Episode 0016: Basic Training The First 72: Mastering Mind and Body in the Army

Strap in and brace yourself for a raw, unfiltered journey through the Army basic training. If you've ever wondered what it takes to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with America's finest, this episode will march you right into the heart of the action, where I share my personal stories from the frontline of military preparation. Discover the indispensable knowledge every recruit needs, from mastering creeds to the fitness fundamentals that could make or break your first days at Fort Benning or a similar establishment. I'll break down the sleep strategies that might just save your sanity, explain the steps of the reception process, and provide feedback on what the media portrays as basic training.

Navigating the rigorous path of army life requires more than just a strong body; it calls for a fortified mind. In this episode, we dissect the mental gymnastics and physical endurance tests that await you, offering sage advice on staying resilient under pressure. You'll hear how to manage the mundane, like arranging your finances and choosing the right communication plans, ensuring that when duty calls, you're ready to answer. I also share how to keep fit in the barracks' limited quarters, preparing you for the intense unity of One Station Unit Training. And before signing off, we set the stage for an intimate discussion on the 'Sunday scaries' , complete with anecdotes from Reddit users who've lived to tell the tale.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

Good morning y'all. Welcome back to the show. If this is your first time here, welcome to the show. For everyone returning Appreciate y'all coming back time after time checking out each episode and each topic we talk about. For everyone tuning in right now, let me know we are going to do another giveaway next week. It'll be based on the poll that will be attached to this episode and the episode coming out on Sunday Also in the Instagram feed. There'll be the same poll there. What you guys want it to be whether that's a gift card or something obviously it'll be regional stuff or just a Visa, gift card or apparel and merch, and we'll kind of just go from there On.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Today's episode is more geared to those thinking about joining the Army. Sorry for the other services, I was not in any of all the basic training so I can't comment. However, I can talk about my experience and what YouTube portrays on what basic training is like in the US Army. This is, if you are just going, active duty, reserves or Army National Guard. We're going to talk about things like what to expect, what to pack, things to be mindful of in your process or progress as you go through your training, things to plan for later on what your recruiter probably lied about what is the transition life like of having a life to not having a life, and what happens when you first get there, versus your first 10 weeks. Okay, guys, here we go.

Speaker 1: 1:50

I'm going to tell you that your first 24 hours when you come from MAPS, my best advice to you is to sleep. Sleep as much as you can. You're on the bus for 20 minutes, take a nap. You're on a plane somewhere. Sleep on the plane ride. You got an hour bus ride from Atlanta to Fort Benning or Fort Moore. Sleep on that bus ride. I'm telling you it is going to pay dividends in the next 24 to 36 hours Also.

Speaker 1: 2:20

So I don't know anything about basic training at Fort Jackson. I went to Fort Benning, fort Moore. So that is also just a thing to note on that. This is basic training at Fort Moore for enlisted soldiers. So, depending on what your MOS was, there's going to be a couple things you need to study or Google the 10 basic things. So I was infantry. There's the infantryman's creed and the soldier's creed. It is in your best interest, or, as your drill sergeant is going to tell you, it would behoove you, it would behoove you to know those two things. Other thing is know the Army's birthday, the National Anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, and be able to count to five. I don't know why that's a thing, but surprisingly you need to be able to count to five. Also, in your prep, hopefully, you do a lot of cardio, because running is going to be the number one thing you do and body weight exercises is also going to be the biggest thing you do.

Speaker 1: 3:27

So you get on that bus. Let's say you take a nap and you show up to Fort Benning, fort Moore or whatever. You get to what they call reception, you're going to have a drill sergeant acting all nonsense like and scary on the bus like this is my bus. You're going to get off my bus and you're going to Cool whatever, and someone else gonna get out. Hey, you're gonna say no, drill sergeant, yes, drill sergeant, roger, joe Sergeant, some shit like that.

Speaker 1: 3:52

Get a whole brief on it and then essentially, you're gonna go, you're gonna dump out your bag and You're gonna eat what's called a Jimmy D. It's absolutely trash, unless you get the tuna one. I recommend the tuna. The pork is pretty gross, but eat little Jimmy D. You got about 10 minutes and then you does, immediately into the next room. All right, hey, get rid of your stuff, grab these two books. You're gonna get on this phone. You're gonna tell your parents you made it. Hang it up, keep on pushing right. That's essentially. That's them trying to shock.

Speaker 1: 4:21

You go through, you go and To this big building and you got these two bags and you just grab all your gear, uniforms, everything first, first basics You're gonna need. You walk out of there. You're gonna go to a Bay barracks is what it kind of looks like. You're gonna drop your bags off. You're gonna come back down and you're gonna get this brief on your first day and Basically your first days when this is now is like probably five in the morning. So you go through your first day, you're gonna go get your Head shaved, you're gonna get your eyes done, your ears done, your teeth done and then in between that, you're gonna be sitting in this hot-ass room reading the blue book.

Speaker 1: 5:06

The blue book is essentially a general basis of rules, and the blue book was the guide written by George Washington on how to create an army, lead an army, be an army, the Relationship between soldiers and leaders, what to expect, how important food, sleep and basic Necessities are. It gives you guidelines on Drilling ceremony, which is gonna be like, hey, like forward March, column left March, like your marching movements, what the colors mean, what the flag is. It will give you your creed of a soldier's creed. It will discuss warrior ethos and I I don't really know too much out top top my head I don't have a blue book in my hand right now to read, but that's, that's essentially what you're gonna be doing.

Speaker 1: 5:49

And if you fall asleep there's gonna be some angry ass drill stars and just showing up on your desk and telling you to Stand up and that's gonna be a long two or three days of standing. You might like this. This is where people get it wrong. So, like on YouTube and the television show, they show you all your first 72 hours. You can just woken up and and, really good, nada. You're gonna show up to reception, you're gonna. You're gonna go to light out at 10, wake up at 0, 4, 0, 5, whatever, salute the flag, go get breakfast and do all your doctor's appointment stuff to in process. Right, that's your first week, week and a half when you get to basic training. You don't actually go to the basic training 198, 199th regiment brigades and train until you're done with all your in processing, which is also gonna include paperwork, dears, bah BAQ, bas information. It's gonna include your citizenship information if you're Someone trying to get a citizenship. It's going to include Immunizations, any file doctor appointments you know might need to do. That's, that's a. That's basically what what your first two weeks is. No, it is the best defect.

Speaker 1: 7:00

Defect is in the dining facility. Those who don't know it is the best defect you are ever going to have in your entire military career. Those ladies will give you the fattest portions, they will be the nicest and they'll let you pick your food. That's better than you what you know. Once you get to a, once you get to a unit and you're at like a fort hood or Fort Drum or Fort Lewis or Fort Carson, you will understand what I'm saying. Everyone agrees 30th AG's food was always busting the grandma cookies. You gonna steal some. You gonna do some slick shit. You probably gonna get smoke for it, but everyone's gonna understand.

Speaker 1: 7:37

Now, after you have Done your in processing, now it's the morning that you are actually going to your training. You're gonna wake up at 0 3. You're going to Meet your senior drill sergeant, who's kind of like your mentor, in a sense AKA. He still don't want to talk to you or do anything. They're going to do some rehearsal, pt exercise, stretching, whatever. Then they're gonna give you an MRE. You're gonna hop on a Another bus to go to another bus and then you're gonna go do what's called the first 100. Your first 100 is what they call the hundred yards or the last hundred yards of a war. World War one is where this comes from. That you need to cross that hundred yards that was called dead bands. Land and make to the other side is a success.

Speaker 1: 8:27

In a mission, there's gonna be small mission tasks that are gonna be team building oriented, with a bunch of people you don't know and A really weird and trick way to figure it out. It is gonna be you and your team's plan to Go through and complete those tasks in as fast as possible and accurate as possible. For example, me, we had to Strip a pallet down of like miscellaneous of litters ammo cans, gas cans, water cans and you have to rebuild the pallet the exact way it looked in a different location. I think that the, no matter what you do, the drill sergeant is gonna tell you hey, this is wrong, fucking push, or you're gonna do one of the exercises that they quote in Coordins with FM 7-22 there is nothing I can't do or say and they're gonna make you do a stupid exercise within that realm. Right, you're gonna get up, you're gonna next station to the same thing, to the same thing, all while sprinting in some very Uncomfortable, dirty 30 boots. The boot you get at 30th AG Okay, they're a standard, they are a Basic, but like man, like the minute you get a chance to buy some boots, you buy some boots, you Complete your tasks.

Speaker 1: 9:39

You get to your your Bay Barracks. Right here in your Bay Barracks, you're kind of gonna go through another Gear issuing. You get all the stuff that's in those cages that the unit has to train you with. It's not always gonna be the best, it's not gonna be the worst, but it's training right. So you get all this stuff. You're assigned for it. You are gonna be shown how to make a bed. You're gonna be shown how many socks you can have out, pieces of underwear you can have out shirts, you can have out how many uniforms you can have out. They're gonna show you how to set up your locker. And if your stuff is not done that way During any time they want to do an inspection. I Could assure you that you will get fucked down, you will get smoked and you will be doing some dumb exercises and it will get really stupid, I can assure you.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Well, and your drill sergeants are Gonna be your coach, your friend, but only your friend when trying to teach you something. And what I mean by that is when you are trying to conduct a squad attack or a battle drill or weapons qual and doing like M4 they call it PMI, preliminary marksmanship instruction and you're going through the steps of it. There they will be your friend to make you comfortable in the situation, so that you learn. But once you get that First block of instruction, it turns into like he is no longer your friend. He is here to make sure, like, hey, you are stupid, you are, you are a lost cause, and this is where you get called the plethora of names that you hear on YouTube.

Speaker 1: 11:16

So you got your first day done, you got your stuff issued, you turn in whatever stuff you had left because pretty much like I don't know why, recruiters tell you to have a packing list and a whole this. That no, literally like go with some basic hygiene items, one set of clothes and and, honestly, you want to bring Underwear, socks, socks with no labels on that's. That is what you need to bring, because the socks that give you young is really not that good. The underwear they give you are, straight up, just old, whitey-tidy granny panties from like the 1950s and them shit just ain't comfortable with the fuck. I'm totally being honest underwear, socks and Hygiene like toothpaste, toothbrush, extra toothbrushes because they're coming handy. We got to clean your weapon or clean stuff like Toothbrushes gonna come in handy late later on, when you go, when you go through. Those are the things you can then trade up to get the good MRE snacks. Those are the things you can trade up that are gonna get you what else you need to get by, whether it's a pen, paper, etc. Those are the things you are going to need long term. Those are the things you want to sustain and stack on.

Speaker 1: 12:27

This is where the television and YouTube is accurate. Is that they? They come in at. I Say two o'clock, two o'clock in the morning, all right, you come in at two o'clock in the morning. They just blow, blow your mind, man, they are awake, they are alert, they are coming at you, they are ripping your entire Bay apart, flipping beds, lockers, unlocked. They're flipping those over. You got shaving cream anywhere From there? That that's when it's very accurate to the TV and the YouTube portrayal. That's when you Really get hit hard with the reality that, oh shit, I'm in the service, I'm the army. Now this is what I need to do, and they do that to confine you and uniform you mentally.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Biggest thing to work on is keep a small headspace and go through that. That's with a lot of army schools. You hear guys that you know for the, for the whoo guys, I wanted to Ranger school or 75th Regiment, or I want to go to this school, that school, like further on the career. Good for you. But always keep a small headspace. Don't let a small mistake ruin your day and when big things happen, it take it for what it is. Don't don't do the same as think I do when I has a big happen. I took it, I shut down and I straight up failed it right. So for you, don't Get taken advantage of on that small headspace and keep your head clear and just do the motion and whatever makes the most sense. Obviously, don't stay here and over analyze a problem or a situation. Just do. It makes the most sense and it will help you, I promise.

Speaker 1: 14:01

So now you're going on to your first Sunday. Right, it's been Two weeks since you left home. You might have gotten your phone one time for 20 minutes. Yeah, this Sunday, yeah, you ain't getting your phone, bro, you is gonna do what they call area beautification, or you're gonna go to church and then you're gonna come back. You're gonna do some push-ups, you're gonna do some mountain climbers, you're gonna go to the defect, you gonna sing the army song, you're gonna sing the national anthem the soldiers create, infantry man create. And, if you don't know it, you was running, you is running a long way and you'll come back. You'll do it again till you say it right. Then you'll go eat and you'll go eat within that time frame.

Speaker 1: 14:41

Listen, just don't look at the food. Just step here, step here, step here. Don't look left, don't look right, just Just keep moving. And even if you do that perfectly, a drill is still gonna get you in your face and say why are you fucked up? You ain't gonna know why you're fucked up, but you're fucked up, you're just. You ain't standing right, you ain't holding the tray right, you ain't. Something is fucked up that you are doing. That's it. And then you go sit down. The way you're eating is wrong. The way you taste your food is wrong. The way you Whatever you're doing your plate is wrong. And then if you don't eat all your food, you're gonna get yelled at. I mean, hey, if you don't eat it you don't need it, but like you're gonna need those calories, I promise you you are going to need the calories.

Speaker 1: 15:20

For me, every time I went to the defect and left the defect, you do what we call a buy-in. It was five pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats. Lap around the barracks. Lap was like a little more than a quarter mob, wasn't a half mob, but you did that. Every time. You got breakfast, lunch, dinner and, on top of all the exercise You're doing for getting smoked.

Speaker 1: 15:42

If you weren't on the line when they went to do roll call at the end of the night, you were getting smoked. If you Didn't have your bed perfectly folded at the 45, your bed was getting flipped. You were getting smoked. If, if you didn't know something or didn't study something, they told you that you're preparing for you were getting smoked. Pretty much, you're gonna get smoked. It's inevitable, it is okay. I assure you you will not die. I can assure you, as long as you hydrate and you eat, you will be okay. I can assure you you'll be okay. I'm okay. I wouldn't if that is how I was a fat toby dude when I joined. All right, so just just be mindful of that. How do you will make it.

Speaker 1: 16:21

Right now you get into your second week. This is where you'll get your first phone call. You'll send a letter out to your parents, a haze where you can mail me stuff. When they start mailing you stuff, do not get the candy, because the drill sergeant's like the candy. Do not get the vapes to dip, because you know you just you're asking for trouble, right? No, you're gonna ask for some dry, fit like underwear, like dukes, right, tackle underwear. You're gonna ask for Fox River socks to help with the blisters. You're gonna ask for mullskins so that your feet don't get torn up. Okay, you're gonna ask for Dry, fit green teas or tan teas ever you want to call them, so that way, like you don't shave, you're not sweating like a bitch, and Hopefully it makes your day a little bit better. Maybe, honestly, maybe even get some toilet paper, because the toilet paper kind of sucks too, and it was a hot commodity at some time. So just Putting that out, there some things that you might want to tell your mom. Hey, get this for me. This is what I need, not skittles, not dips, not babes, not like. Trust me, you could be a nicotine fiend and they're all nicotine fiends, but what you want is dry fit underwear, dry fit shirts, fox river socks so you can ruck, you can move, you can sweat and you'll be okay, right? So it is now like you're a couple weeks in.

Speaker 1: 17:41

You're going into white phase because you're out of what they call red phase. I don't really think the phases matter. It all depends on what your training cycle is, what the land and ammo allocation is for y'all, but white phase is going to be the most time you shoot, training. You will go every day to the range and you will shoot and you will shoot and you will shoot and you will shoot. If you didn't think you shot, you're going to shoot, and every day you're going to shoot and shoot and shoot. To learn how to manage recoil. You're going to learn how to aim.

Speaker 1: 18:10

Point of sight, point of aim are two different things. You're going to learn how to shoot on iron sights, which means you don't have a sight on it, you're not looking on a call of duty, high sped, and then you're going to go into having something like a red die. It's like all they use in basic training, to my knowledge. Once you get to a unit some units have ACOG, some units have these things called M10 cans You'll have different scopes you can always attach I do know some people do attach their own scopes to their weapons. As long as you're in the arms room, no one really gives a shit. So something to be mindful of. But in basic you've got to qualify on the iron sights and then you have to qualify on the high speed. You know red dot, acog, etc. You can go from there Because you do get like 20 something opportunities to the qual. There's basically no reason you shouldn't qualify. But even if you don't qualify, the move, the move you want you'll.

Speaker 1: 19:06

You go to the next phase and you're going to pass. You go into learning team stuff like how to build a patrol base, like very, very basics. So yeah, how to build a patrol base, how to land nav, how to read a map, how to understand different kinds of grenades, how to understand the different weapons systems, what each weapon says can do, what kind of rounds we have, why do we use these rounds? You'll learn a little bit of like historical like hey, these bow drills happen because of this or because of this, and this is why we do this way. Right, and it's called doctrine, and doctrine is kind of like the end all be all. You're going to learn some basis about different regulation that like is going to pertain to you in basic Nothing, nothing crazy.

Speaker 1: 19:55

You get to like week week 10, you go do the fours. This is where, like TV and YouTube, they really hyped us up. Okay, so, yes, there is machine gun fire over your head. Yes, they do have some grenades going off near you. Yes, you do crawl under barbed wire for a little bit, but like it's like two feet in the air where you can really get up on your hands and knees and, like bear, walk it. The machine gun fire is nowhere near you. It's totally safe. Like the drill sergeant is going to walk behind you. So if they're they're standing and walking, like you ain't going to get shot. Okay, I promise you, you're going to rock a couple times. You're going to do an obstacle course. You know you're going to climb a rope, you're going to crawl some mud, you're going to get real muddy, you're going to get real dirty, you're going to get real wet and it is what it is. But at the end of that you're like, wow, I really went through that and it sucked. And then you have family day and then you'll have your basic graduation. Like, oh my God, I got my little US Army patch and get a little beret and you're gonna walk around for for bending for more at the PX, looking like a fool. But If you're gonna look like a fool, make sure you get some boots, make sure you get a uniform. I say get the hot weather, cause it's like pajamas and that's your best bet.

Speaker 1: 21:13

Popular questions I get when it comes to basic training is okay, let's say you have bills. How do you take care of that? All of your bills you need to set up to automatic payments or make sure you have, like your mom or dad, have access to your bank account and pay that. If you have, like any debts that you really wanna pay off, pay off a lot of, because you're not spending money. You're not spending money on a gas, you're not spending on bills, take that money and pay your debts off, bro, like, get ahead on your debts and get ahead on anything you might own the back.

Speaker 1: 21:47

Okay, and then going forward with that right, look at starting switching over your phone plan to something that's gonna be military friendly. Start planning for your future when you're just sitting there thinking about all your time, so you usually have access to books and you can read stuff. I mean, it's not gonna tell you everything, but look at military credit cards or military friendly credit cards that aren't gonna fuck your debt over, right, if you are told you get your orders and you say, hey, I'm going to this base in eight weeks, okay, cool, start learning about the area, knowing where you're going, and then figure out if you're gonna get hometown recruiting or not, so you can know, hey, this is how much time I'm gonna have to plan to get my stuff and get it here. This is where I'm gonna be, and set yourself up. That's the biggest thing. I wish I got told more when I was in basic training was research, the area you're going first. Obviously, what it did for me was I ended up not going to what my order said, which is fine. It is what it is. But for you if, hopefully your orders are right start looking that stuff up and start telling your parents to look that stuff up. So then, when you do get your phone for that one Sunday, later on, you can kind of be like okay, hey, this is where I'm going, this is the area, this is what to expect and you can plan, which I think will give you a lot more success going forward.

Speaker 1: 23:09

Another question that I got brought up was you know what if you run out of something? If you run out of something, you're gonna tell your drill sergeant and there's always these little shoppets of PX you can go get what you need at any time. Okay, if some gear gets damaged, they can switch it out for you. Like you're gonna be okay, you're not gonna run out of stuff, you're not gonna run out of deodorant or anything like that. Like you're gonna be okay, all right.

Speaker 1: 23:35

Then another question I got was what do you do about excelling at fitness? Man, I'm gonna tell you this this was our workout. It was me, this Duke Estelnik, this guy is Rietta and this guy Humphreys Four of us. We set up the gym that's what you call it. So we took all the books, put them in a laundry bag, we hung it over a rung on the bed, made that a tricep pull down, filled up another bag with all of our boots and gear. That became our bicep curls bag and then we would do pushups in the area and then we would go to the showers and do pull ups and then leg raises and that's kind of like that's your workout. They had weights that we weren't allowed to get until the AIT portion because I was an OSIT based on my MOS.

Speaker 1: 24:28

So, depending on your MOS and depending on, like your unit and your drills, you might have gym equipment but you're not gonna go to an actual gym. You're going to work out in your bay because your bay is everything. Your bay is where you sleep, it's where you eat, it's where you hang with your buddies on the whatever your downtime or late time, whatever. That's it. Then commenting on OSIT so OSIT is like one station unit training. Yeah, you don't go to a new bay, you don't go to a new barracks. You stay where you are with the same people. You might get some new guys coming to the recycles or they're changing MOSs, so that's just what it is.

Speaker 1: 25:08

But other than that, like you're not changing anything at one station unit training. You are with the same guys for 22 weeks, or I think it's 21,. I think they shortened it a week, which I don't think on one week is really gonna make a difference. I think as long as you learn the basics and understand what you're doing, understand the more defined things, you're gonna be okay. So Sunday, we are going to now kind of reference this episode and we are gonna talk about the Sunday scaries of basic training, like some real what the fuck moments that I experienced and some real what the fuck moments that other people experience. Here's some Reddit comments that will come out about this Kind of like how you deal with it or what their course of actions were to deal with the stuff. Well, thank you all for checking out the show. Don't forget to vote in that giveaway. Hope you'll see you soon. I'm Charlie Mike.