What's Basic Training really like.

[mammynun]

I don't recall a SSgt. Kehoe. As for the certificates there was a "run for your life" 100 mile and I think 50 mile. In other words they were saying that in your time there you ran or marched the total of those miles. Always thought it was kinda cheesy.

The DS's i was with the most was SSgt's Price and Diaz.

I was kind of lucky because I was one of the few E4's to get into Drill Sgt school at Ft. Jackson. By the way, Drill Sgt, school was no joke. Way tougher than basic and basic airborne by far. Talk about PT!!

Ah well, it was a shot in the dark. His wife was hot, and they both knew it... teased us with her. Sadistic bastage! Learned a few things from him and the other Drill Sgt, whose name has escaped me all afternoon. He was the "nice one." I'm sure you know how it goes.... Charlie Mike!

 

[j706]

Army Infantry here. I spent many a nights sleeping on the ground.

X2!!

 

[Blue Tile Spook]

Great Lakes, IL for boot in 1989. September through December (100* temps at the start, -35* (Yep! Minus!) temps at graduation). And no ceiling fans!

Arrived at 2100. Orientation paperwork, pee pee test, basic hygiene kit and then rack time ~0330. Up at 0530 for breakfast and then a haircut. Got the basic clothing kit.

Eighty men in the Company - 10 minutes to get everyone through chow line, sit down and eat. That was the time limit for the whole time in boot. We were at the South end of the base so we had a 2-mile march to chow every meal.

Company Commanders were a PHC (Chief Photographers Mate) and an MM1 (Machinists Mate). The Chief was quiet and a paper pusher, the MM1 was "work hard, party hard" sailor.

If we screwed up, we got "mashed" in the barracks where we had to "make it rain" - close the doors and windows, group PT until the humidity caused drops of moisture to collect and fall off the overhead (ceiling). The Chief didn't like to raise his voice so he brought "Mr. Microphone" along. It was a boom box with microphone. If someone in the back of the barracks supposedly couldn't hear the Chief tell them to "drop" or how many push-ups to do, the Chief just turned up his boom box so that everyone could hear.

Neither Company Commander would physically touch a recruit who had messed up, but they would have the recruit lean forward against/into the CC's hand and "choke yourself" for screwing up. MM1 Kepner was not afraid to get eyeball-to-eyeball with a recruit and raise his voice or "give some encouraging words" (what they were going to do to your mother/sister/wife/girlfriend if you didn't get your butt in gear and since you were trapped in boot), but if a recruit couldn't handle the psych abuse they would back off a bit. There were no restrictions on using foul language directed at a recruit.

We had a kid that mentally broke after about the first week. He sat down with his back against a pillar and his head down in the barracks and didn't move for three days. No chow, no going to the head, no water. They called the ambulance to come get him and we never saw him again.

We had a kid that was put in by a shady recruiter in California, and the kid couldn't speak a single word of English. The recruit living next to him got in trouble several times for "talking" to the kid while the CC was talking, and finally the CC had had enough and asked the "talkative" kid what his problem was. The kid told him about the first kid's problem with English and the CC didn't believe him for most of a day. They pulled the kid out of the Company and did a little research. Sure enough, not a lick of English.

Our PT tests were taken every Friday through boot. The drill hall for the tests was on "Admin side" of the base, and it just happened to also be the Admin offices for the SEAL DET. Guess who conducted our PT tests? The SEALs. They used the test to work out with us for their "light" workouts. Before we knew they were SEALs we had one guy in our Company that got caught making a few snide remarks about a SEAL that was a bit pudgy... something to the effect of, "Yeah, I'd like to see HIM run a mile and a half in 12 minutes with us! No way he could do it!" The pudgy SEAL came down off the microphone podium to confront the guy, and the guy was honest with him about what he said. So the SEAL started us running. He ran with us. Then he ran AROUND the company. The he did the last half mile running at PT speed BACKWARD. No more words were ever said about him being pudgy or looking out of shape. BTW, these guys were not Team 6, but some did have modified grooming standards (hair and beards).

We were Company 013 of the 13th Division, graduated on Friday the 13th of December. We had 13 members transferred out of the Company for various problems and 13 were transferred in at various times throughout boot. Our Company flag was a Black Cat. We were the Honor Company, taking every flag except the "cheerio flag" that was for having the best fitness times/numbers.

It kinda' hurts to hear some of you folks say that boot was "easy" or "not that bad". There were times that our CCs darned near killed a few folks PT-wise. I went into boot at ~190 lbs. and came out at exactly 160 lbs.

And someone mentioned a few shots in Medical? When we went through the line, we got 12 shots with the "blowguns", a needle straight down in the top of the shoulder for the 13th and then had to drink the contents of a little plastic tube before sitting down on the deck to get our "peanut butter shots" (bicillian shots - darn near frozen medicine that left a golf ball-sized lump under the skin of your buttock) which made most everyone's legs go numb for a day.

Ranger, for the "volunteer" thing: Ours was, "Who wants to drive a Cadillac?" (swab bucket), "Who had a drivers license?" (swab bucket again), "Who can drive a stick shift?" (swab) and "Who knows how to drive a dump truck?" (wheelbarrow).

The first full day after the Company was formed the CC's marched us over to a section of the fencing around the base. There was a circular hole cut in the fence about the size of a manhole cover. "Anyone want to go UA (AWOL) at any time, there's your hole. Make sure you pack your **** and take it with you because I ain't gonna pack it for you after you're gone!" We had one guy whose father was either a Commander or Lt. Commander over on Admin side of the base, and after a couple weeks the guy couldn't handle things anymore. He went UA to wait for his father to arrive at his office the next morning. The Shore Patrol brought him back in handcuffs and the CC's made us all stand at attention and watch the guy pack all of his stuff in his sea bag while wearing the cuffs the whole time. The bad thing for the guy was that the Navy sent him to a holding company to out-process on an Administrative Discharge, and they stretched that out for about six months. We used to march past the Lima Barracks (A.K.A the "loser barracks") to chow and such, and we would see that guy or he would see us and holler at us to say hi. We graduated and left the base quite a while before he ever got out-processed from the Navy.

We didn't have operational firearms in boot, just non-functional M1's that weighed 8 lbs., IIRC. We marched everywhere with them. We slept with them for a week or two. We had to post a guard on them whenever we went into the chow hall to eat.

MM1 and the Chief wanted to watch the Army-Navy football game but we had a couple of evolutions to do on the day the game was on, so they had to be in the barracks with us. MM1 sent three of us down to the Staff Lounge to steal the TV and bring it up to our deck (2nd floor) and then had us rig an antenna for it. We weren't allowed to watch the game but we got to hear it.

I wouldn't want to do it all again, but I take a large amount of pride in what I and my mates went through to become sailors.

 

[SubicWarrior1988]

In 1984...USMC boot at San Diego rocked!

We got issued sun tan oil, Ray-Bans, and we got to watch VCR pron every Sunday night.

Chow was unlimited prime rib every day.

They'd bus in trollops for us every other week to keep up our morale, and our beer ration got increased from a 12-pack a week to a case per Congressional order.

They made us march around sometimes, but only if we really felt like it.

We had some nice Philippine ladies wash our clothes for us too.

Think of boot camp as kinda like a 13-week ski vacation in the Rockies, but with M16s.

It was easy and fun.

I hear Parris Island was easier though. There, they lay out on the beach all day and tan, or they go fishing a lot. That's about all they do.

Parris Island Marines are kinda girlie...at least they were back in my day.

I bet some things have changed by now, though.

You should enlist and check it out and get back to us here and describe it for us.

That would be neato.

 

[kedie]

Army Infantry here. I spent many a nights sleeping on the ground.

The only cots I ever saw were for the POGs and officers at the battalion TOC. I was pretty fond of sleeping in the rucksack flop. And on a cold night it's hard to beat a nice warm hole in the ground.

 

[hornadylnl]

The only cots I ever saw were for the POGs and officers at the battalion TOC. I was pretty fond of sleeping in the rucksack flop. And on a cold night it's hard to beat a nice warm hole in the ground.

I was mechanized so I saw my fair share of cots. Slept in several vehicles as well. One night I would have been happy to sleep on the ground. We were in Spain in the back of a Bradley. The Bradley was sitting on enough of an incline that my seat facing the ramp wouldn't even let me sit up straight, let alone lean back. I put my k pot on and leaned my head forward against the ramp. That was one long miserable night. I did sleep on a cot for 7 months straight for Bosnia. I took about 10 days leave and it hurt my back to sleep in a real bed.

 

[downzero]

Army Infantry here. I spent many a nights sleeping on the ground.

I was a mech. The radiator of an M113 is nice to sleep on when it's cold in the desert. After it cools off, though, you just wake up freezing.

 

[hornadylnl]

I was a mech. The radiator of an M113 is nice to sleep on when it's cold in the desert. After it cools off, though, you just wake up freezing.

We did some task force training with one of the tanker battalions one time. I was a dismount at the time and one day it was cold and wet. We'd go up behind the M1's and every time, the driver would shut the tank off so we couldn't get warmed up. Their first sergeant loved us and made sure we got taken care of in the chow line. He'd say "Grunts love chocolate milk!".

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

Haven't heard from anyone from the Chair... errr I mean the Air Force and how bad their bootcamp was. Guess there isn't a lot to complain going on when your barracks is at the Hilton.

I hear it depends on which Air Force you're in - American, United, Continential, US Air, ...

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

MCRD San Diego, 1981.

Once you figured out they could beat you but couldn't kill you, you were OK. I did get choked out til the lights went out once (took about 2 seconds - woke up on the duty hut floor).

A guy in our platoon shot himself in the head on the .45 range. Still remember watching his helmet blow off his former brain housing group and the blood, brain and pulp spray everyone within a few feet. At least he had the decency not to take anyone else with him. If you went to boot camp after and didn't get to fam fire the .45, it was this $4it bird's fault.

Our drill instructors put us in our Charlie uniforms the day before graduation and took us to the pit. Said there was one more bird that wasn't going to make it into the Marine Corps. IT'd us until one guy quit. One friggin day. What a puss.

We had a squadbay that faced the airport. The drill instructors used to make us watch the planes take off at night before bed. We had to wave and say "Bye bye. I could be going home right now. All I have to do is refuse training", or something to that effect.

We didn't have stress cards. Just stress.

Miss it? Wish I was there right now. Best times and friends I've ever had.

 

[Redskinsfan]

My son did both Army and the Coast Guard basic. He did Army in 1996 and Coast Guard in 2003. After the second basic training I commented "You have two down now, you could do the other three and then write a book comparing them." I was just kidding. He apparently found no humor in the remark and only replied "Two basic trainings are enough for a lifetime."

I asked for his comparison and he only said "The Army is more physical, the Coast Guard is more mental."

Terry

 

[kedie]

MCRD San Diego, 1981.

A guy in our platoon shot himself in the head on the .45 range. Still remember watching his helmet blow off his former brain housing group and the blood, brain and pulp spray everyone within a few feet. At least he had the decency not to take anyone else with him. If you went to boot camp after and didn't get to fam fire the .45, it was this $4it bird's fault.

That's crazy. I saw a guy jump off the roof of the barracks at 30th AG at Benning when I was there. Was just in reception, hadn't even made it to basic yet and he decided to end it. One of the guys in my platoon had been an EMT and went running down there. The kid was pretty messed up but it didn't kill him.

Oh, and stress cards didn't exist at Sand Hill in the summer of '98.

 

[hornadylnl]

Good leadership would have probably kicked the guy out before he blew his brains out. Seriously, what's the point of driving someone so hard that they'd commit suicide? What's the point of driving people so hard to quit the day before graduation? Prisoners are afforded more rights and better conditions then that.

MCRD San Diego, 1981.

Once you figured out they could beat you but couldn't kill you, you were OK. I did get choked out til the lights went out once (took about 2 seconds - woke up on the duty hut floor).

A guy in our platoon shot himself in the head on the .45 range. Still remember watching his helmet blow off his former brain housing group and the blood, brain and pulp spray everyone within a few feet. At least he had the decency not to take anyone else with him. If you went to boot camp after and didn't get to fam fire the .45, it was this $4it bird's fault.

Our drill instructors put us in our Charlie uniforms the day before graduation and took us to the pit. Said there was one more bird that wasn't going to make it into the Marine Corps. IT'd us until one guy quit. One friggin day. What a puss.

We had a squadbay that faced the airport. The drill instructors used to make us watch the planes take off at night before bed. We had to wave and say "Bye bye. I could be going home right now. All I have to do is refuse training", or something to that effect.

We didn't have stress cards. Just stress.

Miss it? Wish I was there right now. Best times and friends I've ever had.

 

[downzero]

Good leadership would have probably kicked the guy out before he blew his brains out. Seriously, what's the point of driving someone so hard that they'd commit suicide? What's the point of driving people so hard to quit the day before graduation? Prisoners are afforded more rights and better conditions then that.

Must be a sea story anyway. Nobody was allowed to quit in my platoon.

Unless the Marines are getting soft.

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

Good leadership would have probably kicked the guy out before he blew his brains out. Seriously, what's the point of driving someone so hard that they'd commit suicide? What's the point of driving people so hard to quit the day before graduation? Prisoners are afforded more rights and better conditions then that.

Nobody saw it coming. The guy had a scholarship to MIT, but passed to go into the Marine Corps. He had lost a lot of weight too. I can still remember how his skin just hung on him and he was the first guy I had ever seen with stretch marks. All over his body.

What's the point of driving someone so hard they would commit suicide? The Marine Corps is not the Army, the Navy, or any other force in the world. First to fight, last to leave. Regardless of MOS, every single Marine is a rifleman first. The Marine Corps trains killers. Everyone has a job, and a single person that fails to do theirs can lead to the deaths of a thousand Marines. We were passed the torch by so many that came before us, and our job was to ensure we never dishonored them or their memory. That fact was pounded into us in recruit training.

The drill instructors job was to find those unfit and unworthy to wear the uniform and either unf**k them or get them to quit. We started with 86 recruits and graduated 54 salty Marines. 12 of them came from other platoons. If this guy couldn't hack recruit training how could he handle war? It would have been better had he quit but he chose a different path. Screw him.

What's the point of driving someone so hard they'd quit the day before graduation? Because training wasn't over. They had one more guy that they wanted gone. I'm sure the drill instructors knew exactly who they wanted to quit.

Would you want a foxhole buddy who lacked the self disciple to stay awake when you were geting your 45 minutes of sleep? Would you want a spotter that couldn't range a target? Or a jet mechanic that couldn't count bolts? I'm glad they got rid of the non-hackers.

I guess you have to have experienced it to understand it.

 

[tenring]

Holly Wood in '66, RTB had so many suicide attempts [all failed} that our DI's held a short course in how to do it right.

 

[hornadylnl]

Nobody saw it coming. The guy had a scholarship to MIT, but passed to go into the Marine Corps. He had lost a lot of weight too. I can still remember how his skin just hung on him and he was the first guy I had ever seen with stretch marks. All over his body.

What's the point of driving someone so hard they would commit suicide? The Marine Corps is not the Army, the Navy, or any other force in the world. First to fight, last to leave. Regardless of MOS, every single Marine is a rifleman first. The Marine Corps trains killers. Everyone has a job, and a single person that fails to do theirs can lead to the deaths of a thousand Marines. We were passed the torch by so many that came before us, and our job was to ensure we never dishonored them or their memory. That fact was pounded into us in recruit training.

The drill instructors job was to find those unfit and unworthy to wear the uniform and either unf**k them or get them to quit. We started with 86 recruits and graduated 54 salty Marines. 12 of them came from other platoons. If this guy couldn't hack recruit training how could he handle war? It would have been better had he quit but he chose a different path. Screw him.

What's the point of driving someone so hard they'd quit the day before graduation? Because training wasn't over. They had one more guy that they wanted gone. I'm sure the drill instructors knew exactly who they wanted to quit.

Would you want a foxhole buddy who lacked the self disciple to stay awake when you were geting your 45 minutes of sleep? Would you want a spotter that couldn't range a target? Or a jet mechanic that couldn't count bolts? I'm glad they got rid of the non-hackers.

I guess you have to have experienced it to understand it.

And their is a difference when the intense training is used to an end to make a better soldier or marine vs someone getting their rocks off abusing a recruit. We don't treat livestock the way some recruits are treated.

My platoon of 53 guys had 3-5 (can't remember exactly how many) go awol and 5 guys broke bones in their feet. It certainly wasn't a cake walk. A good leader will be able to differentiate between recruits on how best to train them. Beat every single one of them and some are bound to shut down on you. Actually lead them and almost all of them will follow.

The biggest things that pissed me off about my leadership was the famous quote "Back when I was a private" and wishing they could beat their subordinates again. If a guy needs beat, get him the f out of the military. We always said this about the Army: 200 years of tradition unhampered by change. Most leadership I had only knew how to lead by doing to us what they had done to them regardless to its effectiveness.

As somebody mentioned about someone quitting earlier. We had guys in my regular unit who were getting chaptered out for drugs, etc. It would take months, if not a year to get them out. The leadership would complain about how they were still getting in trouble and causing morale issues within the unit. We had a guy in our battalion who was chaptered in less than a week because it was found out that he was cross dressing at a bar and wanted a sex change. One day a sergeant was complaining about one of the druggies being in trouble again. I told him than chapter his rear and get rid of him now. You guys think you're punishing him by dragging your feet but the only people they were punishing was themselves and the rest of the good soldiers in the unit.

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

Holly Wood in '66, RTB had so many suicide attempts [all failed} that our DI's held a short course in how to do it right.

Our entire series was on the range. They had no idea who had popped themselves. After they called cease fire and assembled each platoon and found out it was one of our recruits, all four of our drill instructors and the series gunny took us to a secret undisclosed location not far from the range. They took off their watches and threw them into the woods (they would always just put them in their pockets - not this time), took off their smoky covers, broke us into squads, and thrashed us like we had never been thrashed before. They thrashed us so bad our drill instructors were sweating. They put their hands (and boots) on everyone. Two recruits quit. I had never seen rage like that before.

That was the only time I was scared in recruit training.

 

[DragonGunner]

I went Infantry at Benning in 82', I know it had to be easier for me than my brother in 68'. Lots of running an pushups....did I mention LOTS of running. Classes were often an you would want fall asleep, your always tired an sleepy, Don't ever fall asleep in the field or class room....don't volunteer for anything...First day there they were yelling an asking if anyone had smoke pot, they just wanted to talk to anyone who did an shoe them later how much better they were for joining...this bonehead said he had....All hell broke loose on him, I thought what an idiot. I saw lots of guys complain about being put in the cattle trucks...I was called a bonehead all the time by my drill sgt. because I always asked questions, but I maxed AOEagle testing so it paid off. Learn what is taught you as fast as possiable, keep your stuff squared away, an start running now before you go in, I thought we would just run a couple miles a day...wrong. My friend went Air Force at the same time..we compared stories later, they never ran anymore than 2 miles, he had it made. Good luck.

 

[Revelations]

We did some task force training with one of the tanker battalions one time. I was a dismount at the time and one day it was cold and wet. We'd go up behind the M1's and every time, the driver would shut the tank off so we couldn't get warmed up. Their first sergeant loved us and made sure we got taken care of in the chow line. He'd say "Grunts love chocolate milk!".

The tank platoon I was in was attached to an Infantry company at Ft Carson and every field exercise we made sure to run the engines first thing in the morning. It always gave you Infantry types a place to dry out your sleeping bags and give ya a place to warm up.