My First Day in Bootcamp

My First Day

My first day in the U.S. Navy was quite an experience.  It was June 14^th, at about 9 pm, when 60 other guys and I from the Dallas area reached Chicago.  Buses filled with recruits had entered into Recruit Training Command Great Lakes naval boot camp.  The base was in a small town called Waughkegan, just an hour north of Chicago.  With the future approaching, no one had bothered to get to know any of his or her fellow shipmates.  All the future sailors felt like they had sold their souls.  The same confusion, the same doubt that was in my mind could easily be seen on everyone else’s face.  The rambunctious adolescents, hollering about their resolve and their defiance, only got more and more silent as they approached the base. What was said when the bus doors flew open could not be recalled, due to the screams and profanities that induced a shockwave of adrenaline throughout the bus. The recruits were being physically ripped off the bus and led to the recruit processing building.

First, thousands of recruits from all over the country were led to congregate in the Navy’s recruit processing building.  All the recruits had the look of a deer gazing into a pair of headlights after being run over by a previous car.  It was such a mixture of people in the recruit processing building, which included all sizes, colors, religions, and genders from 17 to 35.  For about half an hour, the recruits stood there, lined up in ranks, all in a state of fear.  It was quite a sight, like a sea of multicolored dominoes.  All the recruits were silently standing at attention and looking straight ahead, as the sweat tickled its way down their faces.  One by one, the insults ripped every recruit down to his and her very core.  

Second, before the recruits could be rebuilt into soldiers, the drill instructors had to destroy everything that the recruits were and believed.  Then came the small training officer (petty officer) from hell, which seemed disgusted with the fact that he even had to look at the recruits.  That’s all that could be told about the small training officer because eye, head, or any movement without his permission was strictly forbidden and severely punished.  He announced who he was and what he thought of the new recruits.  What the petty officer thought of the new sailors had a lot to do with feces, swamps, and sandwiches.  For all of the Texas recruits, the training officer had a special treat, a phrase that would haunt them for their entire enlistment: “So you’re from Texas.  All that’s in Texas are steers and queers, and you sure as hell don’t look like no steer, you *$@$##*, *$@##$**, etc.”  In fact, most of what the petty officer said to the recruits was expletives, which made it hard to understand what he really was trying to say.  Then he commenced barking military orders at the recruits.  He yelled, “About face. Attend hut. At ease. Left face,” although the majority of the recruits had no clue what the orders meant.  Needless to say the training officer was not amused by the recruits’ lack of naval terminology.  It was amazing how he and the other training officers were able to control over one thousand adults without failure.  Normally, everyone that has never been in the military has said,  “Let me go in.  They can’t tell me what to do. I’m so and so!”  They would be wrong.  The new recruits were there, all in a state of fear and confusion at the mercy of a little man with a buzz cut.  The weird part was that the majority of the recruits couldn’t even see him; they could only hear the sound of his screams.

After the gracious introduction to the U.S. Navy, the recruits were separated into hundred person divisions and sent to their temporary barracks.  That’s when the recruits saw him, the most evil man that they had ever met.  He stood at about 6’8” and was wearing a black naval uniform with a full beard.  First of all, it was summertime and only white uniforms are allowed during the spring and summer.  Also, only Admirals at sea and civilians are allowed to have full beards in the navy.  Obviously, this man wasn’t to be messed with, and who was a new recruit to question him?  He then corralled the recruits, already breaking down from the mental raping that had occurred, at the entrance of the barracks.  It really was not good for the recruits’ morale to see not one but several grown men cry.  Then in the deepest voice ever heard, he growled, “Get in the shower, turn the water on and turn it off. Put soap on. Turn the water on and turn it off. Then hit the racks. You have 3 minutes. You wake in 3 hours.”  Fearful for their livelihoods, the recruits did exactly as the petty officer had directed them.  After the speedy showers the recruits hit the cold racks, not knowing what lay ahead for them.  Everyone was wishing that this were only one really bad dream. The petty officer never returned, and the recruits were all thankful for that.  

That day was the start of one of the greatest times of my life.  Everyone who took that bus ride to Chicago learned lessons about unity, strength, honor, and excellence.  Everyone on that bus did just fine, including myself.  Truly, that day was one of my biggest triumphs.