Favorite bootcamp memory?

[Groundpounder]

You are correct I never will understand.

It was a cruel thing to phone home but the peanut butter him getting busted part was funny.  This kid was evil and did nothing but pick on weaker kids. That's why it was funny almost ironic that it happened to him. 

That was not my favorite memory from bootcamp. It was just one that stuck out.  Definitely not a good memory. Their truly was a few DIs that were some of the craziest, sickest individuals you would ever meet.  My favorite memory of my 6 mth stay was graduation.

[Jeff "hogfanintx" Anderson]

It was a cruel thing to phone home but the peanut butter him getting busted part was funny.  This kid was evil and did nothing but pick on weaker kids. That's why it was funny almost ironic that it happened to him. 

That was not my favorite memory from bootcamp. It was just one that stuck out.  Definitely not a good memory. Their truly was a few DIs that were some of the craziest, sickest individuals you would ever meet.  My favorite memory of my 6 mth stay was graduation.

then the bully/[CENSORED] got what he deserved.

[Albert Einswine]

You are correct I never will understand.

I'll try to help.  Humiliation is a key component of military training.  It has been for thousands of years.  That's why they shave our heads, verbally abuse us, tell us how worthless we are and make us all look like carbon copies of the same sad sack.

To mold a group of young men into a cohesive, sharply functioning unit, the individual must be broken and rebuilt into a functional, reliable cog in the machine.  We are trained to react, to perform our job instinctively and to obey lawful orders without question.  We are trained to rely on our brethren when the crap hits the fan.  Whether we are in a direct combat capacity or a combat support capacity it is imperative that we perform as a team and that we can trust our teammates.

If you haven't been there, you might have a hard time understanding it, but it works.  It's not sports, it's life and death. 

When we signed up for this we suspended certain of our constitutional rights for the terms of our enlistments/commissions and we knew that going in.  Our ultimate job is to kill and destroy and we understood that going in. 

Fatbody had it coming,  regardless of his bullying.  Humiliating him in that manner was the only course of action that would possibly begin to make him fit for service.  It either worked in his case or it didn't.  If it didn't he got weeded out and sent home in shame, probably to lead the life of the loser he had already shown himself to be.  If he responded positively to it he likely became a useful member of a unit.

[JDMHAWG]

ahh I have enjoyed reliving my memories through the stories you guys shared!!!
One of my favorites is I was at Ft Jackson in nov92-01/93. the Barracks are kind of Star shaped so the different companies can see other companies across about a 15'space between windows. This was before true Coed basic and there was a female platoon across from ours,luckily, anyway after a week or two of BCT they were lonely as well and at night whoever was on watch got a great peepshow!

[Calvin N Hawgs]

ahh I have enjoyed reliving my memories through the stories you guys shared!!!
One of my favorites is I was at Ft Jackson in nov92-01/93. the Barracks are kind of Star shaped so the different companies can see other companies across about a 15'space between windows. This was before true Coed basic and there was a female platoon across from ours,luckily, anyway after a week or two of BCT they were lonely as well and at night whoever was on watch got a great peepshow!

I was going to post something along these lines.

I was at Lackland 3706BMTS in 1985.  The flight across and above us was a "woman flight".  At night when they would clean their windows we would all line up and watch...  They caught on after a couple of nights and some of the guys in our flight got pretty nasty...  the women could look directly down into our bay.

I also remember faking like I was going to faint (seeing what I could get away with) after some of those mandatory millions of shots you have to take in basic.  My T I came over and waved some 'smelling salts' under my nose...if you ever had that done...you know it!  I never tried that crap again!

[JDMHAWG]

ahhh Great Memories!

[HawgWild]

I used to swim a lot and snorkle. I was pretty good at holding my breath for long periods of time under water. This came in handy when it came time for my turn in the tear gas chamber. We were all marched in with our gas masks on and then told to remove them. I took a deep breath before I took off my mask. Guys were falling down, coughing like crazy, bolting for the exit and some throwing up.

After a minute or so the DI waved us out for the next batch. I managed to hold my breath the whole time. Got a little teary eyed but that was it.

[Johnny America]

I used to swim a lot and snorkle. I was pretty good at holding my breath for long periods of time under water. This came in handy when it came time for my turn in the tear gas chamber. We were all marched in with our gas masks on and then told to remove them. I took a deep breath before I took off my mask. Guys were falling down, coughing like crazy, bolting for the exit and some throwing up.

After a minute or so the DI waved us out for the next batch. I managed to hold my breath the whole time. Got a little teary eyed but that was it.

We had to tell the DI our home address, social, and then we had to answer simple math problems while in the chamber. It really did not have a huge effect on me. I have no idea why. That was one of the days I was really not looking forward to. It ended up not being as bad as I expected.

[Albert Einswine]

We had to tell the DI our home address, social, and then we had to answer simple math problems while in the chamber. It really did not have a huge effect on me. I have no idea why. That was one of the days I was really not looking forward to. It ended up not being as bad as I expected.

It was irritating and uncomfortable for me after a minute or so, but didn't have nearly the effect on me that it did others around me.  I kinda thought most of them were a little wussified, lol!

[Calvin N Hawgs]

I used to swim a lot and snorkle. I was pretty good at holding my breath for long periods of time under water. This came in handy when it came time for my turn in the tear gas chamber. We were all marched in with our gas masks on and then told to remove them. I took a deep breath before I took off my mask. Guys were falling down, coughing like crazy, bolting for the exit and some throwing up.

After a minute or so the DI waved us out for the next batch. I managed to hold my breath the whole time. Got a little teary eyed but that was it.

After I came out of the chamber is when I first heard of taking a deep breath BEFORE removing your mask.  Sucks for me I guess!  I was the coughing, spitting, running for the door guy!

[HackettHawg]

Seemed like I was in training forever before I actually started active duty.

Basic - Fort Benning, GA
Infantry 11B - Fort Benning, GA
Airborne - Fort Benning, GA
Rigger - Fort Lee, VA
Air Assault - Fort Campbell, KY
RIP School - Back to Benning then Mountain and Jungle Training

Guess my favorite part of all of it was the promo points 

Hardest training I ever did was SERE school.

[pheine78]

Ahhh.....great times, or at least graduating was.  I was the guy that got yelled at all the time.  My most vivid memory:  My plan was to be the guy that made it through basic without anyone knowing my name.  On our second day, we were standing outside the chow hall at attention, been there about an hour like that.  My face started to itch, so I looked through the corner of my eyes and didn't see a drill sergeant.  What did I do?  Itch my face of course.  After I put my hand my hand down, I heard "What the fu%k was that?"  I was really hoping he wasn't talking to me, but he was.  He came up and looked at my little Velcro namepatch (this was before we had nametags sewn on).  He said, "Well Flight (Air Force of course), since (he peered at my namepatch again and got my name) Smith here doesn't know how to stand at attention, the rest of the Flight is going to practice standing at attention the rest of day!"  There was lots of grumbling, and although we didn't stand there all day, we stayed at attention for a good three hours--I was hated after that and my drill sergeant knew my name the rest of the time I was there and I was usually the person that called out first!  Very contrary to my plans.

[GO!HOGS!]

Went to Infrantry school at Fort Benning, GA. Hot as crap. But I have to say my favorite memory was finishing. Haha. No it was getting my crossed rifles at the end of our 7 day FTX.

[ChemEHawg]

MCRD San Diego Plt 1097 Summer of 2003

Decided I'd try to get through boot camp without anyone knowing my name, but I think my recruiter told them I could type so I was voluntold to be the house mouse that typed up the weekly schedules the DI's they kept in their campaign covers. They picked a few other really tiny mexican recruits and made them their maids. They would mercilessly screw with us and try and get us to rat out other recruits. Up north during phase 2 our senior was in the duty hut and called me to report and type the schedule. The other house mouses were soaked in sweat and looked terrified after I reported. There were some McDonalds fries and a big coke sitting on the desk. After a few minutes Senior DI Sgt. Perez asked me very politely if I'd like to drink the coke. This recruit would not like to drink the coke senior drill instructor. No? No senior drill instructor this recruit is well hydrated. DRINK THE MOTHER F***ING COKE!! I had to chug it and couldn't set it down until I made it 'sound off' to him when it was empty. Next he went through the same song and dance with the fries. I had to cram so many in my mouth I could barely chew, but he made me scarf them down. Right as I was getting done with the last little bit of fries, our Kill hat Sgt. Gutierrez comes walking in the duty hut, stops and starts glaring at me. Sgt Perez starts chuckling and walks out since Sgt Gutierrez was coming on duty for us that night and he was leaving. Sgt Perez made me scarf our kill hat's lunch...and then he left me to fend for myself!! Needless to say I was on a pit tour the rest of that afternoon and most of the next day. Built a lot of volcanos and ran around like sand monster until qual week.

During phase one Sgt Balboa put all the house mouses in the push up position facing one another in the duty hut during Sunday square-away time. Some drill instructors from our platoon and some from follow series all took turns betting on who would drop first. We had to yell "I'm not a b!tch, you're a b!tch" on the 1 & 2 count of the push up and it went around the circle like that until someone fell. The DI's starting resting their boot heels on our shoulders and smacking our fingers for not being straight together and aligned. One of the follow series DIs saw he was going to lose the bet so he just knocked all of us over with his boot. Of course, we all got yelled at for falling and not letting DI Sgt Balboa win.

But the best memory from training? Getting to leave 29 stumps after back to back RCax in July and Aug of 2005!! Holy hell, Iraq was a cake walk after that BS since our 1stSgt thought he was hard stuff and just played games with us the whole time.

[TheBrain]

Ft Dix NJ summer 1989. That shithole is well, a shithole. and we had the most sadistic DI to ever wear the round brown. And just my luck he hated guys from Arkansas. [CENSORED] coonass.

best memory : umm well..... none. Funniest/saddest thing I saw while there. Some poor sumbitch decided to kill himself by tying a floor buffer cord around his neck and throwing it out the third story window. Problem, them damn floor buffers have like 400' cords (as we all remember) so it hit the ground and he was left standing there staring at all of us down below.

[hawgsav1]

Navy OCS in Newport, RI...a million hilarious moments.

During one of the inspections, one of the toughest DI's was inspecting one of the candidates, who was a smartass 2nd class petty officer who wanted to become a pilot.  He and I were two of the best at PT in the class (highest pushup numbers on our PFA throughout OCS).

While the drill instructor was tearing apart the candidate's room and chewing him out, he screams at him "CANDIDATE, YOUR ROOM LOOKS LIKE ABSOLUTE GARBAGE!  YOUR STUFF LOOKS LIKE SH_T, YOUR KNOWLEDGE STINKS, AND YOU LOOK LIKE A TOTAL SH_TBAG!  YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING RIGHT.  IS THERE ANYTHING YOU KNOW HOW TO DO?"

Without a moment of hesitation, the 2nd class replies "SIR, THIS OFFICER CANDIDATE KNOWS HOW TO DO PUSHUPS!"

Everybody busted out laughing, including the DI.

[Bugscuffle]

Ft. Jackson, SC -1984. We were on a 25 mile road march and the DS' hit us with CS artillery simulators. Everyone stopped and put their masks on, but these were not our personal masks. Some worked great and others had crap filters. I put my mask on, cleared it and found what I thought was a pretty good defensive position. From there I started seeing guys jump up and take off running. They were running in all sorts of directions and every once in a while one would run right into a tree. It became apparent that some of the masks were malfunctioning. I must have laid there for 5 minutes laughing until I cried. I'm sure I looked like I had been hit with the tear gas as well when we got the "All Clear" command.

[carolinahogger]

OCS, Quantico Virginia, Summer of 1981.  Language alert, do not read if you are offended by semi-bleeped language.

We were in this huge squad bay by the river.  I think it has been torn down.  Anyway, the bay was divided into three parts by using walls of footlockers, so all three platoons were under the same roof.  You were pretty much running wide-open in OCS, but of course there was some slow time for cleaning weapons, shining boots, etc. 

We were sitting on the deck shining boots when a Sergeant Instructor (DI equivalent) from another platoon walked through.  A college classmate of mine, Del Thomas, was sitting about 12 feet away from me.  Del glances up and makes eye contact with this Staff Sergeant.  Bad idea.

The SI stops and looks at Del.  The conversation went like this:

SI:  "Candidate, why are you looking at me?"

Del:  "I don't know, Sergeant Instructor."

SI:  "Do you like me, Candidate?"

I'm thinking "Oh s***, I don't think there is a good answer for this question."

Del:  Pauses...."Yes, Sergeant Instructor."

SI:  "Well, liking leads to loving and loving leads to *******.  Do you want to **** me, Candidate?"

Del:  "No, Sergeant Instructor."

SI:  "Then keep your g****** eyes off me, Candidate."

Funny stuff.  Nobody laughed out loud.

[warriorlion]

mcrd San Diego 1986 Plt. 2054.  To many good ones:  Pissee private pissing the rack every night trying to get a discharge and the DI yelling every morning for pissee private--and everyone echoing pissee private.  You didn't want to be anywhere close or you may be feeling those sheets for the DI.  Still remember some poor guy who was close by--he felt them and said in such a hurt tone--"There wet sir."

Or standing hygiene inspection one night: "Sir the private has no personal or physical problems at this time sir!". Well dumbars across the way doesn't turn his boxers to the side and one of the DI's steps in front of him and his pecker hanging out.  The DI's quote was something along the lines of "If you think I am going to play with that little thing you better f---en think again you better put that thing up before i slap it off."  I got thrashed for 20 minutes for laughing.
But my favorite--fat body sneaks a piece of cake at chow, we all drink till we puke then they make fat body roll it the puke like a pig and make pig sounds!! I miss it!!  And as someone else said, you tell these to civilians and they think you are crazy.

[Ftsmithmike]

This is sad but funny. We had a washout who had serious behavior problems. He was the guy who raised his hand when the drill asked if anyone wanted to go home. He decided to end his misery by wrapping the cord of a big buffer around his neck and throwing it out of the barracks window onto the breezeway below. The entire company was formed up under the breezeway and the drill was pacing and scolding us. The lone soldier up above on extra duty missing from the formation. All of a sudden there was a crash about two feet from the drill. We all rushed from our position to look up to see where the buffer had fallen from. Standing at the window a was private who was about thirty feet up. fortunately for him the cord he had wrapped around his neck was 50 ft long. They never did let him go home. Instead they kept him as a hold over on suicide watch while the Army kept his paycheck long enough to pay for the buffer. It took over a year.

Ft Dix NJ summer 1989. That shithole is well, a shithole. and we had the most sadistic DI to ever wear the round brown. And just my luck he hated guys from Arkansas. ******** coonass.

best memory : umm well..... none. Funniest/saddest thing I saw while there. Some poor sumbitch decided to kill himself by tying a floor buffer cord around his neck and throwing it out the third story window. Problem, them damn floor buffers have like 400' cords (as we all remember) so it hit the ground and he was left standing there staring at all of us down below.

I guess that's pretty common.

[aloha_kid]

Having my hairlip Company Commander try to say "brasso".  Let's just say it didn't sound like brasso when he said it.

[10thPlanet]

Oh God, let me see.  3709 BMTS, Lackland AFB 14 Jul 81 - 26 Aug 81, hot as hell. 

3704 BMTS Last week of June....TI: SGT. Jenkins.....We were there at the same time.

[aloha_kid]

My favorite memory was fashioning an antenna out of a coat hanger, hooking it up to the tv that was locked in the drill sergeant's office, and watching football. 

My least favorite?  Fashioning an antenna out of a coat hanger, hooking it up to the tv that was locked in the drill sergeant's office, and watching football....and getting caught.

We all got really strong after that day.

Two kind of boot camp companies ... smart ones and strong ones

[Flying Razorback]

I guess that's pretty common.

Ha, not to make light of a situation, but I hope that's the same one.  Kind of comical if a couple of people attempted the same thing.

[BiggieHawg]

Navy-Great Lakes

One of my RDC's was Polish, one was Romanian so everything they said was funny.  Our female RDC going from hating me to calling me Teddy. 

On my birthday we got to go to a White Sox game and after that I was one of the rovers with the OOD who was my female RDC. This girl in another compartment was standing watch my RDC looks the porthole and gets this girl to wave at her then ripped the door open and made her cry.  Poor girl was on P-4 day and their division wasn't even supposed to be standing watch yet.

[uaspiderman]

My favorite memory now is when we had "service" week. I went to boot camp at NRTC Orlando, FL. We had one week were all recruits had to do a "service" during boot camp. There was no volunteering, just a random selection of your service. I got the opportunity to work in the "slop" room. It couldn't have been coincidental that I was from Arkansas, but it fit...Basically, you took all of the uneaten food and dumped it into large containers to be taken out to the pig farmers in the area. I can't explain the smell, however, after working a week in the room and washing my uniform every night, the smell would not come off after 10 washings and I could clear a room just walking in. It was disgusting but one of those memories so gross that I get a chance to giggle when I share it with my daughter and listen to her as she says "ewww, gross daddy". I just grin when I think about it. Odd memory I know.

[Harley_Hawg]

Ft Dix 84. My 2 fav memories from boot was when Recruit "Lurch" cooked a live nade then froze during live fire. The DI knocked the grenade over the wall and after hours of colorfull commentary , painted his helmet liner pink and he was renamed Recruit "[CENSORED] Head" for the remaining of boot.

My second was when my Assistant Squad leader decided the Army wasn't for him.
He told me he was going to get out and to be ready for it during formation the next morning. Well morning formation came, he pulled his little Gideons Bible out of his pocket broke rank tackled the SDI layed hands on him and began to try and exorcize the demons out of him ....

[Albert Einswine]

Well morning formation game, he pulled his little Gideons Bible out of his pocket broke rank tackled the SDI layed hands on him and began to try and exorcize the demons out of him ....

Did it work?

Exorcising the demons and getting out? 

[Harley_Hawg]

Not sure, The MP's picked him up and I never saw him again 

[US Navy Razorback]

Finding out what a "Ghost Turd" was. Bulkhead, scuttlebutt, overhead, shipmate, gee-dunk, sliders.............  I'm retired now, but I do miss it.  Go Navy!

[LGHOG]

Bootcamp - San Diego
A School  - San Diego
C School - San Diego
USS FOX CG-33 - San Diego
Been out for 21 years still in San Diego

I also was in San Diego for Boot and the schools mentioned plus many more. I was a Sonar Tech. I never served on a CG but did many tours on FF's and DDG's.

[hawgrunner]

I also was in San Diego for Boot and the schools mentioned plus many more. I was a Sonar Tech. I never served on a CG but did many tours on FF's and DDG's.

Weather out here is still the same!

[tsgtred]

Ft Dix NJ, US Army boot camp.  For some reason, I was always hungry in basic.  So when you got to the chow hall you hoped that you could snag a burger.  Most of the time the DI's just yelled at you for holding up the line and told you to move on. If you wern't first in line you were S.O.O.L.  Then ne day I find myself first in line and here I go making a b-line to the burgers.  One problem.  A DI was sitting at a table with his knee stuck out and his smokey the bear hat reasting on his knee.  Yep, I knocked it off.  Of course I tried to act like I didn't do anything and kept going, I figured WTH, I'm dead anyway, might as well have a last meal.  The DI yells at me to get my A** back.  I get there he's hoding his hat, brushing it off and shaking his head.  He then ask me if I knew how long it took him to get his hat.  I said no.  He goes on the explain that since his head was larger than others he had to wait 6 months to get his hat.  He said that his hat ment everything to him, and I go and knock it to the floor.  By this time every NCO, DI, Officer, and trainee has their attention turned to me, all 5ft 6in of me, and this 6 ft 4in drill sgt grilling me over knocking his hat to the floor.  Finally he ask me if I knew how important the DI hat was.  I'm crapping peach seads by now, and just nod my head.  He then takes this oversized special order smokey the bear hat and places it on my undersized head.  The hat drops down to my nose.  I'm in shock by now.  Then he ask if I felt the hats importance, so I nod my head up and down, this causes the opisite reaction to the hat.  Somehow he keeps a straight face, I'm scared to death, but everyone else is laffing their a** off.  He then ask me why I was in such a hurry and I told him I was hungry.  I guess he felt sorry for me, cause he led me to the front of the line and I finally got my burger.  Thinking back on it, I'll bet he tells that story all the time.

[RAZORROUGE]

It was a cruel thing to phone home but the peanut butter him getting busted part was funny.  This kid was evil and did nothing but pick on weaker kids. That's why it was funny almost ironic that it happened to him. 

That was not my favorite memory from bootcamp. It was just one that stuck out.  Definitely not a good memory. Their truly was a few DIs that were some of the craziest, sickest individuals you would ever meet.  My favorite memory of my 6 mth stay was graduation.

Those were great times bro! I have several friends from other branches of the armed forces and i have heard all their stories,Marine Corps DI's are by far the funniest most sadistic characters of any branch! unless they have been there they never really get it! Some things they did too people it was jus hard not too freakin bust up laughin!

[Kodiak]

I ended up pulling KP on my 21st b-day. 6:00am till 8:00pm.
A buddy gave me 1/2 of a warm beer afterwards.