Tuesday I ship out for Ft. Benning, GA. I'll be there for the Infantry training; 13 weeks and 3 days, plus however long I'm in the Reception Battalion.
No offense, mano, but you picked the worst time of year to do Basic in Georgia. June/July sucks. Water will be your best friend, and drink lots of it. Be prepared to drink two gallons a day or more.
I know there are some active duty Army guys on this board and many retired ones. Can anyone tell me what to expect? I know I'll be doing "Basic Rifle Marksmanship" and "Advanced Rifle Marksmanship." What is the difference betweent the two? Also, will I be qualifying with anything besides an M16? Will I be shooting anything besides an M16?
You will be firing the M16A2. They have a US Weapons class where they show off the SAW, M240, etc. You might get the chance to fire a few rounds, you might not. You will qualify with grenades, and will toss a few live ones. Might get a chance to light off a claymore. Minimum, you'll fire maybe 200 rounds through the M16A2, and toss one or two grenades. Allegedly they're stepping up the BRM course, but we'll see about that.
Forget everything about civvie shooting. Just follow the directions from your drill during BRM and pay attention during the classes.
What kind of physical training will I be doing? I'm in fairly decent shape. I can run well and situps are no problem. But I'm not particularly brawny (5'11" and 150 lbs), so I'm wondering about pushups and just the general physical requirements (marching, carrying rucksacks, etc).
If you think you're in decent shape, your drill's will quickly disabuse you of this perception.
Happened to me. For instance, I thought I could crank out push ups like no tomorrow. First day, I did exactly one push up. "One. One. One. One. One. GET THAT REAR END UP. One. One. One. One. YER NOT GOING DOWN FAR ENOUGH. One. One." You get the picture.
You'll be doing all kinds of PT. There are dozens of different exercises, and your drill will likely have a personal favorite that he enjoys. Murphy statistics will show that this will be coincidently your least favorite form of exercises. If you haven't been getting into shape before Basic, you're gonna pay for it. If you're in decent shape as you say, don't worry about it. As long as you do your best, you'll be fine and get through it.
If you wish, you could have a family member post your address here, or have a person act as a central collection point. Letters during Basic will help. Your mail WILL get to you immediately. I had buddies low crawl 300m in order to deliver a letter to me when I was out at an LP/OP during an field exercise. The people that wrote to me during Basic will have my eternal gratitude for lifting my morale. I can tell you every single one of their names because I read their letters whenever I could.
If you want to be slick, get a person to collect all your mail and ship it in a single large envelope. Most drill's make you do x number of pushups per letter, getting one large letter instead of twenty smaller letters will vastly reduce the number of pushups during mail call.
The biggest piece of advise I'll give ya is to listen to your drill and forget the outside world even exists. Don't be the first, don't be the last and don't stick out. Keep your stuff organized and ready to go, no matter how many times your wall locker is dumped. Work with the rest of your platoon, even if you hate each other (and you will). If you're quick, and someone else is slow, help them out.
