Mini Boot Camp Part 3

March 13, 2009
Camp Johnson
18:27

Mini Boot Camp was not supposed to take three entries, but I feel like I'm wading through mashed potatoes with it. It's interesting, but not incredibly exiting, but I do want to write about it.

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, we woke up at 4 AM and I must have had maybe two hours of sleep combined the entire night. I kept waking up, nervous with anticipation, and couldn't go back to sleep.

I missed something as well. All of our recruiters came with us and were all dressed in cammies the whole time (aka, the MARPAT Utility Uniform) so it was kind of weird to see them that way. We also learned how to eat MRE's the night before.

Anyway, we were woken by Sgt. Reyes and did the screaming thing for a while before he told us to stand by and went to another tent. We could hear him screaming at them and calling people disgusting and whatnot and he returned. He told us to start rolling up our sleeping bags and proceeded to count down as DI's do: "twohundredninetynineninetyeightninetysevenninety ninetysix...tennineeightseven six five four three two one...you better be..." "DONE SIR!"

The whole time I was rolling up my sleeping bag, the DI was across the tent from me kicking the sleeping bag of another poolee back and forth so he couldn't get a grip on it. That kid didn't make the DI's count, so we had to drop our sleeping bags and do it again. I started to lose my sense of humor by the third time we rolled up our sleeping bags. Finally, we had all our gear bear hugged again and exited the tent in a platoon formation while it was still dark. We ran from the tents to this large grass field and dropped all our stuff in the formation and then we ran back to this road next to some large administrative buildings. We filed off in a single file line and grabbed a water bottle and an MRE each and got back into our formation. We then sat down on the road with the DI pacing back and forth while we ate our MREs cold (I haven't used the heater in an MRE since the night before) and were told to finish our water. Finally, he started counting down again, I believe from three hundred. I realized it'd be important for me to finish my water and did so before I finished eating what I remember as plain tortillas.

We were told "YOU'RE DONE!" and he said "HOLD YOUR WATER BOTTLES OVER YOUR HEAD UPSIDE DOWN!" This singled out those who hadn't finished their water, because they poured water on their head. There was someone next to me that the DI referred to as "YOU IDIOT!" and then we threw all our trash away. We lined up in a formation again and found ourselves in front of three porta potties, or "Porter Johns" as DI's refer to them.

"WHO NEEDS TO MAKE A HEAD CALL? RAISE YOUR HAND!"

I did not raise my hand, I was definitely too scared to take a piss. About forty out of the hundred of us raised their hands and he proceeded to countdown from four hundred while at least two poolees to a porta pottie relieved themselves. The entire time, the DI smashed his fists against the plastic walls and slammed the doors open and closed over and over again. Needless to say, I didn't have to pee the rest of the day.

After that was done, we started our actual Mini Boot Camp mock training. We started to learn how to drill, that is, to march to a cadence. Left, right, left, right, etc. Marching band experience made this easy for me, but some others couldn't grasp the concept. We'd stop, run back and do it again if someone messed up. Sometimes we stopped and the DI demonstrated ("I KNOW YOU'RE DONE TOUCHING YOUR FACE!") for us. This went on for a couple hours. We learned how to do column left and rights, mark time, and halt. I don't remember much else of what we learned in the drill portion.

We went into a building up to where a bunk bed (or rack) was located. The DI demonstrated how to make a rack in boot camp, the whole time yelling "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" and us answering "YES SIR!" Of course, "AM I LOSING MY VOLUME!?" and "NO SIR!" were fairly common throughout the day. The whole rack thing kind of made me nervous for the boot camp experience that was imminent. It seemed like a pretty complicated process for something so menial. Little did I know, that's all boot camp is. We moved on from the rack class and went outside to take off layers if we had shorts or something we wanted to wear, as it was May and it was getting hot out. We did a little jog up a hill and stopped in a grassy area where we spread out at double arms interval so we could do some jumping jacks and stretching. Perhaps the mosts physically demanding part of the entire year up till that point came when we began doing jumping jacks or side straddle hops. If someone does an extra one, it's tradition for you to have to do pushups as a payment for going past the count. So, if you accidentally do an eleventh jumping jack when ten was what was supposed to happen, you drop down and "push." Of course, everyone was an idiot and most of us did eleven. We got in the pushup position and started doing pushups.

Except, we had to hold ourselves in the "up" position. This became increasingly more difficult and draining as I was dehydrated, and we repeatedly did this. "WE'LL STOP WHEN EVERYONE WANTS TO GET THEIR BACK STRAIGHT!" Sgt. Reyes yelled. He himself was in the pushup position the whole time with us. DI's in fact do a lot of the things recruits do, and then some. They're all in top physical shape (except maybe a few). We finally finished this crap and the next thing on the agenda was to do an IST. Initial Strength Test. It's a slice of the PFT, Personal Fitness Test that actual Marines have to do. It consists of a mile and a half run, sit ups, and pull ups. It's pretty easy and everyone has to take it to join the Marines, but some people honestly are just fat and can't deal with it, so they have to work harder to get at least 2 pull ups, 45 crunches, and a mile and a half run in at least 13:30. The standards are less for females.

We finished the IST, I was exhausted, but we still didn't get a break. We gathered around the DI in a "school circle" which entails everyone being in a half circle around the DI, people in the front sitting and people in the back standing. He briefed us on the M16A2 service rifle and showed us the moving parts with an actual weapon. We then lined up and were givin "200 seconds" of time to hold an M16 and study it before we were shoved away. The occasional "WHO THE FREAK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE POINTING THAT AT BOY!?" was heard from the tent where the weapons were being stored. The recruiters helping out during the day would often laugh at this. They seemed to be amused by the whole day.

After the M16 handling, we were taken to another tent in the middle of a field where the DI used a binder containing pages with Naval terminology on them to give us a quick class. Words like deck, bulkhead, porthole, ladderwell, etc. were all explained to us. Of course, someone would scratch their nose and the DI would growl, "STOP SCRATCHING YOUR FACE WHILE I'M TALKIN' TO YOU!"

Did I mention that parents were allowed to come and see what was taking place? Well, they were. There were a few around and eventually we finished the whole thing by sitting down and listening to an absolutely pointless speech that either a Captain or Colonel gave to all the parents and poolees sitting around. He introduced the three DI's that had come from San Diego for the day and next followed the quietest question and answer session I've ever heard. What parent wants to ask a Drill Instructor a question. They don't even know what to ask them. I'm pretty sure the DI doesn't want to answer either. On another note, officers are the designated leaders in the military, and as such they have to speak in front of a lot of people fairly often. Most of them have the worst public speaking skills I've ever seen. It's very amusing most of the time.

The ordeal came to a close and I rode home with SSgt. Potts and two other guys from Champaign. We rode in a Marine H3 which was cool looking on the outside, but ridiculously plain and crappy on the inside.

When I got home I took a nap.

Looking back on this event, it really wasn't even a very good example of what boot camp was going to be like. It was more of a "get yelled at by a Drill Instructor for a day, free" sort of thing. I knew a little of what to expect when I got to San Diego, but not enough.

This really shouldn't have taken three entries.

Next:
Summer Before Boot Camp
Boot Camp Part 1