YES! After five months of waiting for a slot, my son leaves home for basic training at Fort Benning Georgia! From there it's off to Fort Sam (San Antonio) or maybe Fort Benning first for Airborne School (not in stone about that). I've been training with him for five months so he shouldn't have any PT problems, and he's not overweight or anything. So if nothing goes awry, the adventure/terror begins for him! Wish I could be a fly on the wall at basic - or maybe not. Guess it's best I'm not there to see the carnage. His attitude is great - he figures with all the humiliation, yelling, etc. it's like jail, but you get paid! Can't beat that!
The only downside is he just got sick - cold, flu, pnumonia, whatever. I told him once he gets to reception at basic (where you spend a week or so getting uniforms, haircuts, shots, direct deposit, etc) to tell someone in charge he's sick so they can treat him before he gets too involved in actual training. They can address it in reception easier than in actual training, where you have to bring your A Game at all times. You don't want distractions in training. Bad timing, but a virus doesn't give a shit.
Yes, I did AF basic in 1980, Army basic in 1988. Looking at the PT standards, if I went back through today at 50 it would be a cakewalk physically. Mentally? Learning new things (basic has changed a lot) might kick my ass. That said, I'm turning this into a father-son project. For every day he's in basic, I will train my ass off in the PT scenario. Of course the specific exercises will differ (again, the Army updating their PT mindset and my own goals to consider) but I'm bringing my A game. No beer and no sweets, and max intensity like I have a purpose and a goal. When I see him again in August, we do a body-fat comparison just for fun.
What are the academic requirements like now? My youngest is leaning more and more in that direction and i worry that he's not serious enough* about his schoolwork to qualify in an age when they can afford to be picky. (*which at some point he can mature enough to realize the stakes and catch up but still, I'm curious)
Has he gone to the Recruiting Station and taken the practice ASVAB yet? Seriously best advice for anyone looking at the military: PJs or CCTs. You make it, you're a fucking badass. You don't make it, you're still in the fucking Air Force.
No, my son doesn't smoke thank goodness. And about the ASVAB - practice and study, then switch it up by study and practice. Also the book ASVAB FOR DUMMIES is great. Lots of practice tests. I also wrote my own practice tests for my son. He did great versus just passing. I wouldn't take it "cold" that's for sure! As for "academic requirements" HS grades don't matter in The Army - don't know about the other branches. All they need is that diploma as far as the recruiter said. Physical requirements vary, but all branches have stepped up their game so any kid better exercise to those standards too.
Depending on whichever branch he's joining it...some are stricter than others. Like Oldfellow said, the Army just wants to see a diploma. They may or may not waive for GEDs and such. The Navy categorizes, where those who graduated out of a traditional high school will have preference over those who got a diploma from a continuation school and those who have a GED. The Chair Force having the strictest standards on everything, they probably won't accept anyone who didn't go to a four year traditional HS, regardless. I've been told that the Navy boot camp has the most amount of bookwork of all the basic training stations. And by that, I mean, we have classes every other day on military whatever and had our recruit handbook glued to us like white on rice. And everone ended up passing all those tests. I'm sure the Army has none of that, so your son will be fine.
Can't speak for POGs but Infantrymen have THIS they have to memorize while in Basic. A thousand forty four pages of Army Goodness. Everything from Establish a Patrol Base, to the Laws of Armed Conflict to Bios of Medal of Honor recipients.
Yep and that is just for the most basic elements of their knowledge. I'm sure its easier now, but back in the dinosaur days we used to have to copy and reduce publications or transcribe them on to index cards, laminate them, and carry them on us because the information requirements were incredible. By the time I made it to team leader I felt like I was carrying a miniature version of an encyclopedia.
If you mail a basic trainee contraband it goes right to the drill sergeants. The Army has a "public mail-call" during basic training and all packages are opened up in front of the whole platoon. That said, it's very entertaining when troops get "love letters" with cute stickers or lipstick kisses etc. all over the envelope! And with the gay ban lifted I can't even guess how that might play out. But these new troops have more to memorize than I had to. They have the seven Army values, the soldiers creed, specific branch creeds during AIT, etc. That's the part I suck at - I'm an improviser, not a memorizer.
That makes baby Jesus sob uncontrollably. Mail call was often the highlight of the day. People busting on each other, joking around, even the Drill Sergeants. It was all in good fun, everyone got razzed. Families sent food but you had to share it with everyone and consume it all right there on the spot.
Something, something, something, deterrent in Peace, something, something, something Close with, engage and DESTROY the enemy in close combat... something, something, something....I am the Queen of Battle. Damn. Now I'll spend all day trying to recall the Infantryman's Creed.
WTF?! In my basic training, the Drill Sargents take all the food items and don't given em back. Not even after graduation!
Yeah, that's how it was with us to. Fuckers would just walk around eating it in front of all the privates.
They gave the snacks to their kids. As for walking around eating your snacks.....screw that! I'm not sending my kid any treats - I'm not feeding the starving Drill Sergeants.
Overall, boot ccamp wasn't so bad, once you get used to it and realize this is all a show. At least, for the Navy boot camp, which focuses more on the head games than the physical stuff--my division went a full five days without PT once. Seriously.
When I went through the Air Force in 1980 it was all head games. And they would not hesitate to kick you to the curb and recycle you to the next flight behind you. Mess up again, and your booted out of the AF. Damn, talk about a buzz-kill. Army basic in 1988 was a cakewalk. Nobody got recycled, but we may have lost a couple for medical or mental illness issues. Regardless, training at all levels is constantly evolving, so any two people's experiences will always be different. If the Fort Benning website is accurate, these soldiers will do doing things we never got to until we got to a real unit. Some of the things only NCO's got to do when I was in! I don't see how they can do all these new things on top of the old school stuff in the limited time they have. They're going to be trained at a much higher level than I was in 1988 - so I guess that's moving in the right direction.
His company commander told me that they will have a Facebook page up in a couple of days, with pics taken by the drill sergeants of what kind of training they are doing throughout the course. Thus, family can spot their soldiers throwing grenades, clearing insurgents from buildings, grappling/fighting and all that other cool shit we all like to do. Awesome!
