YOUR BASIC TRAINING/BOOT CAMP EXPERIENCE
- Thread starter CH HAWKEYE
- Start date
Boring - Get up, chow, class, fold clothes, chow, marched, class again, run some, chow, shower, bed...get up and do it 59 more times.
I had a blast! Maybe it was because it was co-ed or the fact that my platoon kicked ***, but it was a great time. The worst part for me was getting used to the dry South Carolina heat. I loved PT and KP duty. The running every other day was cool. Sundays was a blast. Especially when they made us cut the grass with scissors. Chugging water till we threw up sucked at the time, but is funny now. Even marching 5 miles in the rain had its upside! (it wasn't hot!) I am an optimist though and I miss the Army!! 
no it was Fort Benning............Jacksonville is in North Carolinia and thats a marine base....and it is CAMP
no it was Fort Benning............Jacksonville is in North Carolina and that's a marine base....and it is CAMP LEJUNE
Bigkountry Fort Jackson is in Columbia, SC I was not talking about Jacksonville. And Benning doesn't accept females.
I just saw this thread and figure I would actually give you a good story.
Here is the setup -
18 years old, long hair and out of shape. Well, not to out of shape but surely not a runner!
June 1st 1988 - JFK Stadium - Pink Floyd Concert - use your imagination for the details of how that went.
June 2nd about 4 am in the morning, realization that I am about to be leaving for basic training in a few hours and was suppose to be at the hotel sleeping for a 6 am wake up call. Oops.
Fast forward several hours - pretty much passed out but on a plane to Ft Campbell, KY. Get there finally and spend two days in limbo waiting on some others to get there so we can join up and get on with things.
Now, this basic training was some test nonsense to see if they could use National Guard and Reserve Drill Sergeants that come in every 2 weeks. We of course had a regular DS who stayed with us the entire time who in reality is the only person we really listened to anyway.
So, anyone know what WW2 barracks are like in the middle of the summer in KY?
Big white wooden heat boxes!!
We had huge industrial fans at each end of the barracks and all that did was push the hot a$$ air from side to side. On a good day it was 100 degrees. Never did I ever think I would be anywhere that is was 121 degrees outside.
So, remember that thing I said about running or lack their off?
Well, 2 mile runs in the morning did not work out for me at all. They became a 1 mile jog and 1 mile crawl for the first week. LOL!!
I clocked a whopping 18 min 2 mile run my first PT test. However, in the end I was at 11 min and 45 secs so lots of improvement even though running still sucked.
Shooting range? Just call me expert. Of course, I forget to put in my ear plugs so after I took the first shot I was deaf for a long time but I still hit every target!!
Graduation? Funny thing that Ft Campbell, Home of the Screaming Eagles - 101st Airborne. And although I never signed up to be anywhere near a plane or helicopter, somehow I went from Graduating on one side of the base to propelling out of helicopters on the other side. Can you say Air Assault !!! Nice joke that recruiter played on me.
So for me basic was a long long hot sweaty yet great time!
Here is the setup -
18 years old, long hair and out of shape. Well, not to out of shape but surely not a runner!
June 1st 1988 - JFK Stadium - Pink Floyd Concert - use your imagination for the details of how that went.
June 2nd about 4 am in the morning, realization that I am about to be leaving for basic training in a few hours and was suppose to be at the hotel sleeping for a 6 am wake up call. Oops.
Fast forward several hours - pretty much passed out but on a plane to Ft Campbell, KY. Get there finally and spend two days in limbo waiting on some others to get there so we can join up and get on with things.
Now, this basic training was some test nonsense to see if they could use National Guard and Reserve Drill Sergeants that come in every 2 weeks. We of course had a regular DS who stayed with us the entire time who in reality is the only person we really listened to anyway.
So, anyone know what WW2 barracks are like in the middle of the summer in KY?
Big white wooden heat boxes!!
We had huge industrial fans at each end of the barracks and all that did was push the hot a$$ air from side to side. On a good day it was 100 degrees. Never did I ever think I would be anywhere that is was 121 degrees outside.
So, remember that thing I said about running or lack their off?
Well, 2 mile runs in the morning did not work out for me at all. They became a 1 mile jog and 1 mile crawl for the first week. LOL!!
I clocked a whopping 18 min 2 mile run my first PT test. However, in the end I was at 11 min and 45 secs so lots of improvement even though running still sucked.
Shooting range? Just call me expert. Of course, I forget to put in my ear plugs so after I took the first shot I was deaf for a long time but I still hit every target!!
Graduation? Funny thing that Ft Campbell, Home of the Screaming Eagles - 101st Airborne. And although I never signed up to be anywhere near a plane or helicopter, somehow I went from Graduating on one side of the base to propelling out of helicopters on the other side. Can you say Air Assault !!! Nice joke that recruiter played on me.
So for me basic was a long long hot sweaty yet great time!
Well Hylander you didn't go to benning so you weren't an 11B, or 19D. What was your MOS? I lost 40 lbs when I went through and I hate running, first 2 miler was 20 mins, knocked it down to 14. Still hate running.
Blondii - the story started in June of 1988.
CH Hawkeye - I was a 31N which made the Air Assault thing even more a surprise as 31N was a TACTICAL CIRCUIT CONTROLLER.
Now, what that means is I control the circuits for commnication. Very important person when all said and done for communications as I had to know everyone else's jobs in the communications area and be able to trouble shoot them. TACTICAL well that means I got to do all that out in the woods or desert!
Had I looked one line down from the list of MOS the recruiter gave me they day he talked me into picking what I did I would have dropped the TACTICAL part and been siting back in the rear safe, warm and plenty of good food!
CH Hawkeye - I was a 31N which made the Air Assault thing even more a surprise as 31N was a TACTICAL CIRCUIT CONTROLLER.
Now, what that means is I control the circuits for commnication. Very important person when all said and done for communications as I had to know everyone else's jobs in the communications area and be able to trouble shoot them. TACTICAL well that means I got to do all that out in the woods or desert!
Had I looked one line down from the list of MOS the recruiter gave me they day he talked me into picking what I did I would have dropped the TACTICAL part and been siting back in the rear safe, warm and plenty of good food!
I hear ya, it was so funny because when I tell people that I am a Chaplain Assistant they thing that I have an easy job. But what they don't know is that I am the body guard for the chaplain when we get deployed, so instead of carrying 1 weapon I carry 3. One of my chaplains was 6'8"! So you can imagine how hard it was to keep him covered.