[ARCHIVED THREAD] - How Much Sleep In Basic? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 1/22/2004 7:48:30 AM EDT
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I know it sounds crazy, but I really am not used to less that 10 hours each night. I was wondering about in Basic. Mostly either Army and Air force standards. Isn’t 8 hours the least they give you? I am sure at times you are given less, but what’s the norm nowadays? |
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At Ft. Wood, MO, lightsout was 2100 and wakeup was 0430. Subtract at minimum an hour and 15 minutes for fireguard every other night or sometimes a couple nights in a row if your platoon got handed CQ duty as well, and if you were unlucky enough to get the last shift, closer to an hour and 45 minutes. Most everyone got up a few minutes early to shave, shit, brush teeth, etc. You're always tired, but don't fall asleep during classes. [:D] You get just enough to feel awake for about the first 6 hours of the day... |
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for the first couple of weeks you get get VERY little. They make an effort of keeping you awake. Lights out by 9 back up at 5 unless you have firewatch then forget it. It took me well into week 6 before my body began to adjust to the routines. Don't worry DI's have a VERY good way of motivating sleepy soldiers. [:D] mike |
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Man, you guys were spoiled. When I was in the little quaint army that my country had [;)], only vehicle drivers were required to get 8 hours of sleep (and that often didn't happen). On base, I'd estimate that we had about 5 hours of sleep every night. There was no "lights out" in the barracks - and when we were recruits we'd usually be up until midnight or 1, cleaning and polishing equiptment - and we'd get up at about 5 to start cleaning the barracks for the morning inspection. Of course when we had night marches, we got little sleep. Out in the field, you'd be lucky to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep every night (unless you were a vehicle driver), between sentry duty, alerts, night patrols, road marches, etc. Most people spent prety much ALL of Sunday sleeping. Basic sucked [:D] But that's my experience, and probably not very applicable to the U.S. system today - I just wanted to whine. [;)] |
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My first night at NRTC-SD, I was in bed by 2300, up at 0245. We made a formation, then we marched to the mess hall, marched around the grinders for a bit, then we stood at parade rest until it was time to eat...which was MUCH later. That was the first night. The rest of the time We got enough. Between the nutrition, exercise, etc, it was a pretty good routine. Scott |
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Quoted: Army and Air Force standards you say? Expect to get as much sleep as you need, followed by a nice cozy wake-up and a yummy breakfast (co-ed, of course). Which basic training is the hardest? I'd say it goes in this order . . . Marines Army Navy Air Force I went through Army BT and from what my friend tells me about Air Force BT, Army was significantly harder. I went through military postal school with people from all the forces. The newbe Marines (fresh out of BT) were out one morning while I was on my way to breakfast. The instructor had one soldier swimming in a large pool of mud while the others in the group were doing jumping jacks. After being in the Army for 3 years at that point I was glad I wasn't in that soldiers shoes. BTW, did I mention it was only like 35 degrees out. |
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Navy we were in bed by 2200 up at 0530 BUT when the Rovers (drill instructors on night patrol)found something wrong in the compartment (barracks) everyone got woken up and paid. But being in the Navy they also rubbed our heads and said shhhhhhhhhhh until we fell asleep so it was nice.. I averaged 5 hrs a night if I was lucky. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: ...we usually had G.I. parties in the dark What is this? Cleaning CHRIS In MC bootcamp, blanket parties were a way to get even with the slackers in the group. You take the lock off your footlockers, put them in a sock and beat the crap out of your slacker. It does leave bruises but they usually pick up the pace after that. BTW, for us, lights out at 10pm and wake up at 4:30, usually earlier. I never did "cleaning parties", as most of the cleaning was on Sunday after Church services. |
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LOL... navy boot was easy, lots of sleep except for the first night (about 2 hours). then there was battle stations, which i was up for about 40 hours during... we got 8 hours a night, but many nights the OOD would come in and bitch about something as loudly as possible, or just bang on something for the hell of it. then there were 2 hour watches also during night, which we got about once a week |
| hell..we had this drill that would climb in the windows (3 stories up!!) and stand in the dark until the fire guard would find him...then he'd wake up all up and smoke the hell outa us for not calling "at ease" when he had come in, LOL. we also did PT twice a day, i hear not all army basics did that? |
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Quoted: hell..we had this drill that would climb in the windows (3 stories up!!) and stand in the dark until the fire guard would find him...then he'd wake up all up and smoke the hell outa us for not calling "at ease" when he had come in, LOL. we also did PT twice a day, i hear not all army basics did that? im willing to bet the integrated ones dont do that. we PT'ed once a week sometimes |
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Quoted: im willing to bet the integrated ones dont do that. we PT'ed once a week sometimes What!? You mean to tell me you all didn’t do PT each day? Did they just run you each day or not even that? I have always thought PT was a must everyday. What would the daily agenda look like for an Army troop in Basic these days? |
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I went to Basic at Ft. Sill in 92 lights out at 22:30 wake up at 04:00. If you were E1 or E2 you could count on getting FireWatch for one hour at least once a week, if you were E3 or E4 you could count on getting C.Q. at least once every 2-3 week's at 2 hours. P.T. was every morning at 04:30 until 06:00, Then you would go back to your Plt area, Shit,Shower,and shave for Breakfast at 0630, when you were done eating you had until 08:00 to get the area clean, rack made, and in uniform for the day's events.... |
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Quoted: Quoted: im willing to bet the integrated ones dont do that. we PT'ed once a week sometimes What!? You mean to tell me you all didn’t do PT each day? Did they just run you each day or not even that? I have always thought PT was a must everyday. What would the daily agenda look like for an Army troop in Basic these days? sorry, im not army but thats what ya heard. we were SUPPOSED to pt three times a week, but we usually didnt. it was pretty much a fucking joke, especially the time the females get to run their 1.5 miles, which for an 18 year old female is somewhere around 16 fucking minutes |
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Out in the field, you'd be lucky to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep every night (unless you were a vehicle driver), between sentry duty, alerts, night patrols, road marches, etc. Interesting that they recognize that vehicle operators need sufficient sleep, but don't extend that to the people with the rifles and grenades :) |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: im willing to bet the integrated ones dont do that. we PT'ed once a week sometimes What!? You mean to tell me you all didn’t do PT each day? Did they just run you each day or not even that? I have always thought PT was a must everyday. What would the daily agenda look like for an Army troop in Basic these days? sorry, im not army but thats what ya heard. we were SUPPOSED to pt three times a week, but we usually didnt. it was pretty much a fucking joke, especially the time the females get to run their 1.5 miles, which for an 18 year old female is somewhere around 16 fucking minutes What "ya" hear? What YOU heard? What you are just guessing - based on your time in another service? What exactly are you talking about? Every unit in the Army does organized PT at least three times a week. During Basic training, you do PT 5 - 6 times a week. One of the few hard and non-negotiable standards to pass basic is to meet the minimum (albeit pathetic) standards for physical fitness. The last thing on the training schedule that is going to get axed will be PT - unless you are in the field. Too many peope come into the Army that can barely walk, let alone run - we as a nation produce some soft ass people - heck, some even sleep 10 hours a day [;D]. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Used to 10 hours? Want some fun? Volunteer for Ranger School. hey, i plan on doing that [:O] Good luck. Since this thread is about rack time... that was the only place where I could blink my eyes (or so I thought) and find out that 30 minutes had passed. |
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Don't know about BCT/BMT, but AFOTS (I applied, got rejected for eye trouble) is 4-5hrs max... The amount of studying/bookwork in addition to the military portions has a tendancy to keep people up late... AF enforces lights-out rather strictly to increase the stress of getting the coursework done with a limited amount of time (this is what I picked up before I got DQed)... As for the Army, I'll be finding that out firsthand within a year or two (assuming I get accepted)... |
| how many times you do PT in the army depends on where you are doing basic at..or it did when i went through in 95. i went through at Sill, there were no women, we did PT twice a day...but many of my friends that went to Jackson said they only did it twice a week. Adam, relax partner, we like YA, but lighten up. |
| Just tell them you are unique and have special requirements. They'll be more than happy to make special arrangements. You see you will be the first young man of your age group to attempt to go through and they will make sure the pay attention as it really will be the first time they've done it. |
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Quoted: At Ft. Wood, MO, lightsout was 2100 and wakeup was 0430. Subtract at minimum an hour and 15 minutes for fireguard every other night or sometimes a couple nights in a row if your platoon got handed CQ duty as well, and if you were unlucky enough to get the last shift, closer to an hour and 45 minutes. Most everyone got up a few minutes early to shave, shit, brush teeth, etc. You're always tired, but don't fall asleep during classes. [:D] You get just enough to feel awake for about the first 6 hours of the day... That is the way I remember it. B-3-3 Fall 1983. |
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Quoted: Out in the field, you'd be lucky to get 3 or 4 hours of sleep every night (unless you were a vehicle driver), between sentry duty, alerts, night patrols, road marches, etc. Interesting that they recognize that vehicle operators need sufficient sleep, but don't extend that to the people with the rifles and grenades :) My guess is that it's because an Unimog or Mercedes G-class is a lot more expensive to replace than a couple of 18-year old privates [:D] |
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Quoted: dude, do you just look at threads you MIGHT can bitch someone out in? and thanks for the grammar lesson, it looks like your education paid off Someone asks a question. You have ZERO first or even second hand knowledge about the question answered. You chose to answer anyway based on pure conjecture, despite the fact that there are dozens of people on this board who likely just went through basic in the past year. Yeah, I guess I shouldn't get upset - spouting off on subject people know nothing about - and thus puting out bad information - is the internet de facto standard, after all. BTW, I am the last person to correct grammar, I just wasn't sure if you meant "I" or "You." |
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Quoted: Quoted: dude, do you just look at threads you MIGHT can bitch someone out in? and thanks for the grammar lesson, it looks like your education paid off Someone asks a question. You have ZERO first or even second hand knowledge about the question answered. You chose to answer anyway based on pure conjecture, despite the fact that there are dozens of people on this board who likely just went through basic in the past year. Yeah, I guess I shouldn't get upset - spouting off on subject people know nothing about - and thus puting out bad information - is the internet de facto standard, after all. BTW, I am the last person to correct grammar, I just wasn't sure if you meant "I" or "You." |
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I hadnt seen too much input about recent people going to boot camp, no. So I chimed in with my personal experiences, which I thought may have some sort of parallel with the late trend in other services slacking back on the PT. If you say im wrong i probably am, but hey, I was just trying to give a modern reference, even if it was a different service. But seriously dude, you dont have to jump at everyone all the time...its just the friggin internet! [:)] |
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Just so I don't get my ass eaten out by anyone, let me say first that I didn't go to Army boot camp, and I'm not here to provide specifics about the way they do it at Ft. Jackson. At Parris Island though, you arrive on the bus sometime around 0200, and they keep you up all that night and all the next day. By then you are a little wiggy, because few of the guys I shipped out with could sleep at all on the way there. SGTIMAK was right about the weird things time does to you when you're really tired. I remember falling asleep in formation with my eyes open, and falling asleep on a night forced march once. I blinked and it was daylight all of a sudden, and we were out of the swamp. People who fell asleep in classes (land nav, NBC, etc.) tended to get "special attention" in that they would sometimes cost their platoon a meal. Talk about taking a beating... |
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Two words.... FIRE WATCH No, make that three words.... DOUBLE FIRE WATCH and they were never back to back...go to sleep for an hour or two....up for an hour...sleep another hour...up another hour...finally back to sleep....then you hear "30 seconds to lights on aye sir...BAM!!!.."lights on"..."get outa tha rack"....ugh! the memories. Did I mention I hated fire watch??? [BD] |
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After night fire in Army BT (1988) at Ft. Sill, we were able to catch some sleep before the buses arrived to pick us up. We were told to lay down in formation. I distincty remember hundreds of ants crawling inside of my uniform only seconds after laying down. I also remember not really caring. I went to sleep and woke up 10 minutes later covered in ants. I presuming that the rest of the platoon got hit as well (they weren't biting ants), but it didn't keep anyone from sleeping. The best sleep I think that I've ever gotten was after the 20 some odd mile forced road march. We got warm soup after the march (with full combat load), and then got into our racks late at night. It was a Saturday night and we were able to sleep in until about 0600 Sunday morning (woo-hoo!). I hit the rack and was like a rock. I didn't have guard duty that night. You will be very tired at all times during basic. We're not talking about 4 straight days awake like in Ranger School, BUD/S or Delta selection, but then again you can't keep that up for 2 months. You will be at the edge for 2 months. At least that's the way it should be. YMMV BTW, I was a drill sergeant in the USAR and saw the cycle from the other side. DS's get less sleep and work harder than the basic training recruits. They have to be in uniform when the BT's get up, and they remain that way until they go to sleep. Which means uniform prep and personal time cuts into their sleep more than the BT's. |
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Quoted: DS's get less sleep and work harder than the basic training recruits. They have to be in uniform when the BT's get up, and they remain that way until they go to sleep. Which means uniform prep and personal time cuts into their sleep more than the BT's. I understand what your saying, but wouldn't it be fair to also say that DS's arrant worked as hard as the recruits? I know you all work hard, but not as hard? |