Don’t go to basic training unprepared.  The small amount of preparation you can do before basic training will save you hundreds of sit-ups and push-ups in front of a drill sergeant.  During basic training you will be dealing with Drill Sergeants who love to yell at you and hang on your every word.  One of the best compliments I received at basic training was from a drill sergeant on my graduation day. The drill sergeant came up to me and asked me if I belonged on stage.  She wasn’t asking me if I deserved to graduate, she was asking me if I was with the right platoon.  She had never seen me before because I flew “under the radar” so well.  I made it through basic training without getting yelled at much, here’s how I did it:

In my best-selling book, I teach military recruits how to make basic training as stress free as possible.  It’s important to understand that nothing will make you “yell-proof”; however, there are preparations you can make to reduce the amount of personal attention you get from Drill Sergeants.  

Understand Why They Yell- Drill Sergeants don’t personally hate you.  If you take the yelling and insults a Drill Sergeant gives you personally, you will add extra stress to an already stressful situation.  A Drill Sergeants goal is to motivate and train you in the quickest time possible.  Their job is to break you down as a civilian and turn you into a member of the U.S military in the shortest time possible.  That job is not easy and would be difficult with a Richard Simmons type motivation approach.  If you get personal attention by Drill Sergeants at basic training, just remember it’s for your own good.

Don’t be Friendly- Your Drill Sergeant isn’t looking for a friend, so leave your manners at home.  Don’t attempt to have a leisurely or friendly chat with a Drill Sergeant because you will find yourself doing push-ups in the mud.  90% of what you say to a Drill Sergeant should be “Drill Sergeant yes Drill Sergeant”, or “Drill Sergeant no Drill Sergeant”.  The other recruits should be your friends, the Drill Sergeants should be your motivators and trainers.

Don’t be Einstein- Drill Sergeants aren’t impressed with all the knowledge you know, or think you know. Many recruits come to basic training hearing stories and learning lessons of when their friends and family attended. Don’t listen to those recruits as stories are often exaggerated or interpreted incorrectly. Even if you know the answer to a question, don’t shout it out unless you are specifically called upon.

Speak with Confidence, Even if You Know Your Wrong- Drill Sergeants love to pick on recruits who answer or talk in a quiet or timid voice. Their job is to turn you into a lean mean fighting machine. When asked a question, only respond with a confident voice, even if you don’t know the correct answer. A wrong answer spoken confidently sounds better than a right answer spoken timidly.

Don’t be Late- When a Drill Sergeant asks you to be somewhere in 45 seconds, you better be there in 15. Arriving on time is the same as arriving late to a Drill Sergeant.

SGT Michael Volkin is the author of several basic training books, including the best selling: The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook: Tips, Tricks and Tactics for Surviving Boot Camp

Why are you joining the military? Have you asked yourself that question yet? Too many recruits just join the military becuase they saw a neat commercial or they need the college money. That, in my opinion, is the worst reason to join.  You will have a difficult time at basic training with those excuses as motivation to graduate. With USMC training; being the most difficult of all the branches, you need more motivation than college money to surpass your drill sergeants; standards of what a soldier should be. Let’s take military fitness for example, more specifically, Army fitness. In military basic training you have to be able to run at least 4 miles without stopping. Do you think college money will help you push through that third mile? I will tell you from experience, the answer is most likely no.

In Army basic training your drill sergeants will be on you like white on rice for 10 weeks. After the second week, the college money won’t seem like much of a motivational factor.  Army training is difficult and you have to want to be there, not be doing it for some other reason. You have to want the training, you have to want the structure and you have to want the discipline.

SGT Michael Volkin is the author of The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook: Tips, Tricks, and Tactics for Boot Camp Survival

The Games Drill Sergeants Play

In my book, The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook (www.UltimateBasicTraining.com), I discuss many tactics drill sergeants use to exhaust a recruit mentally and physically. This is the final installment of a three part article that describes some of these common tactics and how to overcome such obstacles. The story below is true.

Finally, graduation day was tomorrow. The last task for us recruits was to thoroughly clean our gear.  This task shouldn’t be a problem since I am a clean person by nature and have been maintaining my gear throughout the entire basic training cycle.  The drill sergeants have good knowledge of who the “squared away” soldiers are and who needs the most help with their gear.  One night our drill sergeant called a meeting and had us bring all our gear. “Privates” he said sternly “Tomorrow you will turn in your gear, which has to be spotless.  If your gear is not spotless, you will not graduate”.  The drill sergeant then began to pair the recruits.  After the recruits were paired, the drill sergeant shouted “Ok Privates, switch gears with your partner”.  Oh no I thought, my partner is the messiest disorganized person I have ever seen.  Looking around the room, I noticed the drill sergeant intentionally paired up the squared away recruits with the recruits who were, let’s just say, less than perfect.  The drill sergeant continued “You must clean your partners gear to a spotless shine by tomorrow or you will not graduate”.  All this time I have been worried about my gear, for nothing. I had about 30 emotions running through my body ranging from utter disgust to fear of not being with everyone else at graduation day.  As I looked down at my now muddy sweat filled gear I realized that instead of spending the last couple months worried about myself, I should have been double checking my battle buddies gear too.

So, what is the lesson learned?  When you go through basic training, keep an eye out for yourself and your battle buddies.  Needless to say the recruit in this story did graduate with everyone else, but with much more work than anticipated.

Michael Volkin is the author of The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook. His book is available at www.UltimateBasicTraining.com and is available in paperback, e-book and audio-book format.  Get ready for the all new Ultimate Interactive Basic Training Workbook!

The Top 5 Secret Items to Bring with You to Basic Training

Before leaving for boot camp, you will be confused about what to bring with you and what to leave at home. In fact, recruits e-mail me asking this question more than any other. Therefore, I have assembled the top 5 items you don’t want to leave for basic training without.

Top 5 Secret Items to Bring with You to Basic Training:

5) Foot Powder
Your feet will be spending a lot of time in combat boots. During that time, they will be very susceptible to fungus, blisters and other uncomfortable foot problems. Using foot powder will reduce your chances of obtaining these symptoms. However, no matter how much foot powder you use, if you make it through basic training without getting a blister, I would be very surprised.

4) Cheap Watch
I have heard that some recruits aren’t allowed to wear watches and some are. I suppose the choice is up to your drill sergeant. In either case, be sure to bring an inexpensive plain black digital watch. A digital watch is always nice to have when you are running and they also make great personal alarm clocks. I find that waking up at 4:00 am on your own is a bit difficult. Of course you should also bring a watch that tells military time.

3) Combo Locks
In boot camp you are going to get a wall or foot locker. You need to always make sure that locker is secure because you are responsible for each item inside. Having a lock with a key is just another item to have to keep track of. Therefore, get a combo lock and remember if your not getting an item out of your locker, it should always be locked.

2) Phone Cards
Of course bringing phone cards to basic training is a necessity, but here is a little tip: test out the phone cards before you leave. The card where the operator talks the least is the one you need to buy (regardless of the cost). You will get a limited amount of time to talk on the phone; you don’t want to waste that time with an operator giving you instructions on how to dial a phone number.

1) Black Marker
If you could only bring one item to boot camp, this should be it. No, you don’t need a marker to draw mustaches on your fellow recruits when they sleep. You need a marker to initial and label everything you own. Having a marker with you will ensure that nothing you own accidentally turns up missing. You will also make a few friends because recruits who did not bring a marker with them will want to borrow yours. As I mention in my book several times, you can never have too many friends at basic training.

SGT Michael Volkin is the author of The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook: Tips, Tricks and Tactics for Surviving Boot Camp, available at www.UltimateBasicTraining.com

Think Fast- Stories from Iraq-What Would You Do

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[DON'T GO TO BASIC TRAINING IN THE US MILITARY UNPREPARED, BUY THE ULTIMATE BASIC TRAINING GUIDEBOOK AT UltimateBasicTraining.com]. “It will be the best $18 you ever spent!”

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The purpose of this article is for the people to understand the quick decisions that soldiers need to make on a daily basis.  These stories are true, but names and places have been changed to protect the identity of individuals.  A good exercise would be to discuss these stories with fellow soldiers, so you can brainstorm ideas and thoughts. Should you have a true story that required a quick decision, please send the story to the contact information at the end of this article.

Setting: Overseas mission in a combat zone.  This story was submitted by a sergeant carrying out duties as a military policeman (written in the first person).

I was working security at a front gate of a military base.  A civilian convoy working for military personnel was entering the base. These convoys frequently drive night and day, with minimal stops, to make it to their destination safely.  One of the trucks stopped at the front gate to ask one of my soldiers for water.  One of the MPs from another company who was leading the convoy the past few days was standing outside his parked vehicle a few feet from the gate.  He immediately recognized the trucker who was asking for water.  The MP stormed over to the driver’s side of the truck and began swearing at him.  The trucker, who understood some English, starting yelling back.  The MP was upset that the trucker was falling asleep at the wheel the past couple days.  Apparently, they got shot at a couple times in the night when the MPs had to stop the convoy and wake the trucker up.  The MP was not impressed that the trucker was yelling back. The trucker was equally upset saying that the MPs didn’t let them sleep for 2 days, that is why he kept falling asleep at the wheel. The MP, who has already lost all military bearing with his words, took his 9-millimeter pistol out of his holster, cocked it back, and pointed it in the truckers face.  At this point, me and my fellow soldiers didn’t want to touch the MP, if we tried to touch him, the trigger might have been pulled and we would have had a bloody mess.  We tried yelling at the MP, but he was solely focus on the trucker, incoherent to the people around him.  The trucker remained in his truck and continued to yell at the MP, not making any forward advances or threats. 

If you were the sergeant in charge, what would you do to dissolve this situation?

Situation #2: Southern Iraq, October 2003

It was about 1630 and I was manning a checkpoint about 10 miles outside our base. I had one other soldier with me, who has been studying the Arabic language for several months out of a couple books he purchased.  A civilian truck comes down the off ramp by our checkpoint and pulls off to the side of the road. Two guys get out, we cautiously approach, and they frantically shake our hands. We could tell something was wrong, they were very jittery and their eyes were bugging out of their heads.  They didn’t speak a word of English.  They started yelling “Ali Baba, Ali Baba!” and made a gun signal with their hand. Ali Baba is a common term used by Middle Eastern civilians.  The term comes from a folktale called Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.  In short, Ali Baba means “a bad man”.  Through his novice understanding of the Arabic language, my battle buddy managed to get out of them that two vehicles, a white Chevy Caprice and a gray Mercedes, tried to run them off the road and fired a gun at them.  One of the men was bleeding on the arm and needed medical attention.  I called headquarters on the singar radio and requested immediate medical support. 

The shooter is still on the highway between our checkpoints.  They have two exits; one exit is through our other manned checkpoint and the other exit leads away from town.  Besides my partner, and myself I had four other personnel at my disposal (2 teams of 2 personnel) and two vehicles. One of the teams was guarding the checkpoint and the other team was roving the highway.

What would you do? Would you consolidate your roving vehicle to double up your personnel at one of the checkpoints? If so, which one? Or, would you keep that roving element on the highway to search for the shooter by themselves?

Discuss these situations in the forum, I bet you will be surprised at some of the answers.

SGT Michael Volkin is the author of The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook, available in both paperback and e-book format at www.ultimatebasictrainingguidebook.com.

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