Recollections of Boot Camp...

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Footslogger
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Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by Footslogger »

I was never in the service, but was always interested in what went on there.

Please post your memories of boot camp here.

Here's one from the Navy Boot Camp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch87SZUFh8Y
Big B
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by Big B »

Well, that was quite a while ago now (spring 1980), but after reception station in Fort Jackson SC, I was off for the next three months to Fort Benning GA.
Lots of memories (which I won't get into here) - but my general memories were of getting up daily at 4am, 2 minutes to dress - make your bunk with square corners - and be in formation outside ...everyday.
Always being beyond tired but carrying on. I finished my last 5 weeks of Infantry school on a broken left tibia (I didn't know it at the time).
Hmmm, ...hand grenades and Claymores... they were far more powerful than I imagined. I was surprised that I could clearly hear the impact of M-60 MG bullets(.308) on trucks 700 yards away, then watch the tracers fly up into the overcast and disappear. Guess I had a lot of fun - but it was grueling.

B
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Bullwinkle58
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by Bullwinkle58 »

I was recently corrected by an old vet that "boot camp" is only correct for the USN/USMC/USCG. Army and USAF it's "basic training." Don't recall the reasons. I always called them all boot camp.

Mostly I recall going in larger than I came out.
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Big B
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by Big B »

That is correct, in the Army it's Basic Training then (usually) you are sent off to another post for AIT (Advanced Individual Training).
In my Battalion, in 1980, they just started combining both courses for Infantrymen in one block without break (same platoon, same company and battalion).
Also the Marines call their training sergeants Drill Instructors, in the Army they are Drill Sergeants.
ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

I was recently corrected by an old vet that "boot camp" is only correct for the USN/USMC/USCG. Army and USAF it's "basic training." Don't recall the reasons. I always called them all boot camp.

Mostly I recall going in larger than I came out.
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guytipton41
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by guytipton41 »

Hi folks,

I picked up the impossible to break habit of eating a meal in five minutes. Drives my wife bonkers.

Cheers,
Guy
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guytipton41
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by guytipton41 »

Oh yeah,

And bloody spots on the back of my PT shorts from doing sit-ups on asphalt. I suffered from the dreaded disease noassatall.

Cheers,
Guy
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Mundy
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by Mundy »

ORIGINAL: guytipton41

Hi folks,

I picked up the impossible to break habit of eating a meal in five minutes. Drives my wife bonkers.

Cheers,
Guy

Me too...

I could eat twice as much food in half the time as anyone else. Always got edgy waiting for everyone else.
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Bullwinkle58
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by Bullwinkle58 »

ORIGINAL: guytipton41

Hi folks,

I picked up the impossible to break habit of eating a meal in five minutes. Drives my wife bonkers.

Cheers,
Guy

When I went through OCS in 1980 we only had DIs for the first, break-in phase, about ten days. But in that time in the chow hall the DI went through the line first and the meal was over when he stood up. If you were last in line your eating time could vary from two to four minutes. Taught you to plan ahead and make some deals.

Every door we went through the first in line held the door and called out (screamed actually) the count for everyone through the door, ending with the count and "Last man through!" (Even though some of the men were women.) The company had about eighty members so you could lose your voice real fast if you were first too often. The DIs used to lead us up and down interior stairwells to make us practice counting off. Useful in a flooding compartment, but no fun indoors.
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m10bob
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by m10bob »

Every morning 2 minutes after reveille, we were all on the gravel in front of the company area waiting for the CSM to arrive.
(Yeah, we had one for our first shirt in our company!)
We were allowed to sneak a smoke in that minute before Top arrived....but once we saw his hat coming thru the door, we had to field strip the smoke and pocket the butt.

It had rained the night before and this February morning was no colder than the rest in Kentucky.

Maybe 20 seconds into this life-giving Camel filter...out comes Top, sooner than normal.
Like a well-oiled machine, I deftly brought the left up with the butt and flicked the embers with my right in order to field strip the smoke......Without missing a beat I then unbuttoned my top left blouse pocket with my right as my left is now moving the butt into the pocket, which I then deftly re-buttoned.
Still on a roll..I brought both arms straight and down to my sides...assuming the correct position of attention...

Immediately...I detected something was dreadfully wrong!...NO!....It could not be!!!!!...Yes!!!...The cigarette was still LIT!!!!...In my pocket, it was now getting incredibly hot...yet...like a good troop IN BASIC...I remained at attention...

Normally...in basic especially.....a boot does NOT want to do anything to attract the attention of anybody wearing a "smokey hat"...but today...Thank God...Drill Sergeant McCurdy saw the burning embers of my pocket in that dark February morning...and he promptly rushed to me, putting the brow of that fearful hat directly against my forehead and yelled

"Son!...Are you on fire,son!!??"
Of course I yelled back
"Yes, Drill Sergeant"...to which he asked
"Do you want to put the fire out, son??", still in his loudest voice..
Of course I yelled back
"Yes, Drill Sergeant"...to which he yelled
"Well....Put it out SON!....Front leaning rest position....Fifty times!"

I was never more glad to "push Fort Knox away"...and this remains my favorite basic story....

Somehow...I still have that original issue "fatigue blouse, O.D. in color"..though it looks as if it were more for a little boy.......
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RockKahn
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by RockKahn »

Shots.....lots of shots.

This is me getting the shot with compressed air when I was in Navy boot camp at the Naval Training Center in San Diego in 1968. Some shots were administered using compressed air to inject the vaccine instead of a needle. I preferred the compressed air shots.



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Bullwinkle58
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by Bullwinkle58 »

After Friday pass-in-review. In blues, so this must have been near graduation (11/7.) Narragansett Bay in the background. Those old Instamatic photo dimensions.



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spence
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by spence »

Went to USCG Acad 6 days after high school graduation. After a day or two our draft cards were collected and we were sworn in. After that chow and a movie: "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". Never forget that flick.

The movie got over. We left. The officers, their wives, the upper classmen and their girlfriends were quite patient while they waited for the "Swabs" to clear the doors. Taps almost immediately followed the movie getting over. Our dear 2nd Class Platoon Commander gently persuaded us to stay up even though it was after our bedtime. He introduced us to some of the rules of naval etiquette. Since it was so late he allowed us to attend the lesson in "front lean and rest". It was, after all, a rather involved lesson. Around 0430 it began getting light.
nardiajn
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by nardiajn »

Was in bootcamp San Diego back in 1982..
and I am another who eats all meals in minutes
of course being on an aircraft carrier..
my showers are still 3 minutes long
get wet/soap/ rinse / done !
pnzrgnral
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by pnzrgnral »

I took Basic at Ft Knox in '79 prior to taking infantry advanced training at Ft Benning. We were in the old WWII two-story wooden barracks (all of which are now gone, Benning too). Roughly a year after my time at Knox, "Stripes" was filmed in our barracks area. All of the basic training stuff - reception station, haircuts, clothing issue, etc - were all the very same locations I went through a year prior. Every time I watch that movie I feel nostalgic for the old uniforms and Knox itself...but that only lasts about two seconds. Basic was just that - basic training; once getting into the REAL Army, and then REAL units, life was far tougher but more enjoyable and rewarding. Twenty-one years' worth and with retirement, I still miss the Army.
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krishub1492
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by krishub1492 »

ORIGINAL: pnzrgnral

I took Basic at Ft Knox in '79 prior to taking infantry advanced training at Ft Benning. We were in the old WWII two-story wooden barracks (all of which are now gone, Benning too). Roughly a year after my time at Knox, "Stripes" was filmed in our barracks area. All of the basic training stuff - reception station, haircuts, clothing issue, etc - were all the very same locations I went through a year prior. Every time I watch that movie I feel nostalgic for the old uniforms and Knox itself...but that only lasts about two seconds. Basic was just that - basic training; once getting into the REAL Army, and then REAL units, life was far tougher but more enjoyable and rewarding. Twenty-one years' worth and with retirement, I still miss the Army.

I was at Ft Knox in '81 for Basic in those same two-story wooden barracks. I marched on the old triple nickel (555) where they filmed some of the "Stripes" scenes. Too bad the DI's wouldn't let us re-enact any of those scenes!!

I was a PFC since I was a college grad and was going to OCS. I always felt like I was getting picked on by the DI's since I had the stripe and rocker. Later I went to ranger school and found out what getting picked on really meant.
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by zuluhour »

'77 Ft Bliss Basic and AIT
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msieving1
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by msieving1 »

ORIGINAL: Footslogger

I was never in the service, but was always interested in what went on there.

Please post your memories of boot camp here.

Here's one from the Navy Boot Camp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch87SZUFh8Y

Eugene Sledge's book With The Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa includes his recollections of Marine boot camp. I think most of the depiction of boot camp in Stanley Kubrick's film Full Metal Jacket came from Sledge's book.
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by wdolson »

ORIGINAL: RockKahn

Shots.....lots of shots.

This is me getting the shot with compressed air when I was in Navy boot camp at the Naval Training Center in San Diego in 1968. Some shots were administered using compressed air to inject the vaccine instead of a needle. I preferred the compressed air shots.



Image

I once knew someone who was a nurse at Bremerton Naval Base. She had to give a lot of shots. She said when a big strapping Marine came in, they were most likely to faint.

She also had to deal with a sailor who had a sex change while on leave back when women weren't in combat positions and this now woman was.

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Big B
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by Big B »

To get back to the original poster's question "what went on there?", I would sum up by relating that by and large - my experience was a strange marriage of Full Metal Jacket & Biloxi Blues. No one committed suicide, no Drill Sergeants cracked up, but the general depiction of the daily regimen along with some amusingly odd moments was pretty spot on.

B
ORIGINAL: Footslogger

I was never in the service, but was always interested in what went on there.

Please post your memories of boot camp here.

Here's one from the Navy Boot Camp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch87SZUFh8Y
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MuguNiner
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RE: Recollections of Boot Camp...

Post by MuguNiner »

MCRD San Diego 1976/77, being exhausted, dehydrated (you can't more than a swallow of the mineral rich water at a time), under cooked bacon, I like it crispy. For those of you that don't know about USMC boot, back then it was eleven weeks long. First phase, two weeks of tear down, you can't do anything right, you feel lower than whale $hit on the bottom of the ocean. Second phase rifle range, mess duty, infantry training. Third phase polish.

While on mess duty, I observed a third phase platoon on PT jogged past a first phase heard with the DI singing and the platoon responding back with, "Look to my left and what do I see? A first phase heard starring at me! One more week and I'll be home! Eating Pu$$y and get'n stoned!" I know that first phase heard felt like there was no tomorrow then.
USMC 1976-80
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