If you could change one thing about your 'boot camp' experience, what would it be?

Started off in the Navy, you really do not want to be at Great Lakes in the winter brother!

I would not have fractured my right ipr.

Hmmm, maybe having time to not only swallow your food but to be able to chew it some first! LOL!

Healthier food.

I would have basic training go back to they way we were trained before these stress cards came out

Not that I would have said it then,but now after I’ve been out of Basic Training since 1965 and fortunately survived my three year enlistment which included an all expense paid trip to the Orient that will forever remain in my memories,not a goddamn thing.

The two weeks we spent in receiving

It would have been given a little chance to get in some kind of shape. I was drafted into basic in 1971 and was blessed with a big arse and a small chest. After 8 weeks they managed to kick my big arse up to my chest. Go Army!

Stop the drill sergeants from encouraging blanket parties on recruits not “adapting” to Army life. I went through Ft Benning in 1979 (Infantry) – my experience wasn’t too different than the movie “Full Metal Jacket.” The guys in my class didn’t put bars of soap in socks, they used empty LAW rocket tubes, e-tools and fists. How someone didn’t get killed was nothing short of a miracle. Regardless, these beating didn’t solve anything and every recruit who received a blanket party ended up getting chaptered out. I was 17 when I entered basic and I’ll admit it – witnessing these blanket parties was scary. Other than this, I enjoyed basic and AIT and was an honor grad (or something like that). I remember a couple other guys and myself were recognized at graduation for doing well.

Be able to qualify with the weapon the first time instead of the second or third.