February 23, 2024 • 26 mins
Strap in and brace yourself for a raw, unfiltered journey through the Army basic training. If you've ever wondered what it takes to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with America's finest, this episode will march you right into the heart of the action, where I share my personal stories from the frontline of military preparation. Discover the indispensable knowledge every recruit needs, from mastering creeds to the fitness fundamentals that could make or break your first days at Fort Benning or a similar establishment. I'll break down the sleep strategies that might just save your sanity, explain the steps of the reception process, and provide feedback on what the media portrays as basic training.
Navigating the rigorous path of army life requires more than just a strong body; it calls for a fortified mind. In this episode, we dissect the mental gymnastics and physical endurance tests that await you, offering sage advice on staying resilient under pressure. You'll hear how to manage the mundane, like arranging your finances and choosing the right communication plans, ensuring that when duty calls, you're ready to answer. I also share how to keep fit in the barracks' limited quarters, preparing you for the intense unity of One Station Unit Training. And before signing off, we set the stage for an intimate discussion on the 'Sunday scaries' , complete with anecdotes from Reddit users who've lived to tell the tale.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Good morning y'all.
Welcome back to the show.
If this is your first time here, welcome to the show.
For everyone returningAppreciate y'all coming back
time after time checking outeach episode and each topic we
talk about.
For everyone tuning in rightnow, let me know we are going to
do another giveaway next week.
It'll be based on the poll thatwill be attached to this
(00:39):
episode and the episode comingout on Sunday Also in the
Instagram feed.
There'll be the same poll there.
What you guys want it to bewhether that's a gift card or
something obviously it'll beregional stuff or just a Visa,
gift card or apparel and merch,and we'll kind of just go from
there On.
Today's episode is more gearedto those thinking about joining
(01:03):
the Army.
Sorry for the other services, Iwas not in any of all the basic
training so I can't comment.
However, I can talk about myexperience and what YouTube
portrays on what basic trainingis like in the US Army.
This is, if you are just going,active duty, reserves or Army
National Guard.
We're going to talk aboutthings like what to expect, what
(01:25):
to pack, things to be mindfulof in your process or progress
as you go through your training,things to plan for later on
what your recruiter probablylied about what is the
transition life like of having alife to not having a life, and
what happens when you first getthere, versus your first 10
(01:48):
weeks.
Okay, guys, here we go.
I'm going to tell you that yourfirst 24 hours when you come
from MAPS, my best advice to youis to sleep.
Sleep as much as you can.
You're on the bus for 20minutes, take a nap.
You're on a plane somewhere.
Sleep on the plane ride.
You got an hour bus ride fromAtlanta to Fort Benning or Fort
(02:12):
Moore.
Sleep on that bus ride.
I'm telling you it is going topay dividends in the next 24 to
36 hours Also.
So I don't know anything aboutbasic training at Fort Jackson.
I went to Fort Benning, fortMoore.
So that is also just a thing tonote on that.
This is basic training at FortMoore for enlisted soldiers.
(02:33):
So, depending on what your MOSwas, there's going to be a
couple things you need to studyor Google the 10 basic things.
So I was infantry.
There's the infantryman's creedand the soldier's creed.
It is in your best interest, or, as your drill sergeant is
(02:54):
going to tell you, it wouldbehoove you, it would behoove
you to know those two things.
Other thing is know the Army'sbirthday, the National Anthem,
the Pledge of Allegiance, and beable to count to five.
I don't know why that's a thing, but surprisingly you need to
be able to count to five.
Also, in your prep, hopefully,you do a lot of cardio, because
(03:17):
running is going to be thenumber one thing you do and body
weight exercises is also goingto be the biggest thing you do.
So you get on that bus.
Let's say you take a nap andyou show up to Fort Benning,
fort Moore or whatever.
You get to what they callreception, you're going to have
a drill sergeant acting allnonsense like and scary on the
(03:40):
bus like this is my bus.
You're going to get off my busand you're going to Cool
whatever, and someone else gonnaget out.
Hey, you're gonna say no, drillsergeant, yes, drill sergeant,
roger, joe Sergeant, some shitlike that.
Get a whole brief on it and thenessentially, you're gonna go,
you're gonna dump out your bagand You're gonna eat what's
called a Jimmy D.
It's absolutely trash, unlessyou get the tuna one.
(04:01):
I recommend the tuna.
The pork is pretty gross, buteat little Jimmy D.
You got about 10 minutes andthen you does, immediately into
the next room.
All right, hey, get rid of yourstuff, grab these two books.
You're gonna get on this phone.
You're gonna tell your parentsyou made it.
Hang it up, keep on pushingright.
That's essentially.
That's them trying to shock.
You go through, you go and Tothis big building and you got
(04:25):
these two bags and you just graball your gear, uniforms,
everything first, first basicsYou're gonna need.
You walk out of there.
You're gonna go to a Baybarracks is what it kind of
looks like.
You're gonna drop your bags off.
You're gonna come back down andyou're gonna get this brief on
your first day and Basicallyyour first days when this is now
(04:47):
is like probably five in themorning.
So you go through your firstday, you're gonna go get your
Head shaved, you're gonna getyour eyes done, your ears done,
your teeth done and then inbetween that, you're gonna be
sitting in this hot-ass roomreading the blue book.
The blue book is essentially ageneral basis of rules, and the
(05:10):
blue book was the guide writtenby George Washington on how to
create an army, lead an army, bean army, the Relationship
between soldiers and leaders,what to expect, how important
food, sleep and basicNecessities are.
It gives you guidelines onDrilling ceremony, which is
gonna be like, hey, like forwardMarch, column left March, like
(05:32):
your marching movements, whatthe colors mean, what the flag
is.
It will give you your creed ofa soldier's creed.
It will discuss warrior ethosand I I don't really know too
much out top top my head I don'thave a blue book in my hand
right now to read, but that's,that's essentially what you're
gonna be doing.
And if you fall asleep there'sgonna be some angry ass drill
(05:52):
stars and just showing up onyour desk and telling you to
Stand up and that's gonna be along two or three days of
standing.
You might like this.
This is where people get itwrong.
So, like on YouTube and thetelevision show, they show you
all your first 72 hours.
You can just woken up and and,really good, nada.
You're gonna show up toreception, you're gonna.
You're gonna go to light out at10, wake up at 0, 4, 0, 5,
(06:13):
whatever, salute the flag, goget breakfast and do all your
doctor's appointment stuff to inprocess.
Right, that's your first week,week and a half when you get to
basic training.
You don't actually go to thebasic training 198, 199th
regiment brigades and trainuntil you're done with all your
(06:34):
in processing, which is alsogonna include paperwork, dears,
bah BAQ, bas information.
It's gonna include yourcitizenship information if
you're Someone trying to get acitizenship.
It's going to includeImmunizations, any file doctor
appointments you know might needto do.
That's, that's a.
That's basically what what yourfirst two weeks is.
(06:56):
No, it is the best defect.
Defect is in the dining facility.
Those who don't know it is thebest defect you are ever going
to have in your entire militarycareer.
Those ladies will give you thefattest portions, they will be
the nicest and they'll let youpick your food.
That's better than you what youknow.
Once you get to a, once you getto a unit and you're at like a
(07:18):
fort hood or Fort Drum or FortLewis or Fort Carson, you will
understand what I'm saying.
Everyone agrees 30th AG's foodwas always busting the grandma
cookies.
You gonna steal some.
You gonna do some slick shit.
You probably gonna get smokefor it, but everyone's gonna
understand.
Now, after you have Done your inprocessing, now it's the
(07:43):
morning that you are actuallygoing to your training.
You're gonna wake up at 0 3.
You're going to Meet yoursenior drill sergeant, who's
kind of like your mentor, in asense AKA.
He still don't want to talk toyou or do anything.
They're going to do somerehearsal, pt exercise,
stretching, whatever.
(08:03):
Then they're gonna give you anMRE.
You're gonna hop on a Anotherbus to go to another bus and
then you're gonna go do what'scalled the first 100.
Your first 100 is what theycall the hundred yards or the
last hundred yards of a war.
World War one is where thiscomes from.
That you need to cross thathundred yards that was called
(08:25):
dead bands.
Land and make to the other sideis a success.
In a mission, there's gonna besmall mission tasks that are
gonna be team building oriented,with a bunch of people you
don't know and A really weirdand trick way to figure it out.
It is gonna be you and yourteam's plan to Go through and
complete those tasks in as fastas possible and accurate as
(08:47):
possible.
For example, me, we had toStrip a pallet down of like
miscellaneous of litters ammocans, gas cans, water cans and
you have to rebuild the palletthe exact way it looked in a
different location.
I think that the, no matterwhat you do, the drill sergeant
is gonna tell you hey, this iswrong, fucking push, or you're
(09:08):
gonna do one of the exercisesthat they quote in Coordins with
FM 7-22 there is nothing Ican't do or say and they're
gonna make you do a stupidexercise within that realm.
Right, you're gonna get up,you're gonna next station to the
same thing, to the same thing,all while sprinting in some very
Uncomfortable, dirty 30 boots.
(09:29):
The boot you get at 30th AGOkay, they're a standard, they
are a Basic, but like man, likethe minute you get a chance to
buy some boots, you buy someboots, you Complete your tasks.
You get to your your BayBarracks.
Right here in your Bay Barracks, you're kind of gonna go
through another Gear issuing.
You get all the stuff that's inthose cages that the unit has
(09:49):
to train you with.
It's not always gonna be thebest, it's not gonna be the
worst, but it's training right.
So you get all this stuff.
You're assigned for it.
You are gonna be shown how tomake a bed.
You're gonna be shown how manysocks you can have out, pieces
of underwear you can have outshirts, you can have out how
many uniforms you can have out.
They're gonna show you how toset up your locker.
(10:10):
And if your stuff is not donethat way During any time they
want to do an inspection.
I Could assure you that youwill get fucked down, you will
get smoked and you will be doingsome dumb exercises and it will
get really stupid, I can assureyou.
Well, and your drill sergeantsare Gonna be your coach, your
(10:32):
friend, but only your friendwhen trying to teach you
something.
And what I mean by that is whenyou are trying to conduct a
squad attack or a battle drillor weapons qual and doing like
M4 they call it PMI, preliminarymarksmanship instruction and
(10:53):
you're going through the stepsof it.
There they will be your friendto make you comfortable in the
situation, so that you learn.
But once you get that Firstblock of instruction, it turns
into like he is no longer yourfriend.
He is here to make sure, like,hey, you are stupid, you are,
you are a lost cause, and thisis where you get called the
plethora of names that you hearon YouTube.
(11:16):
So you got your first day done,you got your stuff issued, you
turn in whatever stuff you hadleft because pretty much like I
don't know why, recruiters tellyou to have a packing list and a
whole this.
That no, literally like go withsome basic hygiene items, one
set of clothes and and, honestly, you want to bring Underwear,
(11:38):
socks, socks with no labels onthat's.
That is what you need to bring,because the socks that give you
young is really not that good.
The underwear they give you are, straight up, just old,
whitey-tidy granny panties fromlike the 1950s and them shit
just ain't comfortable with thefuck.
I'm totally being honestunderwear, socks and Hygiene
(12:00):
like toothpaste, toothbrush,extra toothbrushes because
they're coming handy.
We got to clean your weapon orclean stuff like Toothbrushes
gonna come in handy late lateron, when you go, when you go
through.
Those are the things you canthen trade up to get the good
MRE snacks.
Those are the things you cantrade up that are gonna get you
what else you need to get by,whether it's a pen, paper, etc.
(12:21):
Those are the things you aregoing to need long term.
Those are the things you wantto sustain and stack on.
This is where the television andYouTube is accurate.
Is that they?
They come in at.
I Say two o'clock, two o'clockin the morning, all right, you
come in at two o'clock in themorning.
They just blow, blow your mind,man, they are awake, they are
alert, they are coming at you,they are ripping your entire Bay
(12:45):
apart, flipping beds, lockers,unlocked.
They're flipping those over.
You got shaving cream anywhereFrom there?
That that's when it's veryaccurate to the TV and the
YouTube portrayal.
That's when you Really get hithard with the reality that, oh
shit, I'm in the service, I'mthe army.
Now this is what I need to do,and they do that to confine you
(13:07):
and uniform you mentally.
Biggest thing to work on is keepa small headspace and go
through that.
That's with a lot of armyschools.
You hear guys that you know forthe, for the whoo guys, I
wanted to Ranger school or 75thRegiment, or I want to go to
this school, that school, likefurther on the career.
Good for you.
But always keep a smallheadspace.
Don't let a small mistake ruinyour day and when big things
(13:31):
happen, it take it for what itis.
Don't don't do the same asthink I do when I has a big
happen.
I took it, I shut down and Istraight up failed it right.
So for you, don't Get takenadvantage of on that small
headspace and keep your headclear and just do the motion and
whatever makes the most sense.
Obviously, don't stay here andover analyze a problem or a
(13:54):
situation.
Just do.
It makes the most sense and itwill help you, I promise.
So now you're going on to yourfirst Sunday.
Right, it's been Two weekssince you left home.
You might have gotten yourphone one time for 20 minutes.
Yeah, this Sunday, yeah, youain't getting your phone, bro,
you is gonna do what they callarea beautification, or you're
(14:17):
gonna go to church and thenyou're gonna come back.
You're gonna do some push-ups,you're gonna do some mountain
climbers, you're gonna go to thedefect, you gonna sing the army
song, you're gonna sing thenational anthem the soldiers
create, infantry man create.
And, if you don't know it, youwas running, you is running a
long way and you'll come back.
You'll do it again till you sayit right.
(14:37):
Then you'll go eat and you'llgo eat within that time frame.
Listen, just don't look at thefood.
Just step here, step here, stephere.
Don't look left, don't lookright, just Just keep moving.
And even if you do thatperfectly, a drill is still
gonna get you in your face andsay why are you fucked up?
You ain't gonna know why you'refucked up, but you're fucked up
, you're just.
You ain't standing right, youain't holding the tray right,
(14:58):
you ain't.
Something is fucked up that youare doing.
That's it.
And then you go sit down.
The way you're eating is wrong.
The way you taste your food iswrong.
The way you Whatever you'redoing your plate is wrong.
And then if you don't eat allyour food, you're gonna get
yelled at.
I mean, hey, if you don't eatit you don't need it, but like
you're gonna need those calories, I promise you you are going to
(15:18):
need the calories.
For me, every time I went to thedefect and left the defect, you
do what we call a buy-in.
It was five pull-ups, 10push-ups, 15 squats.
Lap around the barracks.
Lap was like a little more thana quarter mob, wasn't a half
mob, but you did that.
Every time.
You got breakfast, lunch,dinner and, on top of all the
(15:40):
exercise You're doing forgetting smoked.
If you weren't on the line whenthey went to do roll call at the
end of the night, you weregetting smoked.
If you Didn't have your bedperfectly folded at the 45, your
bed was getting flipped.
You were getting smoked.
If, if you didn't knowsomething or didn't study
something, they told you thatyou're preparing for you were
getting smoked.
Pretty much, you're gonna getsmoked.
(16:01):
It's inevitable, it is okay.
I assure you you will not die.
I can assure you, as long asyou hydrate and you eat, you
will be okay.
I can assure you you'll be okay.
I'm okay.
I wouldn't if that is how I wasa fat toby dude when I joined.
All right, so just just bemindful of that.
How do you will make it.
Right now you get into yoursecond week.
(16:23):
This is where you'll get yourfirst phone call.
You'll send a letter out toyour parents, a haze where you
can mail me stuff.
When they start mailing youstuff, do not get the candy,
because the drill sergeant'slike the candy.
Do not get the vapes to dip,because you know you just you're
asking for trouble, right?
No, you're gonna ask for somedry, fit like underwear, like
dukes, right, tackle underwear.
(16:44):
You're gonna ask for Fox Riversocks to help with the blisters.
You're gonna ask for mullskinsso that your feet don't get torn
up.
Okay, you're gonna ask for Dry,fit green teas or tan teas ever
you want to call them, so thatway, like you don't shave,
you're not sweating like a bitch, and Hopefully it makes your
day a little bit better.
Maybe, honestly, maybe even getsome toilet paper, because the
(17:06):
toilet paper kind of sucks too,and it was a hot commodity at
some time.
So just Putting that out, theresome things that you might want
to tell your mom.
Hey, get this for me.
This is what I need, notskittles, not dips, not babes,
not like.
Trust me, you could be anicotine fiend and they're all
nicotine fiends, but what youwant is dry fit underwear, dry
(17:31):
fit shirts, fox river socks soyou can ruck, you can move, you
can sweat and you'll be okay,right?
So it is now like you're acouple weeks in.
You're going into white phasebecause you're out of what they
call red phase.
I don't really think the phasesmatter.
It all depends on what yourtraining cycle is, what the land
and ammo allocation is fory'all, but white phase is going
(17:53):
to be the most time you shoot,training.
You will go every day to therange and you will shoot and you
will shoot and you will shootand you will shoot.
If you didn't think you shot,you're going to shoot, and every
day you're going to shoot andshoot and shoot.
To learn how to manage recoil.
You're going to learn how toaim.
Point of sight, point of aim aretwo different things.
(18:13):
You're going to learn how toshoot on iron sights, which
means you don't have a sight onit, you're not looking on a call
of duty, high sped, and thenyou're going to go into having
something like a red die.
It's like all they use in basictraining, to my knowledge.
Once you get to a unit someunits have ACOG, some units have
these things called M10 cansYou'll have different scopes you
(18:35):
can always attach I do knowsome people do attach their own
scopes to their weapons.
As long as you're in the armsroom, no one really gives a shit
.
So something to be mindful of.
But in basic you've got toqualify on the iron sights and
then you have to qualify on thehigh speed.
You know red dot, acog, etc.
You can go from there Becauseyou do get like 20 something
(18:57):
opportunities to the qual.
There's basically no reason youshouldn't qualify.
But even if you don't qualify,the move, the move you want
you'll.
You go to the next phase andyou're going to pass.
You go into learning team stufflike how to build a patrol base
, like very, very basics.
So yeah, how to build a patrolbase, how to land nav, how to
(19:23):
read a map, how to understanddifferent kinds of grenades, how
to understand the differentweapons systems, what each
weapon says can do, what kind ofrounds we have, why do we use
these rounds?
You'll learn a little bit oflike historical like hey, these
bow drills happen because ofthis or because of this, and
(19:43):
this is why we do this way.
Right, and it's called doctrine, and doctrine is kind of like
the end all be all.
You're going to learn somebasis about different regulation
that like is going to pertainto you in basic Nothing, nothing
crazy.
You get to like week week 10,you go do the fours.
This is where, like TV andYouTube, they really hyped us up
.
Okay, so, yes, there is machinegun fire over your head.
(20:07):
Yes, they do have some grenadesgoing off near you.
Yes, you do crawl under barbedwire for a little bit, but like
it's like two feet in the airwhere you can really get up on
your hands and knees and, likebear, walk it.
The machine gun fire is nowherenear you.
It's totally safe.
Like the drill sergeant isgoing to walk behind you.
So if they're they're standingand walking, like you ain't
(20:29):
going to get shot.
Okay, I promise you, you'regoing to rock a couple times.
You're going to do an obstaclecourse.
You know you're going to climba rope, you're going to crawl
some mud, you're going to getreal muddy, you're going to get
real dirty, you're going to getreal wet and it is what it is.
But at the end of that you'relike, wow, I really went through
that and it sucked.
And then you have family dayand then you'll have your basic
(20:52):
graduation.
Like, oh my God, I got mylittle US Army patch and get a
little beret and you're gonnawalk around for for bending for
more at the PX, looking like afool.
But If you're gonna look like afool, make sure you get some
boots, make sure you get auniform.
I say get the hot weather,cause it's like pajamas and
that's your best bet.
(21:13):
Popular questions I get when itcomes to basic training is okay,
let's say you have bills.
How do you take care of that?
All of your bills you need toset up to automatic payments or
make sure you have, like yourmom or dad, have access to your
bank account and pay that.
If you have, like any debtsthat you really wanna pay off,
(21:34):
pay off a lot of, because you'renot spending money.
You're not spending money on agas, you're not spending on
bills, take that money and payyour debts off, bro, like, get
ahead on your debts and getahead on anything you might own
the back.
Okay, and then going forwardwith that right, look at
starting switching over yourphone plan to something that's
gonna be military friendly.
(21:55):
Start planning for your futurewhen you're just sitting there
thinking about all your time, soyou usually have access to
books and you can read stuff.
I mean, it's not gonna tell youeverything, but look at
military credit cards ormilitary friendly credit cards
that aren't gonna fuck your debtover, right, if you are told
you get your orders and you say,hey, I'm going to this base in
(22:16):
eight weeks, okay, cool, startlearning about the area, knowing
where you're going, and thenfigure out if you're gonna get
hometown recruiting or not, soyou can know, hey, this is how
much time I'm gonna have to planto get my stuff and get it here
.
This is where I'm gonna be, andset yourself up.
That's the biggest thing.
I wish I got told more when Iwas in basic training was
(22:36):
research, the area you're goingfirst.
Obviously, what it did for mewas I ended up not going to what
my order said, which is fine.
It is what it is.
But for you if, hopefully yourorders are right start looking
that stuff up and start tellingyour parents to look that stuff
up.
So then, when you do get yourphone for that one Sunday, later
(22:56):
on, you can kind of be likeokay, hey, this is where I'm
going, this is the area, this iswhat to expect and you can plan
, which I think will give you alot more success going forward.
Another question that I gotbrought up was you know what if
you run out of something?
If you run out of something,you're gonna tell your drill
(23:17):
sergeant and there's alwaysthese little shoppets of PX you
can go get what you need at anytime.
Okay, if some gear gets damaged, they can switch it out for you
.
Like you're gonna be okay,you're not gonna run out of
stuff, you're not gonna run outof deodorant or anything like
that.
Like you're gonna be okay, allright.
Then another question I got waswhat do you do about excelling
(23:39):
at fitness?
Man, I'm gonna tell you thisthis was our workout.
It was me, this Duke Estelnik,this guy is Rietta and this guy
Humphreys Four of us.
We set up the gym that's whatyou call it.
So we took all the books, putthem in a laundry bag, we hung
it over a rung on the bed, madethat a tricep pull down, filled
(24:01):
up another bag with all of ourboots and gear.
That became our bicep curls bagand then we would do pushups in
the area and then we would goto the showers and do pull ups
and then leg raises and that'skind of like that's your workout
(24:21):
.
They had weights that weweren't allowed to get until the
AIT portion because I was anOSIT based on my MOS.
So, depending on your MOS anddepending on, like your unit and
your drills, you might have gymequipment but you're not gonna
go to an actual gym.
You're going to work out inyour bay because your bay is
everything.
Your bay is where you sleep,it's where you eat, it's where
(24:44):
you hang with your buddies onthe whatever your downtime or
late time, whatever.
That's it.
Then commenting on OSIT so OSITis like one station unit
training.
Yeah, you don't go to a new bay, you don't go to a new barracks
.
You stay where you are with thesame people.
You might get some new guyscoming to the recycles or
(25:05):
they're changing MOSs, so that'sjust what it is.
But other than that, like you'renot changing anything at one
station unit training.
You are with the same guys for22 weeks, or I think it's 21,.
I think they shortened it aweek, which I don't think on one
week is really gonna make adifference.
I think as long as you learnthe basics and understand what
(25:29):
you're doing, understand themore defined things, you're
gonna be okay.
So Sunday, we are going to nowkind of reference this episode
and we are gonna talk about theSunday scaries of basic training
, like some real what the fuckmoments that I experienced and
some real what the fuck momentsthat other people experience.
Here's some Reddit commentsthat will come out about this
(25:53):
Kind of like how you deal withit or what their course of
actions were to deal with thestuff.
Well, thank you all forchecking out the show.
Don't forget to vote in thatgiveaway.
Hope you'll see you soon.
I'm Charlie Mike.
Good morning y'all.
Welcome back to the show.
If this is your first time here, welcome to the show.
For everyone returningAppreciate y'all coming back
time after time checking outeach episode and each topic we
talk about.
For everyone tuning in rightnow, let me know we are going to
do another giveaway next week.
It'll be based on the poll thatwill be attached to this
(00:39):
episode and the episode comingout on Sunday Also in the
Instagram feed.
There'll be the same poll there.
What you guys want it to bewhether that's a gift card or
something obviously it'll beregional stuff or just a Visa,
gift card or apparel and merch,and we'll kind of just go from
there On.
Today's episode is more gearedto those thinking about joining
(01:03):
the Army.
Sorry for the other services, Iwas not in any of all the basic
training so I can't comment.
However, I can talk about myexperience and what YouTube
portrays on what basic trainingis like in the US Army.
This is, if you are just going,active duty, reserves or Army
National Guard.
We're going to talk aboutthings like what to expect, what
(01:25):
to pack, things to be mindfulof in your process or progress
as you go through your training,things to plan for later on
what your recruiter probablylied about what is the
transition life like of having alife to not having a life, and
what happens when you first getthere, versus your first 10
(01:48):
weeks.
Okay, guys, here we go.
I'm going to tell you that yourfirst 24 hours when you come
from MAPS, my best advice to youis to sleep.
Sleep as much as you can.
You're on the bus for 20minutes, take a nap.
You're on a plane somewhere.
Sleep on the plane ride.
You got an hour bus ride fromAtlanta to Fort Benning or Fort
(02:12):
Moore.
Sleep on that bus ride.
I'm telling you it is going topay dividends in the next 24 to
36 hours Also.
So I don't know anything aboutbasic training at Fort Jackson.
I went to Fort Benning, fortMoore.
So that is also just a thing tonote on that.
This is basic training at FortMoore for enlisted soldiers.
(02:33):
So, depending on what your MOSwas, there's going to be a
couple things you need to studyor Google the 10 basic things.
So I was infantry.
There's the infantryman's creedand the soldier's creed.
It is in your best interest, or, as your drill sergeant is
(02:54):
going to tell you, it wouldbehoove you, it would behoove
you to know those two things.
Other thing is know the Army'sbirthday, the National Anthem,
the Pledge of Allegiance, and beable to count to five.
I don't know why that's a thing, but surprisingly you need to
be able to count to five.
Also, in your prep, hopefully,you do a lot of cardio, because
(03:17):
running is going to be thenumber one thing you do and body
weight exercises is also goingto be the biggest thing you do.
So you get on that bus.
Let's say you take a nap andyou show up to Fort Benning,
fort Moore or whatever.
You get to what they callreception, you're going to have
a drill sergeant acting allnonsense like and scary on the
(03:40):
bus like this is my bus.
You're going to get off my busand you're going to Cool
whatever, and someone else gonnaget out.
Hey, you're gonna say no, drillsergeant, yes, drill sergeant,
roger, joe Sergeant, some shitlike that.
Get a whole brief on it and thenessentially, you're gonna go,
you're gonna dump out your bagand You're gonna eat what's
called a Jimmy D.
It's absolutely trash, unlessyou get the tuna one.
(04:01):
I recommend the tuna.
The pork is pretty gross, buteat little Jimmy D.
You got about 10 minutes andthen you does, immediately into
the next room.
All right, hey, get rid of yourstuff, grab these two books.
You're gonna get on this phone.
You're gonna tell your parentsyou made it.
Hang it up, keep on pushingright.
That's essentially.
That's them trying to shock.
You go through, you go and Tothis big building and you got
(04:25):
these two bags and you just graball your gear, uniforms,
everything first, first basicsYou're gonna need.
You walk out of there.
You're gonna go to a Baybarracks is what it kind of
looks like.
You're gonna drop your bags off.
You're gonna come back down andyou're gonna get this brief on
your first day and Basicallyyour first days when this is now
(04:47):
is like probably five in themorning.
So you go through your firstday, you're gonna go get your
Head shaved, you're gonna getyour eyes done, your ears done,
your teeth done and then inbetween that, you're gonna be
sitting in this hot-ass roomreading the blue book.
The blue book is essentially ageneral basis of rules, and the
(05:10):
blue book was the guide writtenby George Washington on how to
create an army, lead an army, bean army, the Relationship
between soldiers and leaders,what to expect, how important
food, sleep and basicNecessities are.
It gives you guidelines onDrilling ceremony, which is
gonna be like, hey, like forwardMarch, column left March, like
(05:32):
your marching movements, whatthe colors mean, what the flag
is.
It will give you your creed ofa soldier's creed.
It will discuss warrior ethosand I I don't really know too
much out top top my head I don'thave a blue book in my hand
right now to read, but that's,that's essentially what you're
gonna be doing.
And if you fall asleep there'sgonna be some angry ass drill
(05:52):
stars and just showing up onyour desk and telling you to
Stand up and that's gonna be along two or three days of
standing.
You might like this.
This is where people get itwrong.
So, like on YouTube and thetelevision show, they show you
all your first 72 hours.
You can just woken up and and,really good, nada.
You're gonna show up toreception, you're gonna.
You're gonna go to light out at10, wake up at 0, 4, 0, 5,
(06:13):
whatever, salute the flag, goget breakfast and do all your
doctor's appointment stuff to inprocess.
Right, that's your first week,week and a half when you get to
basic training.
You don't actually go to thebasic training 198, 199th
regiment brigades and trainuntil you're done with all your
(06:34):
in processing, which is alsogonna include paperwork, dears,
bah BAQ, bas information.
It's gonna include yourcitizenship information if
you're Someone trying to get acitizenship.
It's going to includeImmunizations, any file doctor
appointments you know might needto do.
That's, that's a.
That's basically what what yourfirst two weeks is.
(06:56):
No, it is the best defect.
Defect is in the dining facility.
Those who don't know it is thebest defect you are ever going
to have in your entire militarycareer.
Those ladies will give you thefattest portions, they will be
the nicest and they'll let youpick your food.
That's better than you what youknow.
Once you get to a, once you getto a unit and you're at like a
(07:18):
fort hood or Fort Drum or FortLewis or Fort Carson, you will
understand what I'm saying.
Everyone agrees 30th AG's foodwas always busting the grandma
cookies.
You gonna steal some.
You gonna do some slick shit.
You probably gonna get smokefor it, but everyone's gonna
understand.
Now, after you have Done your inprocessing, now it's the
(07:43):
morning that you are actuallygoing to your training.
You're gonna wake up at 0 3.
You're going to Meet yoursenior drill sergeant, who's
kind of like your mentor, in asense AKA.
He still don't want to talk toyou or do anything.
They're going to do somerehearsal, pt exercise,
stretching, whatever.
(08:03):
Then they're gonna give you anMRE.
You're gonna hop on a Anotherbus to go to another bus and
then you're gonna go do what'scalled the first 100.
Your first 100 is what theycall the hundred yards or the
last hundred yards of a war.
World War one is where thiscomes from.
That you need to cross thathundred yards that was called
(08:25):
dead bands.
Land and make to the other sideis a success.
In a mission, there's gonna besmall mission tasks that are
gonna be team building oriented,with a bunch of people you
don't know and A really weirdand trick way to figure it out.
It is gonna be you and yourteam's plan to Go through and
complete those tasks in as fastas possible and accurate as
(08:47):
possible.
For example, me, we had toStrip a pallet down of like
miscellaneous of litters ammocans, gas cans, water cans and
you have to rebuild the palletthe exact way it looked in a
different location.
I think that the, no matterwhat you do, the drill sergeant
is gonna tell you hey, this iswrong, fucking push, or you're
(09:08):
gonna do one of the exercisesthat they quote in Coordins with
FM 7-22 there is nothing Ican't do or say and they're
gonna make you do a stupidexercise within that realm.
Right, you're gonna get up,you're gonna next station to the
same thing, to the same thing,all while sprinting in some very
Uncomfortable, dirty 30 boots.
(09:29):
The boot you get at 30th AGOkay, they're a standard, they
are a Basic, but like man, likethe minute you get a chance to
buy some boots, you buy someboots, you Complete your tasks.
You get to your your BayBarracks.
Right here in your Bay Barracks, you're kind of gonna go
through another Gear issuing.
You get all the stuff that's inthose cages that the unit has
(09:49):
to train you with.
It's not always gonna be thebest, it's not gonna be the
worst, but it's training right.
So you get all this stuff.
You're assigned for it.
You are gonna be shown how tomake a bed.
You're gonna be shown how manysocks you can have out, pieces
of underwear you can have outshirts, you can have out how
many uniforms you can have out.
They're gonna show you how toset up your locker.
(10:10):
And if your stuff is not donethat way During any time they
want to do an inspection.
I Could assure you that youwill get fucked down, you will
get smoked and you will be doingsome dumb exercises and it will
get really stupid, I can assureyou.
Well, and your drill sergeantsare Gonna be your coach, your
(10:32):
friend, but only your friendwhen trying to teach you
something.
And what I mean by that is whenyou are trying to conduct a
squad attack or a battle drillor weapons qual and doing like
M4 they call it PMI, preliminarymarksmanship instruction and
(10:53):
you're going through the stepsof it.
There they will be your friendto make you comfortable in the
situation, so that you learn.
But once you get that Firstblock of instruction, it turns
into like he is no longer yourfriend.
He is here to make sure, like,hey, you are stupid, you are,
you are a lost cause, and thisis where you get called the
plethora of names that you hearon YouTube.
(11:16):
So you got your first day done,you got your stuff issued, you
turn in whatever stuff you hadleft because pretty much like I
don't know why, recruiters tellyou to have a packing list and a
whole this.
That no, literally like go withsome basic hygiene items, one
set of clothes and and, honestly, you want to bring Underwear,
(11:38):
socks, socks with no labels onthat's.
That is what you need to bring,because the socks that give you
young is really not that good.
The underwear they give you are, straight up, just old,
whitey-tidy granny panties fromlike the 1950s and them shit
just ain't comfortable with thefuck.
I'm totally being honestunderwear, socks and Hygiene
(12:00):
like toothpaste, toothbrush,extra toothbrushes because
they're coming handy.
We got to clean your weapon orclean stuff like Toothbrushes
gonna come in handy late lateron, when you go, when you go
through.
Those are the things you canthen trade up to get the good
MRE snacks.
Those are the things you cantrade up that are gonna get you
what else you need to get by,whether it's a pen, paper, etc.
(12:21):
Those are the things you aregoing to need long term.
Those are the things you wantto sustain and stack on.
This is where the television andYouTube is accurate.
Is that they?
They come in at.
I Say two o'clock, two o'clockin the morning, all right, you
come in at two o'clock in themorning.
They just blow, blow your mind,man, they are awake, they are
alert, they are coming at you,they are ripping your entire Bay
(12:45):
apart, flipping beds, lockers,unlocked.
They're flipping those over.
You got shaving cream anywhereFrom there?
That that's when it's veryaccurate to the TV and the
YouTube portrayal.
That's when you Really get hithard with the reality that, oh
shit, I'm in the service, I'mthe army.
Now this is what I need to do,and they do that to confine you
(13:07):
and uniform you mentally.
Biggest thing to work on is keepa small headspace and go
through that.
That's with a lot of armyschools.
You hear guys that you know forthe, for the whoo guys, I
wanted to Ranger school or 75thRegiment, or I want to go to
this school, that school, likefurther on the career.
Good for you.
But always keep a smallheadspace.
Don't let a small mistake ruinyour day and when big things
(13:31):
happen, it take it for what itis.
Don't don't do the same asthink I do when I has a big
happen.
I took it, I shut down and Istraight up failed it right.
So for you, don't Get takenadvantage of on that small
headspace and keep your headclear and just do the motion and
whatever makes the most sense.
Obviously, don't stay here andover analyze a problem or a
(13:54):
situation.
Just do.
It makes the most sense and itwill help you, I promise.
So now you're going on to yourfirst Sunday.
Right, it's been Two weekssince you left home.
You might have gotten yourphone one time for 20 minutes.
Yeah, this Sunday, yeah, youain't getting your phone, bro,
you is gonna do what they callarea beautification, or you're
(14:17):
gonna go to church and thenyou're gonna come back.
You're gonna do some push-ups,you're gonna do some mountain
climbers, you're gonna go to thedefect, you gonna sing the army
song, you're gonna sing thenational anthem the soldiers
create, infantry man create.
And, if you don't know it, youwas running, you is running a
long way and you'll come back.
You'll do it again till you sayit right.
(14:37):
Then you'll go eat and you'llgo eat within that time frame.
Listen, just don't look at thefood.
Just step here, step here, stephere.
Don't look left, don't lookright, just Just keep moving.
And even if you do thatperfectly, a drill is still
gonna get you in your face andsay why are you fucked up?
You ain't gonna know why you'refucked up, but you're fucked up
, you're just.
You ain't standing right, youain't holding the tray right,
(14:58):
you ain't.
Something is fucked up that youare doing.
That's it.
And then you go sit down.
The way you're eating is wrong.
The way you taste your food iswrong.
The way you Whatever you'redoing your plate is wrong.
And then if you don't eat allyour food, you're gonna get
yelled at.
I mean, hey, if you don't eatit you don't need it, but like
you're gonna need those calories, I promise you you are going to
(15:18):
need the calories.
For me, every time I went to thedefect and left the defect, you
do what we call a buy-in.
It was five pull-ups, 10push-ups, 15 squats.
Lap around the barracks.
Lap was like a little more thana quarter mob, wasn't a half
mob, but you did that.
Every time.
You got breakfast, lunch,dinner and, on top of all the
(15:40):
exercise You're doing forgetting smoked.
If you weren't on the line whenthey went to do roll call at the
end of the night, you weregetting smoked.
If you Didn't have your bedperfectly folded at the 45, your
bed was getting flipped.
You were getting smoked.
If, if you didn't knowsomething or didn't study
something, they told you thatyou're preparing for you were
getting smoked.
Pretty much, you're gonna getsmoked.
(16:01):
It's inevitable, it is okay.
I assure you you will not die.
I can assure you, as long asyou hydrate and you eat, you
will be okay.
I can assure you you'll be okay.
I'm okay.
I wouldn't if that is how I wasa fat toby dude when I joined.
All right, so just just bemindful of that.
How do you will make it.
Right now you get into yoursecond week.
(16:23):
This is where you'll get yourfirst phone call.
You'll send a letter out toyour parents, a haze where you
can mail me stuff.
When they start mailing youstuff, do not get the candy,
because the drill sergeant'slike the candy.
Do not get the vapes to dip,because you know you just you're
asking for trouble, right?
No, you're gonna ask for somedry, fit like underwear, like
dukes, right, tackle underwear.
(16:44):
You're gonna ask for Fox Riversocks to help with the blisters.
You're gonna ask for mullskinsso that your feet don't get torn
up.
Okay, you're gonna ask for Dry,fit green teas or tan teas ever
you want to call them, so thatway, like you don't shave,
you're not sweating like a bitch, and Hopefully it makes your
day a little bit better.
Maybe, honestly, maybe even getsome toilet paper, because the
(17:06):
toilet paper kind of sucks too,and it was a hot commodity at
some time.
So just Putting that out, theresome things that you might want
to tell your mom.
Hey, get this for me.
This is what I need, notskittles, not dips, not babes,
not like.
Trust me, you could be anicotine fiend and they're all
nicotine fiends, but what youwant is dry fit underwear, dry
(17:31):
fit shirts, fox river socks soyou can ruck, you can move, you
can sweat and you'll be okay,right?
So it is now like you're acouple weeks in.
You're going into white phasebecause you're out of what they
call red phase.
I don't really think the phasesmatter.
It all depends on what yourtraining cycle is, what the land
and ammo allocation is fory'all, but white phase is going
(17:53):
to be the most time you shoot,training.
You will go every day to therange and you will shoot and you
will shoot and you will shootand you will shoot.
If you didn't think you shot,you're going to shoot, and every
day you're going to shoot andshoot and shoot.
To learn how to manage recoil.
You're going to learn how toaim.
Point of sight, point of aim aretwo different things.
(18:13):
You're going to learn how toshoot on iron sights, which
means you don't have a sight onit, you're not looking on a call
of duty, high sped, and thenyou're going to go into having
something like a red die.
It's like all they use in basictraining, to my knowledge.
Once you get to a unit someunits have ACOG, some units have
these things called M10 cansYou'll have different scopes you
(18:35):
can always attach I do knowsome people do attach their own
scopes to their weapons.
As long as you're in the armsroom, no one really gives a shit
.
So something to be mindful of.
But in basic you've got toqualify on the iron sights and
then you have to qualify on thehigh speed.
You know red dot, acog, etc.
You can go from there Becauseyou do get like 20 something
(18:57):
opportunities to the qual.
There's basically no reason youshouldn't qualify.
But even if you don't qualify,the move, the move you want
you'll.
You go to the next phase andyou're going to pass.
You go into learning team stufflike how to build a patrol base
, like very, very basics.
So yeah, how to build a patrolbase, how to land nav, how to
(19:23):
read a map, how to understanddifferent kinds of grenades, how
to understand the differentweapons systems, what each
weapon says can do, what kind ofrounds we have, why do we use
these rounds?
You'll learn a little bit oflike historical like hey, these
bow drills happen because ofthis or because of this, and
(19:43):
this is why we do this way.
Right, and it's called doctrine, and doctrine is kind of like
the end all be all.
You're going to learn somebasis about different regulation
that like is going to pertainto you in basic Nothing, nothing
crazy.
You get to like week week 10,you go do the fours.
This is where, like TV andYouTube, they really hyped us up
.
Okay, so, yes, there is machinegun fire over your head.
(20:07):
Yes, they do have some grenadesgoing off near you.
Yes, you do crawl under barbedwire for a little bit, but like
it's like two feet in the airwhere you can really get up on
your hands and knees and, likebear, walk it.
The machine gun fire is nowherenear you.
It's totally safe.
Like the drill sergeant isgoing to walk behind you.
So if they're they're standingand walking, like you ain't
(20:29):
going to get shot.
Okay, I promise you, you'regoing to rock a couple times.
You're going to do an obstaclecourse.
You know you're going to climba rope, you're going to crawl
some mud, you're going to getreal muddy, you're going to get
real dirty, you're going to getreal wet and it is what it is.
But at the end of that you'relike, wow, I really went through
that and it sucked.
And then you have family dayand then you'll have your basic
(20:52):
graduation.
Like, oh my God, I got mylittle US Army patch and get a
little beret and you're gonnawalk around for for bending for
more at the PX, looking like afool.
But If you're gonna look like afool, make sure you get some
boots, make sure you get auniform.
I say get the hot weather,cause it's like pajamas and
that's your best bet.
(21:13):
Popular questions I get when itcomes to basic training is okay,
let's say you have bills.
How do you take care of that?
All of your bills you need toset up to automatic payments or
make sure you have, like yourmom or dad, have access to your
bank account and pay that.
If you have, like any debtsthat you really wanna pay off,
(21:34):
pay off a lot of, because you'renot spending money.
You're not spending money on agas, you're not spending on
bills, take that money and payyour debts off, bro, like, get
ahead on your debts and getahead on anything you might own
the back.
Okay, and then going forwardwith that right, look at
starting switching over yourphone plan to something that's
gonna be military friendly.
(21:55):
Start planning for your futurewhen you're just sitting there
thinking about all your time, soyou usually have access to
books and you can read stuff.
I mean, it's not gonna tell youeverything, but look at
military credit cards ormilitary friendly credit cards
that aren't gonna fuck your debtover, right, if you are told
you get your orders and you say,hey, I'm going to this base in
(22:16):
eight weeks, okay, cool, startlearning about the area, knowing
where you're going, and thenfigure out if you're gonna get
hometown recruiting or not, soyou can know, hey, this is how
much time I'm gonna have to planto get my stuff and get it here
.
This is where I'm gonna be, andset yourself up.
That's the biggest thing.
I wish I got told more when Iwas in basic training was
(22:36):
research, the area you're goingfirst.
Obviously, what it did for mewas I ended up not going to what
my order said, which is fine.
It is what it is.
But for you if, hopefully yourorders are right start looking
that stuff up and start tellingyour parents to look that stuff
up.
So then, when you do get yourphone for that one Sunday, later
(22:56):
on, you can kind of be likeokay, hey, this is where I'm
going, this is the area, this iswhat to expect and you can plan
, which I think will give you alot more success going forward.
Another question that I gotbrought up was you know what if
you run out of something?
If you run out of something,you're gonna tell your drill
(23:17):
sergeant and there's alwaysthese little shoppets of PX you
can go get what you need at anytime.
Okay, if some gear gets damaged, they can switch it out for you
.
Like you're gonna be okay,you're not gonna run out of
stuff, you're not gonna run outof deodorant or anything like
that.
Like you're gonna be okay, allright.
Then another question I got waswhat do you do about excelling
(23:39):
at fitness?
Man, I'm gonna tell you thisthis was our workout.
It was me, this Duke Estelnik,this guy is Rietta and this guy
Humphreys Four of us.
We set up the gym that's whatyou call it.
So we took all the books, putthem in a laundry bag, we hung
it over a rung on the bed, madethat a tricep pull down, filled
(24:01):
up another bag with all of ourboots and gear.
That became our bicep curls bagand then we would do pushups in
the area and then we would goto the showers and do pull ups
and then leg raises and that'skind of like that's your workout
(24:21):
.
They had weights that weweren't allowed to get until the
AIT portion because I was anOSIT based on my MOS.
So, depending on your MOS anddepending on, like your unit and
your drills, you might have gymequipment but you're not gonna
go to an actual gym.
You're going to work out inyour bay because your bay is
everything.
Your bay is where you sleep,it's where you eat, it's where
(24:44):
you hang with your buddies onthe whatever your downtime or
late time, whatever.
That's it.
Then commenting on OSIT so OSITis like one station unit
training.
Yeah, you don't go to a new bay, you don't go to a new barracks
.
You stay where you are with thesame people.
You might get some new guyscoming to the recycles or
(25:05):
they're changing MOSs, so that'sjust what it is.
But other than that, like you'renot changing anything at one
station unit training.
You are with the same guys for22 weeks, or I think it's 21,.
I think they shortened it aweek, which I don't think on one
week is really gonna make adifference.
I think as long as you learnthe basics and understand what
(25:29):
you're doing, understand themore defined things, you're
gonna be okay.
So Sunday, we are going to nowkind of reference this episode
and we are gonna talk about theSunday scaries of basic training
, like some real what the fuckmoments that I experienced and
some real what the fuck momentsthat other people experience.
Here's some Reddit commentsthat will come out about this
(25:53):
Kind of like how you deal withit or what their course of
actions were to deal with thestuff.
Well, thank you all forchecking out the show.
Don't forget to vote in thatgiveaway.
Hope you'll see you soon.
I'm Charlie Mike.
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