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Location: Great falls, Mt but on my way to Pittsburgh, Pa
29 posts, read 109,037 times
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I arrived at Lackland AFB 15 October 2002 for BMT. I will never forget the feeling I had on the plane when they said welcome to San Antonio folks. Well we get off the plane and the TI was waiting for us. I was 18 years old and still used to civilian mode so I asked the TI "can I go smoke my last cigarette?" He replied "you've smoked your last cigarette!" I was thinking to myself God, what did i do?
I remember the day we got our shots, they told us now the penicillin shot is gonna hurt and you're gonna have to lean on someone to walk. I thought to myself Ha, not me. Man after that shot, me and this kid were leaning on eachother like we were hammered drunk leaving a bar.
In the Air Force some of BMT was in a classroom, now these classes were extremely boring and we were all so tired, so staying awake was definitley a problem. I remember this kid slapping himself in the face HARD over and over trying to keep himself awake.
One time the instructors left the room, or we thought they did, sometimes I think they could teleport. Well this kid started to sing and the instructor heard him. Came back into the bay and asked are you a juke box? The kid said No sir? Well the instructor had the kid get into the wall locker, closed the door, put a quarter through one of the slots and said well Now you are, and i wanna hear some music.
I remember the first night there they had us all go into the bathroom and shave. Now shaving while being yelled at is hard, it turned into a blood bath! The first thing I did was grab my towel and hold it on my face, you know the towel that's supposed to go on the end of your bed for inspection? haha not good. Pushups in the shower is also crazy, we were falling all over the place.
Now that I'm coming to the end of my enlistment, I look back on these past 6 years often. Looking back, I am so glad I went through all of that. I grew up right and learned a lot about myself. I too will remember my instructors names forever I'm sure.
Good one...just providing a little history for you YOUNG whippersnappers!
There ya go!
Makes you humble when you think of trying to follow is the footsteps of some of those heros, doesn't it?
I met a young fellow who was in basic about 3 months ago. He was worried about going through the gas chamber. Can you beleive that? Anyhow I did everything I could to ease his mind. hehehe. Eyes burning, tossing cookies, skin burning, couldn't breathe, ah, for the good old days.
I have a lot of them , especially my buddies
But for starters "Mess Hall" breakfast
"Bivouac" and "Nightfiring"
"M60"
"Lock and load one thirty round magazine" (what a rush)
Firers "scan your sector"
Low crawling in the rain
22 mile road march , just to find out I we had went in circles
Hiding M&M's and Kit Kats under my tee-shirt and selling them to the other GI's in the field
The long bus ride into Fort DIX late at night.. I was thinking oh crap what did I get myself into. then the death march from reception to our barracks... come to find out after graduation the reception and our walk was just a couple blocks, they marched us the long way. The Day we stood out front after the march, and then the flood of drills bouncing their brown rounds off our foreheads, pulling chest hair that stuck out and screaming. I can still tell you what the brick color and texture was on the building I locked onto. But that is just the tip of what I remember about basic training.. we had an all female unit across from us, and the show at night and the flashing morris code was fun. We had a guy get poison ivy on his privates from sneaking off with a girl in that unit.. they were easy to figure out. I was on hold over status as was one of the females in that unit, we got liberty and hooked up in town. After basic training your so ready for action that it was memorable for both of us I think.
Oh do any of you remember sweat boxing? When it would be snowing so hard outside that they would clear the bottom rooms and have PT in there?
Basic Training was the best of times.. back then I would not of believed that... but now I miss it.
Here is yet another basic training story.. its 3am, and a drill taps me on my shoulder and tells me to go wait outside ( FIRE-DUTY ).. he grabs the trash can and takes a small silver tube out of his pocket and drops it in the trash can and sets it down walking slowly away.. BOOOM! alarms are sounding, they are screaming, GET OUT GET OUT! I was one of 3 people fully dressed.. while 4 drills harassed us outside the rest were doing an inspection... There we were doing PT at 3am, in our underwear, for the girls enjoyment. Ahh good times.
I find myself hanging out on Fort Bliss early in the morning listening to cadence. I wish I was able to still sing along with them and have that same bonding I had back in the day.
This is too funny;
Didn't everyone just love those frequent inspections......
Putting Mop n Glow on boots; after pulling fireguard all nite
They were shining***, but I held up the whole Co 5:30A for about 1 hour, while the Drillllllll Sgt, sent me back upstairs to polish them the Army way
Hoorah
Homesick, homesick,homesick and lonely, so lonely when I lay in my cot listening to taps every night..Even 47 years later, I remember that whenever I hear "taps"
Blue;
You know what I can too
This had to be a subliminal form of torture...
The cot........[reflecting] ahhhh yess
I almost hate to sleep in my warm bed now, I miss it sooo much
i was still in the reception station on the 4th of july (1982). We were marched to a theater to watch a movie. It was about some ppl trying to escape the soviet union in a hot air balloon. At the time i thought it was some type of propaganda thing, but it turns out it was a real movie.
I learned that a Navy uniform was not sufficient for December at Great Lakes Training Center north of Chicago. I also learned to say “YES, SIR!” I do not do that anymore. Ever! I learned lots of things in the navy including do not go onto deep water in an old decrepit DE. Do not take a Liberty ship across the Pacific Ocean unless you really like boredom. Do not go on riverboats when the natives are pissed off that you are trying to steal their country. Mostly, I learned that the military was a support system for the alcoholic and insane.
This is NOT a good morning.
Hey, you left out them cold vd wars along the China coast and the far east.
Clap if you were there....
Last edited by ArkansasTraveler; 09-13-2008 at 12:28 AM..
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