I've started working out, some, but that just makes me realize how not in shape I am. I have lots of little things to do to start getting ready for the practical side of leaving, which basically translates into completely uprooting my life, putting it in a storage container, and putting it on hold at least eight weeks, and probably more while I'm at school on the opposite end of the country. I have to mentally prepare to leave my family, my fiancee, and the only town I've ever lived in, knowing that this may be the last time I live here.
On top of the normal stresses of leaving your life behind to join the military, I, in my brilliance, have also decided to get married at the end of this year. And while I am very excited to get married, this also means that I now have six weeks to plan a wedding that will happen in December. My fiancee and both our families have been extremely helpful, both financially and with ideas and planning in general. Likewise, I know I don't have to have a full-out wedding and I know I don't have to get married this year. But I am still a girl, and even if I'm about to become an airman, I still wanted a proper wedding, so I decided the extra stress was worth it. That doesn't make it any less stressful though. Not to mention that the juxtaposition between planning a wedding (bouquets and bridesmaid dresses) and getting ready to join the military (reveille and boot-polishing) is just a little confusing.
And so, I have decided to employ my most trusted coping mechanism to deal with my pre-basic anxiety: researching the crap out of it. I've talked to a lot of people who have gone through basic who swear that while it's hard, it's not that hard. However, I'm going to continue assuming that basic is going to kick my ass with my own stylish stilettos, mostly because I'd much rather get there and it be easier than I thought, rather than discovering that it's way harder than I expected. Basically, I expect to cry, to feel completely out of my depth, and to want to go home. My theory is that if I'm aware going in of how much I'll want to cry, I'll be able to accept it and move on to getting better at things.
To get ready, I've also been reading About.com's extensive "Surviving Air Force Basic Training" article. So now, for your benefit and mine, I'm going to steal liberally most of the relevant information from there and put it here, in one super-long plagiarism spree. Most of the preamble is basic information that I've already talked about, things like the fact that all Air Force Basic Training takes place at Lackland AF Base in San Antonio, TX; that it used to be 6 weeks, but they've extended it to 8.5 and included a lot more weapons and combat training; and that I should expect to try and want to go home.
(Everything after this point, except headings, is directly quoted from About.com. Instinct...to cite source...too strong to fight...)
What to tell your family
Before you depart for your great adventure in Air Force Basic Military Training (AFBMT), there are some things you should tell your family. Let's face it. Mommy's little boy or girl is leaving home to join the big, bad Air Force, and they're going to worry.
Family Emergencies. You can't receive phone calls during basic training. You can't receive them even if there is a family emergency. Emergencies must first be certified through the American Red Cross. Before you leave home, tell your family that if an emergency arises (a real emergency, such as a death or serious illness in the immediate family) they should contact you through the Red Cross. Your family should know your full name, your social security number, and your flight address. If they haven't received your address yet, don't worry about it. As long as the Red Cross knows you're in AFBMT, they'll find you.
Mail Call. Within a week or so of arriving, you'll be sending a "pre-printed" postcard home that has your flight address on it. You'll only be sending one of these to one person, so make sure that person knows how to get a hold of all your other friend and family members with the information. Tell them that you will not have much time to write home during basic. In fact, I would be surprised if you can find the time to send more than one or two very short letters home. However, make sure your friends and family know that it's very important that they write you as often as they can. Basic training can be a lonely, stressful time, and a cheerful letter from home can be just the thing to pick up a lonely airman's spirit, and make them want to go on.
Make sure they know not to send you any gifts or "care packages" during basic training. That'll just involve you getting yelled at by your T.I., and it will then be thrown away (if parishable), or put away in the storage area until you graduate from basic, if its not parishable (either way, you'll get chewed out, and maybe even have to do several push-ups). Also, keep in mind that the T.I. hands out mail to everyone at the same time, during evening "mail call," and they have a very bad habit of reading anything in "public view," so it's not a good idea to write "funny" or "cute" messages on the outside of envelopes, nor is it a good idea to send post cards, unless you want everyone in your flight to hear it.
Phone Calls. Make sure your family and friends understand the AFBMT phone call policies, and not to worry about how scared you sound during that very first phone call you'll be allowed to make.
Graduation. Finally, tell them that they will receive an invitation to your AFBMT graduation, along with all the details they will need to know, during your sixth or seventh week of basic. I strongly recommend they make plans to attend, if possible, as it is an experience they (and you) will never forget.
Meeting your T.I.
Once you step off the bus after arrival, you'll met your training team members. This consists of your Chief Military Training Instructor (MTI), lovingly called T.I.s by their close friends and family (you'll call them "sir," or "ma'am" at all times.)
Suddenly, the skies will darken, your ears will ring, and all Hell will break loose. You'll say to yourself, "What have I gotten myself into?" Your flight will probably have a Training Instructor, and an Assistant Training Instructor, as a minimum. If you're really, really "lucky," you may have more than the basic two. Depending upon their genders, their first and last names are both "Sir," or "Ma'am." Unlike the other services, in the Air Force during basic training, you'll be required to address noncommissioned officers (NCOs) -- especially T.I.s -- as "Sir," or "Ma'am." There are not enough commissioned officers around basic training for you to practice on, so the T.I.s "allow" you to practice this etiquette on them. Once you leave basic training, your technical school instructors will be quick to inform you that, as they are NCOs, they "work for a living," and you do not call them "sir" or "ma'am." However, in basic training, you should call everyone who outranks you (which is pretty much everyone except other trainees) as "sir" or "ma'am."
Before leaving home, you'll want to make sure you do not stand out in your personal appearance. When you meet your Training Instructor for the first time, trust me -- you'll not want him or her to remember you for your long hair, earrings (male), handlebar mustache, or pants that are four sizes too big. Ladies, while you will not be required to cut your hair for basic, you will be required to keep it off of your collar at all times when in uniform (which is most of the time in basic), so you may wish to consider cutting your hair short enough so it doesn't have to be put up.
The very first thing you will discover is that even if you're 6' 2", 190 lbs, and your T.I. is 5' 4", 120 lbs, he/she is the biggest, meanest thing you've met in your life. You'll soon realize that your T.I. does not like you, doesn't like your friends, and absolutely hates your family. Air Force T.I.s do not use profanity (at least, they're not supposed to), nor will they "put hands" on you. But, they are very, very good at yelling. Very good.
Years ago, when I was an up and coming young staff sergeant, I attended a supervisor's course at Chanute AFB. One of my classmates was a small, petite woman who had just returned to the "real Air Force" from four years of T.I. duty. One evening, while walking back to billeting (the base hotel) from a "study group" meeting at the NCO Club, we passed a young airman, walking down the street with his field jacket unzipped (this is a uniform no-no). My former T.I. friend said, "Watch this."
She braced the very large young man, ordered him to stand at attention, and -- standing six inches in front on him, looking up at his frightened face -- proceeded to discuss his ancestry and disgusting personal habits for ten minutes straight, all without a single word of profanity escaping her lips. When she was finished, the young man was six inches shorter, and bleeding from the ears. I was very much impressed (and, from that moment on, slightly afraid of her).
The second thing you'll discover about basic training is that nobody in your flight can do anything at all right. Everything you do during the first couple of days will be wrong. You'll stand wrong, you'll walk (march) wrong, you'll talk wrong, you'll look wrong, and possibly you're even breathing wrong. Hopefully, if you read this feature, you'll have a few minutes of respite while the T.I. concentrates on the person next to you with the purple hair. If so, do not giggle, do not smile. If you do, you'll discover just how short a T.I.s attention span can be, as he/she shifts attention to examine and comment (loudly) about your particular deficiencies. Keep in mind that T.I.s hate the word, "yeah." They also hate the word "nope," and "un-uh." They especially hate any sentence that doesn't begin or end with the word, "sir," or "ma'am."
When I went through Air Force Basic Training (several centuries ago), each and every sentence had to begin and end with "sir" or "ma'am." Example, "Sir, Can I go to the latrine, Sir?" However, my friend Johnathan Carpenter has reminded me that modern day T.I.s hate this as well. In Basic, if you say "sir" or "ma'am" beginning and ending a sentence, they call it a "sir sandwich" or a "ma'am sandwich," and that is another notorious pet peeve of those kind gentle souls.
T.I.s are also notoriously hard-of-hearing. No matter how loud you say "Yes Sir!," or "No Ma'am!" your T.I. will probably politely ask you to speak up. Because of their hearing problem, the T.I. will probably assume that you are similarly inflicted and will make a special effort to speak loudly -- right next to your ear. Moving, or showing any evidence of discomfort is considered to be impolite and will be commented upon (loudly).
Before long, it will dawn on you that somewhere between the welcome center and your dormitory, someone stole your first name. You'll probably never hear your first name throughout your entire time in basic. For your time there, everyone (T.I.s, flight mates, etc.) will be addressing you by your last name. If a T.I. doesn't know your last name, he/she will call you "trainee," or "recruit" (loudly). If you're female, often they will yell, "Hey, you! Female!" (My daughters hated this).
Your T.I. will likely spend most of the time on the first evening you're together, between meeting you, and lights out, by introducing you to some of his/her favorite T.I. games.
Typical DayThere isn't really any "typical" day in Air Force Basic Military Training (AFBMT). Each day will be different, as you will be learning new things, and doing new things, depending on how far along you are in your training.
However, HANSEN1N0, a member of our message forum, has shared with us what happened during one average day while he was attending Air Force basic:
0445 - Reveille (You'll learn to hate that song). Time to wake up.
0500 - Downstairs in formation. Get ready for PC (Physical Conditioning)
0500-600 - PC. You alternate. One day you run, the next day you do aerobic exercises.
0600-0615 - Breakfast. Believe me, you won't have much time to eat. My TIs always said "Give us breakfast, and we'll give you time for dinner and lunch." Meal time is often chaotic. So if your recruiter says it's a nice sit-down time to eat, he/she is full of it. But, then again, there are exceptions.
0630-0745 - Dorm setup. Getting the dorm "in shape. (Never call it a "barracks" in the Air Force)
0800-1130 - Anything from drilling, classes, records checks, shots, uniform issue, etc.
1130-1230 - lunch...well, it can really be anytime between 1100 and 1300 depending on what else is going on that day with your training schedule.
1300-1700 - Usually classroom instruction. I did bootcamp last July. Trust me, it gets hot. Your TI won't have you doing drill in the afternoon (especially in the summer). Sometimes, you'll do STT. I won't go into detail about this, but it's basically time to organize your area for inspection.
1700-1800 - Usually dinner. The amount of time you get to eat, depends on how far along you are in basic. Generally, the closer you get to graduation, the longer you have to eat.
1900-2045 - Set up the dorm for night-time. Clean-up details, shine your boots. Sometimes, maybe even a "patio break," if the TI feels the flight has earned it.
2100 - Lights out. You'll hear Taps right before "lights out." (That song I always loved).
Phone calls and patio breaks
You'll get a chance to call home at least once during basic training, and probably a few more times, unless your flight is so totally screwed up that they make your T.I. unhappy.First Phone Call. This is the only mandatory phone calls that T.I.'s are required to let recruits make. You only get one chance at this, so if the person you call is not home at the time, that's just tough.
Your first phone call will most likely happen on the first Saturday or Sunday afternoon after your arrival, but this is not a hard, fast rule. It's basically up to the T.I. This will be a very short phone call (only about 3 minutes), enough time to pass on your mailing information. Warn your family/loved ones in advance about this phone call. You will not sound "well." Your voice will be shaky, and you'll sound like you're on the verge of tears. During this particular stage of training, you'll swear that T.I.'s are around every corner, under every table, just waiting for you to do something wrong so they can yell at you for it. This "scared rabbit" feeling transfers to your telephone voice. The bad thing is that you won't have time to tell them that you're really okay. You've got enough time to spit out your mailing address, then you have to give the phone up to the next recruit in line. So, make sure your family is ready for this. Otherwise, they may spend the next several days thinking they made a mistake about letting their "baby" go away to basic training.
Patio Breaks and Other Phone Calls. After the first mandatory phone call, how often you get to call home is a matter of "privilege." The phones are located on the "break patio" of each dormitory. You earn "patio breaks" (as a flight) by keeping your T.I. happy. If your flight is doing well, your T.I. will give them more patio breaks. If your flight is not doing well, the T.I. may withhold patio breaks. In addition to the phones, the patio has candy and coke machines. Whether or not you are allowed to use them, however, is up to your T.I.
T.I.'s are given a lot of latitude in this area. At Lackland, I met T.I's with completely different philosophies. One T.I. allowed his recruits to purchase candy and cokes on patio breaks during the first week. Another T.I. I met did not allow any of his recruits to have candy or coke (or even deserts in the chow hall) until after the 4th week of training.
Other than the first phone call, you will only be allowed to call home during authorized patio breaks. Keep in mind that there are going to be lots of other anxious folks waiting in line to use the pay phones at the same time. There is only one patio per dormitory building, and several flights are housed in each building. You may get lucky and your T.I. will give your flight a patio break when nobody else has one, or you may get to the patio and find out that every other T.I. in the building decided to give their flights a patio break at the same time. How long you will be able to chat on the phone depends on how long your patio break is, and how many other folks are waiting to use the phone.
Remember, these are pay phones, so bringing a pre-paid phone card with you to basic training can speed things up. That way, you won't have to go through the operator to arrange for a collect call.
(Note from Maggie: I've heard that with so many people owning cell phones, sometimes we will be allowed to use them instead of the pay phone. I have also heard that this very much depends on the T.I., so I intend to prepare for both.)
Settling in (Zero Week and Week 1)
- Rainbow and Baby Flights
- Drug Testing
- Haircuts
- Getting Your Mailing Address
- Initial Uniform Issue
- Shots and Dental Examination
- Initial Fitness Test
- Eye Examination and Glasses
- Recruit Leader Selections
- Weapons Issue
- Job Counseling and Selection
- Weapons Training
- Pugil Stick Fighting
- Weapons Qualification
- Obstacle Course
- Pre-Deployment Training
The BEAST replaces "Warrior Week" at Air Force Basic Military Training (AFBMT). This is where basic trainees get to put everything they've learned so far about combat situations into practice. The name may sound intimidating, but it's actually an acronym for "Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training."
At the beginning of week #6, the entire Air Force basic training class, consisting of about 800 recruits, is marched to The BEAST, which is a field training site on the Medina Annex at the west end of Lackland. It's designed as a simulated combat deployment site.
The BEAST site consists of four camps (called "zones"), named Vigilent, Sentinel, Reaper, and Predator. Each camp consists of 10 green canvas tents used for sleeping. There are also two tents, one used for a field hospital and the other for a command post. In the center of the ring of tents is a three-story tower (where instructors keep watch so they can chew you out for doing things wrong), and a hardened building which is used as an armory and as a bomb shelter. Each zone also includes five defensive firing positions, and an entry control point (ECP). Each zone is a self-contained unit responsible for operating and defending itself.
The BEAST starts on a Monday, and recruits spend that day with the instructors, setting up camp, and reviewing all the combat lessons and procedures that they learned during the previous five weeks. The next day, the war starts, and it doesn't end until Friday afternoon. Under the previous "Warrior Week," recruits only spent two hours in a simulated combat exercise.
The "war" is actually run by the students. Before departing for the BEAST, instructors choose one zone leader and 10 small unit leaders for each zone. These student-leaders are responsible for the day-to-day "war" operations in their zone, and schedule manning for the defensive firing positions, and ECP.
Recruits sleep in their tents and wake up at 0445 each morning, where they are given an intelligence briefing on the current threat. Throughout the remainder of the day, recruits endure simulated attacks, and take action accordingly. Some attacks are chemical/biological, and others are conventional attacks. Attacks can come from the air, or from hostile ground forces, or suicide bombers. Attacks can take place at any time, day or night. T.I.s and folks in the 3E9 Emergency Management career field act as the bad guys, and throw everything they have at the airmen. Throughout the day and night, recruits pull two hour shifts as camp guards in the ECP. Don't expect to get much sleep during The BEAST, kiddies.
The first 750 recruits went through The BEAST in December 2008. Almost to a person, what they hated the most was the amount of gear they were required to wear/carry with them at all times, and wearing chemical warfare suits and mask for hours at a time. Each recruit is required at all times to wear body armor, and helmets, and carry a rucksack loaded with three MREs (Meals, Ready to Eat), MOPP Gear (Chemical suit, gloves, boots, and gas mask), as well as carry two canteens and an M-16 rifle. This is 24 hours per day, for four days.
During the war, the instructors don't "teach." Student leaders and trainees are expected to complete assigned tasks on their own, and respond (on their own) to the various attack scenarios that are thrown at them. Instructors then debrief (yell) about what they did wrong, and (more quietly) praise about what they did right.
The BEAST site includes a 1.5-mile improvised explosive device (IED) trail littered with simulated roadside bombs (can you tell an IED from an old soda can?). Recruits learn to spot IEDs and then use the trail in training scenarios. For example, under one scenario, recruits make their way down the "lane" in tactical formation, trying to identify IEDs from the other debris. Get too close to an IED, and it goes "BANG," and you're dead (the instructor will emphasize this point with plenty of yelling). At the end of the trail, recruits are broken into teams of two "wingmen," and negotiate a combat-obsticle course (low-crawl under netting, hide behind walls, roll behind bushes and timbers, strike dummies with the butt of your rifle, high crawl through deep sand up a 40 percent grade, ect.). Hint: DO NOT advance ahead of your wingman, and whatever you do, DO NOT stick the barrel of your rifle in the sand!
When someone is not trying to "blow them up," or "kill them," recruits can enjoy three meals per day. However, these three meals will be in the form of Meals Ready to Eat (MRE). However, you never know when an attack will come, and even your meals will be interrupted (as well as your sleep).
Post-deployment phase (Week 7)
Graduation Week (Week 8)(I think this is also when I learn what my language will be)
