Fresh from bootcamp!
 

Hey guys! I graduated bootcamp May 29th and I've been at A-School for a week. If anyone has any questions they'd like answered about bootcamp I'd love to give some out since I'm recently out of bootcamp and have some fresh info! Congrats to anyone who has made the choice to join, it's one you won't regret!! :)

How was it with P-week and M.O.T.

What ship were you in?
Where you one of the divisions with the tablets?

How often did you guys run?

How many calls home did you get?

Did anyone from your division win one of the special leadership awards?

How much time after graduation did you have for liberty?

What was all on the DEP Advancement PQS test?

Of course P-Days sucked majorly, but luckily I was in the last division in my training group so I didn't have a week of P-Hold. I graduated in 7-2 day. I was in ship 12, the USS Triton. We weren't a tablet division but there is a girl here at A-School with me that was and she didn't like them. She said they were taken up at night and they didn't get to email their families like they thought they would. They also were broken a lot. I was on ship staff, so sadly I missed a TON of PT. I was so upset about it but we didn't run or even PT a lot. I was disappointed in the lack of PT we did. I benefitted more from ITE and getting dropped than I did with PT. We got three "scheduled" phone calls (initial arrival, half way through and the "I'm a sailor" phone call) but we had three extra ones that they just let us have for good behavior. One girl won an award but I can't remember what for? There were quite a few awards. I had about 6 hours with my family after graduation then they hung out with me at the airport before I left for San Antonio. I wished it was more time but hopefully they'll come out here to visit. ALL the tests were easy IF you STUDY. STUDY STUDY STUDY is the key. Study in line for chow, study when you're standing around, study when you're sitting around just STUDY and you'll be fine. We were a push division so everything was smashed together and we did it so quickly that we didn't have a lot of down time. So studying was kind of difficult but if my division could do it anyone can! Anymore questions? :)

Oh! Also on the DEP test there was rank/recognition, chain of command, (struggling to remember cause P-Days were a blur) mostly collar devices and stuff to that sort. Sorry I can't be more of help on the matter. I honestly can't remember! Lol

Moment of truth is the best part of bootcamp, they put on a real show. I would love to go sit in on another Moment of Truth. A ton of people stand up, a ton....

Is the female hair program still going on?

Are they still doing the whole, "Where your NWUs with sneakers" still? A few divisions behind me when I was there had to do it

I'm just wondering how much yelling there is in boot camp. The welcome to boot camp videos and what not and there's no yelling, and I assume there has to be some.

Depends on the RDCs. My 3rd RDC yelled a ton. He also got screwed over by hid COC when he got assigned to us. So needless to say he was a little salty

How many recruits were dropped from your Division? What are some of the reasons they may be dropped?

It depends! My 1st RDC pushed 800 divisions previously and he was super tough, my 2nd RDC was just crazy lol so yes. A lot of yelling.

My division dropped 8. Most were medical or PFA/Swimbut one was she popped on a drug test and another lied about depression to be sent home. My brother div ASMO'd 20, though. Their RDCs would find any reason to ASMO people out. Especially the people that were on the "ice cream social" list.

YEP. 2 training groups behind me is a "trial group" where they wear tennis shoes one week, boots next and they just rotate it. Supposedly helps with shin splints? I don't know it's BS. Lol but of course people with medical problems wear tennis shoes but my division did not wear tennis shoes with our NWUs!

Female hair program is still going! I could keep my hair long but a lot of females still opt to get their haircut anyways. Some had problems keeping it in regs so I suggest practicing if you want to have long hair in bootcamp.

Disclaimer, though. With long hair, washing your hair everyday is pretty much impossible. I literally only had time to wash/condition my hair every few days. Sometimes I would only be able to do it on a Sunday. gross, I know but seriously. Never had time.

YEP! Tons stand up. Some never come back. DO NOT stand up. They will guilt you into it, they will tell you they know stuff on you and you're so tired you'll believe it. They honestly had me believing they knew stuff about me and I didn't even do anything! You're just so tired by that point they start messing with your emotions and so a lot of people think it's better if they stand up but no. No it's not.

Yeah they started doing that several divisions behind me last year. I guess it's still in trial if every division isn't doing it yet. I personally think it looks ridiculous.

It's stupid. They look so tacky and literally everyone looks like they're LLD or something. 😂

I was in an accident during my dep. Chipped my spine and gave me a concussion. Was in bed for weeks. I healed up just fine and went and got my screening from my doctor and asked her if she thought this would be a problem for my navy career. She said no. So I asked her to annotate that in her computer and have her print it out so I could bring it to my recruiters. They didn't want to deal with the paperwork. So the Navy didn't know about it. Got to the moment of truth and got guilt tripped into it. I thought I was going home.

But what they did was give me the option to file a report. They send you to medical and get out on LLD till you can have an appointment with an actual doctor. Which doesn't really matter anyways if you are LLD. No one does any physical activity during the first week. I went to my appointment a couple days later. And the doctor pulled up the exact document I had my doctor back home fill out. So yes they have access to your stuff. Do they look at every recruit that passes through. Probably not.

But after the doctor saw the note my previous doctor wrote down, he cleared me and put me back on for for full duty and sent me back to my division. Haven't heard anything of it since. I'm glad I did it. I have had screenings where they brought up stuff I truly didn't know about. Wasn't a big deal but if they saw something that was recent that I didn't release. I could have gotten in trouble.

So have some integrity and do the right thing.

Was boot boring? How would you describe it in one sentence.

As easy as putting your pants on. Honestly, its harder to build a Lego creation than it is to pass boot. Just listen to what instructors/RDCs/facilitators say, follow the instructions, do everything like it actually matters to you, and just shut your mouth and it will be as painless as humanly possible. You think I'm kidding about the shut part? Haha...even being in an all male division felt like being around a bunch of gossiping teenage girls 24/7...it got us in hot water a lot. Lol

To be honest, if you're going to lie to begin with don't get there and start wanting to tell the truth. You should've just done it all to begin with lol but it's whatever you want and what you feel is best/right for you I suppose.

It was super easy. The only difficult part was being away from my family, honestly. It was a little tough mentally I suppose because I just don't do well with lack of sleep and stuff but I made it just fine. Just keep your mouth shut, do what is asked of you and you'll be fine. PT was stupid easy, and I was really disappointed. Push yourself as hard as you can every PT though because a lot of people didn't pass. If you can't swim, start practicing now because that was another big thing. Just follow directions, study, and be smart. Don't say stupid things and HAVE MILITARY BEARING AT ALL TIMES. Jesus. Please have military bearing.

I don't have much of a sentence but I would have to say bootcamp was juuuuuust an experience. Lol it's hard to sum it up into just one sentence because bootcamp is so many different things all at once.

I'm very curious, but if you're told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it,yet you aren't sure about one teeny-tiny detail or have forgotten it, would it hurt if you asked them to repeat again so that you can clarify and then do it right the first time perfectly?
I guess that's my perfectionism type-A personality kicking in that I'd need to let loose.

There's nothing wrong with getting stuff clarified. You may get some shit, but they will answer your question. The problem though is who to ask for clarification. You may think it would be best to ask your RDCs. But once you ask Them for help, they may just say ask one of the other recruits for help first. but when you go ask another recruit for help but they don't really know what they are doing and tell you the wrong thing, your RDCs will tell you how wrong you are and to never trust a recruit. So you just have to know who to ask. It gets confusing some times lol.

Also you run into the really fun problem of different RDCs wanting you to do a certain thing different ways and you can never please anyone. Tons of fun. :):):):)

"With respect, Chief, but Petty Officer said it needs to be like this!" "Well...do this instead" *mutters to self "that's not what the red book says, though..." grumble grumble*

Yeeeeeah. That happens haha

"What's your 12th general order?!?!"

"Chief is always right!!!!"

In our divisions case, pretty much anything petty officer said went. Our chief was like "oh, petty officer said it? Okay. Then that's what you do." Lol it was confusing sometimes since chief is supposed to be all knowing and always right lol

Ugh. I'm half itching to go, half itching to never go and grow up lol.

Lol I loved it when RDCs were wrong sometimes. Especially when they get caught on it.

I thought it was "Walk my post from flank to flank and take no s*** from any rank"? Haha...

But yeah...those conversations usually would just end in 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,7,8,7,8,7,8,7.......8,9,10 :clubhead: Note to all Future Sailors....always agree with Chief, even when you know he's as far out in left field as you can get! Makes life much more bearable haha

0, I got the feeling that everyone was forced to graduate. Don't worry about this stuff, you won't get dropped unless you do something stupid like stand up during the moment of truth.

Insanely boring, I would recommend getting crossword puzzles and sudokus mailed to you, just don't let the rdc's see them...

Wow your RDCs were forgiving. We ASMOed/Sepped around 20+

Tons in brother div got ASMO'd. They were ASMO'ing left and right. Our RDCs found WAY too much joy in ASMO days.

800 Div so 100% swim and pfa pass, I think the only way you can get ASMO is if you fail swim or pfa. Someone in my division got 4 hardcard entries and he didn't even get asmo

You can get ASMO'd for stupid reasons if the RDCs don't see potential in you. We ASMO'd a guy back 2 weeks because he hid from a collar-device beat down lol

Can you tell me what brand of shoes you are issued? I would like to get my son a pair before he leaves so he can get used to them, I know he won't wear his but at least he will know the shoes ahead of time... He usually only wear his high tops so I want him to wear running shoes for the next 2 weeks, he ships out June 25th:willynilly:

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.