Hardest Part About Boot Camp

[Fubar08]

I'd like to see what was the hardest part of Boot Camp for you Marines. And when I say hardest part, I mean the hardest thing you have to accomplish or go threw while being there. Like the obstacle course, crucible, IT, gas chamber, rifle range, pugil sticks, forced marches, DI mind *****, etc.

Also if you would be willing to give tips about how to make it easier, or more tolerable. If there is no way, then I'll just assume that the easiest way to do it is to listen to the DI's instructions...

(I'm not concerned about being home sick, or any of that crap)

[tankle104]

i was just about to post something like this. im always interested in things about bootcamp. i cant wait till i go through it.

[SCrawford]

haha you say that now, being home sick is the hardest part. The hardest part physically is the reaper hike, the way down and back to the parade deck is the hardest part if you can walk down a steep hill with a pack on your back stoping your momentum with every step after you climb a mountain with that pack you should be good, not to mention the 5 mile hike too the reaper.

[DOWORK1]

Forced marches for me.

[Fubar08]

Or if you would prefer to stay away from the negative parts of Boot Camp, can you please post what was the funnest part?

[SCrawford]

funnest part is rifle qual week hands down

[Fubar08]

That's what I figured :marine:

Also when you say homesick is the hardest part. Do you actually mean homesick. Or do you mean you're so frustraited all you think about is being somewhere else?

[DOWORK1]

Both

[jungholee90]

I hated that night supply hike, that felt like forever.
Mentally it was having patience during all those frustrating times..

[Pete0331]

Also if you would be willing to give tips about how to make it easier, or more tolerable. If there is no way, then I'll just assume that the easiest way to do it is to listen to the DI's instructions...


Be the grey man.
Live chow to chow, day to day, Sunday to Sunday.
Build friendships with your fellow recruits whenever you can.
Always expect the worst possible scenario.
Drink plenty of water.

Pete

[CJ Haynes]

Seperation from family was the hardest thing for me since I have always been around my family. The seperation was hard all through boot camp. As far as boot camp itself, it would probably have been the "get back course" during BWT or the various events of the Crucible, especially the night time resupply course on Friday night (the final event before the hike back the next morning). It was by the grace of God I was able to do that course that night. I was so tired it wasn't even funny, and I was wore out during the hike back, and I had started getting blisters when the hike first started. But, when we got within sight of the Parade Deck the next morning, all that pain and weariness was replaced by a feeling of exhilaration and joy because you knew you had made it. That was probably the most memorable event of my life to this point (the EGA ceremony). I tell you, there was nothing like it. All that hard work culminated into this beautiful but simple ceremony Saturday morning where you ceased being a recruit and became a Marine...
Sorry to go on and on, but I can't help it! I will never forget that morning for the rest of my life. Praise God I made it.
Semper Fi and God bless,
-Pvt. Haynes

[LanceCriminal]

Be the grey man.
Live chow to chow, day to day, Sunday to Sunday.
Build friendships with your fellow recruits whenever you can.
Always expect the worst possible scenario.
Drink plenty of water.

Pete


That is the easiest way. But Marines don't always do things the easy way. Don't half ass it because you don't want it to be hard. It is supposed to be hard! What you put out you will get back. You slack off and always go to medical and you will be a ****bag recruit. You give it your all and work yourself every PT session, every class and never quit and you WILL be a steller Marine. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with going through the motions and making it out. But sometimes its not good. I know Marines that did that and are steller Marines. I also know some who you could swear their roommate dresses them in the morning. It is all about what you put into it.

[usmchauer]

Hardest part? Not getting laid for 3 months! Really, it was receiving that gave me the most difficulty.

[davblay]

I'd like to see what was the hardest part of Boot Camp for you Marines. And when I say hardest part, I mean the hardest thing you have to accomplish or go threw while being there. Like the obstacle course, crucible, IT, gas chamber, rifle range, pugil sticks, forced marches, DI mind *****, etc.

Also if you would be willing to give tips about how to make it easier, or more tolerable. If there is no way, then I'll just assume that the easiest way to do it is to listen to the DI's instructions...

(I'm not concerned about being home sick, or any of that crap)


Fubar08, that is the $64,000.00 question! There is no answer to that question, only experiences thet we went thru ourself. The DI's you get will be a different crew. They have thier own style!

If you come back, If you enlist, If you earn the title, then you tell us the answer to that question!

Is it just me, or are these poolees asking some pretty darn silly questions lately! Not only that, but this has been asked a dozen times before!

Use the search button!

Dave

[sparkie]

I missed my mommie,,,,,,,

[thewookie]

Leaving the Island.

My free tip: take lots of pictures while you are there.

[sparkie]

This thread got me thinking about the thousand or so worst times and I had to figure out the best times.

Smokin around the concrete sink, gettin high, and almost fainting.
Realizing we were finally Damm good at drill.
Blousing our boots for the first time
Sittin around one nite before graduation and getting our MOS announced.

See,,, There were good times.

[THAT AINT IT]

One of the hardest parts for me was hearing that my best friend was getting dropped. She had gotten me through things when I didn't think I could get through them. Another one was definately the low crawl course during BWT. My elbows and knees were so ****ed up from that that had black scabs on them. And i don't know what it was about the 6 mile hike out to the rifle range, but I was so broke off after it. Oh yeah, and a little thing called the Crucible, I was too tired to sleep or eat.

As far as the fun part...rifle range, team week, the talks we had with Senior, Liberty Sunday and the rappel tower.

[darkgreen0311]

The most difficult part of boot camp is having a Company graduate, and you have two months left. Then at night to lay in your rack, and hear planes taking off, knowing another recruit has just became a Marine.







:marine:SEMPER FI 4 LIFE

[sscjoe]

First morning after pick up. There is a story behind this.

[Enigmatic]

The most difficult part of boot camp is having a Company graduate, and you have two months left. Then at night to lay in your rack, and hear planes taking off, knowing another recruit has just became a Marine.


I agree. That was the hardest part for me too. But there is no universal "hardest part", it's different for everyone.

[Fubar08]

First morning after pick up. There is a story behind this.

Care to tell us? :nerd:

Also I'd like to hear your funniest parts to :marine:

[sscjoe]

Well Fubar, it goes like this. It was around Dec 03 75 and we had just been picked up the day before from recieving and strolled to 3rd Bn. The recieving process was long and by the time the day was over we were all tired as hell. I was assigned to the top rack on the portside. I remember dreaming and then all of a sudden I hear someone screaming words like sunshine and sweetheart and being pulled off the rack straight to the deck. I was then urged to get on line. By this time I had cleared the sleep and realized that I had slept through reville because the rest of the platoon was already on line. Needless to say learned about IPT and the quarterdeck on that morning. I was scared sh-tless. Thank goodness there were so many f--k ups that 1st day my DIs eventually forgot about me and moved on. In hindsight that would also have to be the funniest thing that happened to me also.

[Fubar08]

Nice :marine:

[thewookie]

Also I'd like to hear your funniest parts to :marine:

I've got plenty of funny ones, bootcamp was a blast - endless gut wrenching humor.

The questions is, where to begin?

One recruit was sent a solid 12" chocolate Easter bunny for Easter. Imagine a tree limb going into a wood chipper - that's how fast and violently he ate that solid 12" chocolate Easter bunny as the DI's rammed it into his mouth.

Same recruit had a can of Copenhagen sent to him. The DI's made him open his canteen, and then they poured the Copenhagen into his mouth - and you guessed it - washed it down with a full canteen of water,,mmm.

Another recruit was on the diet tray or fat body and he was caught trying to keep a hard boiled egg from his bag nasty at the rifle range. Fat bodies were not allowed to eat their hard boiled eggs for some reason (the DI's ate them.) So, when they caught "him" trying to jones the egg, they rounded up 10 other hard boiled eggs and made him eat them all, shell included.

One day it was thundering pretty bad so we had to go in the squad bay and drill. And of course we s u c k e d pretty bad so the DI's stopped everything and asked who wanted to say fock it, quit, and go home. They baited it up for a few minutes, saying things like - "they'll be no trouble you'll just go home like nothing happened, or say things like sorry, it just didn't work out and no hard feelings." They said whoever raised their hand and wanted to leave to go home to see mommy and daddy, could. No problems. No questions asked. And wouldn't you know, about 6 - 10 dumb fockers raised their hands. They took the DI's bait,,,,, sure you'll go home. Hahahaha - they told the quitters to go up on the quarterdeck and they would arrange the flight. And they all went up, thinking today was their lucky day, and guess what, no duh,,, the DI's wore them out for hours,, and they didn't go nowhere, but to the pit a lot more..

We had a kid forget his gas mask at the rifle range - so the DI's made him double time back to the range and get it -when he came back (in his absense the platoon was scuzz brushing the squad bay after a couple of barrels of water were kicked over) they made the recruit run up and down three flights of stairs of the barracks, wearing his flack-jacket with his gas mask on carrying his foot locker, and singing - this is my rifle.....

Another recruit was caught with an apple in his cammies, the recruits cammies were hanging up on the back of his rack while we all dressed into our Alpha's for an inspection. Of course when the DI found it he went off, got the recruit up on the quarterdeck and wore his azz out. The DI wore the recruit out until he pee'd himself, and then the DI wore him out... in his pee.

One of our DI's used to complain that our breath smelled as he walked in and out of the platoon during drill. So to remedy that he had a spray bottle that he'd fill with Scope or Listerine and spray it into our mouths. Until one day he got crazy and put some Aqua Velva into the spray bottle, for the longest time only he knew cause nobody would dare to say anything,,, but we always made funny faces when he would spray in into our mouths and one day the Senior caught on....

One recruit had to go to sick bay becuase he was constipated. When he came back a few hours later he had this bottle of Metimucil (the powdered form stool softener.) We were out in front of the squadbay drilling when he came back with the stuff, so the DI's called him out front,,, and in a loud DI manner one of them read the instructions on the bottle - "take 1 teaspoon every six hours with a glass of water." So, the DI told the recruit to open his canteen, then he told him to open the Metamucil (powered form stool softener) then the DI told the recruit to tilt his head back, and when the recruit did that the DI took the Metimucil and poured, at least, at least half the bottle in his mouth (the stuff was gushing out of the side of his mouth, have you seen one of them Metimucil bottle's lately?) And then when the DI poured enough of that stuff in his mouth he told the recruit to wash it down with a full canteen of water.

Our DI's had us do the electric chair all the time to kill time, that was leaning against the wall in a sitting position with your arms out in front of you - then they would ramp it up a little bit by telling us to hold out our M-16's by the barrel, with our arms out straight while we were in the electric chair - they called this fishing for sharks?

One night a recruit told the duty DI goodnight right at lights out.... the DI went friggin crazy and the next thing you know all you heard was the DI choking this recruit out, in his rack,,, funniest thing maybe eva,,, after wearing the recruit out for a while, the DI got him up on the pull-up bar, and then he went into his DI hooch while he left the recruit hanging on the pull-up bar for like 10-15 minutes.

While we were doing humps to live fire ranges or anywhere with our 782 gear on the DI's used to do all kinds of crazy stuff to us. One of them had a thing with throwing handfuls of rocks at the platoon. This was to simulate incoming rounds and we had to hit the deck. Another DI would run around looking for guys with their helmets unbuckled, if he found one he would basically yank the kevlar off your head, throw it, and call you John Wayne? One DI used to find the little sand crabs and put them on recruits? I don't know either.

One recruit somehow managed to keep his watch, you're not allowed to have a watch at bootcamp and that's collected once you get there, or it was. He was caught looking at it on the range one day at A-line. So the DI yelled at him while he marched him behind this shed that "he was going to wear him out until he passed out, and he was going to use his watch to see how long it took." Now that's funny.

And for the grand finale to finish off my earlier story about the recruit and the Metimucil. So all day this recruit has got to be brewing inside. The DI's poured half a bottle of Metimucil in him, all at one time when the instructions said to only take one teaspoon every six hours, plus the canteen of water... All day we are marching and running doing the whole recruit thing and all day the DI's make a point to ask this recruit if he has to sh*t yet - and all day the recruit tells the DI's - sir, no, sir. After evening chow we were snapping and popping again outside of the barracks, and after a long period without the DI's asking,, they asked the recruit if he had to take a sh*t. I was near the recruit, and about this time he looked purple,,, I think the brew was cooked if you know what I mean. So, the recruit yells out, Sir, YES,SIR and so the DI's tell the recruit to come in front of the platoon. The recruit runs up and the DI's ask him a bunch of typical stupid DI questions while he's wiggling around about to crap himself. Then they tell him to go, but, he has to run up to our barracks on the third deck... so the recruit takes off running (I bet he was already letting some leakout by this time,) and he's up to the second deck, but then the DI's yell at him and tell him to do an about-face and come back.... so the recruit does, and when he gets back they ask him if he has to sh*t,,, and this recruit yells out like someone just grabbed his pair, SIR, YES, SIR! So they tell him to double time up to the third floor and take a shiat. This time they really let him go...

I had a great time at bootcamp, and those are only a few of my good stories..... and you could never make that sh*t up!

[Fubar08]

Nice :evilgrin:

Man that would suck to bust in your pants infront of the entire platoon lol.

[valiantknight]

Hardest part for me was the utter lack of freedom. Everything you do will be monitored. Even free time is limited to writing letters or squaring away your gear. Getting up at 0400 sucked too. It definatly took me a while to get used to that.

I lived chow to chow and Sunday to Sunday. You'd be surprised how fast time flies.

[Fubar08]

Do you think it would be a good idea to start waking up at 5AM about a week before I ship then?

[gnarkill04]

I would say enjoy being able to sleep in late. Just go to bed earlier.

[SlingerDun]

Do you think it would be a good idea to start waking up at 5AM about a week before I ship then?You don't already? If your not already adept at rising before the buttcrack of dawn, all you'll do in the military after your gung ho phase, is tolerate early morning.

I can wake up anytime after midnight and before dawn and go to work, in the cold rain. But i learned it young and practiced it for decades. Wouldn't expect a kid to do it on his own let alone find any enjoyment from it.

--->Dave

[sparkie]

I love 0 dark 30,,,,,,But I'm old,,,,,

[Do-Or-Die]

Seperation from family was the hardest thing for me since I have always been around my family. The seperation was hard all through boot camp. As far as boot camp itself, it would probably have been the "get back course" during BWT or the various events of the Crucible, especially the night time resupply course on Friday night (the final event before the hike back the next morning). It was by the grace of God I was able to do that course that night. I was so tired it wasn't even funny, and I was wore out during the hike back, and I had started getting blisters when the hike first started. But, when we got within sight of the Parade Deck the next morning, all that pain and weariness was replaced by a feeling of exhilaration and joy because you knew you had made it. That was probably the most memorable event of my life to this point (the EGA ceremony). I tell you, there was nothing like it. All that hard work culminated into this beautiful but simple ceremony Saturday morning where you ceased being a recruit and became a Marine...
Sorry to go on and on, but I can't help it! I will never forget that morning for the rest of my life. Praise God I made it.
Semper Fi and God bless,
-Pvt. Haynes

You are killing me.... I got 258 days or so untill I ship

[SgtHMH]

There is noway to prepare for what takes place in Boot Camp, Because it is all differant. People are differant and the DIs are differant and they have their own games to play. Things happen that are differant, so that makes the games happen differant. Something will happen in one Platoon that won't happen in another and so on. You can't prepare for that type of games going on.

Semper Fi

[degenerate138]

I think there are a few things about boot camp that will be hard, obviously I haven't gone yet so I can't really go into details.. but I've lived with my family most of my life, so I'm gonna miss them. But I think I'm gonna miss my music too, because I really enjoy listening to music and it usually helps me when I'm stressed out and to relax... so I think that's gonna be a really tough aspect of boot for me.

[Scottie0417]

Fubar, to truly understand what we went through, you need to go through it yourself. I read this forum before I went in and read everyone's stories about what was hard for them during boot but when I went to boot camp, I realized that everyone is different. Some people can't stand the homesickness, some can't stand the Drill Instructors yelling, and some can't stand the food. As for me, I would have to agree with SCrawford with the hardest part being the hike back down from the Reaper. I had blisters all around my heels from all the hiking on the Crucible. The hike down the Reaper killed my blisters as every step was on my heel. I had to peel my boot socks off my feet from all the blood. Don't regret it one bit though...oohrah!

[0231Marine]

I think there are a few things about boot camp that will be hard, obviously I haven't gone yet so I can't really go into details.. but I've lived with my family most of my life, so I'm gonna miss them. But I think I'm gonna miss my music too, because I really enjoy listening to music and it usually helps me when I'm stressed out and to relax... so I think that's gonna be a really tough aspect of boot for me.

Make sure you tell your drill instructors that you like music and that it relaxes you :)

[CJ Haynes]

Make sure you tell your drill instructors that you like music and that it relaxes you :)

Are you just TRYING to get him killed? :D

[0231Marine]

Are you just TRYING to get him killed? :D

Me??? Never :bunny:

[Crusader20]

Make sure you tell your drill instructors that you like music and that it relaxes you :)


Classic. :p

That will motivate up the platoon.

Or you can ask them to "tuck" you in at night. that always works. :evilgrin:

[justinrod09]

Make sure your girlfriend sends you letters with her perfume sprayed on it. :)

[MarinesFTW]

Classic. :p

That will motivate up the platoon.

Or you can ask them to "tuck" you in at night. that always works. :evilgrin:


Tucking you in... In other words wrap you up and do what..?

[CHOPPER7199]

Perfumed Letters With Lipstick Sealer. Works Ever Time For The D.i. Lmfao

[Qwarkeh]

For me it was the part where I had no common sense. The military is all about thinking clearly and practically, and for the 3.5 months I was there I was the recruit who just didn't get it.

Another thing I had problems with was hiking. I swear, if you hate running now you will learn to love it by the end of bootcamp. It took me until the last hike at MCT to finally be able to say I made a hike on my own power.

And DRINK WATER!!!! I don't care what season it is, you have to drink at least 10 canteens (quarts) of water each day there. I went down as a heat case and learned firsthand that the silver bullet sucks. Drink even more water starting two days before hikes and pfts, it takes time for water to settle in your system. Just make sure that you don't drink to the point where you throw it up.

[SGT7477]

Do you think it would be a good idea to start waking up at 5AM about a week before I ship then?

Make it 3 in the morning and 15 seconds to be fully dressed.:evilgrin:

[SGT7477]

I'd like to see what was the hardest part of Boot Camp for you Marines. And when I say hardest part, I mean the hardest thing you have to accomplish or go threw while being there. Like the obstacle course, crucible, IT, gas chamber, rifle range, pugil sticks, forced marches, DI mind *****, etc.

Also if you would be willing to give tips about how to make it easier, or more tolerable. If there is no way, then I'll just assume that the easiest way to do it is to listen to the DI's instructions...

(I'm not concerned about being home sick, or any of that crap)

The hardest part was trying to sleep while listening to rock n roll music,lol.:evilgrin:

[jetdoc]

No sex.

[Marine84]

Hardest part - when I got recycled. I had already clicked with a few other girls and I hated being seperated from them because they had helped to keep me motivated.

Most awesome part - the day I graduated and could leave that God foresaken island as a Marine.

Funniest part - there were too many but, a couple that stick out..............

We're doing a PFT one morning. This one chick was about to do her hang and right when she took that last breath in, before they let go of her, she sucked a fly into her mouth. She hung the full time with that fly in her mouth and when she dropped, she spit that fly right in a DI's face. Next thing I hear this DI going off on her like there was no tomorrow.

Remember we had to request permission to iron or anything at free time?
ME: (walk up to the DI Hut, knock on the door and waiting to be acknowledged - once acknowledged) MA'AM, RECRUIT GREEN REQUESTS PERMISSION TO IRON DURING FREE TIME TONIGHT

DI: have you ever heard of Gomer Pyle? (she spit it out so fast I didn't catch what she said)

ME: EXCUSE ME MA'AM

DI: (then she slows it down) HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF GOMER PYLE?

All you could hear was 70 some odd women behind me out in the squadbay laughing their a$$e$ off and I'm standing there trying to hold it together.

Graduation Day - we had all discussed it beforehand. We got the last fire watch that night to wake us all early. We didn't cut any lights on and we were quiet as church mice. We stuffed the racks closest to the Hut so they looked like somebody was still in them. The rest made their racks and all of us got dressed and were ready to go for that last wakeup call. Half of us hid in the head and the other half hid in the laundry room. When ALL the DI's came in for that last call, all we heard was "GET UP GET UP"..........................then you could have heard the crickets! It was hilarious. Of course, when we came out we got yelled at but, the looks on their faces when we all came out of the back was PRICELESS!

[PFC Horse]

Went through PI, Platoon 2019 in 1970. Don't remember any of it being easy, but I loved most of it. The rifle range was the best! Qualified Expert. The gas chamber was just plain nasty but not to bad. Liked the close order drills and the confidence course and even all of the lima beans we ate three times a day. Did not especialy care for guard duty or mess hall duty. But the worst for me was the day we got all of our innoculations. A large needle shoved down through the hip joint, right where your canteen sits and then a forced run with the canteen bouncing up and down on the injection site, pretty painful. The best day of course was graduation, when you knew that the only thing no one could ever take from you for the rest of your life was the fact that you were a MARINE! Getting through the hardest stuff is all about mental discipline, and that discipline will save your ass forever thereafter.

[Scottie0417]

A lot of people dread the Crucible and think it will be the toughest thing to get through. Personally, the Crucible was kind of fun. Yeah, only getting a few hours of sleep a night sucks but think about all the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan that get no sleep. And those Marines have the constant threat of being killed hanging over their heads too. The Crucible is easy because you're so pumped about getting it over with and becoming a Marine. I'd say it was one of the easier challenges in boot camp.

[TJKUSMC]

The crucible wasn't as bad as i figured it would be. 3 MRE's in 2-3 days is more then enough...the 4 hours of sleep kind of sucked because you were burnt out from the day, but we were all running on pure motivation. For all of you MCRDPI Marines consider yourself lucky for not having to do the reaper. Although it's not that bad, it's still not that easy. The hardest thing in boot camp for me was being away from family and friends.

[joecoul89]

I had two hard things for me. One was the crucible, I was pretty dead after the first day, although the second day wasn't bad at all. But that 9 mile march home...I was so tired freezing cold in the rain that the only thing keeping me going was knowing that I would be a Marine when I finished.
The other hard part of bootcamp was waking up to a DI screaming at you at 4 in the morning, every morning. I am not a morning person at all...

[Scottie0417]

I agree with you about the MREs TJK...I ended up giving away an entire MRE to one of my buddies. I only ended up eating maybe one and half of them and I don't think it affected me at all.

[bgsuwoody]

Being 23 and on my own for about 5 years and then all of a sudden being thrust in a world that I had 0% control on my life...EVER. Its hard to get used to, but if you just fall in and get used to the ebb and flow, you get this job and it actually makes your life easy and predictable.