuel on your gloves. Unless you never freaking fuel your vehicle, you tell someone else to do it, or someone else is doing it for you, you're gonna need it. You're gonna run through gloves even without the fuel. This is just fuel. You're gonna run through gloves, your your fingertips are gonna get all uh messed up, so your fingertips will get exposed because you're just picking stuff up, dropping it, picking up like you're constantly moving, and you have to have your gloves on pretty much at all times. Take an extra set of gloves. The next thing I want to touch on are like food items that you need to pack because you're not always gonna have MREs all the time. And then on top of that, I'm not sure if you guys have seen it, but you've you've come to the website Army WTF and you've seen how people complain about not having MREs or whatever it is. It's gonna happen because the leg it's the whole operation is to stress systems, and sometimes the logistical side kind of takes the bigger burden, right? So make sure you pack a jet boil. Buy you a jet boil. If you're not gonna buy one personally, just split up the money in between your team, your squad, your platoon, however you want to do it, just get a jet boil. It's good for making food, it's good for the uh morning coffee, it's good for shaving if you want to shave in uh with with hot water. Get you a jet boil, and it'll it'll save your life. Get you beef jerky, I'll get you some protein bars, lots of protein bars, have your electrolyte packets, that's a must. Have a couple, not a couple, you can have up to a couple a day without like really not causing any significant issues with your body, but a lot of times you guys depend on the medics to have it, and you're not gonna see your medics all the time, you're not gonna go to your roll one all the time, so you're not always going to get any electrolytes from your medical personnel, so therefore take your own. And another thing that kind of saved my life when I was there were tortillas. I'm telling you, they are clutch, and on top of that, they survive in the heat better than bread. So you take your tortillas and you just either put uh peanut butter, peanut butter, and jelly. It doesn't matter, whatever it is that you want to eat, you can put ramen in them. I don't care. You put anything in a tortilla. So get you some a few packs of tortillas, and then uh you you're good. You sometimes, as you already know, these uh Maris come with it, some of them do, and some of them don't. And the ones that don't, you can just take the meal and just wrap it in there. Instant coffee pouches are clutch or instant coffee. Like when I went there, my dietitian, she had the whole time. Yeah, I think we we had to kind of like do three days without the instant coffee that she bought because it was they they were Starbucks, but we kind of replenished that with the instant coffee from the from the MREs, right? So have those instant coffee, whichever one you you use, just have it. Peanut butter, like I mentioned, is a s is a life saver. Those cliff bars, ramen noodles, staple. It is this a staple when you're in the box. Nothing hits better than a a pack of ramen noodles or two, however you do it. A pack of ramen noodles when you're in there. So take advantage of the connex pack out to get all your pogy bait in there. That's that's the bottom line of that. You have to, whatever you want to take with you. Some people, I've seen people take um, what are those called rice cookers because they have uh plugins, they got rice cookers, so they cook rice, cook their spam, cook their vegetables, like inside that rice cooker. So whatever it is that you want to take that you can't traditionally take in your uh what are you called, inside your inside your rucksack or or anything like that, you just put it in a tough box, put it in the connex, and then forget about it until you get there. So this kind of like is the phase in where leaders do like intense PCCs and PCIs, like they're nonstop. You kind of get to you you you're fighting to get all your itemized stuff on your 1750s that go into the connects, so you load them, you ship them, and you pray to the whatever it is that you pray to that the connects actually arrives at the same time that you do. So at this point, I'd say you've you've kind of already started NTC, you just haven't realized that you started it. So now we're gonna go to the second part, which is building combat power. So this is where your unit arrives and then they start putting the pieces back together. So you're gonna hit the Ruba and you're gonna go do the RSOI pro which is process, which is in process reception, something, and integration. Um, you're gonna draw all your equipment, your miles gear, whatever. I don't know why we still use that, but whatever, or that type, but I digress. Your miles gear, you're gonna get your vehicles. They're either gonna come from Yermo or they're gonna come from Prepo, whatever it is. You're gonna get your vehicles, you're gonna get all your comms, you're gonna get your weapons, and then for the next few days, all you're gonna hear is a whole bunch of generators just sounding off. You're gonna hear wrenches, and you're gonna hear people yelling for missing BII. For some reason, VII just happens to get lost. It's weird, but it happens, okay? So, as for you, what you're gonna be doing, you're gonna be doing a few things, right? If you're going to to the pre-po yard, then here are kind of like a few tips, right? First thing you want to do, you want to get your paperwork from your executive officer, your XO. And then if you're kind of a junior soldier, then you're gonna get it from your platoon sergeant, they're gonna give it to you. Then you're gonna take that paperwork, you're gonna go to the prepo yard. There's going to be a um kind of like a a box or a sign that's gonna have the the layout of the entire pre-po yard from the beginning all the way to the back, and it's gonna have vehicles by a nomenclature. So you have your JL TVs, your brads, your brads, your tracks. You're gonna have your wheel, so pretty much wheeled, tracks, and trailers, and then it'll have all the sustainer stuff too. So you look there and you see what your vehicle is by the number, and then you go find it. It's probably in Bravo 2, 15 vehicles down. So you go there, you find it. First thing you want to do is you want to do your PMCS. You're gonna do your PMCS. What I do is I do the PMCS and then I record the vehicle on my phone all the way through, all the way around. If there's any deficiencies, I'll notate them and I'll record them. So therefore, when I get back and it's time to go through the regen phase, and then I have kind of proof that it was like that. But another thing is if you sign for something and they don't they don't put their initials that that was like that, then it's on you to fix it. We will talk about that in a second. So we do that, then you go to the to the little kiosk, she's gonna give you the paperwork, and then you're gonna go to the back, you're gonna go get signed off on your radio stuff, then you're gonna go on the test ride. While you're doing your test ride, your road test, you're gonna be looking for any deficiencies within the vehicle because that's your during phase of the PMCS. And then when you're done, make sure you look at your flu fluid levels because your fluid levels, like with me, I I went, I got turned back, I had a pre-post, or I got turned back on the regen phase to the Rufma and the inspection twice for having too much oil. And that was because after the test, after the road test, you're gonna levels, your oil levels rise a little bit. So, therefore, make sure that you do the after as well. That's my point. Then after you do that, you're gonna go get it dispatched through your unit or battalion and make sure you have the proper nomenclature. If you have a winch on it, make sure you have winch on your license. If you have an A1, A2, whatever it is, make sure that's on your license. It's this specific vehicle. So make sure that happens. And then you just take the vehicle, and you're still at this point, you're gonna have to test your radios, zero weapons, or zero that little dang it, or you're gonna zero the I don't know why I'm drawing a blank. But on your M4s, you have your weapon, and then you have that little miles gear in the front, which I can't, the laser. Oh my god. You're gonna zero the laser. A lot of units don't even do that anymore. Um, but a lot of times you're gonna zero that. But the real zeroing goes for the track vehicles, the uh M1s, the tanks, and the Brads. They're gonna do their their their zeroing and stuff for when live fire comes. And then you're gonna fix vehicles that are all of a sudden broken during transport. You're gonna notice something's going on, and you're gonna um have to fix that before you get there. You're gonna make sure that your your your logistics uh tracking is set, and make sure you're gonna rehearse for the mission and you'll get all this stuff, you'll see it. This is also where leadership stress level hit on a thousand. I want to say level 10, but level 1000. Because like there's a small window, the clock is already ticking. So, because once you cross that berm, once you get into the box, you're expected to perform like a fully operational unit, like no excuses. So the combat the building combat power is about getting ready for the fight before the fight even starts. Number three, training in the in in the box, which is the Mojave Desert. If you've never been to the Mojave Desert, that's your welcome. Fort Early, California. This is where the real NTC begins, right? Once you cross the berm, once you see the sign that says The box, you're in a completely different world. Like the box is the army's toughest, largest training environment, I think, in my opinion, that a soldier can go to. And I think it's a fact, to be honest with you. And yeah, lastly, about this. You cannot have your phone. You're gonna get so upset because they're gonna have exceptions to people like the top five, your first sergeants. You're gonna see people, your PAs maybe have them. Some people are gonna have their phones and they're gonna give you all these excuses. Oh, because then you'll have a digital footprint and they can hone in on you and figure out where you are. All that excuses is because they don't want you sidetracked. That's my opinion, right? You can't have your phone in there. So get over it as soon as you get there. Tell your family, tell your loved ones, your friends, whatever it is, let them know from this date, because the box has 10 days or a certain amount of days, right? 14 days. From this date, let's say the 13th, the 3rd to the 17th, I will not have access to my phone. That's it. Just do it. Get over it quick. So I digress. So what actually makes the box bruder things like the desert heat in the daytime? It's gonna be super hot, uncomfortable. You're gonna be having to break down stuff, set up stuff, move stuff. You're gonna be moving. Some of you guys are gonna be chugging along because you guys are light. And then in the evening, all that's gonna change like that. It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be windy, it's gonna be annoying. You're gonna have to sleep in your sleeping bag, completely in your sleeping bag, if that's how you do it. Tankers, you guys and your tanks, blah, blah, blah. Um, and yeah, the things that's the number one thing that makes kind of like the desert really challenging. And then there's gonna be dust that gets into like every pore of your being, even in your weapon. So it's gonna get into every pore of you, you're gonna get your M4, you're gonna or your M17, whatever it is that you carry. As soon as you pull, like you try and rack it or whatever it is, you're gonna hear the dust in it. It's just there, it's just dust. You're not gonna escape that. And then your uniform is gonna feel all heavy because you're sweaty, and then it it keeps the dust on it, blah, blah, blah. So the dust. And then on top of that, you got the op four, which the op four is kind of like the best opposing force because in the army because they know everything that you know. They do this time and time and time again. Every single month they do this, they've seen every strategy. There's no way to really, really beat the box. There's just the best strategy for beating the box, something that they've never seen or something that they've seen, but you are just aggressive with it. There, I you can't convince me that you're that you can beat it. That there's no there's it's just really to check and see if you guys have actually done your your research and you guys have done your collective training. Then on top of that, you got the constant movement I'm talking about. Day, night, you're gonna feel like you're you're sleep deprived. And then, especially if you work night shift, like I've always done night shift because I am at the uh I'm at a brigade level, I'm on staff, so it's my it's only three people in my section, which is myself, my meadow, and then my brigade surgeon. So who's gonna take the night shift other than the NCO? That's me, right? So I take the night shift, and then in the daytime, I still gotta drive, I still gotta move stuff, I still gotta do it, operate on a regular basis, but it's just whenever it's a la carte. So maybe they may not say nothing at 7 o'clock that we're moving in the set at 07 that we're moving. Or we are, who knows? But in reality, the chaos of real mission sets and it stresses you out, right? So that's the bottom line of that. And then the next thing, it's like the types of stress that you'll more likely encounter in NTC are mainly these. There are gonna be force-on-force battles, they're gonna be call-for-fires, they're gonna be casualty simulations, logistical disruptions, convoy operations, you're gonna have to worry about the defense and the offense. And then on top of that, the last thing, the last thing, which is the center. This is kind of like the star of everything, which is your urban operations at Razizh. That is kind of like you're gonna go through Rezizh regardless. So that's kind of like a town that has it's all built up, and these people who are there, the actors, they literally do that for a living, so they get into their role. But the box itself is kind of designed to break your bad habits and break them fast. You learn what you're good at and what you're not good at. Easy, like immediately. Another thing is that when you're at NTC, this is where you and your soldiers, you're gonna bond. And this is all created through suffering. In other words, as we call it, trauma bond. You're gonna remember moments kind of like eating an MRI in the dark. You're gonna remember moments kind of like trying to sleep on rocks. You're gonna remember moments kind of like losing track of what day it is, like no one even knows what day it is. We don't even go by dates, we go by day one, two, three, and four. You're gonna remember waking up to like movement orders, and you're gonna swear that you just went to sleep like 20 minutes ago. And it was probably like three, four hours ago. But in my opinion, this is also where the unit grows the most in reality in the box. So now let's move into number four, which is the regen phase or regeneration phase. Hadly. So once you finish your final mission and exit the box, you're now entering the regen phase. And this is the phase where the unit brings itself back up to fighting shape. So another thing when it comes to that getting out the box thing that I it is a bitch and a half. I remember this this this uh this this rotation, we didn't do it, but I remember once we done, once we're told we're leaving the box, we went to FOB Miami, they've done their live fire, whatever it is. We go stop at Wales Gaps and Columns and Chalks, and then they let you go by 15, 20 minutes, whatever it is. And then when it's time to get on the Ruba or into Fort Irwin, it is just a bottleneck because now you gotta throw away all your trash and stuff like that. So that takes up to like five hours. But they didn't do that this time, they just threw us in chalks and it was super seamless. Shout out to uh blackjack for that. But what does this phase include? Well, it includes your weapon cleaning, it includes your PMCS's on every vehicle, whether it's prepo or home station, you're gonna PMCS those vehicles. Now, prepo is the worst of the worst. I can I can make a whole separate video alone on just prepo. Just know if you accepted a vehicle in a certain way and it's not up to par when you take it back. You can argue to your blue in the face with that that person that's checking you off, but you're gonna have to fix it. That's it. You they're gonna tell you you shouldn't have accepted it that way. You're gonna do that. At this point, you're gonna be recovering any damage equipment that you left in the box or any damage equipment that you have. You're gonna be resetting tactical gear, you're gonna be final AARs are gonna happen. You're gonna be reorganizing, reorganizing your supplies, you're gonna be turning in your equipment. And a notable mention to this part of the phase is that once you, how do I say it? Once you get everything done, because you know how the army is, we have to leave everything better than when we got it. So you're gonna be cleaning the motor pool, cleaning the roof muff, cleaning the Aruba itself. But here's where all the silly details start. Because why not, right? Why not do it? I'm gonna tell you, you will be surprised things that come up when soldiers are laying around. And this is a great, I typically like to keep my videos minus my personal opinion, but this is something that really grinds my gears. So if you for two weeks, let's say for instance, your regen, um your build combat phase and your regen phase, you've been allowing soldiers to cross streets and all that stuff, then all of a sudden, because there's nothing to do, you've you've shipped all your vehicles, you've driven them down to your mo, you've done whatever, now all of a sudden you got crossing guards. You got a whole detail for crossing guards. Okay you have a whole detail for standing at the motor pool making sure no one throws anything. Well, you have a whole detail. Well, this is I can get this, but you have a whole detail at the latrines because you're gonna have your phantom shitter. I don't know why this happens, but it's happened multiple rotations that I've been on at least. I can't. But my point is you're gonna have detail for the detail for the detail, because in the military we cannot see Joe just sitting down. And then it is what it is. So I'll say that one to gripe about it, but two, so you can be mentally prepared if you are a junior enlisted, that you will be you will be doing silly details when there is nothing to do. That's what I want you to understand, like fully grasp that because at this point, the chaos, it kind of starts to slow down. You can finally exhale, you're exhausted, you're filthy. I don't know why I said filthy. You're filthy, but I can certainly say you're more than likely sharper than when you came, than when you first arrived, right? So regeneration is where you look back and say, damn, we really did that. That's how y'all say it, we really did that. So, number five, you're gonna be preparing to go back home. And this right here is the final phase, is basically the reverse prep prep. Yeah, the reverse prep, but with the mental relief of knowing that your next stop is home. So at this point, you're gonna pack the connexes and you're gonna have connex si guard, which is you, you you know what SI guard is. Sensitive equipment. Did I just say SE guard? You're gonna have SI guard. It says sensitive equipment. But this is where you're gonna watch your radios, your weapons that are inside of connex, and you're gonna have again back to the well, that's not a dumb thing, but it's can be avoided. But uh, I digress. You're gonna have you're gonna pack the connexes, you're gonna guard the connects, you're gonna turn in all your equipment, you're gonna clean all the weapons until they're like shiny, shiny, whether it takes one hour or eight, you're gonna clean all the miles gear, you're gonna clean anything that they gave you, you're gonna clean it back. Some, like I said, some units will wait for the weapons until you get back, but at some point you're gonna clean them, but here you can't. And then once it's time for you to go, you're gonna reverse out reverse, you're gonna out process the installation through your um ADAG. Then you're gonna load the buses, you're gonna count gear, you're gonna count personnel, you're gonna count again, you're gonna count again, you're gonna count again, and then you wait. And then you're gonna wait again. And then you're gonna go to March and you're gonna wait again. Then you're gonna get on the airplanes and then you're gonna wait again. In my rotation this time, we flew into Austin, took a bus back, and then we were back home. A lot of times, this is the only one that I've ever flown into Austin, but a lot of times you'll fly right into clean. But once you're on the road or once you're in the air and you're heading back home, it hits you. You have now survived NTC. Whether it's your first or 35th time, you've survived it, right? So you're gonna be bringing home some hard-learned lessons. Uh, you're gonna have tighter cohesion, and you're gonna have stories that you're gonna tell for years. And you're gonna, every time you go to NTC, you're gonna be like, Well, my last time at NTC, or I've been to NTC so many times, you're gonna get the NTC gurus, right? Even if I've I've caught myself saying the same thing. Well, last time, or you're gonna catch someone saying, Oh, when you're in the box and we're navigating, they're gonna be like, Oh, that's where we are. Oh, yeah, I remember last time we went around this and all that stuff, and you and you're gonna have those stories. So I say all that to say this. TC isn't just like another training event, to be honest with you. It's kind of like a rite of passage, especially if you're in the BCT world. It's uh physically uh brutal, it's mentally draining, it's professionally demanding, but it makes you a better soldier, a better leader, and it creates better teams. I hope my breakdown gave you an insight to what it looks like, to what it really is to go to NTC, to really go through a full rotation from the prep phase to the building combat power phase to the grind that's inside the box to the regen phase and then the final push home. If you're heading to NTC soon, good luck and go prepared. And if you've been there before, then you already know the deal. And always remember you don't have to embrace the sub if you got the right tools in your ruck. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. I'm Sarn Cruz, and I'll catch you in the next one. Peace.