The first 6 weeks of boot camp are the hardest. The 1st Sergeant yells, screams and harasses you from sunup to sundown. Their job is to break down any individual to become part of a team.
In the mess hall, where you eat, the 1st Sergeant would run in after 20 minutes and yell, “anyone in this mess hall in five minutes goes on mess duty.” Well, you would run out with food still in your mouth.
The Sergeant would yell when you are in the barracks, “everyone out under the building with your raincoats on in 2 minutes.” The next thing you know, you’re in the damp ground under the barracks slithering in your raincoat on the wet ground. The Sergeant would bend down and yell at us to crawl the other way. You guessed when you got to the other side, he would yell to go the other way. I think we ran over some guys and left them to this day buried under the barracks.
I’m sure the cadets (that’s what they called the animals who worked in charge of our life for eight long weeks of Hell) must have laughed at us poor scared city kids the first time away from home.
You never made eye contact with these guys as they would say, “Who are you eyeballing? Do I look pretty? Are you a fairy?” They couldn’t touch you, but the look in their eyes was that they could rip your head off and stick it down your throat.
We lived in fear every day, but it made you a better person. If you lived through it.