Do you remember your first day of basic training?

I remember my first day in Basic Training (Nov. 18, 1983) right down to the nasty chicken they served on United Airlines....best haircut EVER....yellow footprints.....

"Welcome to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California. From this moment forward the first and last word out of your nasty little mouths will be SIR. Am I understood?"

10 Nov 1966. Can anyone think of a holiday that happens around this time? What a rotten day to report to Boot Camp in Great Lakes, Il. After a flight from Raleigh to O'Hare, waiting for the bus to RTC Great lakes, and being dropped at the Gate, we reported to Boot Camp at Midnight. Were greated by a voice crying out in the distance, "You'll be sorry!"

And we were met by a group of Service Weeks, (people in the 6th week of boot camp on a break to work and not to just learn). Since it was a holiday weekend all of the Company Commanders and Assistant Company Commanders were OFF. We finally got chow at around 0100: cold ham, cold lima beans and bread. Then we marched (HA!) to our barracks and turned in for the night.

At 0500, we were awakened by our assigned Service Weeks, who informed us that we were NOT going to get our uniforms until Monday or maybe Tuesday. Most of us had listened to our recruiters and had the clothes on our backs. So it was a long, smelly weekend before we finally got our haircuts, clothing, etc.

On Sunday night, our Company Commander, SHC George Karahos, came into the barracks and assigned us to our Squads and duties. Because I had put down Greek Orthodox as my religion, I became the Company MAA. This earned me a few extra privileges and a lot of extra duty anytime anyone screwed up.

Forget my first day? Never and not my first 4 or so. In fact all 13 weeks are just about etched in my memory. We even got to watch the Ice Bowl and I got EMI for authorizing the Company (CO-668) to go into the TV Room and smoke when the Chief was not there. It was worth it. Biggest lesson learned - it is better to ask for forgiveness that to be denied a request before making a decision.

Yes, the moment I realized "ohhhh THAT'S why my recruiter said pack light"...

I remember it like it was yesterday... 2 JUN 1981, E Co. 7/1 INF TNG BN, Fort Benning Georgia.

Then I remember the new one... 7 JUL 1992, T-140, Cape May, NJ.

Both days are burned into my memory. Good times!!

oh yea i remember getting off the plane in San Diego (USMC) and walking the trough the airport and getting yelled at by a DI telling me to sit on the floor left leg over right leg and left hand left knee and right hand right knee and that ie what i consider the first day of my first career

I remember it like it was 26 years, 3 weeks and 4 days ago. I thought I had walked into hell.

I loved basic training. I was one of the guys that actually went out into the real world on my own and even finished an associates degree prior to joining, so I already had some real world experience and common sense in my back pocket. Yeah, that meant diddly squat that first day. We get bused in, with all the Drill Sergeants waiting for us to get off the bus. You could tell they were loving every minute of it too. The bus hadn't even come to a stop before one of them hopped on and started yelling at us to move out, get in a circle and dump our belongings so they could inspect what we were authorized and what we weren't. Well, I found it amusing, so I had a smirk on my face the whole time. Before I go on, allow me a little back-story. I'm Mexican, raised with the good old tough love that is rarely seen anymore, with even aunts and uncles pitching in when the time required it for the much needed discipline, be it a smack, a scolding or a good old a$$ chewing with some some smacks thrown in for good measure. Well, one of the Drill Sergeants saw me smirking and ran up to me, got in my face and started yelling at me, "Do you think this is funny private?" To which I replied, "Sorry Drill Sergeant, but you're no where near as scary as my aunt when she is yelling at me." Yeah, bad move. He got red faced, but couldn't recover nor could he come up with a retort, so he started yelling at the guy next to me for laughing, while some of the other Drill Sergeants laughed as well. A few days later, I was the guy that they made an example out of (because one of them snatched my glasses off my head and I cussed him out). Got to say, Basic Training was a blast. Someday I would like to run into my old Drill Sergeants and thank them for being such hard a$$es.

I've done 3 "boot camps." My first boot camp is the only one that can really be considered boot camp, and I did that at MCRD San Diego. I remember only bits and pieces of it as we were up for around 60 hours. My main memory from that time is getting off the plane in San Diego and being greeted by a DI with an eye patch emblazoned with a giant EGA. I knew I was in for a long 13 weeks.

My second boot camp was the indoc for the Naval Academy prep school. My orders were all screwed up, so I didn't get any leave en route from Okinawa to Newport, so I was extremely jet lagged. Then to add insult to injury I was forced to pay for my haircut... Not a fun day.

My third and final first boot camp memory was I-day at the Academy. The prior Marines (7 of us) had to go to 8th&I to pick up our SRBs. Once we picked them up, we reported to a large auditorium where we got our shots and our haircut. The day ended with the oath of office ceremony which I fell asleep during. This happened due to a number of factors: one I was dog tired, as I woke up at three that morning and had been going all day, and two because we were all wearing white which caused a glare that physically hurt my eyes.

Needless to say, I am happy I am done with boot camps.

The memories...it was so nice I had my own bed and my own locker and my own duffel bag with new uniforms with lots of room mates....lmao...and some random people with brown hats screaming out what we're doing wrong and yelling at us to square our selves away...lol...such wonderful life...at the end of it all that small coin had great meaning

I remember that pretty clearly, it started when we went to the Airport to take a bus out to Fort Sill. After a long and silent bus ride over there, we went through the gates and pulled to a stop near the concrete with the yellow feet painted on it. It was a blur of briefings and instructions, before being given our free haircuts the following morning. Definitely something that I can still remember today