Things to be wary of about BCT

Ok, all through Basic, people were trying to sell me crap. And it is crap. First, there's the graduation ring. I bought it. I figured it'd be a nice keep sake. I don't wear it, but I'm still glad I purchased it. That was around $150.

They tried to sell me plaques. I (thankfully!) didn't buy any. They're tacky, and cheaply made. You could get something much better for the same price somewhere else. Those that did buy them seemed to like them though...their thoughts on it may have changed now since it's been awhile since we graduated however!

T-Shirts. This is a big one. They offered these shirts for sale, which I know 90% of the people at BCT would not have bought in the civilian world. However, since we weren't allowed to ever shop or spend money on anything, people ate these things up. A few went so far as to buy the $500 dollars worth! I only bought the company T-shirt for $18 or $20...I can't remember.

PHOTOS AND YEARBOOK ----- This my friends, is the single, biggest ripoff in all of BCT. They actually photoshop hats onto the pictures. On top of that, the pictures are skewed and flattened to no end. There was no one...NO ONE who was happy with their photos. But, you're not allowed to see them before purchase, and there are no refunds.

My brother, who's a former Marine, had great photos taken when he was at Boot camp. They have a little velcro vest-type thing of the blue dress coat, then they put the hat on them and take the photo. It makes a great picture worthy of hanging in your home. The Army...ugh.

The yearbook is all stock photo's. All the things you do (save for the gas chamber pictures) are stock photo's that they reuse year after year. Then, they simply insert pages of everyone in your company and you're done. They do it so cheaply that you can clearly see where they inserted the pages when you look at the book when it's closed.

My blood is boiling just thinking about the crap they have you buy.

They also have someone come and try to get you to purchase shot glasses, decorative pens, etc. All a bunch of crap, really. But they do it because they know the money is burning a hole in peoples pockets.

It's ridiculous that they do this to people...and that the government allows it.

January 14th

Sorry I haven't written! Since getting here to basic I haven't had any time. They keep us busy from 0500 (5am) to 2100 (9pm). That's lights out and we can't do anything until the next day.

Oh jeez, so how to begin... When we left reception we couldn't carry anything on our backs. We had to frontload it, which is where you basically strap it to your chest. Then they put us on buses, and drove us to a different part of the base where we got our units.

What surprised me was that we didn't get smoked! In fact we didn't get smoked until today, the 14th, the 4th day of basic! Our DS's (Drill Sergeants) don't yell at us, either... well, my platoon's don't. Other platoons, which are part of our company, have your typical DS's and we deal with them often.

Lights out came, so it is now the 15th. Where did I leave off...

Oh, well that first day all we really did was meet our DS's and eat dinner. Then we did some paperwork and went to bed.

On Tuesday, we had our PT assessment after breakfast. We had a bunch of classes for the rest of the day on sexual harassment, etc. We were also issued a 2 quart canteen and later, our rifle. All day was classes though. A lot of people in my company got in trouble for falling asleep.

On Wednesday, when we first woke up we went over to the PT field and they taught us what we would be doing for PT here. We then had classes for the rest of the day on all kinds of boring shit, like nutrition and cold weather survival. We got smoked a few times as a company during them due to people falling asleep... dicks. Later, however we were issued our helmets, packs, and assault vests... oh, and two 1 qt canteens to go into the holders on the assault vest belt. Then it was off to bed.

Thursday was by far the most fun day yet! We did out first road march, which wasn't far at only 1.6 miles or so. We had to carry our rifles, wear our helmets (ACH) and wear our packs and assault vests. We didn't have much in our packs, only a few shirts, poncho, socks, etc. only a little bit of shit.

If I had to keep it short, since I really should since it's lights out but won't, is that Victory Tower is awesome. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but that was the destination of our road march. What it basically is, is that it's a tower about 40-50 feet high with the rappel wall on one side, a big cargo net on the other, a few different rope bridges on another side, and finally a ladder where the bottom half is feet only, with you having to use a rope for your arms, the rest of the ladder is normal.

We spent the whole day doing that! It was amazing, and you'll be able to see the video. Today was more classes... all day. What makes it even worse was that I had fireguard duty, so I've been up since 0300. Looong day.

Tomorrow, the 16th, we're doing combatives! Yay for more throat pain like before!

I'm actually having fun now. They don't limit the stuff we can drink in the mess hall, and they give us a good 10 minutes or so to eat. It's also good food. It's mostly southern food, but so far I've been surprised a few times: We had roast beef... like an actual roast, veal, all kinds of stuff like that.