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TRAINING: YOUR FIRST STEP. When a soldier enters the Army, he wants to know “ W hat comes next!” Individual training is the answer. This will tell him what he can expect in that training. THIS IS THE ARMY
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TRAINING: YOUR FIRST STEP When a soldier enters the Army, he wants to know “What comes next!” Individual training is the answer. This will tell him what he can expect in that training.
THIS IS THE ARMY The first days of your Army life at the Reception Center are filled with new and varied experiences. They are important days and pass rapidly. Just follow all instructions for the best of your ability. Although you will not understand all about the Army at first, you will learn more and a lot more as time goes on. Above all, do your best and retain your sense of humor.
Some of you have worked for companies which filled out certain records about you before you actually started a job. Army does this too. It is called “processing” and is necessary before you begin the real job of training to be a soldier. At the Reception Center, the Army learns a lot about you from physical exams, written tests, and interviews. These help the Army decide what you can do best in the Service. Although the Army will consider what you like to do, it will use you where you are needed most. Wherever you are assigned, the Army is always concerned with your welfare as an individual. But now you want to know: “What comes next? Where do I go from here? What will I do?”
Regardless of where you go later, and what your job in the Army will be, your schedule for the next few weeks if fairly definite. When you leave the Reception Center, you will begin individual training. This includes basic and advanced individual training. You will receive your basic training at a training center. After basic training, you may be assigned to advanced infantry training or some other form of combat training: you may be given on-the-job training. However, you must take basic combat training, which is fundamental to any job you do in the Army. It is the beginning of a period of intensive training to make you fit for combat. We want you to enter this first training phase with an idea of what is in store for you. The training is tough—but you can do it. Remember, millions of men before you have made the grade.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITES AS A SOLDIER When you serve as an American soldier, you are performing a duty for your country. This is a privilege: be proud that you have the necessary physical, mental and moral qualifications. Soldiering requires skills; like and skilled job. It is not easy. The standards are high but attainable. They must be high because your life and the welfare of your country may depend on just how good a soldier you are. The training you receive will make you a good soldier. Your cooperation will make the job much easier.
A TYPICAL DAY Each day of your training brings some new challenge and experiences. We cannot predict what you will be doing every minute of every day, but your activities will follow a pattern. This orderliness has become so standard that we talk about “a typical day” without fear of misleading you. Before talking about what you will do—and where—you might be interested in how the Army keeps time. This may be your first experience with the 24-hour system used in the Army, even though a similar system has been used in Europe for many years. It is really quite simple—the first 12 hours of the day are counted the same as you counted them in civilian life—0100--(zero one hundred hours) is 1:00am and so on up to 12:00 or noon. However, instead of starting over again with 1:00 in the afternoon the Army continues to count the hours following 12:00 with 13:00 (the 13th hour of the day) thus 16:00 is the 14th hour of the day or 2 pm, in the same manner, 17:00 is 5 pm and 24:00 is midnight.
Army life is orderly, although it may not seem so at first. When a person begins a new work time, such as the first days at a new school, there is a period of uncertainty. In the Army, as in school this uncertainty soon passes and people develop a fairly smooth pattern of doing things. ALTHOUGH THE ARMY WILL CONSIDER WHAT YOU LIKE TO DO…IT WILL USE YOU WHERE YOU ARE NEEDED MOST//…
REVEILLE Reveille is your first formation each morning. At most training centers you are awakened by first call about 0530. This gives you time to dress and assemble for reveille about 0600 at which a roll is taken. You have time to shower, shave, make your bed, and clean up around your barracks. You also have time to eat a hearty breakfast; the Army believes this is the best way to start the day. The training day usually begins about 0730 and ends about 1700. This training includes marching, shooting, and other fundamentals of soldiering. Of course there are exceptions to this schedule. For example, training in night firing or night patrolling take place after normal duty hours; sometimes revile is held early so that there is time to travel to a training area before the training day begins.
HOW YOU WILL LIVE Your few days at the Reception Center have gives you some idea of the facilities at an army post or camp. Here you have seen typical US Army barracks—buildings in which troops are quartered. During training on an Army post you probably will live in one of several barracks along a company street. Within the barracks you live with other members of your unit—soldiers sharing the same life as you. You have your own bed and locker facilities and it’s up to you to keep them clean and orderly.
On most days, a retreat formation(at which the National flag is lowered) or a parade signals the end of scheduled training activities . Then comes mail call and supper. There may be morning mail call at some post. Although formal training normally ends with retreat, the evenings are busy times too, you should review what you learned during the day and prepare for the next day: rifles require care, as do clothes and shoes. Although such activities limit your free time during basic training there is time to relax and write letters. We urge you to write home. All soldiers like to get mail, but sometimes it takes a letter to get a letter. Taps (lights out) sounds about 2200. By this time, you should welcome a good nights rest.
Near your barracks are a parade ground or drill fields . Farther away from the barracks are rifle ranges. And of course there are large training areas where you learn how a soldier lives and operates during combat. You should find your post well arranged for you to learn to be a soldier.
You share all other facilities with your fellow soldiers , so you must do your share and maintaining them. Actually an Army post is a small community. There is a chapel (time is set aside for church services), post office, post exchange, (the soldiers store), laundry, and dry cleaning plants, hospital, movie theater, library, service clubs, and athletic facilities.
…YOU’LL LEARN HOW A SOLDIER LIVES AND OPERATES DURING COMBAT…
OBJECTIVES OF BASIC TRAINING The over-all objective of the individual training program is to give you the foundation in becoming a good soldier. Generally, your instruction is designed to help you to: 1. Adjust yourself to Army life and Army discipline. 2. Learn to live with, work with, and understand your fellow soldiers. 3. Understand why you are learning to fight. 4, Develop a sense of individual responsibility. 5, Understand the fundamental moral principles and be obligations of a soldier-in other words, learn the rules
LEARNING HOW TO SHOOT AND CARE FOR YOUR RIFLE OR OTHER WEAPONS.
LEARNING HOW TO RECOGNIZE AND REPORT INFORMATION ABOUT THE ENEMY AND TERRAIN.
LEARNING HOW TO WORK WITH YOUR SQUAD. All of your training is pointed toward reaching these objectives. When you master this you are well on your way to becoming a qualifies soldier.
THIS IS INDIVIDUAL TRAINING There is an old saying that “You must learn to walk before you learn to run” This statement is particularly appropriate with respect to individual training. When you have learned what is taught in individual training you have learned to “walk” , you have learned the fundamentals. Some of you may be wondering about an opportunity to specialize in the Army. You may want to train for a military job like the one held in civilian life, or one that fits in with your civilian schooling. There is opportunity to specialize in the Army, but first the Army trains you to be a soldier. The time for specializing comes later. To see the necessity for this, you need only consider the sad tale of PFC John Singletrack. John entered the Army in 1965. He was smart and knew all about radios. He went through his training impatiently ; he learned enough to pass the tests, but failed to do his best. He seemed to be able to think only about radios. Later in his service, John was less impatient when he became the proud operator of a type radio used by infantry units.
Eventually the radio—and John—moved with an infantry company to Vietnam. John’s turn came to go on patrol. John’s radio was in fine working condition for the patrol, but the radios operator was not equally prepared. He had never believed patrolling to be important to a radio operator. Result: He became separated from the rest of the patrol and was captured. John was a complete failure as a radio operator because he had not learned to be a soldier first. The point of this story is clear. During individual training, you have a chance to learn what John was too impatient to learn. If he had taken his training seriously he might have become one of the Army’s best solders-specialist and been of some real value to his country. Instead, John had his mind on being a specialist without taking time to learn the fundamentals of soldering. He failed to make the grade, because he lacked the proper foundation, He wore the uniform, but was not a complete solder. Learning to soldier, like learning anything, is continuous, Learning precedes in an orderly sequence from the basic to the complex. The soldier, like a carpenter or bricklayer, must learn the tools of his trade before de can work at his trade. If you go into battle without knowing your tools, the odds are against you. Never make the mistake of attempting to learn in combat what you should have learned in basic training.
IT’S GOING TO BE TOUGH World War II, Korea, and the Vietnam fighting prove that soldiers must be tough—not tough in the rowdy sense of the word, but physically and mentally strong. Battle-tested techniques determine the type and pace of the training you are about to receive. The subject matter and the way your training is conducted have been developed during many wars. The program has been forged on the anvil of experience—experience is training troops and experience is successful combat. Stated in simplest terms, the emphasis of this training is HOW TO SURVIVE ON THE BATTLEFIELD WHILE PERFORMING YOUR MISSION. The next few weeks are not going to be soft. For some of you, this period will be the most rugged of your military career. Some veterans even claim that hard training of the type you will receive, can be as tough as combat itself.
The normal physical activity of everyday training is going to make you stiff and sore. Long marches, supervised athletics, and combat courses contribute to this condition. But you soon get used to this rugged life, and the soreness wears off. The instruction is as interesting as we know how to make it. Pretty soon, the sheer accomplishment of learning how to soldier brings a satisfaction far outweighing the difficulty of getting into the swing of things. Individual training is something like making the football team. During the first few days of training, you duck walk up and down the field until you think you are going to fall apart. Every movement is painful. After a week or so, you find yourself no longer physically sore and then begin to enjoy playing the game. Individual training is going to get in shape. Train hard and diligently and you can carry the ball when the time comes.
TRAINING IS STREAMLINED Life in a training center is not only rugged—it moves at a fast pace. There is a reason for speed, of course. There is just so much time to achieve the objective of the training program. The program has been crammed into a few weeks without slighting the essentials. These are no “nonessential” subjects. This coordinal program is shorter than formal basic training programs. Improved teaching methods permit individuals to learn faster. Some subjects formerly taught in separate classes are also presented along with other instructions. For example: Map reading may be taught during field marches as well as in classroom lectures. You may be taught how to take cover and dig foxholes as part of other training—not as separate subjects. INDIVIDUAL TRAINING
Although the whole process has been accelerated, you will get plenty of individual attention. Just as this training is fundamental to what is to come later, so the individual must be qualified before we can place him in a team. You may feel that some particular part of your instruction is giving you trouble. You must apply yourself even more than usual to get over such rough spots. If you need extra help, ask for it. That is where part of the individual attention comes in.
YOUR INSTRUCTORS The most skillfully and smoothly coordinated training program is even more valuable when carried out by experienced leaders and instructors. The officers and drill sergeants who lead you through this training period know their jobs. These combat-experienced men have been hand-picked as your instructors . They deserve your confidence and attention. Their records prove they have mastered the lessons they will teach you.
Instructors are also advisers The experience of these leaders is valuable even off the training field. A soldiers work seldom ends with retreat. Neither does the work of your officers and drill sergeants. They are always ready to give advice and guidance. Their experience increases the value of the advice they give you. Most of your problems can be solved during instruction time. However, if you feel you need help or advice during off duty hours, ask the drill sergeant . This requires some judgment on your part. Use your leaders experience in searching for the “right answer,” but never Burdon him unnecessarily. He is much busier than you are. Regarding personal problems, you either have had or will be having a discussion period on “Adjustment to Military Life” At that time you will learn more about how the Army can help you solve your personal problems. Just remember that the Army is always interested in your personal welfare.
