Disappointed, the recruits returned to their compartment, with hopes that the remainder of their “warrior training” would be more energizing. Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to basic damage control. Because of the impending Thanksgiving holiday, this training was limited to classroom work. The recruits spent the mornings in drill and completed their second set of TSTA (Total Ship Training Assessment) inspections. They did well on their personnel inspection (4.8 on the 5.0 scale), but poorly on the bunk, locker, and compartment inspections (4.2 and 3.5) Their RDCs were not amused. In the words of Petty Officer Kent, “It was all dumb stuff, all stupid stuff. Gear left adrift, the forward hold not squared away, crummy faucets in the head, stuff like that. The compartment looked like a P-week division lived there.”
Discouraged, perhaps, by the poor showing, the recruits had difficulty getting motivated for the remaining classes. Although vital, these were hardly entertaining. The recruits learned the fire triangle and the importance of determining the proper extinguishing agents for Class A (general combustible), Class B (petroleum-based), or Class C (electrical) fires. They learned how to don and wear personal protective equipment, such as oxygen breathing apparatus and Scott air packs. They learned the basic organization of a ship’s damage control party, and how to identify the common tools found in most damage control lockers. But mostly they just waited for their first “day off” since before Service Week.
Stephanie Prosper, 18, Vista, California
I was dead. This was getting so old. I told Jonesie, my bunkmate, that we’d been on the go every day forever, it seemed. We all needed a day off, bad!
After class on Wednesday, the RDCs mustered with Senior Chief Tucker in the LCPO’s office. They discussed the TSTA results and the division’s overall progress. Feeling that a shakeup was in order, they decided that Seaman Recruit Hopkins should replace Seaman Recruit Collins as RPOC, and that Seaman Recruit Rasco would replace Seaman Recruit Jones as his assistant. Collins and Jones would take other leadership positions, and an additional shakeup of section leaders might get the division back on track. While all agreed that Collins and Jones were outstanding recruits, the realignment gave the Red Ropes a chance to discuss the motivation of recruits in general:
Chief Zeller You know, I think a lot of these recruits are spoiled. It seems to me that they arrive here with worse attitudes than recruits had in the past. It’s like the world or the Navy owes them something, just because they volunteered. I think of them as the Nintendo generation, because very few of them are in good physical shape when they arrive here.
DC1 Russell I see a lot of spoiled kids. Some kid gets into an argument with his parents, and mom and dad have finally had it up to here, so they tell them, “Hey, if you’re so smart, go off on your own,” and the kid says to themselves, “I’ll show them—I’ll run off and join the Navy.” The recruiter takes them, of course—family arguments don’t disqualify you from the Navy—and they get here, and they get a rude awakening. Because we’re ten times worse than mom or dad ever tried to be. [Laughing.]
PR1 Kent I do think we have smarter kids than when I came in, in 1980. Those that come in now have more independence than those when I came in. Maybe that’s due to working moms, or whatever. But, in a way, that can be a disadvantage. They are so used to being on their own, and they have to get used to doing things as a group here.
Senior Chief Tucker Yeah, but we had a better work ethic back then, I think. And that’s just over the fifteen years I’ve been in; it probably was even more certain, say, twenty-five years ago. Kids would grow up working with their fathers and with part-time jobs. Maybe half these kids didn’t have a father or any male to look up to. Today’s kids are better educated, most of them are computer savvy, but their work ethic is way lower. Their values have slacked off a little, and that’s a part of the culture these days, I guess. I know that you won’t find the level of patriotism that you found during wartime, either, but then, the threat to the United States isn’t as visible as it was, say, forty or fifty years ago.
Chief Zeller I think people came in then with an attitude that they wanted to serve. They weren’t so cry-babyish. Today’s kids can tell you how much they’ll get for college, and where they are going overseas, and all that stuff that the recruiters feed them. Nobody told them boot camp would be tough, so now you have people crying and quitting. And the kinder, gentler Navy seems ready to let them out if their mom yelled at them too much as kids, or whatever. We’re shorthanded, yet you see people leaving here every single day. Makes no sense to me.
Petty Officer Russell Still, I’d be comfortable with the average recruit I’ve seen here. Not the knuckleheads, but the average ones. Our recruit petty officers—hey, I’d take ’em into my repair locker at sea, any day. But then, for a damage controlman, things are a little different than if I was, say, a yeoman. If you’re a DC1 in a repair locker, you might have a hundred sailors in the repair party. You become a people leader as well as a repair specialist. So I talk to these kids like they were going to be on my next repair party, you know. Because they might.
Chief Zeller Well, don’t get me wrong. I’m fairly comfortable with the recruits we are putting out. What bother me are the attitudes. They have this attitude, this disrespectful style that the civilian world seems ready to tolerate. They wind up getting away with a lot more than I think they should.
Petty Officer Kent They want everything to happen so fast. They have difficulty in waiting for things to happen. They come up to you in the first week here, and say things like, “We can’t seem to get any teamwork going.” And you just have to say to them, “Well, these things take time, and trust us, it will happen for you.”
But even with the deficiencies that these senior enlisted identified, there’s a lot of good visible in the current crop of recruits.
Chief Zeller I wouldn’t say they were more intelligent, maybe, than we were, but they seem to be wittier. They have a lot of street smarts, and really good ingenuity. When they come in, if they get on board with the program, you can really turn them into good sailors.
PR1 Kent Sure, these recruits are lots smarter than we were. You’ll always hear RDCs complaining about how “some dumb recruit did this” or “that knucklehead did that,” but they really are smarter. I’ll tell you one thing—they see right through stuff that’s set up to trip them up. They can see the man behind the curtain with the smoke and mirrors, and that makes our job that much harder, because you can’t B.S. them. It’s like over at 1405 at the “moment of truth”: we used to threaten them with jail and fines and so on if they concealed anything. Hey, every one of those kids knew we were bluffing. These kids have been lied to all their lives; they can spot it a mile away. So we cut out the B.S. and just say to them, “Hey, if you did something we need to know about, now’s the time, my man.”
DC1 Russell And even the ones that ain’t so smart, at least some of them are really willing to try. They might be a little slow, but they want to move from the rut that they are in to somewhere else. It might take a little work on our part to help them, but they want to give it a try. We normally see it right about now, and you can see it in the recruit petty officers, and a lot of the others. They’re good recruits. Maybe the holiday will give them a little break.
As the RDCs were discussing Division 005’s progress, at MCPON Hall Senior Chief Atkinson consulted the stack of index cards on his desk. “Every year we get more and more,” he remarked. “I’ve got over two thousand families willing to take in a recruit or two for Thanksgiving dinner, and they’re still coming in. We’ll have requests even on Thursday morning, I bet.” The affable quartermaster explained that it had long been the tradition for local families to share dinner and hospitality with the recruits at RTC.
“I’m not sure when it began, to tell you the truth, but it has certainly been going on for a very long time. We encourage civic groups, churches, and fraternal organizations to organize things from their end, and we’ll provide the recruits. It’s the same spirit
that motivates people to send letters to ‘Any Sailor, Anywhere’ through the Dear Abby or Red Cross programs, I guess. It sure makes you feel good when you’re away from home, knowing that somebody cares.”
Julie Boesel is the family program volunteer coordinator for the Family Service Center at Great Lakes. “People in this community are fabulous,” she remarked. “We’ve got a really good working relationship with groups in the surrounding towns. It works both ways—they pitch in to host recruits on major holidays and brighten up what could really be a pretty depressing day for them, and students from Service School Command and base personnel volunteer thousands of hours for school and community projects in the area. We participate with groups all the way north to the Wisconsin state line, and sometimes even beyond. I know that there are families right at the fifty-mile limit for recruit liberty that sign up every single year to take a young sailor or two for a day.”
Thanksgiving dawned, cloudy and cold. Although the division observed holiday routine, and slept till 0500, it was still only 22 degrees as they made their way to Galley 928. There was a treat in store. Perhaps realizing that there would be few recruits available for dinner or evening meal, the galley crew had gone out of their way to provide a hearty breakfast. Pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs in any of several varieties, as well as the standard cold and hot cereals, met the recruits as they worked their way along serving line 3.
Cari Williams It was starting out as a really good day. Sleep-in, no PT, Megan [Wirsch] finally got us a door where we didn’t have to walk all around the galley to get in, and when we get there, there’s all these paper turkeys and decorations, and a special breakfast. I had to catch myself I was starting to like boot camp.
The festive air extended to the usually dour masters-at-arms. Demerits for talking or dawdling were few and far between. The recruits ate in a leisurely way and returned to their compartment to prepare for liberty.
Ward Once we got topside, Chief Zeller told us to get squared away and get into our winter working blue uniforms. Except for trying them on, and getting them fixed at the tailor’s, this was the first time I ever got to wear the Johnny Cash suit. Cool, man.
At 0730, when the division integrated in Compartment D-01, the male members of the division, for the first time ever, saw their female shipmates wearing makeup, discreetly applied under the stern eye of ITC(SW)* Tabitha Brown, the female RDC from Division 006.
Shannon Nance, 17, Southlake, Texas
She was turning ’em back at the door. I’ll say this much about her, though, she was yelling as much at her own people as she was at us, for a change. I guess she wanted everybody to look good when we went off base.
Under Chief Zeller’s direction, Hopkins and Rasco mustered the division outside, and proceeded down Indiana St. to Drill Hall 1200. Arriving at 0800, they took positions in the bleachers, and awaited Captain Gantt’s opening remarks. After a few words explaining procedure, the recruits were mustered and allocated to the families and groups waiting for them at MCPON Hall.
Keith Brunney, 19, Foxworth, Mississippi
We left the drill hall at 0900. We had been in the drill hall for about an hour before we actually left. They told us the rules about no drinking, staying within fifty miles of the base, and how to act. We had to be back on board about 1945 hours that night.
After the usual awkwardness, the recruits began to warm up to their host families.
Mary Smith Freeman and I were adopted by the Elk Grove Baptist Church. We went there and had breakfast with about sixty other recruits. We went off with a twenty-two-year-old girl and her mom and spent the day with them.
Leonard I went with the church people, down to the Baptist church. They were very nice, they gave us doughnuts and coffee. We played basketball in their gym for awhile. Then they introduced us to our families. I went to this house—we watched football—they had three little kids. We threw a football around with the little kids awhile. Then we all sat down and ate. It was great.
Teresa Volk, 19, Manayunk, Pennsylvania
I went with the church group, and then with a family that had two grandchildren, the grandparents, and their son. There were four of us girls, and we hung out with the son, most of the time, and they took us to the store, and it was fun.
Taylor Well, I went with my grandmother and aunt that live in Chicago, so for me it was family. I went to sleep like, forever, and woke up around two or something. I really enjoyed sleeping for a change!
Paes I went with the church group, too, and was introduced to a family, and we stayed the whole day and played video games, and watched movies.
Some of the recruits in Division 005 had been at Great Lakes for nearly two months now. Many were surprised by their own reactions as they left the base for the first time.
Alcazar Going out the gate, I was sort of nervous. I was happy; I was seeing people and trees and little kids and old people. There aren’t any of those around base. I just liked being myself, even maintaining my military bearing. That was the first time we got to wear our working blue uniforms, and it was great!
Taylor I shouted hoorah out the window as I went through the gate. Well, I waited till after we made the turn, because I didn’t want the gate guard to stop us. It was funny, seeing people wearing all kinds of different clothes, because, like, everyone you see around here is dressed exactly alike, you know? It was nice seeing people walking their dogs and stuff. It was fun.
Richard Cumpson, 20, Inglewood, California
When we first got to the church I was looking around corners because I was afraid that FQA was going to pop up. We kept saying military things like “I respectfully request to sit down.” [Laughter.] I think we even stayed in step when we went to the grocery store.
The recruits had heard their RDCs and others talking about the impact that the Navy uniform can have on civilians. “You’ll never have to buy a drink at a VFW or Legion Hall” was a common refrain. While the recruits were forbidden to consume alcohol while on special liberty, they did get a taste of the reaction civilians often have to sailors.
Mary Smith When we got to the church, they looked at us like we somebody special, and that was nice, because around here you get treated like you’re a little recruit peon or something. But they treated us great, in our new uniforms and stuff. It was special.
Cumpson We went with that same group. It was nice to see how people treated us. More respect than we normally get. It makes it seem like, when we’re here, we’re doing something important. It was nice to be away and be with people not in boot camp. We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and sweet potatoes. There were lots more vegetables there than I’m used to seeing. They had mashed potatoes and greens. I’m used to seeing more meat and dairy products. Seeing that they had other members of their family there, they put out their good silverware and dishes for us.
Volk I never had celebrated Thanksgiving before, so it was something new for me.*
In addition to the great food, the recruits also received other gifts from their host families.
Kahlil Dawson, 18, Mount Vernon, New York
They gave us a 300-minute phone card, and all of us used it and maxed it out. I called my fiancée and told her how we were doing. I didn’t get to make any phone calls before, so that was the best part. But it’s still hard to be away on the holidays, you know?
Paes My family was surprised to hear from me. It was great, I got to talk to everybody that day.
Mary Smith [Laughing.] Me and Freeman fought over the phones and e-mail and everything, trying every way we could think of to get hold of our families and friends. I didn’t reach my mom, but I talked to my sister for awhile, and we made some digital pictures and e-mailed them to everyone we knew.
Alcazar They took us shopping for candy and potato chips, all the stuff we couldn’t get here. And the male recruits—the people wouldn’t let us pay for anything—the males were buying everything they could see and we’re saying to them, “Hey, chill out already,
guys, don’t be such pigs.”
Cumpson We watched an Illinois State game that they have on videotape. The lady’s son was the quarterback on the team. He had played in the game and got knocked out. We watch the tape over and over again. He still has a problem with tunnel vision since he got knocked out.
Mary Smith We were crying when we had to leave. The people were so nice to us. I’m going to be staying at Great Lakes for service school for a few months, and they gave us their telephone number, and told us to call and to think of them as our families when we’re here. And they had just met us that morning, you know?
Ward Well, if I ever did it again, me and Mac [McClellan] would stand around MCPON Hall and wait till some real babes came in to pick us out. Maybe a couple with a trailer house, you know?
*Chief Brown is a chief information systems technologist (E7), with surface warfare qualifications.
*Seaman Recruit Teresa Volk was born in Calcutta and retained her Muslim faith when she was adopted by an American family at the age of seven.
10
Confronting Fear
The euphoria of the holiday and special liberty quickly wore off, and by Friday morning there was a palpable sense of dread and expectation in the air. The weather had continued cloudy, and it was 26 degrees at reveille. A cold, damp wind blew from the west as the recruits returned from PT and prepared for morning chow. Today the recruits would face the “Chemical, Biological and Radioactive Confidence Area”—in other words, the “gas chamber.”
Hooton-Hetrick I was scared, terrified. In fact, every time I thought about it the day before, I got scared again. I’m not going to lie, I had been dreading that since I got here.
Freeman I woke up scared to death. I didn’t know what to expect, and I heard so many stories from before, how people throw up all over themselves, and snot everywhere. But I knew there was no way out, and I had to do it.
Not every recruit was apprehensive, though. For some, it was just another training day.
Honor, Courage, Commitment Page 13