Getting Started

The first week of BCT was pretty uneventful. We spent a lot of time learning the basics such as how to march, how to exercise the Army way, and how to maintain our barracks. Many hours were spent in the classroom, learning things like Customs and Courtesies, UCMJ, and prevention of sexual harassment. During the latter class, the presenter asked the audience of 200 or so to share what they consider to be signals that their partner is open to sexual interaction. There were a number of funny answers, but one had the whole room in stitches. "Country", an overweight, but lovable hick from Kentucky stood up and started out with a thick hillbilly accent, "well, one morning I was out in the barn...", with which the whole room errupted into laughter (and I guess a little sympathy for the livestock. :-) Even the presenter lost her military bearing. Once things settled down, he continued "I was milking my cow" (which he mimed out, and more laughter ensued) "and my girlfriend walked in on me". The presenter asked "So how was that sexual?", to which he replied "Well, it kind of turned her on". "Go on" urged the presenter. "Well, she kinda showed me what she wanted" said Country. "And what was that?" "She wanted me to pull on her titties." Again, the whole room, including the presenter, errupted into laughter again. We have had many fun and funny moments, but of course it's not all fun and games.

Training is divided into the Red, White, and Blue phases. During the Red phase a major emphasis is "if an individual fails, the whole team fails". Translation: If someone messes up, the presumption is that his buddies should have straightened him out. Sometimes that words - peer pressure causes some people to shape up, but sometimes the individual in question just doesn't respond. Drill Sergeants are good at identifying those people, and working on them with other methods. What this boils down to in plain English is that we end up doing lots of push-ups and sit-ups in Red phase. Being punished like that upsets a lot of people, but I just look at the DS as my personal fitness trainer, helping me to meet my PT goals.