US Navy Boot Camp

Boot Camp. Those two little words can be so intimidating, so shocking to some. Yet, every year thousands of new recruits pour in off the buses to begin their journey of physical, mental and social transformation from the civilian their families knew into the Sailors who will protect our seas and ports in years to come.

Whether you joined the military to escape your hometown, serve your country, or to see new and exciting places, your first destination will be the Recruit Training Command (RTC) in Great Lakes, Illinois. This facility is enormous, capable of housing up to 25,000 recruits at a time! This multi-billion dollar facility becomes the temporary home of recruits for eight to nine weeks, depending on processing.

Without sugar coating the experience you are about to go through, know that the feelings you have of excitement, nervousness, possibly even that slight bit of fear, are all perfectly normal. Boot Camp, and your military service, are going to change your life forever. You will find yourself gaining skills which will carry you through into your military career, and you will take this valuable lessons with you into the corporate and civilian world when your enlistment is up. That is, if you don't choose to re-enlist!

I hope you're ready for an intense time. Your experience at Boot Camp begins as soon as you step off of the bus and are met by one of your Division Commanders. Be prepared, mentally, to be picked apart for being different. Here is a brief run-down on what you'll experience in the next eight to nine weeks:

1. Week One - During week one you will go through processing. You will fill out a lot of forms regarding health, benefits, wages, direct deposit, insurance, the Montgomery G.I. Bill and much more. If you haven't yet memorized your social security number, you will want to before you leave for boot camp, you'll be writing it on everything. Once you've finished processing, then the real fun starts.
2. Week Two - Week two finds you tired, irritable and wondering what the heck you got yourself into. You will get used to waking up at 0600, I promise. This week you will begin physical conditioning and participate in a confidence course. The focus for this week of training is team-building. You will learn to rely on your shipmates, and the confidence course is a big start.
3. Week Three - In a hands-on environment, this week you will learn first aid techniques, signalling with flags, the proper procedure to board and disembark a ship, and basic seamanship. You will do this training on a real ship situated in a large hangar. Your first PT (physical training) test is administered during week three, the areas tested are 1.5 mile run, push-ups and sit-ups. This is often called the PT0, because it is the starting point from which you will improve.
4. Week Four - Time for weapon training. You will go through safety training, then weapon training in a supervised range environment. This is the halfway point in your academic training, as well as the week during which you will take your graduation photos in preparation for your Pass and Review ceremony.

You've reached the home stretch at this point, with four more weeks to go! Here's what you'll do during the second half of boot camp:

1. Week Five - More classes, more training, and a lot more PT. By this point you've learned how to do everything the way the Navy wants you too, and though you may not feel like it -- you've changed. Rigorous training and a restricted diet, a fast paced and active training style in and out of the classroom, and a behavioral structure deeply rooted in forming a team bond between you and up to 100 total strangers have all contributed to your change, and in most cases this change is for the best.
2. Week Six - Fire fighting training, and shipboard damage control classes. This week you will learn how to put fires out, how to properly don fire safety gear in case you must fight a fire onboard ship, how to open and close watertight doors, and operate fire fighting equipment. This week also finds you and your shipmates inside the gas chamber, being exposed to tear gas while you and everyone else recites name and social security number. You will also go through the confidence course again, further solidifying the concept of teamwork and comraderie.
3. Week Seven - At this point, you're nearly finished with boot camp. Excitement sets in and now you're ready for the final test: Battle Stations. Battle Stations is a twelve hour event held to test your entire division on how well you've absorbed everything you've learned so far. If you are present at the call for Battle Stations, this means you have successfully passed all academic and physical challenges presented to you up to this point, and are ready for this final test. You will be pushed to the very brink here, and will find that once it is over and you stand in the finishing room, dirty, beyond weary, emotional and drained. All that fades away as the Commanding Officer in charge of RTC Great Lakes comes in to personally congratulate you, presenting you and your division with your new status as a United States Sailor -- your Navy ball cap.
4. Week Eight - Graduation/Pass and Review. Aside from everything mentioned above, part of your training has been in drill and ceremony. That portion of your training will come in to play here, where you march proudly, shoulders squared and with a bolstered confidence before friends, family, and thousands of supportive individuals from all walks of life. There is nothing like it in the whole world.

I know this is a lot of reading, but I feel the information and insight I can give, having been through it first hand, is invaluable.

Boot camp is not easy, it's not glamorous, it's not fun. You learn more about yourself and others than you ever wanted to know before, you curse, cry at the silliest things, and for eight weeks you really wish you could have things that you had before going to boot.

Where before you really wanted your parents to shut up and leave you alone, you begin to long for any word, any letter, anything that connects you to home. Guy or girl, your heart leaps when the mail comes in. A simple I love you from someone back home means more than anything.

You change, you adapt, you learn. The whole process breaks you down inside, takes parts of you away, parts of you that held you back. You'll see the meek, shy, quiet nerd become confident as weeks pass, you'll fight and bicker like children in a school yard. By week six, you'll wonder what the hell you're going to do to stay in touch with every single person in your division. You'll exchange email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses with people you never may have spoken to two months before, because they are your family.

The military is not a choice everyone should make. I made the choice, and my Navy ballcap rests in a place of pride. You're worth it, shipmate.

-CTM3 Anderson, Charlotte, hd2001.