Basic Combat Training Experience?

Question

Can anyone tell me about their experience in the Army basic training? What was the hardest part and what should I do to prepare. I'm fresh meat and I don't know much so... please advise. I want to be a health care specialist so where would I most likely be stationed?

Thankyou so much for all the great answers! It helped out a lot on what to expect. Many were detailed and I enjoyed reading all. The hardest part now is choosing which to give the 10 pts to...

Answer 1

First of all, no matter what, never forget the saying, "Tough times don't last. Tough people do." It will be rough. Not physically, but mentally. The worst part is missing your family and frineds and being able to be lazy. But remember, it only lasts 9 weeks, and from that 9 weeks, you open yourself up to a career with so much opportunity.

Actually, now that I am thinking about it, Basic was very easy for me. I didn't have to worry about anything - I just did what I was told. You will execise and run until you are exhauseted, but that only makes you stronger and be able to run farther. You will do endless rifle drills, but that makes you quicker and sharper. All of the skills you learn will not only help you to be the best soldier you can be, it will help you to be a better person and give you skills that you will have for the rest of your life.

So my advice to you is (in no particular order)...

1) Remember that saying whenever you you get iritated.
2) Do what you are told. The drill Sergeants will NEVER ask you to do anything that you cannot do and that they haven't done at least a hundred times. If you choose not to do somethin, you are denying yourself from living up to your potential.
3) Live one day at a time. Don't count down how many days until you graduate, look foward to waking up the next day and doing something new.
4) NEVER volunteer for anything or stand out in any way. Your goal is for the Drill Sergeant to not even know your name at least for the first 5 weeks. (Graduation day mine yelled at me to find my platoon because he didn't even know I was in his platoon)
5) Write letters to your family and friends and encourage them to write back. It helps.
6) If you get bored, you are about to get in trouble.
7) If you get smoked (made to do pushups, situps, etc.) chances are you didn't do anything wrong, the drill sergeants just have that planned to make you stronger.

Answer 2

First of all no basic training is easy whether you join the Marines, Army, Navy, and Coast Guard. In the prior order given is from hardest to easiest. If you want it real easy, go into the Air Force. The fellow responders have good points and suggestions, and you will probably end up in the Mid-East. Why the Army?

Here is a test. If you liked playing in a sand box, making dirt castles, blowing-up things with fire crackers as a child, then the Marines or Army is for you. On the other hand, if you like playing around water, swimming, boats or other water sports as a child, then the Navy or Coast Guard is for you.

You mentioned wanting to be a heath care specialist. Well the best of all worlds and you get a chance to play/work with all the different armed forces components especially in special ops is a Navy Corpsmen.

From Wikipedia - Hospital Corpsmen (HM) are members of the United States Navy Hospital Corps. They serve as enlisted medical personnel. Corpsmen serve in a wide variety of capacities and locations, including shore establishments such as naval hospitals and clinics, aboard ships as the primary medical caregivers for sailors while underway, or with Marine Corps units as battlefield corpsmen, the Marines' equivalent to Army medics. The Hospital Corps is the only all enlisted Corps in the United States military.

The advancement is rapid and rewarding if you are sharp and a people person. The uniform you’ll wear looks good to.

Now, if I sound like or you think I am a Navy recruiter, you’re wrong. I am a retire Navy and once a Navy Corpsmen saved my life. An experienced combat Navy Corpsmen is one of the most respected occupations in the Navy.

Answer 3

Mine was fairly easy. I went through Basic Training at Fort Jackson, SC for the Army. It is called Relaxin' Jackson for a reason. It all depends on your MOS, your branch, and the Post you go through. But I didn't feel all that challenged. Actually I was a little disappointed because i did want to challenge myself. Don't be too nervous, just do what you are told and don't stand out, you'll be fine.

Answer 4

I went through Fort Jackson 11 years ago, so I won't try to explain it, since things have probably changed.

I will give you one piece of advice, and this helped me through my entire Army career. Everything is what you make of it. If you go into an experience with your mind already made up that it will suck, then it will. But, if you go at it with a positive mind-set, it won't be that bad. I was scared to death on my way to Fort Jackson, but I planned on learning as much as I can. It wasn't as bad as I had feared, and I STILL use some of the lessons I learned from my time at Fort Jackson in my everyday life.

Good luck to you!

Answer 5

I went into the military 23 years ago and the hardest part for me was physical training then they still made you run in your boots. The key to being successful in the military is to have a strong mind and not strong opinions those you can keep. If you do as told you won't have any problems. The best part was weapons training. Just for the record i am not a male. for the most part it was interesting i had never been so dirty in my life so make the best of it afer all it is what you make it. GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

I think the hardest part of any boot camp (no matter which service) is not really the physical part, especially if you'rre young. The hardest part is something we call "attention to detail".

You ever see those inspections where a sergeant will bust a soldiers' chops over one little speck of dust, or one little thread out of place on his uniform? That's what I'm talking about. It sounds really nitpicky and anal but there's a very good reason behind it: many soldiers have lost their lives because of "little" mistakes, and in battle you don't get any "do-overs". If you don't pay attention to the little things that you would normally dismiss as unimportant then they sometimes have a way of turning into BIG things that come back and bite you in the a$$. Sometimes it's hard to get yourself into that frame of mind if you're coming from the civilian world, but you'll eventually get it.

I think the second hardest thing about basic *is* physical in way way, but more mental. You see it when you're on your first 5-mile company run. Sometimes, when we're civilians, we look for the easy way around things, or we quit at the first sign of something getting tough. Problem is, if the military did things like that then nobody would survive battle. Basic training doesn't just get you in shape physically, but it also teaches you that just when you think things are too tough, there's still a little more left in you. It teaches you not to quit so darned easily. That's a good thing because people who quit too easily often end up coming back home in bodybags. It's just like they say - "mind over matter".

Answer 7

I went through training many years ago. But there are several things you need to work on or stay focused on. One is your fitness. You will be doing PT everyday. They is the mental aspect of the train. They are going to break you down and rebuild you as a soldier. If you keep focused and maintain a level head about yourself then you will do just fine.
suro

Answer 8

Basic wasn't hard when I went through four years ago. It's easier now, although I'm not sure where you'll go for basic. Tell your recruiter you want to go to Ft. Sill or Ft. Benning. It'll be hard, but it'll be worth it. He'll say he can't do that, but he can.

As a health care specialist, you'll be stationed somewhere that the army has a clinic. So, on an army post. That's as specific as I can get on that one.

Answer 9

Always remember that the Army motto is "Hurry up and wait" Seriously, a lot, if not the majority, of time spent in the Army is waiting. I know that you don't have a clue what I mean, but you will soon enough, trust me. Here's an answer I shared with somebody recently, it tells what basic training is like at Ft. Jackson:

The first place you'll go to is the 120th reception battalion. It's where all new soldiers go. It'll last anywhere from 3 to 7 days. For me, that was the worst week. I say that because the one thing that you'll be doing the most is waiting. You know have no concept of what waiting in a line means by Army standards. Your 'company' will probably have about 600 soldiers in it. You will wait in that line, no talking, all week. Whether it's for chow, hair cut, medical, dental, eye exam, financial, whatever. You have to understand that if it was just one person doing this, it'd only take an hour or two, tops. But they have to process between 1 to 2 thousand soldiers that week. It takes forever. Don't worry, they give you reading material. It's honestly not that hard, just do what they tell you, when they tell you, and don't say anything except yes and no drill sergeant. It really is too easy. Then, usually on a friday, your boot camp drill sergeants will come and pick all of you up. Their goal for your first impression of them is for you to be nothing less than terrified of them. Be expecting this. And no, just about nobody there is going to be nice to you, get over it. I know it sounds mean or whatever, but thats just how it is. After that first week of reception comes the nine weeks of BCT. These nine weeks are divided up into three phases. Pay attention, this is useful: The three phases, in order, are red phase, white phase, and blue phase. Red phase is the first three weeks of training, these are the toughest weeks. During these weeks are when the drills are going to smoke you the most. Make no mistake, you're going to get smoked the entire nine weeks, but red phase is when they really lay it into you. During red phase, you'll go to pugil stick training, bayonette assault course, Victory Tower, confidence courses, and the gas chamber, called the NBC chamber. (Nuclear, biological, chemical, I think). White phase is a lot better than red phase, you get more priviledges and the drills lay off a little bit more. These weeks, however. are considered the most stressful. This is because you'll be qualifying on your M16 A2 rifle. It's stressful because most of the privates won't be able to shoot very well at all right off the bat, it is very frustrating. Often times most of the stress is shown when the privates fight amongst themselves. But as long as everyone keeps their cool, it'll all be OK. Then blue phase is the best phase. The drills start to treat you a little better. Understand that you all will feel a little like cattle, the dirlls always herding you around and treating you like crap. But blue phase is a lot better, and a whole lot of fun. During this phase, you get to go to the grenade range, fire a whole lot of really big weapons, and you'll go to victory forge, a week in the field. It really is a whole lot of fun. Then the last week is clean up, outprocessing, family day, and graduation day.

The thing to remember is, it is NOT as bad as it sounds. It'll take a little adjusting, but chances are that you'll have fun during the whole thing. In order to ensure this, you have to follow this philosophy: Your goal is to not have the Drill Sergeants notice you AT ALL. If it's been 5 weeks in, and the drills still don't know your name, then youre good. The less you stick out, the more enjoyable of a time you'll have. This works both ways; don't do anything to get in trouble (don't talk), and never, never volunteer for anything.

So, have a great time becoming a Soldier in the United States Army. And remember during all the hard times that'll come, remember this; It's worth it.







To prepare, find a path/road with a bunch of hills and two to two and a half miles long, run it as fast as you can four to five times a week. At least five days a week to 150 push ups, they don't have to be all at once, 20 here, 20 there, spread them out throughout the day. Make sure you go all the way up, and all the way down. Every other one, instead of coming right up, stay down for at least 3-5 seconds. And do between 150 and 200 sit ups a day, 4-5 days a week. Do them with your feet down, hands interlaced behing your head, and don't rush through them. Taking time builds muscle and endurance. And cut out the junk food. Every once in a while (every 4 days) it's OK to treat yourself, but in severe moderation. If you do these things, I guarantee that you'll be more than squared away for basic, I was.





P.S. go on goarmy.com and look up Basic Training, they have video recordings of it, it was really helpful for me.

Answer 10

You can be stationed anywhere....all posts have medical personell. Try to get choice of duty station in your contract. But no matter where you are stationed, you will almost certainly end up in Iraq