“Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
—Winston S. Churchill
Ask anyone in the military, or anyone with prior military service, to describe his first day of basic training. A smile will appear on his face and he will tell you a story full of remarkable detail. I guarantee you that person was not smiling when he was experiencing these events.
The first day of basic training is not fun, and it is not meant to be. But it is an experience most people look back upon and smile about. Every recruit’s first day is a bit different, but generally speaking the same experiences will occur. You will board a bus from the Reception Center. The Drill Sergeants will be yelling at you and banging on windows. Don’t worry, they are not allowed to hit you. As you get off the bus (tip: don’t be the last one off the bus!) you will be given an impossible task that you will fail several times. Even if your company accomplishes the task perfectly, your Drill Sergeants will still say you have failed. By failing, you will be forced to do physical training, and on your first day, you can be sure you will get plenty of it. The following stories describe what six different soldiers experienced on their first day at basic training.
Every recruit’s first day is a bit different, but generally speaking, the same sort of experiences occur.
Specialist James Burke, Ft. McClellan, July 1996
“As soon as we got on the bus at the Reception Center, the Drill Sergeants were yelling and screaming at anyone who looked at them or even opened their mouth to talk.
After the short ride, the bus stopped and more Drill Sergeants packed on the bus. They filled the aisle and one of them yelled, ‘You have exactly 30 seconds to get off the bus.’ As everyone made a mad dash to the door, recruits were running into Drill Sergeants, which made them even angrier. Of course, you can’t file about 150 recruits off a bus that holds 100 people in 30 seconds, so we knew we were in trouble before we even began to file off the bus!
When we were all off the bus, we had to carry our duffle bags with us. The Drill Sergeants would tell us to walk to meaningless points on this field and when we got there, we would have to do exercises because we didn’t get there fast enough. The Drill Sergeants would throw our bags on the ground and tell us to pick them up and roll on the muddy ground.”
Specialist John Bowman, Ft. Leonard Wood, January 2001
“At the Reception Center, we were packed on a cattle truck tighter than a can of sardines. The Drill Sergeants were yelling at us for absolutely everything they could: the sun was shining too brightly, or one of them didn’t like the smell of the cattle truck.
When the cattle truck stopped, we were filed out, lined-up, and ordered to hold our luggage over our heads. When someone dropped his luggage, we all had to do more exercises, exercises I have never heard of before, like the mountain climbers and donkey kicks [see miscellaneous exercises section in Chapter 2]. Of course, we couldn’t do the exercises correctly because we had never heard of them, so that led to yet more exercising. I bet I did one thousand push-ups that day with duffle bags on my back.”
Staff Sergeant Misty Mokros, Ft. McClellan, July 1995
“On the bus, we weren’t allowed to make a sound. I have never tried so hard in my life to hold in a sneeze. The Drill Sergeants were peering at us, waiting for someone to make a noise.
When the bus stopped, a Drill Sergeant told us to ranger walk off the bus carrying all our gear, and go to the middle of this field where he was pointing. No one knew what a ranger walk was [see Appendix 1], so everyone just plowed over each other. Needless to say, we all did plenty of flutterkicks and push-ups for the next hour. After our exercises, we had to line-up our bags in a straight line. If your bag looked slightly out of line, you won a chance to do more exercises.”
Sergeant Kerry Ladd, Ft. Jackson, August 2000
“After we loaded on a bus, about ten Drill Sergeants crammed into the aisle. They introduced themselves on the way to the barracks. The Drill Sergeants didn’t start yelling at us until we got off the bus.
Once they started yelling, we were told to carry our bags up two flights of stairs. We made our way to this large open room where we dropped our bags and had to move these gigantic wall lockers around and arrange them in different configurations per the Drill Sergeant’s instructions.”
Specialist Dawn Hendrix, Ft. Jackson, August 1997
“We were escorted on a very comfortable bus with only two Drill Sergeants. Everyone was silent the whole ride. Funny thing was, so were the Drill Sergeants. They didn’t say a word. When the bus stopped we figured this was when all hell would break loose. Quite the opposite happened. We were told to carefully exit the bus. When everyone was off the bus there was a large table in front of us with juice and cookies. They sat us down and showed us basic marching skills as we ate junk food right in front of the Drill Sergeants. At this point, I was thinking what a great ten weeks this was going to be!
Once the marching exhibition ended, they asked us nicely to get in formation. I guess everyone was acting a little lax from the sweets because we didn’t move fast enough, and all hell broke loose. Drill Sergeants were yelling at us for every little thing and the exercises seemed to last all night.”
Specialist Troy Graham, Ft. Benning, July 1993
“We were packed in cattle trucks so tightly we could barely move our arms. A short ride later, the truck stopped. The gate to the cattle truck opened, and when we got off the Drill Sergeants went off. They were yelling at everything and made us file in alphabetical order in under three minutes, while carrying all our bags. Obviously 150 strangers are not going to be able to file in alphabetical order in three minutes (which in Drill Sergeant time is approximately 45 seconds). Therefore, we spent the remainder of the day doing push-ups with duffle bags on our backs.”
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Did you notice the similarities in each of these stories? In each one, the recruit was given a task he or she was not able to accomplish. Be prepared to fail your first task, and don’t let that failure break your spirit!
After you attend basic training, please go to Facebook.com/UltimateBasicTraining and tell us about your first day. Your story might be featured in a future version of this book!