I remember the Drill Sergeant 2" from my face, I used to find the whole "beat down" humorous:
DS: "Why are you smiling at me about boy!!"
Me" "No reason Drill Sergeant!!!"
DS: "Do you like me boy!!"
Me: "Yes Drill Sergeant!!!"
DS: "Well, likin' leads to lovin', lovin' leads to fkn, do you want to fk me boy!!!"
Me: "No Drill Sergeant!!"
DS: "Why, am I not good enough for you boy!!"

As you can see, this conversation wasn't going to end well so I just asked if I could drop and give him twenty. I think we settled on fifty.

E. B. Sledge, a real man, IN EVERY WAY. That is certainly one of the best books EVER written. A must read.

Another is Robert Leicke's "Helmet for My Pillow" .

I read them decades ago; Sledge's book at least three times. Gave many copies to people.

Wow, memory lane! Sitting here reminiscing. Basic at Bragg in winter 67, infantry ait at Ft Lewis in the spring and then back to Ft Eustis for OCS. Infantry ait was the best training I received to prepare me to be a company commander in the nam. I salute all my pelican brothers in arms.

Funny-I can still see their faces and remember some of their names.

Drill Sgt Magee was the one in the above scenery. He had a scar that ran from his ear down to his neck, I shyte you not. He wore the “Electric Strawberry” on his ‘Nam sleeve.

Drill Sgt Marshak was the other one, both those guys could sing cadence like nobody’s business.

Then we had this other Drill Sgt, hound dog faced guy who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. It sucked to march with him, he made Yoko Ono sound like Billie Holliday.

I remember our name-Trainee!
LOL
I have to go back , way back 1970
Winegardner, and Holden.
Winegardner was smaller in stature, Holden a black DI.
Then we also had the Cadre which were gods also, I think they were E4
Most all carried the bunk adapters (steel pipe) as threatening agents.
Albeit I never ever saw it actualy used on anyone.
I still do not know how they could run backward when we all were running forwards.

My commissioning track was via Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola.

The Drill Instructors were all senior Marines...complete professionals and, surprising to me, all very funny. The combination of stress and lack of sleep magnified the humor.

The first for to six weeks was mostly PT and drill, ball busting and the like - then the emphasis changes to academics and preparation for flight school and the fleet.

The thing I enjoyed the most was running in formation with the DI calling cadence.

It wuz July '77 when I saw them AF newbies marchin'...

You and I are different....bet you liked Aug 1 football two-a-daze also :)!

I am not a leader...nor much of a follower...

But I will follow....a good leader ;)

I had a few...

Me as well in addition to some clunkers - that is when the military, even being a navy pilot, sucks.

I was frankly surprised at how unprepared some guys were for the PT and most especially, the swimming, which was intense and hard, even for me and as a former surfer and kayaker, I could swim.

It is not like they don't warn you:D

I did basic at Fort Knox in the Winter. The hills had names like Heartbreaker and Misery. My Drill Sergeant was a tough little redneck punk who hated blacks....I took a lot of pride in taking his sh it and getting out of there unscathed.

and then there is USMC Boot

My neighbor is an Ex -Navy Seal.


Experimental Dive unit in Florida.


Literally they dreamed, made and drafted the nitrogen dive tables used to today.

and then some.


"lets see what happens when we put him down to 300 feet for 3 hours"

"lets see what happens if we keep him saturated at 60 feet for 24 hours...........perfect depth for limpet mines on hulls.


In Blacked out mask, he had to feel along the keel of a target ship, the weld seams leading back to the propeller for limpents.




Seal Training. I'm a scuba instructor, I can only imagine their drills.


He piloted the remote 24' stealth sub.......holding 12 guys and ammo/task gear.......which was deployed on the back of a big asss Nuclear sub.


wild stories.


After mission, you have to land back on the mother ship.


Commander of mother sub said "DONT RUN INTO MY 2 BILLION PROPELLER!!!!!!!!!!"


I think they docked while underway.

Demarcation -I do know Basic Training "now" is a lot different then it was 1960 and early 70s

Some high points and frustration- Was the drills at 2 AM -I HATED them, as it was a discipline of everyone even if I got it right.

The alarm goes off and the whole barracks had to be dressed and IN information, in three minutes or less!
(I think that was the allowed time,)
That means everyone outside and standing at ATN. in their platoon.
Sometimes that would go on three to five times a night if there was just one straggler not in place.
Do it again.
and again.
No warning.
All night long if needed and train all the next day.
That was asking a lot being that was a lot of men hustling from both upstairs and downstairs exiting from these large brick buildings.
Next-
The low crawl through the mud and barb wire at night was another segment and high light to be reconded with!
We knew it was coming just not when.
We had to do this just once
With Live M60 fire going overhead, we had to do the "low crawl" about the length of a football field, of course in the mud and rain.
They said if we stood up the rounds from the 60 would hit us!
Seeing the tracers flashing by overhead -was proof enough, we did not take any short cuts and try running.
I know i was trying to get low enough that worms had to look dwn at me.
They would have had to except they had all drowned from the rain.
The machine-gun fire was pretty intense for sure.
Looking back, I would not train my military training and discipline for anything, ever.
This discipline has served me well.

I know I was happier to be in the USMC than the Army. I figured out boot by the second day, they aren't asking anything from you any different than the thousands that were there before you. The DIs know from the beginning how many will fall out, not make it, not make the runs, it's a science and they already know the answers. Some things the Platoon could do right the first, second and third time but you are still going to do it five times. The DIs have time to fill before you have to be someplace else and you certainly aren't going to sit back and relax. Semper fi

Was one of them named Napoleon?

Cause the timing would be about right.

Does not ring the bell.
But Fort Dix was a huge place.

Things the drill sergeants said cracked me up:

We had one guy whose name was all consonants and went halfway across his chest. The drill sergeant called him "alphabet".

"If you mens have both feet on the ground at the same time you're movin too slow!"

Double time back and get (whatever) and put your helmet liner on backwards so it looks like you're on the way back!

Occasionally have the recurring dream that I get drafted again and no matter how much I explain that I've already served, it's no use. Glad to have done it ONCE, wouldn't want to do it again.

Did mine at Lackland AFB and had never been out of jersey before that. Our flight down was SNAFU so we got in around 2 AM, got yelled at for a bit and hit the racks.

Good ol' Sgt Lenero rattled the can at 0500. I remember looking up and having that moment when you honestly do not know where you are. When I hit the deck with my bunk on top of me and the Sgts trusty sidekick screaming all manner of filth and foul at me I remember thinking very clearly "oh right, boot camp".

Honestly guys, that was the best "growing up" experience of my life. Not fun but dang I was fit!

you're as worthless as tits on a boar.

We would get woken up at "Zero dark thirty" (3:30) with the DS banging either on a trash can lid or our bunks with a "bunk adapter".

You had to jump out of bed and hit the floor at "attention", get yelled at mercilessly for the next 15 hours. If you were last in the chow line you were lucky if you had 30 seconds to eat. Running, marching, pushups, dying cockroach, etc all day long.

Being a Combat Engineer we had what was known as OSUT (one single unit training) instead of the usual Basic Training/ AIT. We were learning demolitions, mine sweeping, construction while we were learning marching and military protocol which looking back seemed a better way of training, mixed it up a bit.

I'll never forget graduation. Parents, Wives, girlfriends, literally in tears seeing the way their boys became men in 12 short weeks.