Basic Combat Training #1 ~ my first week

picture from google

Well, it started with a massive hangover, little to no sleep.
I was running late as well to make the plane on time.
Met with one of the recruiters to get my ticket, then shortly after it was time to go. I bode farewell to my family, including my 2nd son at one month old and boarded the plane, my first flight ever.
short flight to atlanta and then the longer one to St. louis Missouri.
Waited in the USO room talked with some others ready to go to the same place.
When it was time to go we boarded a greyhound bus, and headed on to Fort Leonard wood.
Upon arrival you could feel the fear from everyone.
And then as the bus stopped at the front doors of the reception hall a Sgt wearing a brown hat came out. [the brown hat strikes so much fear]
He yells at us to run out, get the f!@# off his bus and line up,
So we do.
After a buch of paperwork, running, getting are PT uniforms and ALOT of yelling we finally get to go to the barracks for some sleep.
Over the next couple of days we learn how to address higher ranked enlisted, go through lines, learn army knowledge and do ALOT bunch more paperwork [enough to write a book per person lol]
The days werent that long, just tedious and hoping to stay under the radar of a killer drill Sgt.
On D day, [The day we meet the Drill Sgt's who will train us for over two months]
we get rushed outside in our uniforms, pretty muched sandwhiched in 5 different lines with 2, 50 lb duffle bags full of all our gear and stuff, we wait for them, quiet, still, fearful.
As soon as they show up they start yelling.
get your bags, get on the bus, move, move ,move
most panicked, i just followed suit.
In the hot bus we rode to a valley, initiation valley
as soon as we got there more yelling,
get off the bus, move, move, move,
Off the bus and down the hill we went for what they call "shark attack"
Its a bunch of yelling, barking orders and seeing who will crack.
after that they divide us by the first initial of our last name to form PLT's
I was in 2nd [the best! lol]
before we even started marching, somebody spoke without being spoken too [big no no as a private in training]
and we all got the half-left march. front leaning rest position move [Pretty much push-ups just army style]
After that we marched to our training barracks.
Hot, Fatigued and scared only 3 people fell out, never making past day 0.
After introductions from our DS [Drill Sgt, for future reference]
and paper work. we finally got a breather.
I cant remember if we got smoked [extensive army excersizing] or not, I prolly hit the bed a little too hard from exhaustion.
We had got one more phone call, to tell our loved ones we made it and we were ok.
then it was off to bed at 2100 [9 o'clock EST] for 7 - 8 hours if lucky.

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I hope you enjoyed reading. im not the best writer or speller on keyboard but im trying,
I'll be trying to do more as i remember them. Thanks for reading!

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