New balance shoes. Don't know the specific brand.

He will be issued New Balance tennis shoes. He will wear those for a few days during P-days with his sweats. After that he will be issued Bates steel toed boots. (At least I think they're still issuing Bates. They might have switched companies). After he is issued his boots, he will only wear his tennis shoes for PT. Most people tend to struggle with the boots. They are either too scared to say that they're too big/small or they just aren't used to wearing boots. Considering they're going to be new boots, he's more than likely going to get blisters no matter what. Thankfully medical issues every recruit a small bag containing Moleskin. It's like a bandage for the blisters.

196! Ship 12.

New Balance! (Worst shoes ever) you step onto a thing that looks at the arch and stuff of your feet and they'll give you shoes best fit to that arch but seriously worst shoes ever. The boots are bates. Just make sure he understands that when you get fitted for boots MAKE SURE THEY FIT or you will be miserable. I made sure mine fitted and I tied them tightly and I never had blisters. Granted my feet were sore from trying to break my boots in but I was good. He'll rarely ever wear tennis shoes, honestly. p-Days then for PT, if he's LLD and if he's in that training group that makes you wear them a week on them off. (I'm not sure of that) but hopefully he won't have to wear tennis shoes a whole awful lot because that's just awful! Haha

Question I know they issue New Balance shoes in boot, but what model/color combo?

The cheapest ones possible lol

Built by the lowest bidder... and delivered 5 years late and 3 million over budget.

We had guys that had their tennis shoes falling apart during PT in basic lol I somehow managed to lose a chunk of mine from the bottom.

The white shoes worn by khakis are notorious for having the sole come off

They are actually decent New Balance running shoes (decent for what New Balance makes).

I still have mine from boot and they are New Balance 880 v4 (White, blue, and orange) running shoes,would cost $90 - $100 if you were to buy them in a store.

My New Balance shoes were falling apart by the time I made it to A-School. I had to have my mom send mine to me so if have good shoes to PT in at A-School lol

Ahaha I can't say I'm surprised


I still have and use mine and I've been out for awhile. Mostly because I'm too cheap to buy new ones! :rofl:
They REALLY need to be replaced soon though. I swear they're not made to last long

I want to volunteer for something at boot. Is this a good idea? If it is what are some good jobs to volunteer for

I didn't volunteer for anything... I wanted to fly under the radar, honestly. But with that being said EVERYONE that didn't have a job in our division (there were only 10 of us that didn't have some job whether it was RCPO or empty rack PO lol) we got put on Ship Staff. I LOVED ship staff. I met so many awesome people and made the best friends I've ever had while on it. So, I'd suggest volunteering for ship staff. But divisional wise, good jobs in my opinion are ones like the Mail PO or Laundry PO. They aren't super hard jobs and our Laundry PO even got promoted at the end of bootcamp cause she did such a good job all the time lol but yeah. If you wanna go for the big jobs like RCPO, AROC or MA go for it, but let's just say they literally get their butts handed to them everyday because of other people's mistakes.

Whats the best position to volunteer for, with the least chance of getting kicked out through fault that is not your own, that gets promoted alot to E3? I was thinking star or port watch?

This here... that's what I wanna do: fly under the radar.
How do I make myself not stand out? I don't want to volunteer, but I'm so scared that I'll be volunTOLD because of my short height of 5'3"... I'm already an E3 and would rather have someone else get a chance to be promoted.

Just don't mess up or stand out lol but with your height, you might be given a marching job, like stick. Sticks are at the front that carry flags.

It's not about the job, it's about how well you do the job. I was part of the head crew for a couple weeks. RDC thought I could do better so gave me this other random job called the table PO (making sure all the racks were perfectly aligned and tables also). I was given Education PO. And then given the option to be athletic PO. And none of those were me being fired, it was my third RDC saying hey, I think your skill sets would be better suited for this job. So I ended up with two jobs. And I was always making sure they were being completed.

I have you beat with the height, I'll certainly stand out at the wee height of 5'0. I'm already an E-3 as well (yay!) so someone else getting promoted makes more sense; I originally wanted to volunteer too but have heard mixed stories about it such as don't let them know you play an instrument/sing...I am guessing it is over all more personal choice...my main thing is making sure I pass the swim testl I can tread water like anthing, and I can swim to some degree but I am by NO means an swim team champ...

I anticipated that so. Good thing I've been watching guidon videos and practicing guidon movements! I guess my only hope is to have someone shorter than me or look smarter than me ha!

haha yup!
I was told to volunteer for positions from recruiters, but hell no I ain't so! I play a violin too, but there's no way I'm going to learn a new brass, woodwind, or percussion instrument. And no thanks 900 div, triple threat, flags, etc... unless I was again, voluntold to do so :(

Lol I'm 6'1. I'm coming in as an E-1 so I would like ok job for a chance to be promoted. And do you choose if you get top or bottom bunk.

I was told that we either are told to choose or assigned one randomly. If given a choice, I'd sleep away from the red light or any light lol

There were certain racks assigned to certain jobs. Everyone else got to pick their racks though. But different RDCs might do things differently so you never know.

IF I can chose I think i'm going to chose laundry PO and be outstanding to hopefully get E3.

Laundry PO. Literally they never got in trouble and our Laundry PO got promoted, too. They never got in trouble cause they'd always blame the screw ups on us and the RDCs were like "yeah. You're right. It is their fault. Let me go whoop that a**, then." They had it made. Lol and on the Guidon thing, they aren't always short, tbh. I've saw super tall guidons and super short ones. Even though short is normally preferred, it's up to your RDCs.

Also, our racks were assigned. Which I'm okay with cause it put me in a rack with someon who turned out to be my bestfriend in the whole world, cliche I know but still haha BUT if you wanna fly under the radar somewhat I suggest no jobs like RCPO, AROC, MA or Yeoman positions. Our RDCs were also super tough on our sticks so it's whatever you decide you wanna deal with when you get to bootcamp. But like I said above, I LOVED ship staff. I would suggest doing it to anyone.

Our laundry room got us two department hits. But guess who got blamed, not the laundry PO, but the starboard watch for putting the laundry PO on watch making it where the Laundry PO couldn't do his job.

Thanks FS31! I love Reading your experiences. Please share anything else that you have! Like how to deal with miscommunication issues among RDCs and their orders to recruits versus what the other RDCs wanted lol

Id like to see if there are any females that can explain how boot is with us having our "cycles" and stuff. Im TERRIFIED that Ill be dealing with it and have to do swim qual LoL

Everyone's an adult there. If you need to use the bathroom, you ask and will be allowed to do so.
You'll have access to the necessary hygiene products too. Most divisions buy a supply at the start and all share it as necessary.

Thank you Guppy :) Good to know

Haha RDCs are never on the same page. They all tell you to do something different...

But I had 3 PO1's as RDCs so no one was really in charge. It was just like "do it like this" "No do it like this" and on and on.Some divisions have a Senior Chief or a Chief as an RDC, I'm not sure if that's a great use of Navy resources, but maybe they have to many Senior Chiefs or something. But in that case listen to Chief or Senior Chief.

"General order number 12, Chief is ALWAYS right."
"General order number 13, in the event that chief isn't present, petty officer is always right."
Hahaha our div lived by those. Also we got asked them 24/7 lol.

In the event of your "cycle" you will be allowed to go properly take care of your issues. Like Guppy said, we're adults. They do control most things we do but they will not stop you from using the bathroom. Also, females are allowed 4 feminine hygiene products in their backpacks at any time. Your yeomans will also have some if you don't have any on you. At one point we ran out of feminine hygiene products and our 3rd RDC so kindly purchased some and restocked our supply. So, you'll be good. They will take care of you at bootcamp so don't worry. :) anymore questions?

I know the thread is a month old - but I figured I'd reply anyways. My wife went to bootcamp in 2008 and was worried about the same thing. Apparently a lot of the females don't actually get their periods in bootcamp ( at least in her division ) presumably because of the physical/mental stress and whatnot.

This is so very true.. I was in an all male Div and we had a female RDC who used to always say we were like a bunch of hens in a hen house... It was more drama than i ever thought a group of males could have.. If you just do what you need to do youll pass and have no problems.. I was a knuckle head so the equator and I knew eachother very well

What do they do on the medical and dental screening? Also,how deep is the pool?