Upon finishing infantry school our drill sergeant asked us:
"How many of you guys are headed to airborne school?"
Six of us raised our hands. The drill sergeant then said "Follow me."
He told us for the next few days/weeks as everyone else is taking leave or just hanging out waiting for their next assignment and that we should be PTing our asses off. He said we were physically ready but he wanted us to "lead the pack". So the six of us became PT animals.
Just as we were headed to the other side of the base for airborne school the drill sergeant said to us he was proud of us and asked if we liked our current haircuts? We said yes and he went onto explain that our haircuts were well within Army Regs and when we arrived at airborne school to tell them we will keep our hair just the way it is......
We did.
And OMFG did we pay for that hair............
The Black Hats did not find our long hair amusing. We had some SEALS in our class and they were always poking fun at the Black Hats, the Black Hats in turn would make the SEALS do pushups until they could do no more. About the second time the Black Hats put the SEALS in the front leaning rest one of them caught us watching and said:
"From now on every time the SEALS drop so do you long hair guys .... "
Holy shite it was a punishing 4 weeks........ I swear the SEALS would get dropped like every 30 minutes, and if one dropped they all dropped and we dropped with them. By the time I was done with Airborne school I had to purchase a new dress green jacket, not kidding.
So when you go to Airborne School, tell them you "DON'T want your head shaved." Tell them a retired "Green Beret" told you to tell them that. When they state Army Regulations, tell them your hair is well within Army Regulations and that you don't want it cut any shorter.
Try to make it a group effort, just the 11x OSUT guys and maybe some other infantry guys.
Then prepare for pain and enjoy the suck, you earned it.
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"The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy, but where they are."
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