What is your wildest story from basic training?

One evening when all of the women in our barracks were in our nighties and ready for bed, the assistant drill sergeant came in drunk. He made us stand beside our bunks and march in place while reciting cadences. I assume someone reported him, because we never saw him again after that.

Well, I went to basic training in Orlando Florida and it was this huge white guy that tried to bully the whole company. And really everyone in the company was afraid of him. Then came along shot day. As we stood in line to take shots....this guy had a fear of needles and he turn into the biggest baby wimp in the company. And all of us was like yeah...we got u now. And he pepped down for the rest of the duration of boot camp. I thought this was kind of funny.

Was placed on a detail with other privates to escort a peer to CID because the guy accidently had $80,000 deposited in their check account that wasn't theirs. They decided to spend it right before shipping out to OSUT at Ft. Lost in the Woods. I guess the Bank wanted their money back. This was back in 2009, company E-787 (The nice space ship barracks). Never knew what happened to the guy...

I had a fellow recruit that found out that he was allergic to sand! Strange way to find this out when you are out in the sand box doing leg lifts mountain climbers and bends and thrusts! Poor guy just wanted to be a Marine but when you could spend your time crawling through the sand for a living.

Back in the day January 1979 Great lakes Illinois winter time all I can share with you on this day August 2022 is basic training is a joke on woke!!!!!!!!!!! Today!!!!!!!

When I repelled down a wall.

In 1972 Fort Dix NJ E 1-2 Two guys Rob the bank and then enlisted into the army to hide out 3/4 of the way through basic training the FBI showed up weird guardians to guys till they were transferred over to the Federal Bureau of investigation never heard from them again

Going home on emergency leave for 6 days and having to make up classes on my own

Basic Training, Fort Knox, KY August 1976
One night on perimeter guard I was set up at the bottom of a shallow ravine, probably close to 15 ft. deep. When we got prepared for the evening there were 4 of us that weren't given blank protectors because they were short. I got into my position and waited. About an hour went by without any problems. Later that night I heard a shuffle in the brush above me, and the sound made it obvious they were coming toward me. I called out "Halt", and they stopped for a fem moments. I heard the shuffling in the brush again, and then called "Halt, or I'll shoot", then I pulled back the charging handle to load a blank. They stopped again for a moment. I heard them shuffling toward me again, so I fired my rifle up toward them. Apparently I hit a Lieutenant across the front of his uniform and under his chin with the powder blast. They left pretty quickly, and in the morning I was asked if I had fired my weapon that night, since there were a few shots that night while on guard from quite a few of us, they weren't certain exactly who had shot the Lieutenant. I answered "yes". They asked me where on the perimeter I was located, and I pointed toward the ravine I was in. The Drill Sargent told me I had done a good job, but told me to never go out without a blank protector, ever again. It seems out of all the areas they tried the most to get through, it had to be mine. And I did exactly what they had trained me to do. I still wonder how badly that Lieutenant was messed up from that shot that night.

Early in BCT, we had a triple stand concertina fence to breach. The D. I. asked us how do we get across? I said, one soldier throws himself on top of the wire and the rest run across his back. "Do it!" says the D. I and they do! It took a bunch of the men quite a bit of time to get me out of that wire. It was early winter in New Jersey and I was wearing a long fabric coat. Needless to say, the coat was a "training loss" but I escaped without a scratch!

I was the RCPO (Recruit Chief Petty Officer) for my Basic Training Company in San Diego, CA.
We were marching across the road to the grinder to do formations before headed to chow. I forgot to post road guards!! My company commander was hiding in his truck behind a tree and saw this. He drove real fast towards the company slammed on brakes , got out and was yelling at me that I killed 25 of his recruits. Scared the crap outta me !! But I didn't get fired !!

I was the RCPO (Recruit Chief Petty Officer) for my Basic Training Company in San Diego, CA.
We were marching across the road to the grinder to do formations before headed to chow. I forgot to post road guards!! My company commander was hiding in his truck behind a tree and saw this. He drove real fast towards the company slammed on brakes , got out and was yelling at me that I killed 25 of his recruits. Scared the crap outta me !! But I didn't get fired !!

We had some tall skinny dude lock himself in his wall locker one day. When the Drill Sargeants finally got the locker open, he had been eating his t-shirts.

We didn't see him again after that day.

We also had a retread that thought he was going to ease his way through our class to an easy discharge. The drill Sargeant took him the bathroom and remodeled it with his face.


And the last one. We had some reserve e5 drill dargeant come to our class during the gas chamber time. The original drill Sargeant picked him up by his arms and legs and threw him into the gas chamber and held the doors closed on him. He didn't appear to enjoy his welcome to our rotation.

I was in boot over Thanksgiving and Christmas. The laundry petty officers decided to open everyone’s care packages and eat the stuff their families had sent.

Our company was known as the Crab Queens because so many of the girls ended up with crabs

Two recruits were sent back 2 weeks AFTER graduation because they were on liberty, in non-authorized civies. They would have gotten away with it if they wouldn’t have addressed a CC as “sir”.

The first morning there another girl didn’t want to wake up so the CC pulled up the corner of her mattress. She came up swinging. She was still in psych hold when our company graduated.

In basic, a couple girls and I were getting our hair done at the shoppette and we got the hair dressers to get us food from Burger King and we ate it in the back and didn’t tell a soul when we got back lol.

Supply had no Size 7 combat boots by the time my Squadron got there. I did my Survival Training 8000 feet up in the Rockies with dress shoes. I got cellulitis from the damage done to my feet with improper gear. Still a problem.

My DS was drunk almost everyday.