Best advice for basic training?

Do what you're told, when you're told, and how you're told to do it.  Don't make an effort to stand out, it will only draw negative attention to you.  Help your battle buddies, keep and eye on them, and don't be afraid to ask for help from your peers if they are better at a particular skill than you are.  The only attention you should want is from doing well at the things you're there to learn, like PT, weapons qualification.  Doing well at those tasks are what constitutes 'above and beyond'.

There are tons of great advice from all these SMs (service members). Look forward to learning about 5000 different acronyms for daily Army stuff. This is probably the only profession where you can have an entire conversation using only acronyms and the other person will know exactly what you're talking about.
Now on to some real advice. Failure. There are going to be times in your career where you are going to fail. It is inevitable. But don't let that discourage you. Learn from it. Failures can be and usually are our greatest teachers. Then one day, you will be able to pass that on to SMs who are asking the same question you are right now.
Have think skin, I know this has been said a few times already, but I can't reiterate it enough. If you're going to Ft. Benning to be an 11B, you're going to need it.
There are so many things I can add but this is my last one, you will learn what a good leader is and a bad leader is. You can learn just as much from a bad leader as a good leader. You will learn what not to do and how not to be when you get to that position one day.

Good luck Soldier. Hit this forum back when you have earned that Blue Cord. To this day, that is still one of the proudest moments of my career.

Be yourself, be proud, confident and show your a team player. Support and help your buddies. Be firm but friendly and personable. I actually learned a lot of that the hard way when I went through ROTC and in my early years as a jr officer. There is the saying, "don't volunteer" I don't always agree with that. You want to show that you are a take charge person but don't overdo it either to the point where people might perceive that you are trying to win all the points yourself. Take advantage of all your education opportunities for civilian degrees and well as military schools. These attributes will help you in basic training and beyond. As SSG Lanning has said. A private/recruit is not lowly! A soldier is the highest calling regardless of rank. Once again welcome to the United States Army, brother!

A couple things my Dad told me when I was going to basic.

1. When you are rucking, running or pushing, pick the strongest guy and convince yourself you will go one further than him... If he drops pick the next.

2. There are two schools of thought, always volunteer or never volunteer, be the volunteer, you will learn more and earn more.

I hope the SF still runs recruiters out to AIT classes. If you see one, grab a package and put-in. Get a Jump School slot if you can. Wear that blue cord with pride!

Private,

Best advice to BCT. Do not quit. If you don't quit, you'll be fine. If it sucks, it is probably a day the ends in 'Y'. It will get better...if it doesn't, well it will get better tomorrow...keep repeating until it gets better.

Hunter Hoffman Hitt,

Welcome to the best brotherhood that I know of and I spent 35 years traveling the world and speaking to many, many types of soldiers. I see so much great advice here, you already have 380 comments. You can likely learn something good in 99% of those.

Start NOW doing all of the push ups and sit ups you can do. And go to the local playground that has "monkey bars" and practice every day until the blisters break, bleed and scab over. I still have scars on my palms directly below every finger on both hands.

Yes, buy a pair of Army boots now and run in them every day. Get started on the callouses you will soon develop big time.

Don't EVER call a DS "Sir". That DS will chew your ass for as long as he can. He will likely tell you "He works for a living".

Do everything possible now or as soon as possible to be signed up for Airborne, Ranger and Special Forces. You won't even recognize the "old you" when you complete those, same for BCT.

Thank you for volunteering to serve and keep us posted here on Rally Point on your progress. Ask a Rally Point Admin now how to "VERIFY" since you don't yet have a DD214 Form.

You are already feeling the brotherhood. If that goes away then YOU screwed up.

If you can access the post Dry Cleaners do it and get your uniforms lightly starched. You will stand out in a GOOD way, even if some DS gives you a little grief. I doubt that.

Make us proud and, be ARMY STRONG.

These guys got your back pretty well but one thing I haven't noticed yet.

Boots:
Get fitted now, on your own time, find out what fits right in standard issue brands (Bates and Belleville are likely bets)

Do NOT under any circumstances let the person issuing boots give you the wrong size.

They will be in a hurry to get a ton of soldiers fitted and through but this tiny amount of extra time to force them to get the right fitting boots will make BCT much more tolerable.

If you've been wearing Nikes your whole life I'd start wearing boots now and get callouses in the right places too if you can. I saw more than one kid bleed through his boots on ruck marches due to poor sizing or never wearing boots before.

Good luck man.

Be in the best physical shape ever: running, push-ups, sit-ups, and even pull-ups. Learn to climb a rope well. Keep you mouth shut unless asked to speak. Take one day at a time. Thanks for stepping up.

Read two Books.
1) On Combat
2) On Killing
Both by LT. COL Grossman