Enlisted in Army, shipping out Nov 23rd. 25 Years old

There is nothing summer camp like about basic training but I never had to choke myself using my drill Sergeants hand.

 

I love that movie though. I was just watching it the other day and LMAO at the opening scene in the barracks where everyone is getting new names. Wife asked me if that's what basic training was really like.....of course I said no, but it's no walk in the park. I loved being woken up at 0100 for five hours of security detail followed by a whole day of training....My favourite was the gas chamber and having to remove my mask in a room filled with tear gas and reciting my SIN, date of birth, name, rank and unit. Then decontaminating your mask before being able to put it back on. One guy puked in his gas mask....ugh.

 

While in AF boot camp in 200s, we had a guy who was 39 years old joined...it was shortly after 9/11/2001 and he heard the calling to serve and they accepted him...which back then when we were really staffing up for an all out war they loosened the restrictions up for every branch so it seemed. Hardy was his name...he was an incredible mentor for everyone in the squadron. He didn't have to command respect or anything, everyone gave it to him. He kept up on all of our PT and was an all out good guy. I hate it that I lost contact with him... I was 18 years old when I went to basic...i was a little better off than most being raised in a military family. My advice to everyone is keep your mouth shut unless your DI is talking to you, pay attention to details, and take it seriously because what they teach you there could save your life. My grandpa who was in WWII for 4 straight years gave me that advice...and also to never try and be a hero...do your job.

Best of luck man. I am very glad that Obama was never my commander in chief.

 

First of all, thank you for your (future) service. I joined when I was 19, and I think you'll find that maturity will help you out. All the guys I knew who had a little age on their peers, did a little better, were a little more motivated (and jacked around less). They went further, faster, because they made better use of their time.

I can tell you a little about where you'll do your AIT (your mileage may vary, I was there in 2003-2004). I did my AIT at the same place you will, Redstone Arsenal, AL. I was a 35Y, which at the time was Integrated Family of Testing Equipment (IFTE) operator/maintainer(they've since changed the code to 94Y, I think). There are only four companies at Redstone; Alpha; the admins and cadre (MPs too, I think), Bravo; Instructors, Charlie; EOD and bb-stackers (you'll be here) and Delta, your technical Ordnance guys (that was where I was). There was also a small detachment of Marines when I was there, and the occasional Navy officer.

Concerning your company. Unless things have changed, the way they had C co. set up always boggled my mind. The EOD guys tend to be extremely intelligent, and kind of unstable. The BB-stackers are not always super-bright (no offence to anyone of you out there, just my observations). This was a recipe for disaster. While I was at Redstone (my training was 9 months), there were something like 9 suicide attempts and 3 stabbings, and weekly fistfights. My theory is that the high-stress training environment and the mis-matching types of trainees was the cause of this. The BB-stackers were always getting the whole company smoked, and the EOD guys understandably resented them for it, and were unstable enough that these frustrations came to a head.

Some general advice: Remember that all the little shit they give you in basic is for a reason, even the stuff that seems unimportant. Listen to your DS's, take the training to heart. Train beyond the minimum wherever you can manage it, and pay attention to your medical training, you may use that even if you're in garrison (not deployed). Eat the entire MRE, and remember that cheese makes everything better.

Enjoy your chow at basic. It's a cut above a lot of other places you might be.