Has anyone else watched this show? It follows 6 army recruits through basic training. It is a pretty good show, really shows how the Army breaks you down and assimilates you. It is very interesting and some behind the scenes stuff I have never seen before. http://www.historychannel.com/basictraining/ For you Army guys that went through BT, I bet it was pretty tough huh?
I watched it two nights ago. Pretty good. I recently finished BCT and AIT myself, and I found myself rooting for the Drill Sergeants to do more... Yeah, it's rough, but that's where discipline starts. It troubled me to watch them try to make their bunks during reception. None of those fu*kers knew how to make a hospital fold, and that bothered me... You'd be surprised how making a bunk can equate with soldiering. If you can't make a bunk, then how well are you going to put your TA-50 together? And if you can't do that, then how are you going to know how to pack your ruck for a march? And if you can't do that, then how are you going to know how much ammo to carry? And if you don't know that, then how will you know what sort of firing procedures to use - what your ammo concumption rate will be? And if you don't know that, how do you know whether or not you'll even be able to go 'Burst' in a firefight without using up all your ammo? And if you don't know that, then how can you be trusted in a firefight? See, learning how to make a bunk correctly *is* important...
Uh... It's really not *that* important. If you are able to switch to burst and hold the trigger, then I don't give a crap what your bunk looks like. The Drill Sergeants, on the other hand, will make you wish you were dead if your bunk doesn't have 45 degree corners. PT all day long...
I went to Marine Corp Officer Candidate School. Everyone in our platoon slept on top of the covers instead of under the covers so that we wouldn't have to make our beds in the morning.
treeman, As someone considering joining the forces, would you mind answering a few questions for me? 1. On any given day, how many push-ups did you have to do? How many sets and how many reps? Were you expected to do twenty at a time? Forty? Sixty at a time? How many total in an average day? 2. How long were the monkey bars? 3. What was the toughest physical task that you had to overcome? Was it running 6 km? The obstacle course? Something else? 4. What was the toughest mental aspect of basic? Having to get up a 5am every morning? The constant yelling? Having to stand totally still during inspection? Something else? 5. Did anyone get injured and sent home? What happened? 6. Did anyone fail and get sent home for another reason besides injury? Why? 7. Did you do leadership training? Could you describe it? Hope you don't mind answering these.
I think I had a pretty rough time at Basic just because we had a first-time Drill Seargent. We were made to pay for his mistakes and then pay a second time for laughing at his mistakes. We lost our priveledge of carrying a banner for our platoon in the first week. Instead we were made to march behind a push broom the whole time. Suffice it to say, our platoon never won any "team competitions" when put against the other platoons. Fadeaway , I can answer some of your questions from my experience. 1. On any given day, how many push-ups did you have to do? How many sets and how many reps? Were you expected to do twenty at a time? Forty? Sixty at a time? How many total in an average day? For Army, they usually start you off at 50 at a time. Then multiple sets of 50 at different positions (hands together/normal/far apart) By the end of BT, you should be able to do about a 100 in under two minutes. 2. How long were the monkey bars? I never saw any monkey bars. I don't think you'd see that in a combat situation. Definitely you will be climbing ropes. (20' maybe) 3. What was the toughest physical task that you had to overcome? Was it running 6 km? The obstacle course? Something else? The final all day march with full ruck and M16. I forgot how long it was, or I've chosen to forget. 4. What was the toughest mental aspect of basic? Having to get up a 5am every morning? The constant yelling? Having to stand totally still during inspection? Something else? The reliance on your platoon to work as a team to accomplish the goal. Many are used to depending only on oneself. Boneheads will really mess it up for the rest of you. 5. Did anyone get injured and sent home? What happened? Medical problems from before BT, like bone abnormalities or psychological problems. 6. Did anyone fail and get sent home for another reason besides injury? Why? I've heard of someone who tried to steal (hide) his M16. 7. Did you do leadership training? Could you describe it? They usually give you a chance to be a squad leader at one point. Marching, cleaning, preparedness. It's hard if the rest of the squad doesn't respect you.
