UPL (Unit Prevention Leadership)

I think it has been a few days since I updated my blog, so I thought I would tell everyone about my adventure for this week. I am taking yet another Army class, and this one is called UPL. The acronym does not explain what the position is, which is very unusual for the Army. I am learning how to administer a urine analysis test for the Army. It is a 40 hour class and we have to have people that are certified in order to deploy. Somehow I got unwilling volunteered to take the class. It is all sergeants in the class (and one master sergeant) and there are 9 of us in total.

They take this stuff very seriously, because we are being held accountable for the careers of soldiers. If someone as we call it pops hot (has a positive test), before they go and accuse the soldier of being a drug addict they come searching for us and tear us apart like we are the ones that messed up. It makes sense too, because if the test was done correctly and there are no errors then the soldier has the very real possibility of getting a dishonorable discharge from the military. Of course, if some one does pop hot then they will try and accuse me (the UPL) of not administering the test properly and therefore they should not be kicked out. Lawyers usually get involved and more than likely the soldier will not get kicked out, but the Army wants to make sure that I am doing my job properly so that I won't get in trouble. If I do administer the test wrong and don't sign and initial in the right place I can get in lots of trouble. No pressure.

This whole class is extremely boring though. Sure I have learned some cool facts about how fast drugs leave the system (but most of this stuff I already knew from being a college student), but for most of the day today I just tried to stay awake. Which brings me to my biggest gripe against the Army, the way classes are taught. The Army is absolutely terrible at teaching and for me it is infuriating. I just spent four years in college being taught by intelligent people and learning lots of interesting things...and every time I sit through an Army class I feel like I am losing IQ points.

This is how Army classes work. Someone in some office decides we need a class on a certain subject (let's say leadership), so this person puts together a black and white Powerpoint that talks about how to be a good leader. Every slide has a nice Army header with the title of the class and the first five slides all follow the same outline format of what is going to be in the slide show. The instructor then proceeds to flip through the slide show and about 98% of the time they will go through the class and have each person read off the slide to the class. The instructor cannot change the slide show because it is Army mandated and more than likely the instructor has never had any experience teaching before. I rarely pay attention in Army classes, I am usually fighting off sleep or trying to keep my blood pressure in check because I get legitimately upset during these classes.

The UPL class I am going through is by far the worst though, because we don't get a power point...nope our instructor gave us the actual Army Regulation book (which is actually very nice because it is a great reference) and is practically reading the book to us line for line. And proceeding to tell us to highlight everything that he says because it might be on the test. He has probably told us to highlight 2/3 of the book, which is nearly 100 pages) and the test is 50 questions. I don't highlight anything...I just practice breathing exercises.

Now that I got that off my chest I am going to go to the gym and workout and then go running which will help me calm down. I am getting upset just thinking about the ridiculousness of the class I just sat through today.