Basic; Surviving Boot Camp and Basic Training

8/2/2019 Basic; Surviving Boot Camp and Basic Training

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.

An imprint of St. Martins Press.

. Copyright 2012 by Jack Jacobs and David Fisher. All rights reserved. Printed in

the United States of America. For information, address St. Martins Press, 175 FifthAvenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.thomasdunnebooks.com

www.stmartins.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jacobs, Jack, 1945

Basic : surviving boot camp and basic training / Colonel Jack Jacobs (Ret.) and

David Fisher. p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-312-62277-0 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4668-0244-5 (e-book)

1. Basic training (Military education)United StatesHandbooks, manuals, etc.

2. United StatesArmed ForcesMilitary lifeHandbooks, manuals, etc.

I. Fisher, David, 1946 II. Title.

U408.3.J33 2012

355.5'40973dc23

2012009382

First Edition: May 2012

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1


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Youre in the army now, youre not behind a plow;

Youll never et rich, by digin a ditch

Youre in the army now.

traditional army marching chant

Congress judging it of the greatest importance to prescribe some

invariable rules for the order and discipline of the troops, espe-

cially for the purpose of introducing an uniformity in their forma-

tion and maneuvers, and in the service of the camp: ORDERED,

That the following regulations be observed by all the troops of the

United States, and that all general and other offi cers cause the

same to be executed with all possible exactness.

In Congress, 29 March 1779, By Order, John Jay, President

(the beginning of basic military training)

I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your senior drill instructor.

From now on you will only speak when being spoken to. The rstand last words out of your sewers will be, sir! Do you maggots under-

stand that?

If It Moves, Salute It: Welcome to

Initial Military Training


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Colonel Jack Jacobs

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Sir, yes Sir!

Bullshit. Sign off like you got a pair.

Sir! Yes Sir!

If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you

will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war.

But until that day you are pubes. You are the lowest forms of life on

earth. Youre not even human fucking beings. Youre nothing but

unorganized grab ass of amphibian shit. Because I am hard you will

not like me but the more you hate me the more you will learn.from the movieFull Metal Jacket

T all that compares to basic training. Itsa period of several weeks during which civilians are trans-formed into soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen. There is no way

to prepare for it. Those men and women who have been through

basic will never forget it, and those people who havent experi-

enced it cant imagine it.

Its serious business, as Joseph Salerno learned on his rst day at

Camp Wheeler in 1943. Right from the start they told us the theme

was simple, You either learn to kill or youre going to be killed.

Former Marine commandant David M. Shoup once accurately

summed up the job of training depots, which, he said, were sup-

posed to receive, degrade, sanitise, immunise, clothe, equip, train,

pain, scold, mould, sand, and polish.

As Brian Dennehy (Marines, Parris Island, 1969) explains, Boot

camp provides basic military training, but the real point is to indoc-

trinate you into a new way of looking at the world. The Marine

Corps has a tradition of a very tough boot camp process. They areexposing you for the rst time to the basic military philosophy

what otherwise might be presumed to be very risky activities. Dur-


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BASIC

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ing this time offi cers and NCOs will tell you to do things to which

your normal reaction would be, Hell no, I am not doing that.

The basic objective of military training is to teach you how to

operate as a unit, to become primarily concerned with unit cohesive-

ness and protection and to respond automatically to a situation that

will achieve some goal. Boot camp is an assault on your individuality.

The rst few days at Parris Island is a deliberate assault on

your citizen sensibility. You dont get to change your clothes, you

dont get to stay clean, you dont get to shower. Any obvious signsof individuality are immediately stepped on. Its noisy, its loud,

and there is always someone in your face with some type of verbal

assault. Everything you do is wrong and has to be punished, youre

in a state of confusion and youre always tired. All of this forces

you to respond as quickly as possible to these chaotic commands

without thinking. This is a way of nding those people who are

going to have trouble getting with the program. Getting with the

program is an important phrase, but once you get into this system

of noise and confusion it all begins to make sense. And after three

or four days of this the real training begins.

I remember telling a lot of kids when we were in the barracks at

night, Hundreds of thousands of guys have gone through this.

Theres no reason why you wouldnt make it. Most of them did, too.

The one thing everybody learns in boot camp is how much you can

take. For most people, that usually turns out to be a lot more than

they believed.

The history of basic military training is incomplete and erratic.

Generally though, the introduction of organized military trainingis credited to Chinese general Sun Tze, the author of The Art of

War,at about 500 .. According to legend, King Helu of Wu hired


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Colonel Jack Jacobs

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Sun Tze to teach the approximately 180 women living in his palace

close order drill and the proper use of the dagger-axe. Sun Tze ap-

pointed unit leaders, and when the troops failed to follow his or-

ders those unit leaders were beheadedthereby setting the

standard for drill instructors that any recruit can easily identify

with.

The concept of drilling soldiers, teaching them how to march

and maneuver in formation, dates back to the Roman Empire, when

Roman generals discovered that the infantry moved more effi cientlywhen everyone was in step. The object of training was to teach

soldiers how to maneuver in step. The Romans even dened the

length of one step and marched to the beat of a drum.

Basic training began unoffi cially in the United States in Valley

Forge, Pennsylvania in February 1778 when General George Wash-

ington brought in Prussian offi cer Baron Friedrich von Steuben to

instill discipline in his unorganized, rag-tag Continental Army. Von

Steuben trained a company of 120 men in basic military conduct and

drilling. Because he spoke no English, he recruited an aide to curse at

the troops for him. Troops were instructed to march at a seventy-six-

step per minute cadence, rather than the current 120 steps. In battle

at that time, troops maneuvered as a single unit, and the army best

able to coordinate its moves gained a signicant advantage.

When von Steubens original model company was trained to

his standards he dispersed them throughout the Continental Army

to train other troops. He then wrote down his lessons in the Reg-

ulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United

States, which has become known as The Soldiers Blue Book. As he

wrote in chapter ve: Of the Instruction of Recruits, The com-

manding offi cer of each company is charged with the instructionof his recruits; and as that is a service that requires not only experi-

ence, but a patience and temper not met with in every offi cer, he is


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to make choice of an offi cer, sergeant, and one or two corporals of

his company who . . . are to attend particularly to that business.

The recruits must be taken singly, and rst taught to put on

their accoutrements and carry themselves properly.


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E when the recruit raises hisor her right hand and takes the Oath of Enlistment. It is justabout the only thing that every recruit throughout American

history has in common. The moment a recruits hand comes down

he or she has surrendered almost all of their constitutional rights.

They have entered into a new world, and the transition is some-

times difficult, often funny, but always memorable. The first

such oath was created in 1775 for members of Washingtons Con-

tinental Army. Enlistees had to affi rm: I _____ have, this day,

voluntarily enlisted myself, as a soldier, in the American Conti-

nental army, for one year, unless sooner discharged: And I do

bind myself to conform, in all instances, to such rules and regula-

tions, as are, or shall be, established for the government of the

said Army.

The current Oath of Enlistment became law in 1960. It reads:

I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affi rm) that I will support and

defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies,

foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance tothe same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the

United States and the orders of the offi cers appointed over me,

In the Beginning There Was

the Heaven, the Earth, and

the Drill Sergeant


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according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

So help me God.

Few people know what to expect when they enter the military

world. Olaf Casperson (air force, Lackland, DecemberJanuary

197879) intended to use the military to get his education. I had

heard that the air force had veterinarians. Truthfully, it never oc-

curred to me ask why the air force needed veterinarians, but I was

hoping to go to school and become a veterinarian. At the pro-

cessing center I was told politely, Son, we dont have veterinariansin the air force, but you dont want to do that anyway. Thats a bor-

ing job. All those guys do is go around all day inspecting vege-

tables in the commissary. So I asked about being a cook. But the

recruiter looked at my aptitude test and put me into aircraft elec-

tronics. When I got home my Dad laughed at my story and said,

They sure saw you coming. It worked out very well, though. That

became my career.

Susan Kincaid Sparky Allen (air force, Lackland, 1974) had a

very similar experience. I went in and told my recruiter I wanted

to be a spy. Somehow he translated that to mean that I wanted to

sign up for a six-year hitch in avionics.

There is a classic joke told about the rst few days of basic train-

ing: In 1968 Richard Langsam, from the mountains of North Caro-

lina, was drafted into the army. On the rst day of basic training

the army issued him a comband that afternoon the army barber

cut off all his hair.

On the second day of basic training the army issued Langsam a

toothbrushand that afternoon the army dentist pulled out six of

his teeth.

On the third day of basic training the army issued Langsam ajock strapand the army has been looking for him ever since!

I didnt have the slightest idea what boot camp was about,


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Colonel Jack Jacobs

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recalls John Langeler (navy, Great Lakes, 1966). I was a college

freshman twice, so obviously that didnt seem to be working out

for me. I decided to join the navy to see the world. Before report-

ing I went to Brooks Brothers and bought two suits, several ties,

and a leather suitcase. I wanted to be well dressed when I saw the

world. When I got to the recruit training station there were f-

teen other gentlemen there, each one of them holding a paper

bag with a sandwich in it. I wondered, How are they going to get

by without clothes?It was pouring when we nally got out of the bus at Great

Lakes. I was carrying my new suitcase with me. A senior petty of-

cer came running, literally running, right up to me and pointed

at it and said, Boy, what the fuck is that youre carrying?

It seemed obvious to me, Its a suitcase, I said.

His mouth dropped open. Boy, you call me Sir and what the

fuck are you doing with a suitcase?

That seemed like a ridiculous question to me. What else is a

suitcase for? I said slowly, It has clothing in it, Sir. When he ex-

plained that the navy provides clothing for recruits, I pointed out,

Its for the weekends. I knew so little about boot camp I just as-

sumed Id need a jacket and tie for our weekend trips into Chicago.

With that he opened it up and stared at it. Everything inside

got soaking wet. The navy took it from me and shipped it to my

home. My mother assumed the navy had given me a new suitcase so

she just threw this one up in the atticwhere all those wet clothes

sat mildewing for several months.

The army even tried to change the MOS, military occupation

specialty, of Audie Murphy, who eventually became the most dec-

orated soldier of World War II. As he wrote in his autobiography,To Hell and Back,During my rst session of close-order drill, I, the

late candidate for the Marines and the paratroops, passed out cold.


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BASIC

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I quickly picked up the nickname of Baby. My commanding offi cer

tried to shove me into a cook and bakers school, where the going

would be less rough.

That was the supreme humiliation. To reach for the stars and

end up stirring a pot of C-rations. I would not do it. I swore that

I would take the guardhouse rst. My stubborn attitude paid off. I

was allowed to keep my combat classication; and the army was

spared the disaster of having another fourth-class cook in its ranks.

No one knows how many millions of American men and womenhave gone through basic military training since the Baron rst laid

out his rules. In 2011 there were about eighteen million veterans in

the United States. Although basic training, or boot camp as the

navy and Marines call it, has been as brief as three weeks and as

long as three months, depending on the needs of the military, tra-

ditionally it lasts between eight and ten weeks. After graduation

recruits attend schools for advanced individual training in their

military specialty.

Until 1918 each army division trained its own reinforcements,

but the massive number of replacement troops needed to ght in

World War I made that impossible and for the rst time, central

training depots were established. As the Center for Military History

later reported, this was dismal failure. Many troops received less

than a month of poorly conducted training before being shipped to

the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and thrown completely

unprepared into combat. They were sent to whatever units needed

replacements and too often had not been trained on the equipment

they were assigned. Their lack of preparation not only put their

lives in jeopardy, it also endangered the troops they were assigned

to support.To make sure that mistake wouldnt be repeated, in 1940 a

system designed to provide a continuous stream of replacements


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Colonel Jack Jacobs

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trained in the necessary jobs was established, although these re-

placement training centers werent ready to receive recruits until

March 1941. While basic and specialized school training was sup-

posed to last thirteen weeks (it was eventually extended to seven-

teen weeks) after World War II began many troops shipped out

after receiving only three or four weeks of basic combat training,

often arriving in a war zone without ever having red their primary

weapon and sometimes even without being issued the necessary

equipment. In the rush to feed troops into World War II combatzones, the established physical and psychological standards were

very low. For example, when the army realized that too many re-

cruits were being washed out of basic for dental tness, the dental

requirements were lowered to the ability to masticate the army

ration. Meaning that if you could chew, you were in.

The centralized system wasnt really capable of training the

number of troops needed for the war, so in many instances recruits

were sent directly from a reception center to their assigned unit for

basic training. For New Yorker Jerry Leitner (army, Fort Sill, Okla-

homa, 1944) that was an artillery unit. I was a Jewish college stu-

dent from Queens. Sometimes they tried to match your interest

with your assignment, but this was not one of those times. After

I got to Ft. Sill they sent me to a large room, and hanging on the

walls were photographs of the various types of eld artillery, start-

ing with the 75 mm left over from World War I right up to the

155 mm cannons. A lieutenant asked me, Anything here interest

you? I didnt know anything so I pointed to the biggest cannon,

the 155 mm. He smiled, then said, Look, youre six feet tall and in

good health, howd you like to be in the roughest toughest group

in eld artillery?

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