My first taste of the Army was a lady saying "I hope all of you ladies know what you are in for." Have anything like this said to you?

2015-09-25T20:25:30-04:00

Response by SFC Everett Oliver made Sep 25 at 2015 10:05 PM

2015-09-25T22:05:40-04:00

My first taste of the Army that I really remember is some guy smaller than me cussing me out at 0300 hrs to get off his )(^^$%&^***( bus.

I cannot repeat the first words i ever heard from a WAC Sergeant.....

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Sep 26 at 2015 10:58 AM

2015-09-26T10:58:35-04:00

I can't imagine the first words that newly enlisted WACs may have been used to greet WACs. I can well remember hearing their cadence calls and they made our DIs blush at times. One admonition in particular is etched in my memory as a WAC DI instructed her recruits to snap to attention smartly, smartly enough to make their... (I better stop there).

The truth is that the first words I heard in BCT came from our company commander, a Captain who stood on a PT stand behind the company barracks as we were herded from the buses that brought us from the Reception Center. He waited patiently beside a console record player blaring the Ballad of the Green Berets. When it ended, he welcomed us with words of encouragement, nothing at all like I expected. The truth is that I knew little of the Army except what I had read in Beetle Bailey comics and our cadre didn't resemble any of those characters in any way.

At the end of eight weeks I can honestly say that those men dedicated themselves to preparing us for our futures in the Army, whatever path we followed. They always seemed determined to get the best they could out of us, to show us that we could do things that we never even dreamed we could. The mess sergeant was someone you didn't want to mess with (no pun intended), but strove to keep us well fed. He baked extra desserts to trade with the drivers of ration trucks for little extras that he could serve to us, especially on long marches. If a DI screamed at us, it was always for good reason.

I'll admit that I was much older than the other recruits and probably had a different view of things. I doubt any teenager appreciated BCT as mush as I did. Maybe they did when they grew older and looked back on it...

Response by SPC Christopher Perrien made Sep 27 at 2015 4:42 AM

2015-09-27T04:42:12-04:00

At my first duty station, Mannheim Germany in 1986, a PFC, I was assigned as a loader on an XO's (1stLT) Tank, in a regular line tank company(14 M60's). After some months there we had an AGI(Adj.Gen. Inspection). This involves cleaning, inspecting ,checking, EVERYTHING in the unit. I was to told to check out, inspect, and clean up the company Mine Detector out of the arms room. As I was informed one of my job's as XO tank loader was operator of the company's WWII era mine detector. And my job was to precede the entire company on foot detecting mines in the event of an advance march(i.e. toward the enemy). Well I told my XO ,"What if I don't want to be out there in front on foot detecting mines ?" He said , "Then I'll have to shoot you". It was at that point I REALLY knew I was in the Army. :)

Actually it worked out well, because I knew the army a little then, so I claimed to yond LT., I needed to train with it and understand it if I was questioned during the AGI. So LT. authorized my idea ;) and I got a friend(also a PFC) and he buried track connectors in the company green in front of the barracks for me to find. And we spent a couple days screwing around with it, looking busy, finding these "mines", planting flags and pretty mine markers, and got out of many lousy details as no Sgt. could/would countermand an LT.'s orders. ;) - We were both definitely training for SP4 mafia, -LOL

AGI -Adjutant General Inspections were a pain in the butt., we literally took sinks and toilets off the wall in barracks and cleaned where they were mounted, cleaned everything, paint everything, restencil everything, wax, shine, polish, paperwork, etc etc.

Got an AAM and a 3 day pass, for the inspection, but they never asked me about the mine detector.

Response by SPC Margaret Higgins made Sep 27 at 2015 12:01 PM

2015-09-27T12:01:30-04:00

Up until that point, in MY mind, I was just thinking-or Not thinking-"Oh I've joined the Army. La De Dah. (LOL) Or SOMETHING to that effect (Who KNOWS what.). Then once that lady said what she did, I got scared." ;)