Al I really need to know I learned in basic training

The Southern Spectator Weekly ^ | 5/27/04 | J. H. Cline

[drtrck]

All I Really Need To Know I Learned At Ft. Benning BCT

Shut Up and pay attention...keep your boots shiny...don't wear your hat indoors...treat leaders with respect...we are NOT an Army of one...never leave a fellow soldier behind...EVERYTHING and ANYONE can kill you...don't spit...never damage government property (including yourself)...the body can get by on very, very little sleep...in you are hungry enough, you will eat anything...if it ain't raining, we ain't training...go ahead and eat that cake private, we'll work it off (calories in, calories out)...taking three breaths of mustard gas is very painful...writing letters home after lights out is not something to get caught at...you can eat a meal in 3 minutes...What makes the green grass grow? Blood! Blood! Bright Red Blood!

[Christian4Bush]

treat leaders with respect

If that's what's taught in BT, then Gore and Kerry never served in the services.

[Kate of Spice Island]

Similar to my experience at Ft. Jackson, SC.

[aft_lizard]

what makes the blood flow? Kill.. kill..

Napalm sticks to trees, Napalm sticks to kids....

When fainting at attention always faint in the position you are standing at...

If your body cannot do anymore situps, do pushups instead..

Beat your face is not literal.....

Never smile when a Drill Sergeant is laughing at you...

[wingnutx]

don't wear your hat indoors

I guess he didn't learn to call it by it's proper name. Probably fires a 'gun', too.

[raynearhood]

"don't wear your hat indoors
I guess he didn't learn to call it by it's proper name. Probably fires a 'gun', too."

He also said that a couple of breaths of mustard gas hurts like hell. A couple of breaths of mustard gas will kill you dead right after your skin boils and your eyes bleed. Highly, highly caustic stuff.
At basic, I learned that a couple of breaths of CS hurts like hell. (And creates more mucus than I could have ever imagined could be released from my nose.

[B4Ranch]

"Al I really need to know I learned in basic training" and the 10 Commandments.

[wingnutx]

I have never breathed so clearly as afterwards, though.

[Larry Lucido]

a couple of breaths of CS hurts like hell

Yea, but after a few weeks you can almost get used to it. Not quite, but almost.

[raynearhood]

I swore after my first time in "the chamber" that it would Physically impossible to ever have a cold again. My sinuses had cleared a lifetime of snot within five minutes of being able to see again.
I haven't been in the chamber in nearly two and a half years. I don't believe it's an annual training requirement any longer.

[Snuffington]

He also said that a couple of breaths of mustard gas hurts like hell. A couple of breaths of mustard gas will kill you dead right after your skin boils and your eyes bleed.

Heh, heh. I caught that one too. I'll bet it does hurt. But unless there was one heck of a bureaucratic snafu, we're not using it on the recruits in basic training.

[raynearhood]

BTW I went ahead and checked out this guys bio at the end bottom of his web page. It talks about his time in college but doesn't mention any time spent serving. The mustard gas and hat-not-cover comments made me wonder if he actually did serve.
I can't really draw a conclusion from his short bio, but if he didn't, the article was a nice gesture but he could have got someone else to write it.

[TXnMA]

a couple of breaths of CS hurts like hell

Yea, but after a few weeks you can almost get used to it. Not quite, but almost.

Some people apparently can. I recall having to climb up a ravine filled with gas and lit by burning gas cannisters during a night march at Lackland AFB. One of the DI/TIs was stationed right by one of the cannisters -- with no mask -- shouting, "Just keep moving!"

[Chu Gary]

I joined the Navy in 1967 to avoid the draft. I joined primarily because I felt I needed to get my head on straight. Three months of Boot Camp at Great Lakes near Chicago accomplished that although I actually did enjoy much of the following 3 years 6 months before getting an early out for school in December '70. Language school, service in the Philippines and Vietnam, flight duty, mostly great fun.

[RebelBanker]

"don't wear your hat indoors
I guess he didn't learn to call it by it's proper name. Probably fires a 'gun', too."

Maybe it's just my poor memory, but I seem to recall referring to my headgear as a 'hat' when I was in the Army.

BTW, I do fire a 'gun' on a regular basis. It's rifled, has a 78" barrel and a 2.9" bore. Called a Parrott Rifle.

Deo Vindice!

[Kate of Spice Island]

"brain bucket"

[Rightly Biased]

Hat=Cover
Gun=Rifle
Cafeteria=Mess Hall


Restroom=Latrine

Sorry I couldn't resist the last one.

[RebelBanker]

"skid lid"

[drtrck]

It simulates mustard gas, smart ass. That's what they are trying to teach you. You probably slept through that lesson. And the point is that you learned in basic training lessons for life in the civilian world. It is called a "hat" and not a "cap" in the real world.

[drtrck]

Served for four years, but that it is not a military website, it is a southern website. No point in distracting from the site with a book length bio. But if you have a burning desire to know more, by all means, request at the site.