Basic Training
Journal: Saturday, August 9th
It's really hard to write much the first few days of BT.
We're always busy except for our personal hour from 8-9pm
before lights out. We use that time to take showers, brush
our teeth, shave, etc. When we're done with that we usually
have just enough time to get into bed. Sometimes we won't
even get an hour of personal time since we get smoked if we
mess something up.
1st day: We received our rank insignia at
reception after breakfast, got a haircut(this isn't the first
one), and headed to the BT barracks on old shuttle buses.
We were piled out of the buses in front of the barracks and
had to run into a formation with our civilian bag and military
issue bag. We then got smoked by having to pick up our military
bag over our head and leaving them up, then dropping them
to the ground. We must have did that over 50 times...seriously.
All the drill sergeants were there getting in our faces. We
were then assigned platoons in Echo company(3/47). We are
2nd platoon(Regulators).
I was surprised the barracks were in pretty good condition...it's
probably because our barracks are only used in the busy times
of the year...summer. I heard we might get open stalls and
showers, but the latrine(bathroom) is just like any public
bathroom. It's clean as well since we get smoked if we don't
clean them well everyday. The showers were somewhat open,
but walls seperate the sides of each shower head. We have
plenty of time for showers too...no forced 2 minute showers
like I've heard before.
I'm actually enjoying BT a lot...the days go by quickly too.
We get up around 3:45 and get ready for first formation.
2nd day: The second day of BT consisted
of smokings and learning marching movements. Let me tell you,
Georgia gets HOT!! You have to drink plenty of water. They
say you should drink 9 canteens of water a day, and our canteens
are a quart. We were standing in the parking lot with the
sun beating down on us while we're learning to march. I got
sunburn on my neck and started to get dizzy marching so much
in that heat in our battle dress uniforms.
3rd day: The third day we had our PT test;
practically no one passes. The drill sergeants are really
strict about pushups, at least the one counting my pushups.
They'll give you a 0 if they think you did the first ten pushups
incorrectly. Almost everyone in our group of 8 got stuck with
a 0. Situps are a breeze for me...I did 62 easily. I'm also
good at running, I was the first one finished in the 8 man
group I was in. Unfortunately, the drill sergeant that scored
us mixed my run score with someone else, so I got a really
bad time when I actually had a good time. This drill sergeant
wouldn't even consider the notion that she messed up...I decided
to just let it go instead of getting smoked for questioning
a drill sergeant. They'll see a huge improvement the next
time I take my PT test, that's for sure.
We had a class on equal opportunity, racism, etc. too that
day. They will really smoke you if you fall asleep or look
like you're falling asleep during class. I didn't but you
could hear the drill sergeants yelling at the sleepers who
were sent out of the building. The classes took about 2 hours.
Today(fourth day), we did morning PT stretches
and ran 2 miles in formation. I'm definitely not used to running
2 miles on consecutive days. We got out first phone priviledges
today too and assembled our ruck sacks.
Chow is much better here than at reception since they don't
have to feed as many people. You have about 5-10 minutes to
eat...it really helps to be in the front of the line for chow
since you get more time to eat. We have to line up outside
the dining facility(DFAC) when we're done eating.
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