Close to being able to pass the PFT, running and doing situps/pushups every night. Close on everything, just over 18min on my 2mi (need 16:46) and right at 45 sit-ups and 30 Pushups. Aught to just make the shipping date with some room on all events.

Couple of minor areas I'd like to ask about- first, as you can see I'm not in "great" physical shape. What do you do when they drop you and you're too weak to go into the front leaning rest?  After getting dropped a couple of times during my training weekends, my arms were like limp sphagetti...

Next- I'm scared shitless of heights. I go on the second floor of the mall and look over the balcony and my palms get sweaty and tingle. Been thinking about the best way to approach the numerous height-related obsticles at Basic, jacobs ladder, victory tower, etc... and I'm wonderng how other acrophobes handeled it/got over it?

When I was in Army ROTC I did a nine week camp at FtKnox. Thankfully I had both a very brave (very pretty) girl to back me up to the edge of the rapelling tower when I froze, and push me over with her hand on my forehead. I also only had to do the confidence course once, my team was the last one through, and we all froze at the fourth story on the "platform tower" (looks like five giant coffee tables stacked one on top of another and you have to go up the outside w/no support or net). By the time the Drills got us to come down everyone had finished the course and we didnt have to do any more of the obsticals....I'm quite brilliantly certain I wont be offered such "easy outs" this time around.

Any suggestions?

Suggestions? Yes... JOIN THE AIR FORCE!!!!

It's not too late...

:)  just giving you the business. Good luck!

Stay motivated.  DSs hate whiners (actually, everybody does, including your fellow recruits).  If you try hard every day and ask for help, you will get help.  

Remain focused on your goal of graduating.  That has to be paramount.  

Ask for help if you think you need it.  

DON'T LOOK DOWN!!



What's your MOS?  Are you pre-advanced, or are you going in E-1?

man are you going to have fun. i went to basic in '81' when your DI could still smack a knot on ya to get you to perform.now days you can just say that you are tired... sorry i really don't know what its like now but work your ass off and you will do fine. a drill instructors job is to find your weekness and work on it for you.just remember to say rock hard drill sergeant. he will take it as a que to push you harder and harder till you puke  then he will push you some more....

Where are you doing your basic training at?

Redman-

E3, with every NCO I've talked to going off on me about how I'll be an E5 this time next year (!?) not sure if I like that or not. Entire plan was to Enlist to get experience instead of rank...

03-
Ft.Knox.

Huh?  You don't like having grade?  Ok [rolleyes].  


What's you MOS?  

I don't know about the going from e-3 to e-5 in a year thing. When I was in you had to have so much time in grade and so much time in service to get promoted. You could get a waiver for one or the other but not both. Never been to Ft, Knox so I can't help you there however I was a DI in the Army Reserve for a few years and I can tell you the easiest way to get through is to do your job and not make waves. Don't question anything they tell you to do and do it to the best of your ability. And remember that millions of guys have done this before you and if they can do it you can too. Good luck soldier.

Responded to via IM so as not to hijack Rebel's thread.

Hey RG....You are in my old unit!...Suck it up!. Dont sweat the small stuff, you are starting to sound like a pussy!...First Dont worry about the PT. test  at the start. It is great that you are getting in shape now. But I guarantee you....You will pass the thing when It counts!...Have a Positive Mental Attitude...That will carry you if you just keep to it!, You are going to see some of the biggist pussy's in the world when you first get there, You will prob. sit in a "Hold over unit" till they get enuff to fill a company, (I sat for almost 2 weeks) You will see who the cry baby's are..DON'T BE ONE!..If you have to find a guy that you look at and say If he can do it so can I..(and don't kid yourself pick someone that can hang, and don't bitch) You also don't have to worry about pushups (getting smoked) because most of the time they want you to go till you cant go any longer!(push yourself, your body will let you know when you cant take anymore!) The biggist thing I learned in Basic, Is that the body will do a heck of a lot more than "YOU" think it can! When a Drill tells you not to stop...Don't stop (the lactic acid stings worse in your legs)..

YOU GO AND HAVE A GOOD TIME, KEEP YOUR HEAD...REMMEMBER IT IS A MIND GAME, AND THE STRONG MIND WINS!...

And I mean this 100%...I would do it again in a heartbeat! (easy to say for a guy that has already done it) [:D]

and btw, don't let them tell you that you will be a SGT. by this time next year...You still have to go to PLDC, and BNOC first! (unless you already have your 4 year and are going to OCS, but then you would not be going to Basic anyway)

RELAX MAN!..It is going to be fun!




edited because I did not learn to type or spell in basic.

Yeah, ok.

You don't even know me buddy boy.

But I really like how you hijacked Rebel's thread to flame somebody about whom you know nothing.  That just speaks volumes about [i]your[/i] character.

E3 to E5 in a year? I guess they will just blow off the Boards and TIG, ANOC for you right?

NOT! Recruter blowin smoke.

Just do your best and you will be suprised what you body can do.

My youngest scored a 140 on his E6 board and is set to go BNOC in JAN. if he is still here.

Do you mean JROTC or were you in college?  If yes, are you quitting school and if you were in college ROTC why not finish and get a commission?

R32. Nice to hear back from you. You were thinking about coming back, right?

As for the rank thing, its gotten a little disconcerting, everyone who looks at my file tells me that with no prompting or real outside motivation. I just got an e-mail back from my Pl.Sgt. saying that off of a totally different topic (we were BSing about guns) and its beginning to wig me out a little.

Well, I'm a little more calm about it now, thanks everyone for your kind and well placed words, may you all shoot as well on the range.

Had an experience last night I'd like to share with everyone. Was out at dinner at a Tex-Mex place down here in Phoneix (on vacation) with my mother and step-dad and brother. The waitress (a very pretty woman, who looked little older than early 30s) was giving me a little bit of a hard time about taking home the second half of my meal and I mentioned that I had to save space to run shortly after going home because I was headed for Basic. She put her hand out like she was going to give me a high five, but when I put my hand up, she took my hand and looked me in the eyes and told me that her husband, the father of her daughter, had been a Marine, and had died of a heart attack at a young age in 1989, and ever since then she, and later her daughter, were doing everything they could in support of other soldiers and their families in memory of her husband. She thanked me and offered me some words of encouragement for Basic, saying that she had remembered what a tough time her husband had, and what got him through.

Thats the first time anything like that had ever really happened to me, and for the first time it was cristal clear on why I was going in- to be part of a link in the chain and make sure people like that woman and her daughter would never be let down or be forced to live in a nation without the support of its military.

No matter what I will give it my all. If I never give anything else my 110%  in my life, this duty, this comittment will be it.

EDITED TO ADD:

One year AFROTC, three years Army ROTC, Washington State University. Graduated last year with a BA in history with an emphasis on irregular military warfare from 1850 to present.

Why didnt I complete the program? Any number of reasons, the paramount being that I was screwed over twice for a scholarship after it was promised to me, and a girl I had gotten in the program whom I had been dating for two years at the time broke up with me while I was away one summer at an ROTC camp at Knox, and later became Cadet Commander at my home BN. She made it clear when I came back that she would do everything in her power, dirty and honest, to keep me from making it. After having busted my ass for a respectable middle-of-the-pack placing, I began to get pidgon holed by the ROTC cadre and ignored when I tried to persist. I could have stuck on, and I could have probably gotten my comission but by that time I was on the verge of an emotional breakdown after what I felt was an incredible betrayle by the first girl I'd ever loved, and was sick of the elitiest frat-boy-attitude of the successful cadets in the Bn. I decided that it would be best to bide my time and graduate with a decent GPA, and earn my way to a Gold Bar instead of playing footsies with people who I felt took me as a joke. If you read me being bitter about this, I probably still am, but when I'm laying on the platoon bay floor in pain, I'll see that bitch's smug face and remember every time I got shot down just trying to do my best to succeed in ROTC, and I'll push even harder to succeed, even if it kills me....

It sounds like you have the right attitude, you'll make us proud.

I went in as an E-3 and the fastest you could make E-5 was 18 months in service if they waved the time in grade requirement.  That means making E-4 at six months or when you are first eligible.  (That is assuming you have enough points to make the cut-off score when you are eligible for E-5. At least that is the way it was in 1985).

If I were you, I would not go in the Army, I would go into the Marines.  The reason why?  The same personalities that sabotaged you in ROTC are prevalent in the Army.  Go talk to the Marine recruiter and have your service changed, (Before everyone goes nuts, it can be done, the Army guys will be pissed but don't take no for an answer.)  If you have any questions e-mail me, if you were 18 and just out of HS I would say OK, but you are past that.

QC-

Thanks for the warning, but I think the people are prevalent everywhere in society. I ran away to regroup once, if I do it again, I'll just be running away.

Two things- I'm NG, not Active, although recently everyone who has been able has been full time at my home Armory. NG guys seem to be a lot more laied back and no one is F*ing eachother over for a career point.

Second is that there is no great future in USMC armor. Great friend of the old man from way back is a Brig.Gen in USMC armor, and gave me the direct and honest advice to stick with the Army if Armor was what I had my heart set on. My other two MOS options were Intel and Armored Cav, neither of which I'd see a future for in the MC either.

I dont plan on this as a career anymore, just something I've got to do, and do well...

thanks again.

I second that NAM.. Join the AIR FORCE!!!
5 yrs, 4 months and still going strong.. Reenlisting for another 5yrs 6 months in a week or two. Seriously though. AF is the olny way to go.

      hawkin

 [beer]

I am bad about heights too.  But I have done some rapelling and climbing, and the best thing to do it just look straight in front of your face or up a bit at what you are climbing to with the next move.  You also have to trust your ropes, and yourself.  It gets easier with practise, so do it as much as you can.

GunLvr