Basic Training / AIT

This is my second blog, the first one was asking questions about Fort Sill and 13d. I'm still new to this blog stuff so I'll try to get my grammar straight and clearly show you what I went through.

Day one of me
+ Show Spoiler +

I'm not in most of these pictures because I obviously didn't have the camera it was the military's

We started off at reception where we had to do our financial stuff and our entry paper work. It was where I first got to meet my battle buddies and I could already tell I was in for a ride because I met a lot of different of flavor's of people some bad, some good. I met my first real battle buddy after we chose our beds for the nights ahead. His name was Vance, he was awesome in a lot of ways but he was 18 so he was young (im 24) He was fun as hell though and respected me and I didn't expect it. We both went through withdrawals together (Why are we here etc) but we both made it through reception together.

[image loading]

I'm on the far right weighing in at 196 before I left meps to join the army. I've lost 26 pounds since then so i don't look all so bad

Macon is in the middle

In reception there were drill sgt's there but they couldn't punish us because they wanted us unharmed to go across the tracks to basic training. One drill sgt I will bring up was Drill sgt Rivera. She was a bitch for no reason, not motivating, nothing, just a bitch. She brought her kid in front of us to degrade us. One thing she did was make us eat for less than 5 minutes. Rules say 10 minutes and she made most of us get up right as we sat down, what are we suppose to do say no? Hell no. A group of us decided to tell our lead sgt about it and she got in trouble for us, but she had us all sit in the stands have us listen to her rant. I'll try to rephrase what she said. "I don't give a fuck about any of you, I have a 13 year old child. See this rank? Take it, see this badge? Take it. I don't give a fuck, you'd be doing me a favor.

First day of basic started the day after that happened. We all lined up in formation for our drill sgt's to show up and take us to the start of the longest few months of our lives. One of the drill sgt's was talking to us about our drill sgt was a PT god and it shook me in my combat boots cause I was not very good at PT (im a gamer comon) so my first thoughts were positive but mostly negative because of my physical shape. When my drill sgt arrive he was shorter than me and I was like what the? Then he stood before us, he had more muscle than pop-eye the sailor man and my face was D:

[image loading]

This is the only picture I could find, he didn't like pictures.

We were attacked by the sgt's the first second they arrived and we had to grab all of our gear and army duffle bags and get the fuck going.

We finally arrived to the barracks and we all had to unpack everything in our army bags for accountability of our gear and that's where I met my assistant drill sgt. Drill sgt Diambrosio. Boy was she evil, she was worse than my main drill sgt. But in the end I found out who she really was and she supported all of her platoon (when shes not tearing the entire battery apart)

[image loading]

After we met her she asked all of us if she could kick us out of the army and everyone raised their hands but then all of them started to put down their hands and I left mine up not really noticing and she points and me "HEY PATTON SO YOURE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT" I was like D: I was thinking too much about it because it was a question to see if I could make it without failure. So day one she knew my name and that was my downfall throughout the entire basic training. After all that we all got into our bunks and I got matched up with Mccaskill, a guy from North Carolina he was a good guy, he was very nice but he didn't want to be friends at first, it was just his way of living so I earned it over time.

[image loading]

Our logo I had to see everyday, sometimes so close my face was on it cause of front leaning rest positioning

My first PT test I did horrible, I don't remember the scores but it was bad. My 2 mile was 23 minutes and push-ups were 56 and sit-ups were 40. My battle buddy was right behind pushing me the entire time when I was having a bad time during the run, but then he ran off cause he didn't want to be stuck in the back lol but he helped. My main drill sgt wasn't happy with me at all after that.

Our first event was the Tredwall tower, boy did I get over heights fast.

[image loading]

The cadre were ex-infantry and they just pushed us off the small wall for practice, scared the shit out of me. Then we made it to the top of that huge ass wall and my drill sgt pushed me off and I was doing it for a second then got stuck for a little then jumped off farther and farther and i got off with sweat on my face cause i was scared as all hell but it was fun.

Our second event was the legendary "gas chamber" oh god was it horrible, I never want to do it ever again
[image loading]

I was in the front of my platoon's gas chamber experience. I explained my experience to my friends and family by the end of the movie lord of the rings

+ Show Spoiler +

It was like the end where the ring was finally melted in mount doom. First it was all ok just sitting there on lava then it finally melts and he explodes. I took off my mask and was fine and was like this is alright for about a total of 5 seconds and then AHHHHHHHHH MY EYES MY FACE AHHH I CAN'T BREATHE it was terrible. Snot and everything was going everywhere i couldnt see or do anything and I was in front of the line and they made me lead to go and i was stumbling and falling and the drill sgt's grabbed me and threw me at the direction to go. After we got out we had to swing our arms and quote the entire soldiers creed till we got to the bleachers again

As you can see i didn't have a good time and it continued on for about 2 hours till i felt 100%

Our second course was medical training where we had to carry people with different types of carries etc, I don't have any pictures. It was just carrying people and then afterwards giving them the "high and tight" which is using the turnakit ontop of the wound to stop bleeding etc. Loads of fun carrying people who are 220+ lol

Our third course was shooting a M16 and qualifying. This was the first time I actually shot a weapon so I was nervous but excited to finally do it. My first shot was loud and it hurt my ears at first even with the ear buds in them. We first had to shoot a "computerized" way which was kinda cool I guess but it was not the real thing and had no recoil

[image loading]

Then we got to shoot for real after it which was insane. Again this isn't me cause it was taken all over the place for everyone
[image loading]

I only qualified 24/40. I sucked

but it was one of the proudest moments I had because it was something ive never done before and really wanted to qualify. Meant everything to me to pass it because if i didn't id get recycled and fuck that

Me and my buddies eating gross ass MRE's
[image loading]

After all that qualifications for the M16 and training we moved right onto grenade ranges, which again i've never done before.

[image loading]

Thats all the pictures that were taken which is odd really. I qualified with grenades but I didn't get a badge for it because I didn't score high enough which is ok but it was fun throwing real live grenades and oh boy do they sound fierce.

The next event was pugils and I decided to go up against one of the biggest guys in my platoon because i wanted to prove to my drill sgt that I am strong. Lets just say it ended up badly and I got my ass handed to me easily I probably got one hit in lol.

[image loading]

After this we had 2 courses to go through because we couldn't do one earlier because it was raining and the first one was the CCC (combat conditioning course) Which they picked 5 of the slowest people to compete in (run times) My run time at the time was 18 minutes on the 2nd PT test. Yes still not good

It was me and 2 guys and 2 females. One female never did a push up ever and failed all her PT tests and had no motivation to do anything boy did it piss me off.

The course finally started and I raced to the rape and climbed it in less than 5 seconds, I was using our term "Beast mode" and going into another world and doing my best I was so motivated. Then mrs cant do a push-up i had to wait for after everything I did. I was the first to complete everything in the fastest manner. Probably faster than the rest of the other platoons also but after i completed them I had to wait for her. We got last place because of her being so damn slow and weak. She fell so many times cause her upper body wasn't strong and her balance wasn't even there. It didn't bring me down though, I tried motivating her to do it but she didn't budge.

Our final course before FTX was US weapons. We fired rocket launchers (fake ones that shoot like a bullet) and grenade launchers (paint grenades) and 240's and saws. Oh hell yeah to the 240's and saws I felt like rambo shooting them. We got to shoot those bad boys and the pile of bullets gathered up on the right side and one bounced off the pile and burnt my hand and gave me a small scar.
[image loading]

Our other part of our final course was night fire. This is where you buddy up with a battle buddy and shoot right next to each other in the night with laser sights and acogs. We had to raise our weapon and fire, then put them back down RIGHT next to each other. At close to the end of the range one of my bullet shells came out and got stuck in his kevlar and burned him and we had to stop and we had to end it for safety reasons.

Our final journey of Basic training was coming to an end when we went to the FTX. We spend 4 days in the field for training, real life situations etc. But to me it was a lack of SLEEP we only got a total of 2-3 hours of sleep due to fake bombs going off and we had to pull fire guard and defend our tents from fake terroists. We also had to go out and act as terrorists while the other platoon had to get ambushed by us. That was loads of fun

Another part of the FTX was going into towns and trying to work with people and calming them and working with them. 2 platoons would go OP and the other would go army and bust doors and make their way to hostages etc. I loved going OP cause we could do whatever we wanted and have fun basically.

[image loading]

After it all we finally graduate after our 16k march (which ended up to be a 22k march cause their assholes lol). We all gather around in platoons and put on our berets and they tell us how proud they are of us and gave us our tokens etc. Then came our graduation from basic training.

We had to do some lame things to show what we did during our time in basic training before we graduated. It was funny I guess.

Our graduation was short but I felt like a new person now, a better person. They kept reminding us that were soldiers now, you did only less than 1% of Americans are willing to do and we should be proud of it and I was, I was very proud that someone like me who came with a negative attitude about joining and during the time i was in doubting myself but i pushed through and became a american soldier

Pictures of misc before graduation

+ Show Spoiler +

Had to do PT before we got to see my family

[image loading]

My mother decided to take a picture of me and my drill sgt... She's smiling in the picture now but during lunch chow she yelled my name PATTON SO YOU THINK ITS OK FOR YOU TAKE PICTURES OF ME HMMM? In a joking manner
[image loading]

Graduation Pictures
+ Show Spoiler +

Had to sing a cadence after we graduated and left the building I think it was "theres a drill sgt there" [image loading]

And finally me graduating

Everyone was here, I miss everyone one of them.
[image loading]

So begins my AIT journey to train for 13delta Field artillery data systems specialist.

When I first got into AIT I didnt know what to think. The building was old and freaked me out cause I heard so many good things about being in AIT, you get TV again, your computer etc. I was in basic training mode while everyone was relaxed and had fun in formations sometimes and it was all weird to me, all that freedom that is at nights we'd get our electronics after 20:30 and go to sleep at 22:00 and on weekends we had passes to go on base and had no work to do on weekends but again it weirded me out with this freedom they're giving me but i continued on and started to lose some basic training mode and relaxed more. I passed my only PT test there (its only 8 weeks long) With a 230 65 pushups, 16:02 2 mile 67 situps with ease.

After my PT test i could have anything i wanted in the chow hall and it was like drugs to me cause i havent had junk food or at least good food for 10 weeks, mountain dew, Pepsi, coke etc. I was in heaven foodwise. People started smoking again which i thought was stupid (im not a smoker/chewer etc)

What I tried to do every night I had time off
+ Show Spoiler +

Whenever we had to turn in linen I turned into the linen monster
[image loading]

I went to classes 6 weeks out of the 8 I was there. It was all training with communications (radios) and using manual plotting with a protractor and map etc getting the azimuth and range and plots and 4 weeks was computers where we learned to set up our camp on the computer and put plots and what shells the 13b's had to use and put in all the information the 13f gave us (13b is the cannon loaders and 13f is the radio and eyes)
I had loads of fun throughout AIT, my nickname was general through basic and AIT cause my great great uncle was Gen Patton (surprisingly some people didnt know who was....) I got a total of 95.7% in my classes at the end and im proud of it.

A ride back to the battery lol
+ Show Spoiler +

After all the classes was field week and we had all of our gear on for the upcoming week. We set up camp and our charts and computers and radios and on tuesday we get to shoot the artillery.

Shooting a 155m howitzer was so thrilling and exciting hearing the blast go off was loud as hell. I was on the manual part of the job while everyone else was on computer or radio. We had 2 sets a 105mm howitzer and 155mm. I was heavy 155mm.

I had to leave wednesday for my wisdom tooth to be pulled. Still hate that shit (still feeling it)

Finally graduation came the next tuesday after field week. It felt good to wear my ASU's again after so long but it was time to graduate and wear the uniform for the last time for a long time.

Graduation pictures (it wasn't very long)
+ Show Spoiler +

My battle buddies after it all. I'll miss them so much, I had such a big bond with them all. After what I went through with them all, id gladly take a bullet for them
[image loading]

Now after 20 weeks being gone and all the things I went through and all the friendships and experience I'm glad to say after all my doubts and struggles I went through I finally came home a better and stronger person.
[image loading]

If you have any questions please go right ahead, I didn't go into real detail on what my drill sgt's did to me but ill be more than happy to talk about it all with you guys

Basic Training / AIT

Completed

Ongoing

Upcoming