Troops Into Transportation

Alright guys, finally started my formal training today with the Troops into transportation program in Fort Benning , Ga. I am set to retire from the military after 24 years as an armor crewman “tank driver, loader, gunner , commander” this April. And am looking forward to the new chapter in life. I registered for stage school last month and it’s all getting funded through the gi bill. In doing research , most companies who do tuition repayment will will pay me back the tuition even though it didn’t come out of my pocket. Which is pretty cool. The program is the 180 hours course and should be able to leave with all my endorsements, and lifetime refresher training if needed The school representatives made all the paperwork easy and painless. Once I signed up all I had to do was study up the “high road program “ from this site, and the school provided pre course materials. (IMO the “high road “is definitely more user friendly and provides a lot more detail. cudos to Brett And any other creators) and wait for my class date. Day 1 started today at 1300. I arrived 15 minutes early , ready to get started. The instructor told me to sign in and find the seat that had my name on it. As I moved to sign in he said “hey I know you! Remember me from @&$& unit in Iraq” Sure enough , we had served together , chewed the same dirt, and rolled down the same neighborhoods in Iraq back in 06. That helped alleviate some of the tension I had been feeling to break the ice (i realize that most aren’t going to be that fortunate” So I set down at my seat and was provided a a few folders and training materials, everything was set out in a neat and orderly manner. Once class started we had an inbrief, powerpoint, groundrules, etc. what we should and shouldn’t expect out of our training. All this took about an hour. Next from 2pm to 5pm we started taking general knowledge practice exams. Consisted of 50 questions, get graded, review, grab a different book, repeat. We were given a 30 minute break and continued the practice testing until 7pm.

I will say that after going through the high road I am pretty confident and missed very few questions on 8 different practice exams. And the ones I did miss was from speeding and getting ****y (SPEED KILLS) I suppose this is a good time to learn that before my foot touches an accelerator.

This has been a long first post , so thanks to anyone who stuck around to read it! I’m sure it will get more interesting as time goes buy!

Best of luck to ya! That's really cool that you ran into a former soldier that you worked with before. Thanks for sharing your diary with us. This one has a special appeal for former military personnel.

Thank you for your service! Your service is much appreciated. I think thats amazing you got to see someone you served with and are able to work with him again in this training phase. I just got done with training with a mentor and although its not exactly the same I went to a private school too and there was a ton to learn but I still got by and successfully got my CDL. Your very fortunate that you found this before starting school cause I did not have that luxury since I did not know of this site before going. At least to what I remember. I cannot wait to see your progress!

Day 2 started at 0800.

Few more powerpoints. Air brakes and combination.

Quizzes all day. My eyes are starting to cross lol

Something I forgot to put earlier, but put the comment in Deans diary. If you go this route, and I’m not sure if they do this for other cdl schools or not. If they have you fill out the blanket application form that they are gonna send to all the different companies, it’s a good idea to create a separate email address or at least not use your primary one. I filled my application out around 5:30 pm yesterday and started getting a bunch calls and emails today.

Passes my permit exams today. Was relatively easy. I had to go to a different dmv than the rest of my class because the school I am taking is in Georgia and I live in Alabama.

The good thing about Alabama is that if you fail something you don’t have to wait . You can go over what you messed up and retake it once without pulling another number and if you mess up again you have to pull a number and wait to be called again but you don’t have to wait till the next day.

I passed the basics and got the tanker endorsement as well . I tried the doubles and triples but hadn’t really been studying. Thought I would roll the dice , no harm no foul. I will get that and my hazmat the next time I go to the dmv. I think tomorrow and Monday we have all the mandatory classes then we get to start the fun stuff with almost 3 full weeks on the driving range.

The reason I like this program is that I am still in the army receiving my normal pay, so I can get the training and not have to worry about the training it as much.

So far the instruction has been great. The instructor told us that once we started on the vehicles if there was any extra opportunity to get your butt in a seat that we would be foolish not to take it. “It’s your training, take every opportunity you can get”. I tend to agree with statements like that. Looking forward to getting some seat time!

^^homework^^

Trip planning day. Lots of good info I was totally ignorant on. Really enjoying this stuff so far! Atlas is supplied by the school and is for the student to keep.