Free Republic

WASHINGTON – A remedial course designed to prepare potential Army recruits for basic training will become a permanent part of the service’s strategy in overcoming its sagging enlistment numbers, officials said. The Army’s Future Soldier Preparatory Course was launched at Fort Jackson, S.C., in August 2022 as an experiment to help young Americans qualify physically and academically for military service. With higher obesity rates in America and fewer young people qualified to meet the Army’s entry standards, the service hoped the course would give those who don’t qualify much-needed time and training to get in shape. Service leaders said the...

The United States Space Force put out a video documenting its first "Guardians" going through Basic Training. Obstacle courses, drill instructors, classroom time, and other training are shown in the video. It's one of the saddest training videos Angry Drill SGT has ever seen, and he breaks it down the only way he can.VIDEO[Strong language alert]

The U.S. Army has replaced the chaotic reception recruits entering basic training have long received from shouting drill sergeants with a training event designed to create a bond with their teammates and leaders.

Foreign powers test US defenses amid coronavirus pandemic BY ELLEN MITCHELL - 04/19/20 08:00 AM EDT U.S. adversaries are probing America's defenses as the world is preoccupied with the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. In the past two weeks, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea have all moved to test Washington in the sea, in the air and on land as U.S. forces have become more restricted in movement amid concerns over the spread of COVID-19. “Exactly how distracted is the U.S. military? They want to know,” said Susanna Blume, the director of the defense program at the Center for...

Pledging to make public service a hallmark of her would-be administration, Democrat Hillary Clinton proposed Friday a 5 million-member “national service reserve” project that would train Americans to respond to natural disasters, health emergencies and other crises. The program, Mrs. Clinton said, would allow citizens to continue working in their full-time jobs but essentially would put them on call if state or local governments need more bodies. “If you join the national service reserve, you will receive some basic training, just like you would in the military reserves. And then when your city or state needs you, you’ll get the...

Just a bittersweet vanity thread announcing that my 18-year-old son left today for Air Force Basic Training. This is a boy -- a man now -- who has gone through a lot in his short life. A few years ago, he turned it around and started on a rigorous road of introspection and self-improvement. And it worked. This is finishing school for him. He has been training to be an Air Force Combat Controller for the last 18 months. Today, he stopped being ours and became the property of this country. He will do it proud.

Critics said the M-14 was what happened when the U.S. government took many years and spent millions of dollars designing a rifle that was really just a glorified M-1 Garand from World War II. The M-14 was the U.S. military’s last battle rifle. It appeared in 1959—the contemporary of the Pentagon’s first jet fighters and ICBMs. With its heavy steel parts and walnut stock, the M-14 looked positively archaic. It was hardly a Space Age weapon. And it only endured as America’s battle rifle until 1970, when the M-16 completely superseded it—the shortest service record of any U.S. military rifle...

The U.S. Air Force is considering whether to revamp basic training for recruits, including separate training for women and men, following the worst U.S. military sex scandal in 16 years involving a dozen male drill sergeants accused of abusing women. Twelve male military training instructors at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, the home of all Air Force basic training, are under investigation for seeking sexual favors from female Air Force trainees. Six instructors have been referred to court martial on charges ranging from attempting to have a sexual relationship with a recruit to adultery and aggravated sexual...

Number one son has always been interested in the military. He started the first ROTC cluib in his high school's 105 year history, and eventually wants to get into Special Forces or Army Intel work. He completed a year of university at Embry Riddle after high school, then joined the Army National Guard. He's off to basic training in Missouri tomorrow (it's lovely there in January, I hear). He originally picked Medic as his AIT but was told by the recruiter (who is himself a medic) that he would very likely get deployed within 48 hours of completing his training....

Basic Combat Training is getting ready for some major changes to reflect the modern battlefield, said Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, deputy commanding general for Initial Military Training. Hertling, who is responsible for managing the training of Soldiers from the day they enter the Army until they report to their first duty assignments, made his remarks last week during a visit to Fort Jackson, the largest of the Army's five basic training centers. "We really took a look at the relevancy of what we're doing," Hertling said. "We're teaching Soldiers too much stuff." One of the changes Hertling wants to implement...

(Video on site of an embarrassing Obama teleprompter moment) Politico: Obama Doesn't Go Anywhere Without His Teleprompter... President Barack Obama doesn’t go anywhere without his TelePrompter.The textbook-sized panes of glass holding the president’s prepared remarks follow him wherever he speaks...Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual — not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events, large and small.After the teleprompter malfunctioned a few times last summer and Obama delivered some less-than-soaring speeches, reports surfaced that he was training to wean himself off of the...

Army disciplines sergeants in Jewish soldier case By CHRIS REINOLDS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sunday, October 05, 2008 The Atlanta Anti-Defamation League said Sunday it has intervened in the case of a Jewish soldier at Fort Benning who allegedly suffered religious discrimination. At the ADL’s request, Army Pvt. Michael Handman has been moved to another unit. League spokesman Bill Nigut said that in September, Handman wrote to his parents and complained that he had been discriminated against. Two drill sergeants were disciplined in connection with those incidents. Then, on Sept. 24, Handman was attacked and beaten by another soldier. He was...

I wasn't going to mention it but I am leaving for Fort Jackson, S.C. on the 10th to begin Basic Training. I am leaving behind my wife and 9-year-old son. Please pray for me to be strong, and for them as well. My MOS is 56M, Chaplain's Assistant, so I guess I will be able to change the "street" preacher moniker soon. Maybe I will be able to post once I make it to AIT. Very excited to have this opportunity to serve.

Nine weeks have passed since Jason Scowden boarded a bus in Tampa for basic training, nine hellish weeks of hikes and pushups, blisters and blood in the Georgia hills. The kid who grew up playing PlayStation and watching Jackass learned to kick down doors and roll grenades, to fire antitank missiles and sniper rifles. The man marching past his mother now, marching closer to war, is not the kid who got on that bus.

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 22, 2006 -- An opportunity to get an education, to see parts of the world they’d only heard about or serve their country attracted 16 passengers here last evening aboard American Airlines Flight 1961, and ultimately, to 13 weeks of boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. Devin Chambers (from left), Ben McCorkle and Pacheco Perez, new Marine recruits departing for basic training, pose for a photo. Photo by Cherie Thurlby  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The 16 Marine Corps recruits, most from Texas, displayed the expected range of emotions as they boarded...

"Basically, the goal is to establish a warrior ethos in the airmen," Sargent said. "We send a message that, regardless of the reason they joined, whether it's educational opportunities or technical training, they're warriors first and foremost." In the past, recruits spent their first week in classrooms, learning about noncombat topics. Now they're being prepared for a combat environment and warned about the psychological stresses of war early on in training. They're taught weapons training, security, first aid and other war skills and go through a mock predeployment briefing early in the course. Col. Gina Grosso, commander of Lackland's 737th...

FORT KNOX, Ky. (AP) - The recruits of Echo Company stumbled off the bus for basic training at Fort Knox to the screams of red-faced drill instructors. That much was expected. But it got worse from there. Echo Company's top drill instructor seized a recruit by the back of the neck and threw him to the ground. Other soldiers were poked, grabbed or cursed. Once inside the barracks, Pvt. Jason Steenberger says, he was struck in the chest by the top D.I. and kicked ``like a football.'' Andrew Soper, who has since left the Army, says he was slapped and...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 - The United States Army is pressing into place sweeping changes in its basic training program, introducing rigorous new drills and intensive work on combat skills to prepare recruits for immediate missions to Iraq and Afghanistan. In what officers describe as the most striking changes to basic training since the Vietnam era, soldiers whose specialties traditionally kept them far from the front - clerks, cooks, truck drivers and communications technicians - will undergo far more stressful training. The new training regimen includes additional time dodging real bullets, more opportunities to fire weapons, including heavy machine guns, and...

Several questions about enlisting . . . What is boot cam like? What physical fitness standards have to be met? Also, what are the standards for the Rangers? Can you explain your experience on the physical fitness side of basic training?

Forgive the Post - Member since 1998 so I get one 'rant' every 5 years This week was Basic graduation; Army reserve @ Fort Benning, GA. Looking forward to the day;I had not seen my son in 20 weeks. Barely got to speak to him when he could get away from 17 hour days to make a 2 minute call. They had no sleep but two hours prior to graduation. They would get none after, as the barracks would be disbanded, and no one does maintenance work save the soldiers. They had to dismantle and store their beds and...