BOOT CAMP

Matt McClellanENG 101

Prof. David R. DiSarro11 July 2014

The Beginning

Getting all my hair shaved off was not as bad as I thought, mainly because everyone with had the same thing happening to them. The bad part, is you quickly find out what your head really looks like. Some people, like me, do not have a head that looks good bald.

The first week, recruits have to wear sweat pants and t-shirts . This labels you as new arrivals. I arrived in July, so we were issued shorts instead. It was hot then, and we actually had a few days we were not allowed to perform any strenuous activities while the temperatures were over95 F.

Barracks Life

In the barracks people are chosen at random, if there are no volunteers, to fill leadership roles and various other duties.

The barracks must be kept clean and presentable at all times. There are very specific details that must not beoverlooked in order to pass inspection. Inspections can happen at any moment, day or night.

Doing it wrong

Unfortunately, I could not find a Navy barracks that had been “tossed” like this one, but thisis a Marine barracks in disarray. I’m not saying the Navy is better,but this was a great example. To show unity, good or bad, if oneman is out of place the entiredivision pays the consequences. Trust me when I say, it works. Ifthere is someone struggling withsections of the training, there will be multiple people trying to help.

Consequences

Everyone pays together

We had a drill instructor tells us we would work so hard that it would rain in the barracks.

We started by closing all the windows and putting on all the cold weather clothing we had been issued, including a pea coat, wool sweater, utility jacket, and a wool knit cap. Then all the showers in the head were turned on as hot as they would go and we started.

We did push-ups, jumping jacks, sit ups, running in place, and my personal favorite, holding our wool blankets at arms length out in front of us while we did squats. Four and a half hours later, I could not hold the blanket up any longer and there was water dripping from the ceiling. This event took place because two guys got in a fight earlier that day.

Class timeMarching to class

Fire fighting

We would march to class at a fast walk, up to three miles each time. It doesn’t sound like much, but its good exercise.

Ship board fire fighting is essential, because the ship is were you live , and there is no local fire department to call if something happens.

The gas chamber was an interesting experience. They used pepper gas and we had to stand in the room for five minutes. When the instructor would get to us, we had to remove the mask, count to twenty, then state our name and rank. Then step outside where all the snot, saliva and tears would then exit your body. Apparently if anyone drank milk for breakfast, that would come back up also.