Passing IUW
 

I'm about tell you what you already know; even after reading this 40% of you won't do what you know is right, and consequently you will fail IUW.

There is no magic answer or hidden secert to uncover. Go train your ass off, eat right, stay out of the night life and hydrate. If you do this you will pass IUW with flying colors. I saw a lot of bright and physically fit guys who didn't do what they knew they should of and they washed out.

It's no secret here is what you will be tested on:

-APFT
(17-21 age bracket) Must score an over all 270 with a minimum of 90% in each event.
-Five mile run
forty minutes or less
-Rope climb
30 foot rope climb
-Pull up test
must complete seven pull ups (dead hang)
-Swim test
full uniform 50 meters
-12 mile ruck
Ruck weight 45 LBS dry, must complete in 3 hours or less
-Land Navigation
Must find 5/5 first day to receive a go or 7/10 between day one and day two. You will be give ten hours to complete the course.

Some of you are already saying whatever no big deal I'm the man, blah blah blah...
When I started IUW we had 13 guys in our squad at the end of all our gates we had five left. All the guys who failed where the man too. Here are some examples of guys failing out.


Didn't eat before the 12 mile, failed because legs cramped up.
Didn't hydrate before 5 mile run, almost passed out due to dehydration.
Didn't train hard enough, ran out of gas on hour eight of the land navigation course.
Didn't test themselves prior to AFPT, just assumed they where good, failed push ups.
Didn't work on pull ups' assumed they where a bad ass, faild because of dead hang.

Bottom line, train your ass off and stay dedicated to the course and you'll be fine. Anything short of that and you'll be out of the course.

Well said.

And dedicate yourself totally to succeeding.

No half-measures.

TR

Everything above is good stuff. I'll add a note about the 12-miler. I highly recommend doing a full dress rehearsal prior to the event and make certain you are under 2:45. I did a diagnostic 12-miler on my own (on a hilly, albeit paved, course) in 2:41 about four weeks before the record event and I was confident. However, for whatever reason, I seriously sucked ass and I barely passed with at 2:57. Others' experiences were similar; in fact, there were quite a few folks behind me (not counting those who failed) and I think the majority of the class had times greater than 2:50. There is nothing particularly hard about the course they use but just make sure you make room for that margin of error/performance or you'll be out of the game.

Regarding land navigation, apparently this has to be stated explicitly: BRING A FREAKING MAP CASE AND TIE IT DOWN. Stuffing a map into a ziploc bag is the wrong answer. That is a recipe for losing your map while hacking through heavy vegetation. I have no idea how people manage to screw up this simple stuff, but it happens.

edit: When you do the 12-miler you will step off with six quarts of water, your FLC, and a dummy weapon. Add that all up and it's around 70 lbs. Plan and train accordingly.

I haven't had a new guy on my team for a while so what the heck is IUW?

I'm retired and have the same question. Appears to be the first week of selection?

It's phase 1 of the Q (Introduction to Unconventional Warfare).

What is IUW?
 

Introduction to Unconventional Warfare (IUW) is the first phase of SFQC. The title of the course is deceiving; you don't really end up learning much about UW in IUW.

The course is six weeks long, you start by completing a packet on yourself (mostly admin data). Once complete you'll go into your gates (see orginal post), then your tasked out to Robin Sage acting as a guerrilla for the SF students going through Robin Sage. After that you'll receive briefings on everything from SF attributes, nutrition, different types of UW, chaplain's briefing, FRG......... Then you go onto your next phase of training.

I'm not sure how long ago IUW was introduced into the pipe line, somewhere around two to maybe three years ago.

IUW is foreign to me as well.

It is, I am assuming, a gut check designed to ensure that Soldiers already selected at SFAS are ready to begin the Q-Course. Am I tracking?

Your right on track.

Sounds like a good way to weed out the losers.

I agree. For some Soldiers, a lot of time passes between SFAS and beginning the SFQC. This additional gate keeps them focused.

IUW sounds like a good annual event for the teams, IMO.

Great idea.....not! Those who have been in SF more than a few years will remember the annual "certification" or "validation" mandated by SF Command back in the late 80s / early 90s.

Real fun that was. :rolleyes:

I didn't say anything about mandating from higher. You could even tailor standards for those who are old / broke.

It sounds fun to me.

Back when
 

Back when Robin Sage was a post support detail it was one of the more fun gigs to get if you were SF.

Half our A Team ended up in the same G Band one time. Kinda' hard on the Student Team and exposed the weak map and compass work of more than one of them.

Everything is good training and woods time is never lost but I think ......

You didn't enjoy the completely meaningless 22 milers? :D

I think where SF got screwed was when they made it a CMF and the West Pointers started experimenting with training recipes.

IMA got screwed over, too.

(Not trying to start a heated debate, here; just my opinion. No need to put me on hiatus from future filming.

I recall IUW being mostly hazing, PT, land nav (although different than Hoffman it is more difficult in it's own way), and grandiose speeches by the less professional members of the SFQC cadre. No issue with the gut check, land nav, gates, or PT of course. As stated it has been awhile from selection to Q Course for some of the students and it weeds out some weak or faint hearted.

However, the attitude and actions of that particular group of cadre has left a sore mark with me to this day. We must endeavor as a regiment to present ourselves as quiet professionals to everyone, including our students / future team mates.

I do hope that has changed as it is true first impression of the SF Soldier for many of the students.

When we swam I'm pretty sure we did it with LBE and rubber weapons too.

Those 7 pullups have to go along with the rope climb or no women are going to make it........

All this crap about "Nutrition". How about one maybe two C-Rations a day for 4 weeks? Sometimes if you fxxked up, your TAC would give you the wrong coordinates to find your next meal? How about cooking a goat so old, after 8 hours of cooking, it was like eating a boot? Nutrition? Never heard of it.

After being a point sitter for the IUW land navigation detail I can attest to "Didn't train hard enough, ran out of gas on hour eight of the land navigation course." Around hour seven or eight students would come by my point moving like snails, nothing left, no fight left in them. On the truck ride back to camp a couple of guys stated that they just gave up.

I hear ya, Mark
 

Phase I in '69. Hey, you forgot about the chickens quick-cooked under a #10 can. The goat "jerky" was a hoot!

We had a guy do night land Nav, come walking in in daylight to our formation, day land nav. He comes in and tells the cadre that he was "forced up a tree by wild dogs and could not move all night". Cadre asked if he was OK, he said "Yes". The cadre then handed him his next nav points, he quit on the spot.

Made us all smile, well, what was left of us....... ;)

"THE WILD DOG'S of CAMP MacKALL"
 

WHAT DID HE EXPECT ? A FREE PASS OR A TIME OUT???? HOW DID HE GET THAT FAR IN THE ARMY WITH HIS MENTAL Thought Process???? Tom Kelly

The Wild Dogs of Camp Mackall
 

Actually, the dogs of the Hoffman triangle.

When I was out there, the cadre told us that we were forbidden to use our star clusters as anti-dog missiles. I don't know whether it's true or not, but we were told that a student had gotten treed to the northwest of Bones Fork (he had crossed into the pasture there) and had used his star cluster to shoot the dog. They thought that was a bad idea. Of course, they also told us that there was a draw monster out there and that the prison was a girl's reform school, so . . .

I'm an idiot. Comment deleted.

Can you say ....Melinial. :D

You're not in the course to pass out tips........

Let the students pass on their own terms.

Trust me , you don't want us to find you.