Hell Breaks Loose

It's the event that most recruits look forward to with a sense of apprehension and fear. The first day of Basic Combat Training. As they loaded us onto the bus, I glimpsed faces tense with nervousness. A few subdued jokes were made to try and cut the tension, but the ride was mostly quiet. I looked at the impending events differently...more with a sense of curiosity than anything else. When you have already lived some, you gain perspective that many younger recruits don't have. You realize that the process you are about to go through is carefully designed to make it perfectly clear who is in charge, and who isn't, for the next 9 weeks. Some fraction of trainees are used to leading their peers, and to defying authority (parents, teachers, etc.). The first day is designed to disorient them, and take them out of their accustomed element.

The first day of BCT, the weather was hot and humid, we have come to know as Category IV heat. I would guess it was in the low 90's and darn near 100% humidity. We were rushed off of our busses onto a grassy hill. There were about 200 of us, and around a dozen Drill Sergeants standing around. A few of them stood out from the start: an athletic black man with a loud, booming voice, and a man I have come to call DS Bull, because he looks to a tee like the bailiff character in Night Court.

They quickly herded us up the hill into four rows, yelling out things like "Move faster!", "Look what a sad-ass group we got this cycle", etc. Those four rows, we later learned, would become our platoons. A platoon is a group of 40-50 soldiers who all train together under the direction of three drill sergeants. First thing they did once the platoons were formed was march everyone up the hill and give them a cup of Gatoraid. At that point, I knew things really won't be so bad. After our immediate liquid needs were met (remember, it was HOT that day), they ran us to another part of the hill, had us form a big circle, then gave us three minutes to run down the hill, find our bag, and run back up. That really can't be done in three minutes, unless you work as a team to help eachother find bags. A few people did cooperate that way, but most just looked out for themselves. Teamwork is one of the core principals that BCT attempts to instill.

At this point, we were all soaked in sweat, wondering what else we would have to endure. To my surprise, that was it. We were marched into a classroom and began filling out paperwork. All-in-all, we ony spent less than an hour in the high-stress environment of initial arrival. Most were glad, but I had actually hoped it would last longer - that way, it would have made a better story ;-)