Most of the recruits thoroughly enjoyed the dip in the pool, particularly after some time in the muggy and humid atmosphere of the pool house.
Freeman That was the best moment so far in boot camp. I love swimming, and want to be a rescue swimmer. I went in, and the only problem I had was that there were so many people swimming around that I got kicked while I was treading water. But other than that it was fun.
Pankratz Well, promise you won’t tell? Some of us thought it was so much fun that we got out early, so that the instructors would yell at us and make us go back up. I went off the platform twice, and got twice as long in the pool.
Gildersleeve I never swam when I was coming up in Birmingham, so I just went over to the “kiddie pool,” and sat down on the bench. I thought they’d be yelling and screaming, but I had this lady instructor, and she said, “You ever swim?” And I said no, so she didn’t hassle me. She just told me to go see the guy at the table and get times to come to class.
Petty Officer Russell, who had accompanied the division to the swimming pool, explains: “There is some percentage of recruits who never learned to swim, and a smaller portion who are plain scared of the water. Why someone who is afraid of the water would join the Navy is something I never understood, but they do. So, rather than yell and scream and make things worse and slow down the swimming qualifications, we just have instructors with long poles every ten feet around the pool, and about ten more instructors in the water. You couldn’t drown during swim test if you wanted to.”
After completing their swim qualifications, and marching to Galley 928 for evening chow, the recruits returned to their compartment for more folding and stowing practice and routine evening duties. And, as was the case every night during those first weeks away from home, the recruits had a chance to reflect on things after taps at 2200.
Rasco I was starting to make friends, and that made things a lot easier. I wish that I could say that I became a friend with everyone in my division, but that just wasn’t the case. But there were several females in my division who were wonderful people and I started to think of them as family. There were times when it feels like I had forty moms, forty sisters, forty friends, and forty enemies! I guess I was pretty lucky when it came to shipmates. One night, when we first got here, I received a letter from my mom, and I was reading it after taps, and I began to cry uncontrollably. Several of my shipmates came over to my rack and patted me on the back and reminded me that we would all be okay, and that they were there for me if I needed to talk. I’ll never forget that night. I believe it was the first night that I had finally felt somewhat at ease. I lay there and cried for awhile, and my shipmates knelt by my rack and tried to be good shipmates and friends. And when I heard Volk, Adams, and Starks crying one night, I tiptoed to their racks, and I spoke to them briefly about what was bugging them. After each one told me their problems, I told them that I would say a prayer for them and that if they needed to talk any more I was there for them. I was glad to do for them what my other shipmates had done for me.
Many were a bit cautious about making friends too quickly, but by the end of the first full week of training, relationships had begun to form.
Gildersleeve When I first got to boot camp I was kind of skeptical about hanging with the crowd, you know? Because I wanted to focus solely on myself and get out of boot camp fast. So at first I sort of stayed to myself. I sat back and checked out the guys to see who I can associate myself with. At first, I met this guy named Watkins. He was cool, and I began to realize we had a lot in common. He was easy to relate to. He was from Georgia and I’m from Alabama. We had the same taste in music and down-south women. But he got ASMOed on our 1-2 day. I have seen him since, but things aren’t the same, because we aren’t in the same house. Then, as time began to pass and I started getting familiar with everything, I started to chill with the crew. I hung with all the guys, getting to know their ways, and I got closer to picking my boys. We’re the “nasty nine,” and most of us clean the heads during field day. I hooked up with Caldeira, and he’s a cool and funny recruit. We can laugh and enjoy this boot camp and make time fly. Caldeira is from New York. I have cousins from New York so I can relate to his ways a lot. He has big dreams about being in the Navy and I hope that God blesses him and he can accomplish everything he set out to do. That is all he talks about: being an officer and flying planes for the Navy. He knows all his stuff and is very enthusiastic about going through with it. He caught my attention one day by being so jittery, moving all the time. And one day I said, “Yo, man, you can’t be still for nothing!” And we’ve been cool ever since.
My other buddy is Betton. Now, Betton and me are from opposite sides of the world. He is from L.A. and I am from Alabama. Betton is kind of brash and cocky. That’s one of the reasons why I think I click with him. He reminds me of myself when I was his age. Betton, Caldeira, and I are all going to the same school in Florida. So we will be together for a while longer but after that, who knows?
The recruits continued their heavy schedule of morning drill and afternoon classes. By the middle of the first week, the RDCs began to accelerate the pace of physical conditioning, to prepare the recruits for the intermediate PT test (PT-1) and final test (PT-2). Recruits had specific goals to meet for pushups, curls (a form of sit-ups), and the mile-and-a-half run. Failure to meet these goals by the seventh week of boot camp would disqualify a recruit from running battle stations, and without battle stations, one could not graduate from boot camp. Recruit folklore was full of stories of recruits who had failed their physical training tests repeatedly, and had spent six months or more at RTC before finally graduating. Attitudes varied regarding PT, which was usually performed well before dawn, either at a drill hall or on the grinder behind Ship Eight. It was fairly clear that it was almost no one’s favorite part of the day.
Leitner I’ve heard some recruits call PT “puppy training” or “pet training”: roll over, sit, stand, and so on. When I think of PT, I think of a healthy lifestyle. Since I’m a nutrition and food science graduate, eating right and exercising was a big part of my life. My husband I and lived a very active lifestyle. Once your body becomes adjusted to exercise, you can’t go long without it. Before boot camp, I did step aerobics three times a week. And my husband and I enjoyed bike riding and roller-skating.
PT in Navy boot camp is challenging, though. I never did PT with “crackers” in my eyes at 0400 before. Therefore, this was definitely an adjustment. PT in the training process is not made to be fun for recruits; it’s like a punishment, “puppy training”—on your stomach, on your feet, and so on.
I do think that more emphasis needs to be placed on nutrition, and the value and long-term effects of physical training on Navy recruits. The younger recruits feel threatened and don’t enjoy it at all, which makes it difficult for everyone as a team. Moreover, everyone is “beaten” by the RDCs if someone is not motivated, and I don’t feel that’s right. For me, physical training is a stress reliever, relaxation, and cleansing of my body. However, being “ITEd” and “cycled” should not be part of the regular training for good exercise. The RDCs yell and threaten, which is not encouraging and motivating.*
More emphasis needs to be placed on running, which is the most important goal to complete before battle stations. Yet I feel that, whatever you put into it, that’s what you get out of it. Everyone knows his or her goal and the time to achieve it. I feel you can do anything you’ve put your mind to.
Recruit Leitner had identified one of the chief contradictions of Navy boot camp. Over the last several years the Navy has deliberately tried to change its culture from one of indulgence to one that prizes physical fitness. Gone are the “two for one” happy hours at most service clubs. Smoking is banned at most facilities; indeed, at Great Lakes, smoking is prohibited even inside a private vehicle on base. And markedly increased emphasis has been placed on physical conditioning to build stamina, agility, and overall well-being. Unfortunately, one of the few forms of chastis
ement or correction available to RDCs is to require additional physical fitness training for even the slightest misdemeanor. Recruit Leitner—at age thirty-five, both the oldest and best-educated member of the division—quickly recognized the contrarian effect that this has on recruits. Who can develop a positive attitude toward exercise, when avoiding additional punitive exercises is the goal of every sensible recruit?
Table 1. Minimum Physical Training Standards for Navy Recruits
Others felt the same way, even if they articulated it less eloquently.
Caldeira I dread PT the most. It usually happens at about four-thirty to five every morning. It is pretty stressful to have to run and do pushups and situps and the large numbers of stretches we are required to do.
But then again, you have to look at PT as a motivational type of workout. When we do PT, we sing and have some fun. I just wish that it was a little bit later in the day.
The main reason that we run PT every day is to prepare for the PT tests. Of those two tests, PT-2 is the big cheese. If you fail PT-2 you won’t be able to run battle stations, therefore keeping you from your goal, which is passing in review and graduating.
So you have no other choice but to love PT, and to try your hardest to give 110 percent all the time. If you do, you’ll be fine when it comes to PT-2. Our division has a pretty good overall score at PT-0 [the preliminary baseline screening test], and we want to earn the “A” flag, which is the athletic flag. But I felt as if we just barely scratched the surface, because PT-2 is nothing to mess with. A pretty good number of recruits get ASMOed during this time. You just have to give your all and try to enjoy PT as best you can.
For one recruit, Physical Training was also an introduction to the loneliness of command.
Daniel Smith, 22, Vancouver, Washington
I’m the recruit athletic petty officer (APO). Nobody loves the APO. We jump out of our racks at four in the morning, and everyone knows that we are going to PT, so they are already mad at the APO. We get in our PT gear and head over to the drill hall.
When PT begins, it consists of a five-minute run as a division, and then we start the stretching and aerobics, which consist of 25 jumping jacks, 25 half-jumping jacks, 10 windmills, and 10 rotations. After stretch and aerobics, we run for ten minutes at my pace.
And again, everyone is cursing the APO. “Slow down, slow down, my legs are killing me,” and stuff like that. After the run we do a cool-down, stretch, and aerobics, with 25 more jumping jacks, rotations, windmills, hamstring, and deep bends.
Every other day we do in-house or courtyard exercises that consist of the same stretches and aerobics. But instead of running we do push-ups and sit-ups.
Now, when we are running in the drill hall some people drop out and go into the head. When I catch them I give them an UNSAT in their hard card, and I show that to Chief or one of the Petty Officers and they give them ITE [Instructional Training Exercises—more PT]. It seems to me that they should just finish the run and they would not have to work out more.
I personally like PT, although I wish we could work with free weights. The RDCs give me a lot of freedom as the APO, but nobody ever likes the athletic petty officer, anyway. I don’t mind, though.
Nevertheless, as the week ended, there was a noticeable improvement in physical conditioning among the recruits. Those who had been able to manage only a few push-ups or curls now were well into double digits, and the RDCs were able to increase the pace slightly for each morning’s run. Chief Zeller comments: “One of the big differences between when I came into the Navy and now is the level of physical activity that these young men and women are used to. It might be video games, or MTV, or what—and I’ve noticed it with my own kids, too—but they just aren’t as ready for physical challenges as we were fifteen or twenty years ago, I think. The problem is, though, that a hawser weighs just as much now as it did then, and loading munitions on a flight line hasn’t gotten any easier. They must pass PT-2 or risk a setback, and we use that to motivate them when we have them in the drill hall for morning PT.”
*Chief Gardner is a chief gunner’s mate (E7), with both surface and close combat warfare qualifications.
*“Being beaten” and “cycling” are recruit jargon for what is properly called ITE (instructional training exercises). ITE is one motivational tool permitted to RDCs. It consists of a very energetic series of exercises, and must be conducted under strict guidelines, with specific cycles of exercise, hydration, rest, head-calls, and so forth.
6
The Early Weeks of Training
During the second week of training, the recruits were introduced to formal military inspections. Augmenting the RDC’s daily checks, the Fleet Quality Assurance Organization (FQA) conducts bimonthly inspections “for the record.” FQA inspects and grades four training elements: personal appearance, bunk and locker readiness, general compartment cleanliness, and drill. These first inspections, called the Command Assessment of Readiness for Training (CART), would not be counted as part of the division’s overall grade at graduation, but subsequent inspections (the Total Ship Training Assessment, or TSTA) would be graded and averaged into a final score. Although division scoring had little impact on the individual recruit, it weighed heavily in the personal assessments of the RDCs themselves. And in the time-honored tradition of military service, pressure placed at the top would cause unpleasantness to flow—downhill.
Jon Hebert, 21, Leland, Mississippi
Inspections are scary, and you are always rushed. Personnel inspections are the scariest. You are worried about how you will do; will you answer the questions correctly, or will he find something wrong with your uniform? And you don’t want to let down your division because the flags that we win are based on division scores. You stand there, with stuff running through your head, like “is my gig line straight, is my shave close enough and my boots shined enough?” It’s a really tense time when you are standing there, and you see the inspector coming down the line.
Seaman Recruit Hebert’s apprehension was shared by many. The division had spent the evening of Thursday, 19 October, preparing for Friday’s inspection. Recruits used “Ricky lawn-mowers” (fingernail clippers) to remove stray threads from their still-new uniforms. PR1 Kent worked with the male recruits to ensure they had the best possible shine on their Navy boondockers, and DCl Russell worked with the female recruits to see that both their uniforms and lockers were presentable. “Some male RDCs get nervous about female uniforms and clothing,” DCl Russell remarked. “So they prefer to have a woman around to be sure that everything is squared away. Some of these salty old sailors stammer and turn red if they have to say, ‘Fix your bra straps’ to a female recruit. I wonder how they act when they hit a good liberty port,” she added with a chuckle.
The division stood at attention at 0800 Friday, awaiting the triple knock that heralded the FQA inspectors. All inspectors were chief petty officers or above, and all had completed at least six “pushes” as RDCs. They work from specific guidelines, and the recruit yeoman would follow the inspector to record demerits, comments, and suggestions for improvement.
Division 005 was in luck. GMC(SW)* Timothy Youell was the morning’s senior inspector, assisted by ETC(SS)** Mike Wagner. Kent and Russell breathed a sigh of relief as Chief Zeller led Chief Youell into the compartment.
“He’s one of the better ones,” Kent said. “He’ll be tough, but fair. He doesn’t have any axe to grind. And I knew Wagner when he was an RDC. He’s a good guy.”
Chief Youell began the personnel inspection with the recruit petty officers. He found few major discrepancies, although he had a penchant for checking the polish on usually overlooked areas of the recruit’s boots. DCl Russell made a note to herself to purchase spare toothbrushes so that the recruits could get polish down along the welt line between the uppers and soles of the heavy leather boondockers. “Each inspector looks for different things,” she commented later. “You try to get the recruits to be 5.0, but there’s always
something that gets overlooked.”
Both Chief Youell and Chief Wagner questioned the recruits. During CART inspection, questions were limited to the general orders of a sentry, rank insignia, and the chain of command. The RDCs chuckled quietly when Chief Youell asked several recruits what collar device the commander-in-chief wore. Most recruits were thrown off balance by the unexpected question. Answers ranged from oak leaves to silver stars. Finally, Seaman Recruit Hooton-Hetrick made the connection, and sounded off firmly that the president of the United States wore no uniform, and so therefore had no need of collar devices. Personnel inspection was followed by bunk, locker, and compartment inspections, and the inspectors departed shortly before noon. The recruits breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Gildersleeve I don’t mind the inspections that much, it’s the standing there at attention for three hours that gets bad. That, and tearing our lockers apart every night before the inspection, and practicing, practicing getting it right. I wish they’d just let us get the locker set right, and then leave it be, you know? It’s the tearing it up and down that messes it up, and you’re never sure you have it back exact, when the inspector comes.
Betton Well, I was so proud to get my uniform, and getting out of the sweat suits. It made me feel like I was really part of the Navy. I had begun to have some military pride, and I felt good. Getting looked over by the chief and getting asked questions didn’t really bother me. The material inspection went okay, too, although I got a hit for my rack. The worst part of it was that I was working with my bunkmate, and the part I got the hit for was something he was supposed to take care of. Which just goes to show, if you want something done right, you had better do it yourself. My locker, though, was in really good shape, so I came out of it with two out of three things perfect. Lots of others did worse.
Honor, Courage, Commitment Page 8