What is some great advice you had going through Basic training and AIT?

In basic, do what you are told, pay attention to all guidance from staff, get your rest when you can, and remember it will be over before you know it. Try learning what the military wants you to learn in AIT, then in the field, we will teach you what you need to know and do.

Keep your butt down too.

Stay busy. Constantly check your personal area (bunk, shoe display, wall locker) and fix/adjust what needs it. Keep a note pad and pen and constantly check the posted schedule. Last, Keep your head down, your mouth shut, and when you need to talk or sound off do it loud and move with a purpose.

Die trying.

Y'all may laugh, that's okay. I was 17 in BCT. Had never been away from home. Every time we'd sing a "mama, mama" cadence, I'd start to blubber. Luckily for me, one of my platoon mates saw me before a Drill Sergeant did. He asked me what was wrong and I told him I missed my mom. He said we all had people back home we missed then showed me the picture of his Wife and their new baby daughter... I realized in that moment what a child I was behaving like and never had another problem like that again.

Always keep in the back of your mind your reason for being there. Use the front part of your mind to concentrate on whatever each individual task is required of you. Move with a sense of urgency and seriousness.

Remember, what you learned here is secret. Think about what you say before you say anything. If you're going over seas?, remember, they all speak English and those women want to come to America

No AIT for me, the sailor.
At the firefighting session of basic, the instructor told us to always keep the engine of the Handy Billy portable gas-powered pump lubricated. He said that otherwise, it's like when you get a dry woman, and skin your gadget. Words of wisdom. He also said when you are groping through a cloud of thick nasty black smoke in a burning structure, don't breathe through your mouth. It's obvious when you are in it, but there is always that ten percent that have to be told.
Of course, nowadays you don't enter the smoke without breathing apparatus. That's progress . . .
Another interesting event at that session was a demonstration of a fire hose out of control. The heavy, water-filled hose flowing under pressure was thrashing around wildly, like an alligator tail on amphetamines. Impressive and scary.
Not AIT, but submarine school. One of my two instructors, giant red-headed Hafferty, said: "If you're going to be an asshole, don't be a little hummingbird's asshole, be a grizzly bear's asshole."

"No excuse"

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