PR1(AW)* Dan Kent, Detroit, Michigan
Like the senior chief, I attended boot camp here at Great Lakes. I graduated back in August 1980. I wanted to be a gunner’s mate, but my recruiter was in aviation, so he pushed me that way. He told me that we got to jump out of airplanes, and I said sign me up. I went to Parachute Rigger School at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Now, in those days, all PRs had to jump out of an airplane with the first parachute we packed. It was a great motivator for getting things right the first time, mainly because if you didn’t, there wouldn’t be a second time. I survived, and was assigned to a couple East Coast aviation squadrons, and one at Lemore, California. I was in VS24, on the Nimitz, VF102 aboard the USS America, and VFA94 on the Abraham Lincoln and the Kitty Hawk. But my all-time best duty station was as an instructor at the Navy’s SERE (Survival, Escape, Resistance, and Evasion) school at Rangley, Maine. We spent a lot of time outdoors. I was a member of the “opposing force,” we wore Soviet uniforms, and it was kind of like acting. It was very different from anything else in the Navy, and lots of fun. I’ve been here for three years. Division 005 is my ninth and last division. I was a battle station facilitator for a year, between my sixth and seventh divisions. There have been a lot of changes since my first push in 1998. The biggest change has been in the way that integration is handled. My first division was an all-female division, and we’d integrate only to go to class and drill. Now they’re totally integrated except for sleeping and hygiene.
DC1(SW)** Lela Russell, Omaha, Nebraska
I’ve been in the Navy for eleven years. I went to boot camp at Orlando, Florida. Although Omaha is not as big as a lot of cities, like every town, there are drugs and gangs and poverty. I didn’t want any part of it, so I came into the Navy to get away from all that. I had two daughters, I was going to night school for electronics, and working a full-time job during the day and keeping house, and I said to myself, there has to be something better than this. My original goal was to come in as an electrician, but when I was in boot camp, I really liked the fire-fighting part of things, too. So I wasn’t real sure what to do. The first ship I was on was the USS Holland (AS 32), based in Charleston, South Carolina. The Holland is a sub tender, and when you first report aboard they take you to the department head, and he told me I was going to damage control. After about a year or so there, I went aboard the USS Santa Barbara (AE28). I must have reported aboard shortly after the senior chief transferred off. The Santa Barbara is a fuel and ammo ship, and being a damage controlman on that kind of ship is a very hairy experience. I spent four and a half years on the Santa Barbara, and went to the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) for a couple years, and finally to Sigonella, Sicily, where I was the LPO of the base fire department. It’s rare, even today, to find a female fire chief on a Navy base, and almost unheard of to have one overseas, with local civilians reporting to her. That was quite an experience. After I had been there for two years, I got a message that they wanted me to screen for an RDC position. I didn’t particularly want to leave—I enjoyed being the head of the fire department—but my detailer told me that duty here would really help my chances for making chief, and I hadn’t been ashore much at all. I’ve been here since July, and this is my second push.
It’s easy for recruits to forget, sometimes, that their division commanders have “been there and done that” themselves. All three Red Ropes (a common nickname for the recruit division commanders, from the red aiguilette worn on the left shoulder) had vivid memories of their own boot camp experience.
Senior Chief Tucker When I was here as a recruit, I was a flag bearer. Back in those days, it was all male, of course. We were just a regular, street division. Now, my company commander was also a machinist mate. He was an aggressive guy, a power lifter, and the other guy, who was also in an engineering rating, was an aerobics instructor. So, right there I got exposed to physical fitness and good health, and I’ve kept that up ever since. The company commander was really a disciplined guy. He never let anyone into his office, but he took an interest in me, and took the time to speak to me about the machinist mate rating. I was on watch one afternoon, and he even let me sit down for about thirty minutes, and he talked about our rating and what the job is like, how hot and sweaty and dirty it can get. That guy really motivated me, by telling me how important the job was, and, how, because of the ship’s engineers, the ship always sails on time. Engineers are the guys that get things done.
Chief Zeller I was the mail petty officer in boot camp, but halfway through I got fired for taking my own mail to the mailbox without permission. That’s when I learned that privileges come with responsibilities, and that you can’t take advantage of your authority to treat yourself better than others. My company commanders were both first-class petty officers. One was a hull technician, and one was a machinist’s mate. These were some tough sailors. They ran a tight ship. I guess they might have difficulty in today’s environment, because both of them were very aggressive guys.
Petty Officer Kent I was a third-class recruit petty officer. I was the swimming petty officer, basically the captain of our swim team. My company commander’s style would be considered politically incorrect these days. You know, they say you’ll never forget your company commander’s name, or what he said, or how his voice sounded. Well, I can still hear his voice today, twenty years later. And I find myself repeating the same phrases that he used. But, as Chief Zeller says, I’m not sure that they’d be all that successful in today’s Navy. The philosophy back then was more toward intimidation than education.
Petty Officer Russell I was the laundry PO. My company commander was a Petty Officer Knowles. She was a great role model for us. In those days, boot camp was segregated by gender, we were all females, and she told us what life was like for women in the Navy. And she didn’t pull any punches, she told it like it is. I think that she and I have the same techniques. I’m like Kent, I find myself saying the same stuff that she said to me. I was older than many of the recruits when I came in, I was twenty-two, and she was a great inspiration to all the female recruits, but especially to me.
It’s clear that the recruit division commanders really love their work. Even a cursory discussion of the challenges and rewards of working with the Navy’s newest sailors reveals how passionately the RDCs feel about their assignments. Many have accepted single-status assignment, away from family and loved ones, just so that they might influence the next generation of sailors.
Senior Chief Tucker I asked for these orders. I’m physically active, and think that we ought to portray that to the recruits. What the recruits see in their RDCs, that’s the Navy for them. If they see the Navy as someone who doesn’t portray what we want the Navy to be, they’ll carry that attitude out in the fleet forever. Not only that, but when they get out of the Navy after four or five years, their attitude will represent the Navy in all those small towns. This is it. There is no better job for an enlisted man. I’ve 36 staff members, and 1,100 young people under me. There is no other place in the Navy where I could have all that.
Chief Zeller This is my third division, and I’m learning every step of the way. Watching these recruits evolve into young sailors, watching that esprit de corps develop, oh yeah, it’s worth it. I’d take these orders again in a minute if I had it to do over.
Petty Officer Kent I’d do it all over again too, no question. I had two or three reasons for coming to Great Lakes. I wanted to be close to home on my last tour, but that’s just a personal thing. Mostly, I enjoy teaching, and this is my third instructor tour. And this place is where you can have the biggest impact. With nine divisions, I’ve influenced at least a thousand sailors, and that’s great.
Petty Officer Russell I’d do it again in a New York minute. Working with these recruits is the best thing I’ve ever had a chance to do in the Navy.
*Senior Chief Tucker is a senior chief machinists mate (E8) with surface warfare qualifications.
*Chief Zeller is a chief fire controlman (E7) with surface w
arfare qualifications.
*Petty Officer Kent is an aircrew survival equipmentman, first class (E6), with air warfare qualifications.
**Petty Officer Russell is a damage controlman, first class (E6), with surface warfare qualifications.
3
Reporting Aboard
As the bus ground to a halt outside Building 1405, the recruits quickly filed off and entered the building. They found themselves in a large assembly area, just east of the quarterdeck. Immediately, they were instructed to form four ranks of ten recruits each.
AZ1(AW)* Bill Sparks stepped forward. Firmly, he explained how to stand at attention. “Hold your hands in front of you. Close your fist like you were holding a roll of dimes. Turn your hands till your thumbs face upward. Drop your hands till your thumbs are along the seam of your pants. From now on, that’s how you’ll stand when anyone is addressing you. Is that clear? Is that clear?”
“Yes, Petty Officer!”
“Now, I’m going to call out your name. When you hear your name, or something that sounds like it might be your name, you will respond with your Social Security number. I want to hear individual digits. I don’t want to hear “forty-seven” or “sixty-three” or “ninety-two.” I want to hear one through nine, only. And oh is a letter, zero is a number. If your Social Security number ends in “four thousand,” I want to hear four-zero-zero-zero and no other variation. Jones! Jones!”
Jennifer Jones, 19, Claremont, California
When I got off the bus, the first thing I did was, like, totally screw up! . . . You come inside, and you line up, and they ask you your name and Social Security number and stuff, and I moved! I totally screwed up, and I had been there for, like, maybe twenty seconds! He totally yelled at me, and told me I was wrong, blah-blah-blah, and made me an example, and everyone else got to go on, and I had to stay. I was scared, but I was the first person and I was supposed to be the example, and I was the first name he called out and I totally blew it.
Ashleigh Pankratz, 18, Great Falls, Montana
Well, we all went single file out of the bus and went into this hallway, and we all lined up, and we were all given specific instructions, but some of the recruits messed it up, so they got their butts chewed, big time. I was standing there like, oh my gosh! I was shaking at first, because this guy was just yelling at everybody, and then he’s telling you to have everything out, and he gives you ten seconds, and it takes like thirty seconds to do stuff, but they expect you to do things, and give you things that you can’t do, just to push you harder.
Nerve-wracking as the first moments might have been, they were a relief to a few recruits, who, having arrived early in the day, had to wait for a full busload to begin processing.
Leah Taylor, 18, Anchorage, Alaska
I had met one other recruit when I was at the MEPS station at Anchorage, so we flew down together. We got to Chicago early in the morning, and the civilian at the USO said that most people don’t arrive till the middle of the afternoon. So they called a taxi and we rode out to the base. The taxi took us right to the reception building. I guess they weren’t expecting anyone that early in the day, because they put us in this big classroom and left us alone most of the time. They gave us bag lunches, but mostly we just sat and talked to each other when no one was looking. There were recruits working in there, and they told us that it wasn’t bad, that there would be lots of yelling and screaming, but that they really couldn’t do anything mean to us in that building, just make us feel bad. About eight o’clock the first bus got there, and we got in line with everyone else. We felt okay because we had a chance to lay our heads down while we waited, but the new people were pretty tired.
After positive identification by Social Security number, the recruits were directed to a small room containing pay phones, and were permitted to make a short “safe arrival” call. If they couldn’t reach next of kin, they were to call their recruiter, who would relay the message in the morning. Reaching voice mail counted as a completed call.
Pankratz We all started lining up, and we got one phone call only, and if you reached an answering machine, that was it. That’s all I got, an answering machine, and I just wanted to start crying. I wanted to go home, right then.
The recruits continued in-processing. They were issued “Smart Cards”—debit cards that doubled as identification while in boot camp. Recruits with unacceptable footwear were issued new athletic shoes, and each recruit was issued a preliminary uniform with underclothes, running shorts, and a Navy sweat suit. Although pleased to receive their first “Navy uniform,” the recruits didn’t yet appreciate that the “Smurf suit” (nicknamed after the bright blue TV cartoon characters) branded them as newly arrived rookies. They boxed their civilian clothes, and delivered them to a Federal Express agent in the clothing issue area. By midnight many of the recruits were visibly fatigued.
Jeanette Zaragoza, 18, Riverside, California
Well, I had been up most of the day before, and hardly slept at all at the hotel by the MEPS station. Then we were up before dawn, and processed all day, and then flew from California to Chicago. Some others took a nap on the way over on the bus, but I was so scared I couldn’t do anything but watch the videotape and wonder if I had done the right thing. So, with all the processing, I was getting really tired, and they kept us going.
QMCS(SW)* Jeff Atkinson is the leading chief petty officer for the General Inquiries Office at Recruit Training Command. He has pushed divisions on the street, spent a couple of years as a ship’s leading chief, and now handles hundreds of inquiries from parents and families of recruits. Atkinson knows boot camp, inside and out. “Everybody thinks the first thing the Navy takes from you is your hair. No—the first thing we take from you is sleep. Then we take your hair.” There were other things that the Navy would take from the recruits that evening.
Jones After they gave us our sweats, they divided the guys and girls, and we had to pee in a cup again, and that was lame! And it was embarrassing too, it was the first time that I was in a room with a bunch of other girls, and we’re all peeing, and there’s an RDC trying to make us hurry up, and it’s like, hey, I’m doing the best I can. And everyone is really scared about that part of it, anyway. That was the third time I had to do that... We had to do it twice at MEPS and then once at RTC. I understand that they don’t want any drug addicts, but still, three times in one day?
It was after 0200 when the last of the detachment finished “ditty bag” (preliminary clothing issue), records processing, and urinalysis. The recruits mustered again, this time with loaded seabags, for their first meeting with Petty Officer Russell, who had drawn “pickup” duty at the afternoons meeting. Shouldering their seabags for the first time, the recruits began the long trek across base to Ship Eight. They’d be assigned lockers and bunks, deposit their seabags, eat, and have a quick opportunity to wash up before returning to the processing center.
Tafaswa Fletcher, 18, Bridgeport, Connecticut
I couldn’t believe that we had to carry all that stuff at once. When I picked up the seabag and put the straps on my shoulders, it nearly pulled me over. DC1 Russell tried to get us to march in step, but it was no use. We couldn’t even keep together as a group. And we walked and walked and walked. We only had a couple minutes after we got there, and then Petty Officer Russell took us to breakfast. I hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before, but I had trouble eating, I was so nervous and scared. They didn’t give us much time, we were out and marching back to the processing center within a couple minutes.
The recruits returned to Building 1405 at 0500. Those who had been unable to complete the urinalysis tests earlier were sequestered until nature took its course. The recruits height and weight and percentage of body fat were checked, using accurate digital scales.
“It’s funny,” remarked Petty Officer Russell, “how many people had either gained weight or shrunk since they were measured at MEPS the day before. Especially the ones that are just borderline for being overweight
or for body fat. Not that anyone would accuse the recruiters of cheating, but, still, when you have a recruit whose body fat is 28 percent, and the limit is 23 percent, well . . .”
Even overweight recruits would lose a little at the next stage of processing. By 0700 civilian barbers had arrived, and the recruits lined up for the traditional boot camp haircut. Most female recruits had wisely visited their hair stylists before leaving home, and, with few exceptions, all met the length and style guidelines.
“We tell them to get G.I. Jane haircuts before coming,” said Russell. “See those tokens that the recruits are handing to the barbers? They get paid by the number of haircuts they give. It’s OK for the guys, but what woman wants to walk around with a thirty-second haircut?” The recruits agreed.
Freeman I used to have spiked white hair, but I got it cut right before I left home. I figured I’d have enough trouble at boot camp, without having to worry about that, too.
The male recruits had no such inhibitions.
Michael Collins, 25, Amarillo, Texas
I had long hair when I came here. I remember running my hand through it on the plane coming up and figuring, well, it won’t be that way soon. And it wasn’t. I couldn’t have been in the chair for a minute, and I was as bald as a cue ball.
Newly shorn, the recruits filed into a classroom. Definitions of the Navy’s core values were displayed on the walls. Every event that these recruits experienced over the next nine and a half weeks would be tied to these values.
Honor. “I will bear true faith and allegiance . . .” Accordingly, we will conduct ourselves in the highest ethical manner in all relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates. We will be honest and truthful in our dealings with each other, and with those outside the Navy. We will be willing to make honest recommendations and accept those of junior personnel. We will encourage new ideas and deliver the bad news, even when it is unpopular. We will abide by an uncompromising code of integrity, taking responsibility for our actions and keeping our word, and we will fulfill or exceed our legal and ethical responsibilities in our public and personal lives twenty-four hours a day. Illegal or improper behavior or even the appearance of such behavior will not be tolerated. We are accountable for our professional and personal behavior. We will be mindful of the privilege to serve our fellow Americans.
Honor, Courage, Commitment Page 4