34 years ago today (Bootcamp day one)

[BOSSHOG]

18 October 1972. The bus pulled up to Recruit Training Command, San Diego. We were assigned to recruiting and outfitting. A rushed meal of something. Assignment of sheets and blankets and a pillow. "Marched" to a barracks. Awakened at 0430 by a badass second class throwing on the lights and throwing a trash can down the passageway. "March" to breakfast then "march" to get a haircut, then "march" to get uniformed, then "march" to learn how to march. 34 years ago today, the good old days.

[CottonBear]

1. You should write a book about your Naval career.

That must have been quite an exhausting day! Did you have long hair before the haircut?

:hi:

[BOSSHOG]

3. Just barely below the ears ( a class of 72 Arkansas long haired freak)

It was quite amusing, 50 guys all lined up at the barber shop with about a half dozen seats, there was no instructing the barber, just sit down and shut up. And, we had to pay for the damn thing. The sweeper was kept quite busy.

I made a whopping $288.00 a month back then, but I got three meals a day and a roof over my head (three hots and a cot)

And you will write home once a week, and you will attend church services on your sabbath (that was just a way to keep us all together), and anything edible you get in the mail (cookies were very popular) will be consumed by all hands upon opening of the package, and you will remove your gas mask in the gas chamber and on and on and on. I got "killed" during onboard firefighting drills. Those were the days.

[BR_Parkway]

2. Thank you again Boss, for then and now

[BOSSHOG]

4. Just did my job - I loved it. But thank you very much.

[redqueen]

5. The good old days...

I am curious... why do you say "the good old days"? Is that perhaps due to your personal outlook and circumstances at the time? Or is it based more on a societal perspective?

Please to expand on that...


Thanks for your service. Pity you didn't get paid the wages that mercenaries are paid now... or Halliburton truck drivers... *sigh* what's become of our armed forces?

Sorry, rambling...

[BOSSHOG]

6. "My" good old days

I look back at the past 34 years and know that I have been very lucky. My time in the Navy was very satisfying. I met a whole bunch of life long friends. Lots of bad things happened during that time but when I look back I see "my good old days." I am very happily married. I am in pretty good shape (for a 52 year old with a weakness for hops and barley.) And the eight weeks I spent in bootcamp was probably the easiest eight weeks of my life. I did not have to make one decision. When to get up, when to eat, when to go to bed, when to read my mail, when to write my mail, when to march, when to study, when to fight fires. Every minute was planned.

I know the early 70's were not the good old days in our country but it was the eve of my adult life and I have been very fortunate ever since. Thank you very much for asking.

[redqueen]

10. Nah, they could be viewed that way...

it's all about perspective. :)

Glad you enjoyed it, and a belated happy "happiest 8 weeks" anniversary to you.

[sarge43]

7. 44 years ago

23 May 62, 0200hrs. We got off the bus in utter darkness except for one pitiful 40 watt light bulb over the doorway of a classic squared off plain jane shack. After what seemed an eternity a man in form fitting perfectly pressed khakis with a long row of strips on the sleeves emerged from said shack. "Airmen, welcome to Lackland AFB. Follow me. Sit down. Fill out these." (The first of the 10,534,923,774 forms I'd fill out in the years to come.) After that we 'marched' through more total darkness to a two story shack filled with double decker beds (Beds Airman!? That's bunks! Gimme a 341.) A woman in form fitting perfect pressed khakis with a very long row strips greeted us and told us rather curtly to make up the bunks as best we could and get in them. Approximately two hours later Day One began. (I did wonder in passing how anyone could look that sharp in the middle of night. I was about to find out.)

I felt like Wiley Coyote in that split second before everything goes to hell. I wanted to hold up a small sign "What in the name of heaven have I done!?"

Years later when I became a recruit wrangler, I learned the above was The Treatment. Scare the crap out of them from the get-go and they'll pay attention. It worked.

Good times, good times.

[BOSSHOG]

8. Thanks for sharing Sarge

I look back very fondly at my first eight weeks in the Navy. I even got the yearbook, the oldest treasure in my I love me Room.

[sarge43]

9. You're welcome, Boss

We didn't get a yearbook, but I still have our graduation picture. How young we were, how very young.

And how vivid the memories, but then it was a vivid experience.

[Rick Myers]

13. You've brought back memories of January 1976

About the same arrival process. Alot of yelling, that kind of thing, but you could tell these men really cared about us.

Lackland Air Force Base, barren and stone-cold.

But I remember every minute, and I don't regret a thing, except not staying in for 20!!!

[sarge43]

14. But San 'tone was a great town.

Lackland AFB, barren and stone-cold when it hasn't hot, windy and dusty.

January '76, mmmm. I may yelled at you -- just for stuff and grins, of course.

[unhappycamper]

11. June, 1963

Ft. Leonard Wood, MO

Took the bus from Omaha with a bunch of cocky guys. We were greeted by a impeccably dressed skinny buck sergeant in a DI hat back in the days when cursing was acceptable. I do not remember exactly what he said, but I remember it was impressive. It took me all of 20 seconds to figure out that my ass was grass and he was the lawn mower. My prophecy was on the money.

It was a hot and miserable eight weeks. Army issue clothing that did not fit. Shots (in the arm.) Mess hall food. Marching through the boonies. Dust. PT. Sand. Thirst. Whitewashing rocks and dirt. Police call. Inspection. M-1 thumb. Obstacle course.

Even after all these years, that skinny buck sergeant sticks out in my mind. The rest of it is an unpleasant memory.

[AwakeAtLast]

12. Hey UC! That's where my husband did boot camp!

But they called it "Ft. Lost-in-the-woods, Mis'ry".

Everything you write sounds like what he told me, too. Except he went in Feb. 2004!

Funny how things don't change much in the military, huh?

:hi:

[Mortis]

15. Aug 3rd, 1986

I arrived at OSUT in Ft Benning, GA.

[Joey Liberal]

16. Ft. Dix, 16 September, 1980

Ft. Dix was not a pleasant place for a "Basic Trainee" to be in those days. This was when the stress monsters in the smokey the bear hats still cursed and screamed. I look back and laugh now, but I wasn't laughing then...............One of the happiest days of my life was the day I left that place in November, 1980.

[BOSSHOG]

17. I was TAD to FT Dix

in 97. Rather strange for a Swabbie to be on an Army Base. I believe it has closed down since then.

[Joey Liberal]

18. I think it's a reserves base now n/t

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. I guess I had a "good" basic

2 weeks in Ft Knox, waiting for a training opening, then flown to Ft Bliss, El Paso, for the "real" basic. Big improvement, flat-land running, good food, barracks with concrete floors (clean with a hose & squeegee, no "buffler"). And, it was a dry heat (Jun, Jul).

Thirst was the killer. Spent a lot of time jostling for a teat at the water buffalo.

Dumbest reward: If you break the rifle stock on the bayonet course, the sergeant praises the aggessiveness and you get to sit in the shade and smoke cigarettes while the rest keep charging. (stocks were wood, M14's).

After that, Ft Polk, LA. what a hole.

[The Wizard]

20. It all started about 40 years ago

in Ft. Campbell, Ky. The home of the 101st Airborne had just reopened for basic training. We arrived at about 4:30 in the morning with an E6 in starched fatigues and a Smokey The Bear hat screaming in our faces as we stepped off the bus. Sgt. Dudley was an airborne ranger with a black belt in karate. He once jumped out of the second floor of the barracks to demonstrate the fastest way to the ground. He looked like he'd rip out your heart with his bare hands. The other drill sergeants wouldn't even joke with him out of fear. I credit him with preparing me for what was in store, surviving Vietnam. And surviving Vietnam was my primary mission.
They spent eight weeks preparing us for war and no time preparing us for a return to civilian life after the war. Just about anyone who was in combat would benefit from readjustment counseling. What is the spirit of the bayonet?