American Veteran

Respond. Say something. -

Jenny

It's basic training. Life sucks, generally speaking, across the board. (chanting) -

Courtney

I laid in my bunk and I thought, "what in the world am I doing?". (yelling) -

Clifton

It was, I mean, of course it was it's different from mama's house, that's for sure. I never forgot my recruiters advice. In bootcamp, you want to be outstanding or anonymous. If you allow yourself to stand out, you better excel, otherwise you are in for a lot of pain. Whose shoes are these? And there is no way your drill instructor is going to miss a damn thing. That's fine. We will figure out whose they are. I was always under a microscope. Everything was managed, every piece of your time, when you slept, when you ate, even how your bed was supposed to be made. Make sure all four corners are at a 45 degree angle. Yes sir. As strict as my dad was, you really can't prepare for what a drill sergeant, you know, is capable of doing. My father told me, you may end up cleaning the toilet with your toothbrush, but you clean that toilet the best that you can. He says because there's always somebody watching you. You know, you're suddenly living with 65 other women. There's no privacy. You know, when we're in these old barracks, with these racks, you know, these, these bunk beds, and then you'd go into these restrooms and you can just imagine terms, like me or I, are suddenly eradicated from your vocabulary. We were just all in shock. You are now airman, is that understood? Yes sir. Your first name is airman. My first name is sir, and nothing else but sir, is that understood? Yes sir. -

Jeff

Initially, you're surviving. There's no learning to be soldiers the first week or two. It's learning how to avoid the eye of the drill instructor, how to stay out of their way, how not to draw any attention to yourself, and it's pretty much mission impossible. (trumpet playing) (man screaming) Why are we not done yet? Why? Hurry it up! -

Greg

At the beginning, the drill instructors punished all of us for every misstep that any of us made. You better wake up and you better start thinking. -

Greg

They informed us that we are the shabbiest, slimiest, group of civilians he has ever met. There is not a snowball's chance in hell that anyone of you swinging (beep) is going to walk out of here a U.S. Marine. Higher! Higher! -

Anuradha

I was like, what am I doing here? You know, they're telling us to do things. I'm like, why, why, why are you telling us to, you know, strip and get dressed 20 times in two minutes? It all seems sort of asinine and bizarre to me. I mean just shoveling food into your mouth, like you're a goose. You're just not supposed to think. You act on orders without hesitation, otherwise you won't make it. You won't survive. The physical is what gets you first. You don't expect that amount of physical pain. When the instructor's like, you know, do sit ups until I'm tired, and he just stands there. You can do sit-ups for hours and hours and hours. And then after that, you do a 12 mile ruck march with almost 100 pounds on your back. I didn't like basic training, but you can't talk back to a drill instructor, so I kind of just had to suck it up and keep driving forward.