This is going to induce flashbacks for some of you . . . I know it did for me . . . S.L.
I wasn't in the Marines I was in the Army - started out Infantry; C-7-1 at Sand Hill, Fort Benning, Georgia.
Day One was like this only there were Drill Sgts everywhere; they swarmed us. What happened was our bus pulled up to the quad and this drill sergeant that looked like something out of a 1940s training film got on board and said, "YOU MOTHERF*CKERS HAVE GOT SIX SECONDS TO GET YOUR BAGS OUTTA THIS BUS AND GET THEM TO THE TOP OF THAT HILL AND THREE OF THEM ARE ALREADY GONE!!!"
We unloaded that bus faster than anything I have ever seen in my life. There was no cluster getting out bags out of the luggage compartments, either; somehow everybody got their gear and nobody wanted to be last up that hill - no matter what was waiting for us up there.
About three hours of pure Hell followed. The drill sergeants thrashed us, and it was just like in Full Metal Jacket; only when you're watching the movie you don't feel your arms falling off or your knees buckling or your back collapsing from all the stress positons. I remember being in the "front leaning rest" looking at the inch-deep puddle of sweat in front of me and thinking, "I didn't know sweat could stack that high." I remember being aware of the guy to my seven o'clock upchucking his lunch and the Drills alerted on him.
Then I heard, "HEY! HEY!!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING PUKING ON MY CEMENT?!?!?" To this day I cannot believe what I saw next. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Drill Sgt put his boot on the back of the puker's head, forcing his face into the puddle of puke, "LICK IT UP, PUKE! LICK IT UP!" and the poor sorry bastard was LICKING IT UP!
They smoked the living dogshit out of us. I remember thinking, "Holy Shit! I didn't know the Army HAD this!" If I had known, I would have gone ahead and joined the Marines and at least gotten the good uniform for my troubles.
At the time this movie came out, my girlfriend despaired at the boot camp scene. She didn't understand, had no perspective to appreciate what goes on in Basic Training. The Drills broke us down, got all our horrible civilian bad habits out of us. Then they built us up, made us strong and taught us to together work as a team. The military made me what I am today.
- STORMBRINGER SENDS
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