heardest lesson learned

implicature

implicature

Active member
What was the hardest lesson learned while you were in Boot or RT etc?

I haven't done either but i think from what i have read/heard for me -based on my personality- i am doing the things i hate for a reason even if it is a few days/months/years down the road.
 
03USMC said:
It's been known to happen ;)
Click to expand...

Rumors tell something like that? :D

I have some experiments of collective punishments because invidual punishing is officially forbidden. During basic training when falling in for an exercise front of the barracks one recruit forgot his cloves in quarter room and that caused lot of on a double dismissing and rounding light pole clockwise with the whole company. Then at evening training few hours to wear and change different suits and do it quicly in about 3 minutes: combat gear, swimming suit, combat gear, sport suit, light service suit m83, sleeping suit, camo suit m62, camo suit m91 and "phantom" (sport suit, swimming suit and gasmask combined). Afterwards sounds and looks very stupid but it had it's own important purpose.
 
No no rumors. In Marine Boot Camp they call it thrashing. One limp :cen: screws up everybody pays. Push ups, sit ups, mountain climbers.
 
03USMC said:
No no rumors. In Marine Boot Camp they call it thrashing. One limp :cen: screws up everybody pays. Push ups, sit ups, mountain climbers.
Click to expand...

What is mountain climber? Sounds a bit like our called "pioneerikyykky" wich is a low standing position knees in 90 degrees both hands straightened forward, like sitting without chair, very popular and used daily. Painfull position for long time but does physically good.

How about non-physical punishments like essay writing about for example "what put me to smile in formation" or "100 reasons why did i forgot to salute"? And exploding "badly" made beds and closets?
 
Moutain Climbers is a modified push up position combined with a running in place motion with the legs.
 
we do mountain climbers in Wrestling, lemme tell you they are not fun, you are in an "improper" pushup position (meaning your butt is too high in the air) and you bring each knee to your chest. they really suck at first but once your conditioned for them, they are a breeze, now bear crawls are a pain period, your legs get soo cramped after 8 or 10minutes of them but its one of those mind over matter things.. keep going.
 
How realistic image goarmy.com gives about training and service in US? I guess it shows only what is officially wanted to be shown.
 
i imagine they would tell you what they want you to hear, they will gloss over the not so nice stuff and romaticise the rest. im sure its common practice

we had some reports a while ago about people "not being treated nicely" my youth group leaders (ex army captain) response was "yes, it happens, and people deal with it" its just the way they get people to do things and to teach discipline
 
"i imagine they would tell you what they want you to hear, they will gloss over the not so nice stuff and romaticise the rest. im sure its common practice"

That is the most common way. A year ago there was a tv-serie about a famous talkie show man who was in army. It was very politically correct: no trashing shown, nobody was called as ****er, monkey, misstake or with other names. All NCOs and officers were very kind like the best fishing friends etc. In mid of 90s newspapers wrote about an extra "air raid" exercise where recruits were waken up in night and crawled naked in snow.
 
yeah but the way i see it a soldier or seaman's job is to kill. When it comes down to it there are going to be things in war that aren't "nice or good" and at that time this "mean and hateful" crap that recruits are put through are for the better... i don't really think it should be any civilians concern what happens as long as a life is not lost or jeopardized. (and there is no prejudice etc)
 
"i see it a soldier or seaman's job is to kill. When it comes down to it there are going to be things in war that aren't "nice or good" and at that time this "mean and hateful" crap that recruits are put through are for the better..."

Yeah, if war isn't fun so can't be military training. If army is fun and nice place, something has gone wrong.
 
I'll completely agree with 03USMC that learning there are no idividuals is the toughest but I'll add to it the further part of that same lesson - that being able to put others' needs ahead of your own. I learned the value of that in both a hard and nice way. One of my buddies at basic training was a good troop but the proverbial 90 llb weakling (not actually that weight for you folks outside the US. It's an expression here.). He had already done more pushups and such than he could handle any more of one day when our drill sergeant found that he had rust on his rifle and was bawling him out and had just told him to "knock out 50" when I just couldn't bear to see him suffer anymore that day. So I hopped up and said "Drill sergeant, that's my rifle. Private Weitz must have grabbed it by mistake when we snapped to when you came in." So I did the 100 pushups. 50 for the rust and 50 more for misplacing my weapon. Later that day the drill sergeant called me in to see our CO. They told me that they knew it wasn't my rifle by the number on it and that lying to superiors wasn't a good habit to get into but nonetheless I had learned the more valuable lesson of looking out for my buddy first among my training company and as such they gave me another stripe.
 
EuroSpike said:
How realistic image goarmy.com gives about training and service in US? I guess it shows only what is officially wanted to be shown.
Click to expand...

goarmy.com -- I just returned from Basic Training at Ft. Benning, GA and... it is nothing like the videos. Of course some of the things you do are the same, but a majority of my training has been much harder then shown on those videos. Maybe it's also because I went into Infantry, and so I am actually in OSUT (One Station Unit Training), which is basic/ait combined, so my basic training is really 14 weeks instead of 9. Also, FT. Benning allows no women to be trained for Basic/OSUT so the Drill Sergeants can "get away" with more. It's still not too bad, but you find a lot of guys who sike themselves out of it.

The hardest thing learned at Basic Training for me sounds really cheesy, but it's true. Everytime I wanted to quit, or fall out of a 6 mile run or anything, I didn't because I didn't want the Drill Sergeants to think I was a p*ssy. By not falling out, I guess I just realized that even when you think you can't do anymore, you always can, you just have to suck it up and move on.

Also, about the goarmy.com videos - They're there to get people interested in the Army. A lot of things can be changed during Basic, that the goarmy web site doesn't show. Everything is pretty close on the site, but I guess (at least for training) you have to go through it, to really know what it's like. Videos, etc. just can't show you.
 
11x RIP said:
EuroSpike said:
How realistic image goarmy.com gives about training and service in US? I guess it shows only what is officially wanted to be shown.
Click to expand...

goarmy.com -- I just returned from Basic Training at Ft. Benning, GA and... it is nothing like the videos. Of course some of the things you do are the same, but a majority of my training has been much harder then shown on those videos. Maybe it's also because I went into Infantry, and so I am actually in OSUT (One Station Unit Training), which is basic/ait combined, so my basic training is really 14 weeks instead of 9. Also, FT. Benning allows no women to be trained for Basic/OSUT so the Drill Sergeants can "get away" with more. It's still not too bad, but you find a lot of guys who sike themselves out of it.

The hardest thing learned at Basic Training for me sounds really cheesy, but it's true. Everytime I wanted to quit, or fall out of a 6 mile run or anything, I didn't because I didn't want the Drill Sergeants to think I was a p*ssy. By not falling out, I guess I just realized that even when you think you can't do anymore, you always can, you just have to suck it up and move on.

Also, about the goarmy.com videos - They're there to get people interested in the Army. A lot of things can be changed during Basic, that the goarmy web site doesn't show. Everything is pretty close on the site, but I guess (at least for training) you have to go through it, to really know what it's like. Videos, etc. just can't show you.
Click to expand...


Like i though. Videos show only what is wanted to be shown like in all marketing stuff. On the web site was a video clip about each week and i though wtf do they really train like on first week training only this and second week training only that and it seemed to be only less combat training and i wondered why they in marksmanship shot only at about 50m, why not at 150m? How long are days, in wich time service day starts and wich time it ends in week schedules?

"Everytime I wanted to quit, or fall out of a 6 mile run or anything, I didn't because I didn't want the Drill Sergeants to think I was a p*ssy. By not falling out, I guess I just realized that even when you think you can't do anymore, you always can"

That is true. When it feels very bad, just don't give up and everything will go well anyway and gives something to be proud of. Giving up will only p*** off afterwards and makes other think you a p*ssy.
 
I can almost hear the dog tags clanging on the concrete from the "Diamond make a T" pushups we had to do for our Shit bag rct. Donniger. I guess I should thank him though because we were in a lot better shape than our follow platoons thanks to his screw ups.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top