We had two international students in my small group, one from Colombia, the other from Saudi Arabia. The Colombian put in all the hard work one would expect from an opportunity to study abroad, while the Saudi Arabian did not even put in the effort to pass the minimum standard. If he showed up to PT, he refused to work out, and just walked around on his cell phone. He was caught cheating on the exam, the instructors were well aware, and no consequence followed. Speaking with the Colombian, he was very concerned his efforts were all in vain, due to the equal treatment as a clear course failure. I did my best to console him that his performance was being addressed through diplomatic channels – a white lie, as I have no idea if it was actually addressed at higher levels. At the time several of us were prepared to give a sworn statement, as we expected an investigation, but at this point I don’t even remember the name of the guy. In retrospect, I should’ve drafted the sworn statement when the details were fresh in my mind.

Regardless, we did PT every morning to Army standard, and stayed at work until 1700 every day, with “passing” products I had to relearn at my next unit (OPORDs, MDMP, etc). Before attending FACCC, word was you typically got off early, so prepare for networking and self development. I bought a weight cage and stack of books in preparation, both of which got minimal use during the span of the course. As a function of this experience, I’m strongly considering whichever distance learning option is available for ILE, assuming I qualify for it.

Looking back on the whole experience, the greater value was always the networking. They confined us to the classroom until 1700, but we stopped working about 1400, regardless of the products not being of caliber to carry to following units. I still wonder if more or less networking would have happened had we left the classroom at 1400. Could we have met at the bar or the gym? Would we have gone home and been anti-social? Regardless of what might have happened, I did make some lasting connections. My Colombian friend introduced me to my Japanese friend from another small group (for whom the leadership brought back the “foreign officer honor graduate” award), which ultimately resulted in a rather pleasant dinner in Tokyo on our honeymoon. Another CCC friend connected with another BOLC friend I’d lost touch with while they were both stationed in Korea, and we all wound up commanding in Georgia at the same time.

So, all in all, I learned things, just not the things I expected to. If I had to do it all over again, I would’ve started writing that sworn statement as soon as I saw something wrong, and made sure to hand it off to a responsible party. I would also start maintaining a more robust address book of some kind, and keep touch with those otherwise lost connections.