Leaving the Body

“Moo… moooooOoOo…” Everyone was shouting and packed in like cattle. Too many people sharing the same space with the same sense of humor; which certainly the Drill Sergeants (DS) hated because of they’ve heard it once they’ve heard it a thousand times. Three hundred recruits in the backside of an equine trailer, repurposed for troop carriers to time-based trainings - like the “million dollar” range!

“Make your buddy smile” and “nut to butt gentleman!” These were common phrases that first few weeks - that also shaped all of our senses of humor, at least a little bit. If we weren’t walking, excuse me, marching, or running, we were on these cattle trailers making noises like cows. Oftentimes, someone would pretend to be a sheep, and we’d call him a Navy recruit or a Marine in need of Navy servicing. I mean the jokes wrote themselves among us Infantry recruits, most of us fresh from high school and the older were probably prior service, or they couldn’t hack it in the “real” world. Oftentimes, their humor would already be a little depraved and would be worse than our teenage minds already! Hard to imagine, I know; especially, if you’ve ever spent anytime with a high schooler.

Make it Happen

Everyone has their own ideas of what basic training is going to be like and oftentimes the thought process is based off of movies like: Full Metal Jacket or Tigerland. At times these are accurate portrayals of basic training, but with much less DS interaction. The Drill Sergeants make things happen - wake you up in the morning, PT you, breakfast, and then to training; however, once a recruit gets to training it is on the Cadre to make it happen. And IT happens!

It equals being turned into a soldier. And if IT doesn’t happen you are given another opportunity to make IT happen and you will hurt physically, mentally, and in your soul. Those that have to restart something (nearly everyone has to restart something at one time or another) feel it hard. By the time that you start training from second one, you do not want to disappoint your Instructors. They have a way of making you want to give your best regardless of how you feel or are feeling, or what you will feel like 30 years later. Pain is just weakness leaving the body, and that is only temporary!

Defending Everything

Waking up to a trash can lid and a bayonet crashing down on the top of it is an experience most only see in the movies and many think it is common practice as a daily routine. It’s not. Most of the time it is the Fireguard turning on the light and your battle wakes you up and you pop tall and toe the line. Popping tall is getting out of bed and moving with a purpose; while toeing the line is a wax line that indicates the “kill zone” in which a soldier not dare cross. And 50 men stand around this line waiting for primary instructions from the DS.

Toeing the line is a very practical experience and we did it often while in the bay. Everything we did was dress-right-dress and that was how we did it. We had the line and we put our toes on it. Once dismissed we would do whatever we had to get done just in time to get back on the line and get our gig lines checked or perhaps if there was dirt under our fingernails- waiting there with our hands out, as if we were about to have a manicure. Our fingernails were the cleanest fingernails in the Army, I’ll tell you what! Cut and trimmed daily to remove all of the dirt and shit-kicking that we had been doing just minutes before. If found to be dirty your 2 minute shower was wasted because you were pushing (doing push-ups till they hurt).

Go to Church

Six days a week for sixteen weeks, Infantry training is OSUT (One Station Unit Training). Then there are two and three more week trainings following if you have specialized training like being a mortar-man, TOW Missile operator, or mechanized. I digress, six days a week you got up and trained regardless of the weather conditions. You got up and moved around and did your job. The seventh day, you got up and went to breakfast; and either you went to church to your denominational service, or you cleaned the barracks bay. Church was my harbor. The DSs didn’t want you to be dirty for church, so you took a five minute shower and got in your best uniform- hoping that it was freshly starched and your cleanest boots (which shouldn’t matter anyways since boot shining was a daily occurrence). Church, in basic, is where I learned the difference between God and GOD!

Being a cradle Lutheran made me not question differences in religions / denominations; rather, it gave me an understanding that we all need to turn to GOD because He gives us that choice. God is only present in a church service in basic training as a way of letting you try to retain your faith because of so many different organized religions it’s watered down. It helps with other aspects of Grace and understanding later in life, but in boot camp it’s learn how to do things that you may have been turned away from early on. Like the whole killing aspect of being an infantryman…

“What makes the green grass grow?!?”

“Blood, blood, blood makes the green grass grow… Drill Sergeant!!!”

Moving Forward not Backwards

By the time that we made it to our “Turning Blue Ceremony” we were all stone faced killers and angry fighters. That trusted no one, but those on our left and right. These brothers are still brothers today; regardless, of status or creed.

Now, I’d be remised if I said that everyone made it through. This is never the case. And often it is the people that you would think would make it through training that don’t. When I went through the graduation rate for infantry training was only at about 60% and that’s about what we ended with. Either injuries or people realized it wand for them, or they were just a little too cookoo to make it as a military member. But those people still have a special place in my heart too, because many of them made it through the rough stuff only to be knocked out by the book knowledge, or the classroom stuff.

Drink Water

“Beat the heat Drill Sergeant! Beat the Heat!!”

Trust the process, it turns boys into men. It turns soft men into hard men! It turns hard men into machines and life is good. But by the time it time to get out of the service it is time to learn how to reintegrate and that’s where it all falls apart. But I don’t have time for that today.

Remember that tomorrow is another day and you care to me. This pain is only temporary and will always be something to push to the side and hope for better days to come! Make yourself worthy of yourself daily and life will be yours, and you will be there for everyone else.

Until next time, keep drinking water, my brothers!

Sláinte