Basic Gone Soft

[QRQ 30]

Originally Posted by Bruce Long

Training must be hard to survive in combat. Standards should not be lowered.

SGM 18Z5M (Retired)

From what I have seen our troops are doing as well or better than in the past. This seems to belie some comments in reference to training.

[Squidly]

Another Navy perspective albeit from 27 years ago was that boot camp was pretty easy. None of the stuff the Army and Marine recruits went through. Weapons training consisted of 1/2 day familiarization with the 1911 then firing 5-10 rounds with a .22 in a 1911 frame. The bulk of our time was spent drilling on the grinder or in class. PT everyday was a piece of cake. Just running and calisthenics. One thing San Diego did have was an impressive fire fighting school built for the fleet that the recruits used as well. That was the most realistic training we had. Toward the end of boot camp the SEALs would come over to the PT area looking for volunteers and administering PT tests for BUD/S. We had one guy volunteer that passed the test but didn't get to go to BUD/S right away. He did go a few years later and graduated in Class 125 went on to be a plankowner at ST-8 and spent a bunch of time at ST-5. He retired just a couple of years ago. Across the fence from the Navy boot camp PT area was the Marine Corp boot camp PT area. Much slinging of epithets. Both of those commands closed some years ago.

'Gangs claim their turf in Iraq'

M

[Warrior-Mentor]

How can a recruiter, in good faith, put a gang member in the Army? I'd publicly fry any recruiter convicted of putting gang members in. Someone finds a gang member? Trigger an investigation ...it's easy enough to trace back to which recruiter put him or her in...

That would help put an end to this crap.

[The Reaper]

We were having to screen some of them out at SFAS.

Not too many good reasons for an inner city kid from LA who is 19 years old to have three gunshot wounds, is there?

Problem is, if he was 28 with ten years of clean service, we might take a chance, but a year or two off the block, that is high risk.

I recommended that if they put him into the pipeline, he be restricted to 18D. Most members did not get it.

That was just one of several who came to try out.

TR

[mike pasek]

Originally Posted by TFM

Army Times has an article with the same title, but their interpretation of results from this new approach to training is the opposite of what is written here.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?...rticle&id=2071

this is a shame heres a video if anyone wants to watch http://youtube.com/watch?v=N5jRawaB1tY

I'm going rangers so does anyone know if I will be in a different group during basic training like the 18x pipeline goes through?

[Kyobanim]

Originally Posted by mike pasek

this is a shame heres a video if anyone wants to watch http://youtube.com/watch?v=N5jRawaB1tY

I'm going rangers so does anyone know if I will be in a different group during basic training like the 18x pipeline goes through?

Tell me why it is a shame?

[jatx]

Originally Posted by mike pasek

this is a shame heres a video if anyone wants to watch http://youtube.com/watch?v=N5jRawaB1tY

I'm going rangers so does anyone know if I will be in a different group during basic training like the 18x pipeline goes through?

Hey, stud, why don't you just wait and report back after you've gone through it yourself? Better yet, be sure to explain to your Drill Sergeants that you're "going rangers", they'll probably give you a big wet kiss and ruffle your hair.

That video bears no relation to the BCT that I attended: 4-6 hrs sleep, no cell phones, no "seconds" in the DFAC (as though you'd want them), plenty of yelling and remediation. It's going to be what it's going to be, just learn to drive on.

[QRQ 30]

It can't be all that bad. The troops seem to be performing admirably in hostile conditions.

[Cold Steel]

When I went through basic at Ft. Benning 2/58 my battle buddy was a chap named Mike Moyer. Nice enough kid that meant well but didn’t really pull it together as he should have during his time at basic. Those of you familiar with sand hill might recognize that name because of Moyer Hall, which was named after his father, a retired general, who would call the company CP desk to see how his son was doing. No BS story, during week 7 my DS was handing out mail and called my last name, stopped and said “I don’t have a xxxxxxx in my f-ing platoon.” Looked at me and said “oh, Moyer’s battle buddy”. I left for split-op basic training weighing 135 and in 9 weeks came home at 165.

[sf11b_p]

Originally Posted by QRQ 30

It can't be all that bad. The troops seem to be performing admirably in hostile conditions.

Is that due the training recieved in BCT or the training at the unit level? BCT, I've always thought, was a filtering process to insure the recieving unit had something better to work with.

[QRQ 30]

Originally Posted by sf11b_p

Is that due the training recieved in BCT or the training at the unit level? BCT, I've always thought, was a filtering process to insure the recieving unit had something better to work with.

I dunno but the final product seems to be pretty good across the board from unit to unit.
Things were ALWAYS tougher and better back in OUR days.

When I was in we complained about having to put gas in a jeep when we could just put a feed bag on a mule.

[jatx]

Originally Posted by QRQ 30

When I was in we complained about having to put gas in a jeep when we could just put a feed bag on a mule.

LOL, Terry, I'd sign up for some muleteer (?) lessons any day. Just seems like something useful to have in the 'ol bag of tricks.

[ktek01]

I thought Basic was going to be harder than it was, I was a little disappointed that it turned out to be fairly easy and that was in 1985. There were a few that showed talking about how easy it was going to be for them and how tough they were, those were the ones that seemed to have the hardest time or didnt make it to graduation. I dont know how these Soldiers are doing when they first show up at their units, but I had the great privilege of meeting quite a few young Soldiers in Iraq and I was not disappointed at all, quite the contrary.

[Monsoon65]

Originally Posted by QRQ 30

When I was in we complained about having to put gas in a jeep when we could just put a feed bag on a mule.

My dad said he was in when they use to get gigged for having buffalo shit on their boots.