Leader's Training Course

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Familiarity with training helps lieutenant be better mentor

Posted on June 24, 2011 by PAO

Second Lt. Anthony Mamunes speaks Thursday to his Cadets in the third platoon of Alpha Company about their progress during the Leader's Training Course. Photo by Sammy Jo Hester LTC/PAO

By Sara Nahrwold
Staff writer

After he went through the Forest Hills Climbing Complex, more commonly known as Where Eagles Dare, 2nd Lt. Anthony Mamunes was ready to assist his Cadets in every way possible as they prepared to ascend the 35-foot tall high ropes course.

“I really think it’s important that they feel confident,” he said. “It’s tough to be someone on the ground telling them that it’s OK and what to do if you’ve never been through it yourself. So I really think the cadre here have us go through it so that we can better help the Cadets and mentor them through the different obstacles.”

Mamunes is a squad tactical officer with Alpha Company, one of about 20 per company. They go through all the training the Cadets will do at the Leader’s Training Course before the Cadets arrive. Having already done it, they understand the mental and physical challenges of each training sites.

But the long work days — from pre-sunrise to post-sunset — are tougher than going through all the training, he said.

“It’s pretty much you wake up with the Cadets and you go to sleep when the Cadets go to sleep,” he said.

The long hours enhance the teamwork and communication of the squad tactical officers throughout the course as leaders of the Cadets.

“We always got each other’s backs, and that’s our entire platoon’s STOs,” said 2nd Lieutenant Ryan Miller, a fellow squad tactical officer with Alpha Company. “We have long days, but we still enjoy it because of the people we are working with. We push each other and motivate each other.”

Besides being out in the field with Cadets, STOs are responsible for a lot of paperwork. But result of their work, they say, is rewarding.

“We do assessments where we get to counsel them on their strengths and weaknesses in order to make them better Cadets,” Mamunes said.

His dedication to his Cadets is seen through his interactions every day, Miller said.

“He talks with the Cadets a lot and gets himself involved,” Miller said. “He’s always out here with his Cadets.”

One of the aspects of the job he looks forward to every day is being a mentor.

“I really like interacting with the Cadets and they come to me with their problems and its really cool to connect with people like that,” Mamunes said. “I think that really helps us in terms of interacting and working with non-commissioned officers, which we’re going to be doing in our units once we get there. So I think it kind of opens up on that kind of relationship you have to have.”

This is Mamunes’s first year as member of the LTC cadre, just commissioned in late-May from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

As a new member of the Army, working with NCOs will benefit him during LTC and into his future.

“We get to work with an NCO and see how that dynamic relationship works between second lieutenant and NCO,” the Baltimore native said.

If given the chance, Mamunes said he would participate in LTC again as a cadre member.

“It’s a great job, and I totally recommend anyone who commissions to check that box for LTC and come here and be a STO,” he said.

‘Big brother’ has new family to watch over

Posted on June 21, 2011 by PAO

Staff Sgt. Brian Poe Jr., a drill sergeant with Bravo Company, instructs his platoon on the proper way to roll their pants during periods of extreme heat. Photo by Sammy Jo Hester LTC/PAO

By Noelle Wiehe
Staff Writer

Family has always been important to Staff Sgt. Brian Poe, Jr., but the role of big brother takes on a whole new meaning as he spends his first year as a drill sergeant for the Leader’s Training Course.

“The Army is my new family,” said Poe, of Pensacola, Fla.

Serving in the Army wasn’t a tradition in Poe’s family, but he does have family in the service. His father is a retired airman, and he has several uncles and a grandfather who served in the Navy.

They are all proud of Poe’s choice to serve his country through military service, even though each would have rather him follow in their footsteps.

“I liked the structure, the organization (of the Army),” Poe said.

Poe is the eldest of four children. His mother, who he says he got the most discipline from, was a single parent and when she died in 2009, Poe, 26, took it upon himself to care of his three siblings. Back home in Florida, he lives with his 20-year-old brother and his 18-year-old sister who just graduated from high school. His 24-year-old sister lives with her son in Mississippi, and Poe is a father figure to his nephew.

Being away from home hasn’t made Poe lose his protective quality; now he watches over the fourth platoon of Bravo Company Cadets at LTC.

“I enjoy training, mentoring and taking care of Soldiers,” he said.

More than just protective, he is also proud of the Cadets in his platoon, saying he thinks they are the best platoon when it comes to competitiveness and that he can tell they are motivated to do well in the course.

He even slipped in the fact that one of his Cadets had the fastest running time in the company’s PT assessment Monday.

“I can tell who wants to be here,” he said.

Poe has been “doing the military full-time, on and off,” he said. He graduated in 2003 from J.M. Tate High School in Cantonment, Fla., and immediately began ROTC, enlisting at the same time. He attended college until 2004, when he was deployed to Iraq for a year.

When he returned, he didn’t return to ROTC. He became an instructor at Camp Shelby in Mississippi, working on the training lanes as an observer controller. In 2009, Poe, a Reservist, was promoted to staff sergeant and this year, he was asked if he wanted to train troops. So he headed to drill sergeant’s school and graduated in March.

“I’ll go anywhere Uncle Sam needs me,” he said. “If I could go into active duty I would, but I guess the Army is saying it’s not my time yet.”

Poe loves being part of the Army so much, when his current Reserve enlistment expires next year, he will accept an indefinite re-enlistment and “stay until Uncle Sam kicks me out,” he said.

Poe has come a long way from shooting basketball from sun-up to sun down with his siblings and the neighborhood kids in Florida. Now he is dedicated to keeping Cadets in his platoon motivated every day.

One of those Cadets is Robert Turner of Alabama A&M University, who’s only struggle is completing the two-mile run in his allotted time. His time for the mile — the distance for the diagnostic test — was eight minutes, 36 seconds.

“Poe, he’s a real good motivator,” Turner said. “I think I have the best drill sergeants at LTC out of the four platoons.”

At the initial PT assessment, Poe ran alongside Turner on the final stretch of their run, yelling to Turner not to give up.

“I won’t give up on you, so don’t give up on me,” Poe said.

Turner was met at the final few yards by four other Cadets in his platoon, who also ran alongside him also to the finish.

“He told me to make sure he doesn’t give up, and I told him I won’t give up on him,” Poe said, “I won’t let him give up.”

Poe sees considerable potential in the members of his platoon and knows they can meet the expectations. He is their trainer, coach, mentor and, in a sense, their “big brother.”

“I am not hard on them, but I am not easy on them,” he said. “I’m pretty much the rhyme, like rhythm and rhyme. You can’t have one without the other. When you put us together, we get things done.”

Carpenter crafting stories of his own as cadre member

Posted on June 18, 2011 by PAO

Second Lt. Dan Carpenter poses for a portrait at the Forrest Hills Climbing Complex. Photo by Sammy Jo Hester/LTC PAO

By Caitlin VanOverberghe
Staff writer

Second Lt. Daniel Carpenter remembers being a child, sitting at barbeques at his family’s home in Italy and listening to stories told by his father and his fellow Soldiers.

It was those accounts of things they had done and experienced in the military that led Carpenter to consider an Army career himself.

“I wanted to be like my dad,” he said. “I wanted to have these cool stories.”

Carpenter is beginning to collect his own stories as a staff member of the Leader’s Training Course Leadership Development Committee this summer. The committee is charged with training company cadre on assessing Cadet performance.

After Carpenter’s family returned to the States from overseas, he completed high school in Maryland, where his father was stationed at Fort Meade. At his father’s urging after graduation, Carpenter started taking classes at a community college and later transferred to the University of Maryland to study criminal justice.

One day, he stopped by the ROTC office.

After a couple questions and a high score on a physical fitness test, he was soon on his way to the Leader’s Training Course — and the beginning of his military life.

Excited and apprehensive, Carpenter gathered some of his father’s old gear, ordered a pair of boots off eBay and started training on his own at home. He filled an old rucksack with a plastic bag of dirt – later realizing it was close to 70 pounds when it should’ve only been 35 pounds – and started marching.

“I thought it would be easy – no big deal,” he said. “I made it like a mile before my feet turned into hamburger because the boots weren’t broken in.”

The extra practice did give him a leg up on the other Cadets, he said.

Carpenter’s father was able to give him a few tips about life in the barracks – roll your clothes to save space and wake up early to shave so you aren’t fighting for space in the bathroom.

While LTC was his first military experience, Carpenter stood out. But not always for the right reasons.

He remembers doing countless push-ups for being sarcastic and for once falling asleep on a dryer in the barracks during fire guard duty. Despite that, he was also placed into a few leadership positions, such as squad leader.

“Daniel, like all extraverts, displays great confidence and openness,” said 2nd Lt. Alan Chang, who met Carpenter at LTC two years ago. The two continued their friendship at the University of Maryland in ROTC.

“If you need someone’s honest opinion or answer on a subject at hand, he will tell you without regrets — even to a colonel. If he gets called on and does not know the answer, he will say so.”

Overcoming physical challenges came naturally to Carpenter, who described his experience at the course as a 29-day summer camp.

“It’s designed for people who like this kind of stuff. People who want to go places, people who are ambitious,” he said. “I was doing things that some people never get to do in their lives. It was awesome.”

The hardest thing for Carpenter at LTC, besides the classes – he and a friend used to punch each other to stay awake – was dealing with his fear of heights. The 51-foot tall rappel tower scared him the most. In his mind, if something went wrong, he had no time to correct before hitting the ground.

“Once I did it, it was the most fun I had in all of LTC,” he said. “I went up there so many times that they actually told me that I couldn’t go up anymore. You’re only supposed to do it twice, and I did it six or seven times. Conquering your fears is something that they make you do here.”

Carpenter returned to school and decided to commission. At the commissioning ceremony this spring, his father administered the oath of office. Some of the Soldiers who swapped stories with his father back in Italy gifted Carpenter his dad’s old Calvary saber.

“I asked him one time why he wanted to be a officer in the military,” Chang said. “He answered, ‘To lead and care for my Soldiers.’ Working with him in ROTC, I get to see many of his discussions involved in caring for our fellow Cadets. Daniel, although an officer, instead of watching his platoon doing PT in the rain and cold, will be pushing it out with them.”