“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.”
—Robert E. Lee
Starting day one, the Drill Sergeants will have every minute of every day of your basic training cycle planned. Your days will be filled with physical fitness, classes, combat activities, etc. You will get less than one hour every day to prepare for the following day’s activities. Most recruits will spend that time studying their notes and field guides, cleaning their equipment, or writing letters.
Listed below are some of the most common aspects of basic training that recruits spend time studying.
Rank Structure
It is essential that you know the rank structure before you arrive at basic training. I have assembled a rank structure study guide for you which you can download and print for free at: http://goo.gl/d8ke5 or scan this QR Code:
Each branch of the military has core values. It’s best if you go to basic training with the core values memorized.
Army
Each of the seven core values will have a one-to two-hour lecture associated with it.
The Drill Sergeants will turn the lights down and turn the heat up in the classroom. They will make the classroom so comfortable that you will want to fall asleep. In fact, there will always be several recruits who will fall asleep in class. I highly recommend you do not fall asleep in class. If you do fall asleep, the entire company will get “smoked” (See Appendix 1 for definition) because of your actions.
Here are the seven core values you will need to memorize:
Loyalty—Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit and other soldiers.
Duty—Fulfill your obligations.
Respect—Treat people as they should be treated.
Selfless Service—Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own.
Honor—Live up to all the Army values.
Integrity—Do what’s right, legally and morally.
Personal Courage—Face fear, danger, or adversity (physical or moral).
The first letter in each word is highlighted in bold and italics to help you better remember these important core values. If you read the letters in italics from top to bottom, the seven core values form the word LDRSHIP. You can remember LDRSHIP because it resembles the word “LEADERSHIP.”
Air Force (text courtesy of AirForce.com)
Integrity—The Airman is a person of integrity, courage and conviction.
Integrity is a character trait. It is the willingness to do what is right even when no one is looking. It is the moral compass, the inner voice, the voice of self-control and the basis for the trust imperative in today’s military.
Integrity is the ability to hold together and properly regulate all of the elements of a personality. A person of integrity, for example, is capable of acting on conviction. A person of integrity can control impulses and appetites.
But integrity also covers several other moral traits indispensable to national service.
Courage—A person of integrity possesses moral courage and does what is right even if the personal cost is high.
Honesty—Honesty is the hallmark of the military professional because in the military, our word must be our bond. We don’t pencil-whip training reports, we don’t cover up tech data violations, we don’t falsify documents and we don’t write misleading operational readiness messages. The bottom line is: We don’t lie, and we can’t justify any deviation.
Responsibility—No person of integrity is irresponsible; a person of true integrity acknowledges his/her duties and acts accordingly.
Accountability—No person of integrity tries to shift the blame to others or take credit for the work of others. “The buck stops here” says it best.
Justice—A person of integrity practices justice. Those who do similar things must get similar rewards or similar punishments.
Openness—Professionals of integrity encourage a free flow of information within the organization. They seek feedback from all directions to ensure they are fulfilling key responsibilities, and they are never afraid to allow anyone at any time to examine how they do business.
Self-respect—To have integrity is also to respect oneself as a professional and a human being. A person of integrity does not behave in ways that would bring discredit upon himself/herself or the organization to which he/she belongs.
Humility—A person of integrity grasps and is sobered by the awesome task of defending the Constitution of the United States of America.
Service Before Self—An Airman’s professional duties always take precedence over personal desires.
Service before self tells us that professional duties take precedence over personal desires. At the very least, it includes the following behaviors:
Rule following—To serve is to do one’s duty, and our duties are most commonly expressed through rules. While it may be the case that professionals are expected to exercise judgment in the performance of their duties, good professionals understand that rules have a reason for being - and the default position must be to follow those rules unless there is a clear, operational reason for refusing to do so.
Respect for others—Service before self tells us also that a good leader places the troops ahead of his/her personal comfort. We must always act in the certain knowledge that all persons possess a fundamental worth as human beings.
Discipline and self-control—Professionals cannot indulge themselves in self-pity, discouragement, anger, frustration or Study Guide defeatism. They have a fundamental moral obligation to the persons they lead to strike a tone of confidence and forward-looking optimism. More specifically, they are expected to exercise control in the following areas:
Anger
Military professionals and especially commanders at all echelons are expected to refrain from displays of anger that would bring discredit upon themselves and/or the Air Force.
Appetites
Those who allow their appetites to drive them to make sexual overtures to subordinates are unfit for military service. Likewise, the excessive consumption of alcohol casts doubt on an individual’s fitness.
Religious toleration
Military professionals must remember that religious choice is a matter of individual conscience. Professionals—and especially commanders—must not take it upon themselves to change or coercively influence the religious views of subordinates.
Excellence in All We Do—Every American Airman strives for continual improvement in self and service.
Excellence in all we do directs us to develop a sustained passion for continuous improvement and innovation that will propel the Air Force into a long-term, upward spiral of accomplishment and performance:
Product/service excellence—We must focus on providing services and generating products that fully respond to customer wants and anticipate customer needs, and we must do so within the boundaries established by the tax-paying public.
Personal excellence—Military professionals must seek out and complete professional military education, stay in physical and mental shape and continue to refresh their general educational backgrounds.
Community excellence—Community excellence is achieved when the members of an organization can work together to successfully reach a common goal in an atmosphere that is free from fear and that preserves individual self-worth. Some of the factors influencing interpersonal excellence are:
Mutual respect—Genuine respect involves viewing another person as an individual of fundamental worth. Obviously, this means that a person is never judged on the basis of his/her possession of an attribute that places him/her in some racial, ethnic, economic or gender-based category.
Benefit of the doubt—Working hand in glove with mutual respect is that attitude that says all coworkers are innocent until proven guilty. Before rushing to judgment about a person or his/her behavior, it is important to have the whole story.
Resources excellence—Excellence in all we do also demands that we aggressively implement policies to ensure the best possible cradle-to-grave management of resources.
Material resources excellence—Military professionals have an obligation to ensure that all of the equipment and property they ask for is mission essential. This means that residual funds at the end of the year should not be used to purchase “nice to have” add-ons.
Human resources excellence—Human resources excellence means that we recruit, train, promote and retain those who can do the best job for us.
Operations excellence—There are two kinds of operations excellence: internal and external:
Excellence of internal operations
This form of excellence pertains to the way we do business internal to the Air Force from the unit level to Air Force Headquarters. It involves respect on the unit level and a total commitment to maximizing the Air Force team effort.
Excellence of external operations
This form of excellence pertains to the way in which we treat the world around us as we conduct our operations. In peacetime, for example, we must be sensitive to the rules governing environmental pollution, and in wartime we are required to obey the laws of war.
Marines
Honor—Marines are held to the highest standards, ethically and morally. Respect for others is essential. Marines are expected to act responsibly in a manner befitting the title they’ve earned.
Courage—Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the ability to face fear and overcome it. It is the moral, mental and physical strength ingrained in every Marine. It steadies them in a time of stress, carries them through every challenge and aids them in facing new and unknown confrontations.
Commitment—Commitment is the spirit of determination and dedication found in every Marine. It is what compels Marines to serve our country and the Corps. Every aspect of life in the Corps shows commitment, from the high standard of excellence to vigilance in training.
Navy
The Navy has the same core values as the Marines, but each is defined differently. (Text courtesy of Navy.mil.)
Honor—“I will bear true faith and allegiance . . . ” Accordingly, we will: Conduct ourselves in the highest ethical manner in all relationships with peers, superiors and subordinates; Be honest and truthful in our dealings with each other, and with those outside the Navy; Be willing to make honest recommendations and accept those of junior personnel; Encourage new ideas and deliver the bad news, even when it is unpopular; Abide by an uncompromising code of integrity, taking responsibility for our actions and keeping our word; Fulfill or exceed our legal and ethical responsibilities in our public and personal lives twenty-four hours a day. Illegal or improper behavior or even the appearance of such behavior will not be tolerated. We are accountable for our professional and personal behavior. We will be mindful of the privilege to serve our fellow Americans.
Courage—“I will support and defend . . .” Accordingly, we will have: courage to meet the demands of our profession and the mission when it is hazardous, demanding, or otherwise difficult; Make decisions in the best interest of the navy and the nation, without regard to personal consequences; Meet these challenges while adhering to a higher standard of personal conduct and decency; Be loyal to our nation, ensuring the resources entrusted to us are used in an honest, careful, and efficient way. Courage is the value that gives us the moral and mental strength to do what is right, even in the face of personal or professional adversity.
Commitment—“I will obey the orders . . .” Accordingly, we will: Demand respect up and down the chain of command; Care for the safety, professional, personal and spiritual well-being of our people; Show respect toward all people without regard to race, religion, or gender; Treat each individual with human dignity; Be committed to positive change and constant improvement; Exhibit the highest degree of moral character, technical excellence, quality and competence in what we have been trained to do. The day-to-day duty of every Navy man and woman is to work together as a team to improve the quality of our work, our people and ourselves.
Coast Guard (text courtesy of homeport.uscg.mil)
Honor—We demonstrate uncompromising ethical conduct and moral behavior in all of our personal and organizational actions. We are loyal and accountable to the public trust.
Respect—We treat each other and those we serve with fairness, dignity, respect, and compassion. We encourage individual opportunity and growth. We encourage creativity through empowerment. We work as a team. We value our diverse workforce.
Devotion to Duty—We exist to serve. We serve with pride. We are professionals, military and civilian, who seek and revere responsibility, accept accountability, and are committed to the successful achievement of our operational missions and organizational goals.
Memorize These!
Each branch of service has their own creeds, codes, and general orders. Listed below are what you should memorize before leaving for basic training (in addition to the core values and rank structure above). The more you learn now, the easier basic training will be. I have assembled a miscellaneous study guide for you based on the below suggested memorization material which you can download and print for free at: http://goo.gl/2EilY or scan this QR Code:
Army:
Soldiers Code
Soldiers Creed
General Orders
Air Force:
Airmans Creed
Marines:
11 General Orders of a Sentry
Marine Hymn
Marine Code of Conduct
Details of the M16A4 Rifle
Navy:
11 General Orders of a Sentry (yes, it’s different than the Marines version)
Sailors Creed
Guardian Ethos
11 General Orders
Phonetic Alphabet
To ensure a clear transmission of your voice over a radio, the phonetic alphabet is used. Instead of saying a letter, you say the name that corresponds to the letter (Table 15, below and next page). For example, the grid coordinates HJ86101359 will be read as follows (you will learn more about grid coordinates in basic training):
H J 8 6 1 0 1 3 5 9
Hotel Juliet eight six one zero one tree fife niner
Numbers are spoken, as shown in Table 16 (see page 103).
Military Time (24-Hour Clock)
Civilian time does not exist in basic training. In basic training, you will only use military time. Military time runs on a 24-hour clock as opposed to a 12-hour civilian time clock. Therefore, in order to convert civilian time to military time, simply add 12 hours to every hour past noon. For example, 4:00 p.m. in civilian time is 1600 hours (12 + 4 = 16) in military time. Table 17 (below and next two pages) shows you how to convert civilian time to military time.
When you write the date in the military, it should be expressed as day/month/year. For example, April 2, 2012 is 02Apr12.
To see an explanation of military time via video, please go to UltimateBasicTraining.com/howto and watch the video entitled: How to Tell Military Time.
