Toughest U.S. Army basic training?

Question

Which Fort has the toughest basic training for the U.S. Army? I've heard Fort "Relaxin" Jackson is the easiest. Best answer to anyone who can list top 5 Forts in order of how tough they are and give a credible source.

Answer 1

Fort Benning, GA -- Army Infantry
Fort Knox, KY - Army Armor & Cavalry
Fort Sill, OK - Army Artillery
Fort Wood, MO - Army Combat Engineers
Fort Bliss, TX - Army Air Defense

The combat arms troops have it much tougher than the support troops that train at Fort Jackson and the like.

Answer 2

Us Army Basic Training Locations

Answer 3

Fort Benning, GA
...is the home of the Infantry. It is where airborne school is held, sniper school, pathfinder school, and also a basic training site. It is where all the joe's who signed up for infantry attend Basic Combat Training, as well as a few lucky others in other MOS's. It is an all male basic. Fort Knox, KY is another all male basic, so is Fort Sill, OK. Fort Leonard Wood, MO is another tough one, but Relaxin' Jackson (Fort Jackson, SC) is definitely gonna be the easiest. Granted, no basic training is easy, but Fort Jackson is where something like 89% of the females who join the army attend BCT. It is also one of the newest and nicest facilities, thus the quality of life is a little better. I don't know which ones are harder than the others, but I can tell you that Fort Benning is the toughest.

By the way, contrary to what the guy before me said, if you want REAL training, go Army. Army has Rangers, Green Berets, DELTA, not to mention the Airborne divisions, air assault, pathfinders, sappers, etc. Marine corps sniper school is nothing but KD ranges, (known distance). Army sniper school integrates all the ranges with fielding and constant physical training. The ranges are all pop up targets, moving targets, etc. Not just some paper target sitting there on a KD course. There were 3 former marines in my squad in Infantry school. All 3 failed to qualify on the M16 on the Army qualification course. In Army sniper school phase II you are required to pass a certain percentage of "creeps" or "stalks" where you are led 800 meters into the field, and required to stalk the intstructors (who are trying to find you through an observation scope and binoculars) up to within 150 meters, and take 2 shots, being able to identify a 6 inch card they are holding up. Also there are a lot of focus on KIMs games. Keep In Memory. You are walking around a pile of 10 random items with lights flashing, car horns honking, instructors banging on trash cans, making you do pushups and flutter kicks, all at 3am, then the next day, you have 2 minutes to write down the 10 items, size, shape, color, what it appears to be, etc. The Army is real training, because we train for the war. My first tour in Iraq was 1.5 years. Marine corps, 7-9 months. So which is a cakewalk. Go Army.

Answer 4

It is easy compared to what it use to be. I originally joined back in '96 and it was actually pretty tough. Still could get hit back then. I just went through tanker school alittle over a year ago and I basically had to do basic training all over again and this time around I was so disappointed to see what the army did. I can't believe how easy these new privates have it. You cannot smoke or drink though. Accordint to army regulations you only require 4 hrs of sleep a night. Now that means it doesn't have to be all at the same time either. Yes it is constant pressure and the only time off you get is when you are sleeping or at church. Now to punish you there's alot they do. They can smoke you, basically means exercise, but to the point you are hurting and just want to quit. Or extra duty.

Answer 5

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I was in the Army and I went through Basic Training at Fort Jackson in 2002. It's a high stress environment, there's no doubt. If you are looking for direction in life and some self-discipline, you should really do it. I think everyone in the US should. There's nothing like realizing how much you take life for granted until you have your freedom and everything you own taken from you in training and you gain it back after basic and AIT. Training is hard, because it's all day, but you get used to it real quick. If you screw up, they can't physically beat you, but you might have to "beat your face" by doing pushups forever. They'll scream at you all the time too. If you chose to join up, you won't regret it. You'll be a better person for it. It will probably change your outlook on life and give you something to be proud of. It doesn't last forever. Basic is 9 weeks and your AIT (job speciality training) is anywhere from 2 wks to 1 year. After that, depending on your enlistment contract, you'll be in until it's time to "re-up" your contract. So, overall, basic is tough, but it's 80% mental, 20% physical. You may get holidays off to rest, but you still have your drill sgts there. Sundays are pretty much for cleaning and some down time, but not all day. It all depends on the Company and your Drills. Good luck. I hope you chose to follow a promising path for yourself.

Answer 6

Basic Training, like everything in the Army, is standardized. It should not vary significantly from one post to another. All posts will have to follow the same regulations, have the same time to complete the process, and have the same learning objectives.

(Note to file, USMC basic will be more physically demanding than Army basic, and Army Basic will be more demanding than USAF Basic.)

The most important variables will be the personality of the Drill Instructor you get...(you can't controll that) and the weather you suffer through. I knew people who went to basic in Missouri in December and from what they said it was cold, wet and pretty miserable. I went through at Fort Knox, and managed to schedule myself for the spring, thinking the weather would be nice. Just my luck they had a heat wave... the instructors kept talking about "Gee, it normally doesn't get this hot here till August" while they made us drink our water so we wouldn't die from heat exhaustion while carrying our packs in 90+ degree heat.

Once you get beyond Basic, then, and only then, will there be significant variation in how hard the training is.

Your Branch and skill training will be very different. How tough that will be depends a great deal on who you are. For example, Infantry training will be a lot more physically demanding than say, Military Intelligence Training. On the other hand Military Intelligence Training will take a great deal more brainpower than Infantry training. A physically strong guy might find M.I. so intelectually challenging that he winds up washing out of it, but the same guy would be able to breeze through Infantry training because he can push himself physically and he has the strength and endurance necessairy to make it. The reverse is also true.

After your branch MOS training, then schools like Airborne, Ranger, Sniper, and the Special Forces Q course might become available to you, if you qualify. These take physical training and endurance to even higher levels, and are physically demanding in the extreme.

Answer 7

Now, to give credit where credit is due, for the Marine that answered...
Yes, I realise that if you ever transfer branches from USMC to any other you can skip basic, but if you go from any other to USMC you have to go through Marine Corps boot. But, you're job school is a joke. Well, at least the ones my arty, commo, tanker, and grunt Marine friends went through. Two man rooms, no more Drills, no more total control. My MP job school in the Army was 16 more weeks of a BASIC Training, total control environment. Same 80 persons bays [barracks], same waking up at 0400 for PT, same marching to and from chow hall, same everything. So, you defintely had tougher boot, but nowhere near as tough or annoying a job school.

And, have to agree with the other answerer who stated that Combat Arms MOSs have the toughest basics. When I changed from MP to Infantry, even the three week conversion school sucked. But the .50 cal range was fun enough to make up for it. :>

Answer 8

Just like a previous posting, no one can say for certain unless they attended Basic/OSUT at several different places. I did my basic at Ft. Dix, NJ. I didn't find basic all that tough really but central New Jersey in winter sucks!

Answer 9

How can anyone realistically answer this question with any honesty? To do so, you would have to have gone through basic training at least 5 times at different posts.

Answer 10

just a little tidbit... there isn't any basic training course at Ft. Campbell. They have airborne school though, which is really tough, but no BCT. The closest to there is Ft. Benning, GA and Ft. Knox, KY