“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.”
—General Dwight D. Eisenhower
With all the activities the Drill Sergeant schedules during your day, it is no wonder why they make you change clothes so fast. Many recruits are late for formation because they can’t seem to get dressed in five minutes (30 seconds, Drill Sergeant time). There are ways to get dressed much faster and never be late to formation.
Prepare Ahead of Time
Believe it or not, you can prepare little things that the vast majority of your fellow recruits will never think of doing. By thinking and planning ahead, you can make your life easier, and give lots of reasons why the Drill Sergeants should pick on someone else other than you.
Your Uniform
First and foremost, make sure your locker is prepared properly. Here is what I mean: in your locker is your uniform. Is it folded or hung up to your Drill Sergeant’s specifications? Check to make sure your rank, name, and flag patches are all secured properly in the proper position. A common prank among recruits is to rearrange or remove the patches, so make sure you haven’t fallen victim to this prank.
Do a Double Check
Before you go to bed each night, it is a good idea to make it a habit to check the Velcro on your uniforms. If the Velcro gets dirty the patches can fall off or slip from its intended position. Simply give a quick pat down on the necessary areas to remove any dust and debris.
No matter which branch of service you are joining, there are a couple things you can do to make your basic training experience easier. Make sure your uniforms are hung properly in your wall locker or neatly folded in your foot locker. Do not leave them on the ground. After you carefully hang the uniforms in your wall locker, smooth over the fabric with your hand to make sure all the wrinkles are flattened out as much as possible. Believe me, Drill Sergeants do not like uniforms with wrinkles.
Boots
After your uniforms are properly prepared it’s time to prepare your boots. Your boots come equipped with what’s called “quick tie laces.” Do the following experiment. While wearing your boot, see how far down you can unlace your boot until you are able to slip your foot out. Lacing up your boot takes a lot of time, and if you are able to slip your foot in and out without unlacing the whole boot, you will save a lot of time.
Now that your uniform and boots are ready to go, you are ready for that next formation!
The Mental Race to your Wall Locker
Once the Drill Sergeant releases you from formation and gives you three minutes to change, it is time to run to your wall locker and find your prepared clothes. But before you do that, let’s discuss that run to your wall locker . . .
While you are making your way to the locker, you should be mentally thinking of everything you need to bring to formation and where it is in your wall locker. By mentally preparing yourself, you will already know what you need to grab by the time that wall locker flies open.
Now that you have your prepared boots and uniform out of your wall locker, it is time to get dressed. After taking off your clothes, the first thing that should go on your body is your t-shirt. Putting on your t-shirt first allows you not to have to tuck it into your pants later, which is a time killer.
After the t-shirt comes the socks, followed by the pants. Since you left the top one or two buttons undone, the pants will fit easily around the brown t-shirt that needs to be tucked in. So while everyone else is trying to tuck their brown t-shirts into their pants, you will be lacing up your boots.
By now, you should have everything on but your long sleeved uniform. I recommend you put this on last because it has your name on it. You will usually be changing with many other recruits in a small room. With all those articles of clothing lying around, it is not uncommon for clothes to get mixed between recruits. Once you put your long sleeved uniform shirt on, just grab your hat (a.k.a. cover), and any miscellaneous gear your Drill Sergeant requested you bring to formation—and you are ready to go!
Chapter Summary:
• Prepare your clothes ahead of time
• Make sure your uniform matches
• Pay attention how your clothes are hung in your wall locker
• Make your boots slip-on fast
• Put your long sleeved uniform on last