Yep, they get 2 phone calls home I am told.
Still the toughest Boot Camp of all though!
Uh Rah!
TPG, check your PM's.
Back on topic, when are they getting AC put in the barracks?
Yep, they get 2 phone calls home I am told.
Still the toughest Boot Camp of all though!
Why the AC? Uhmmm, because it's the 21st Century?
I bet wiring the barracks for electricity and not having to trudge out to the outdoor latrines caused some heartburn amongts old grads, too.
Times change and technology sometimes mandates new ways; very often for the better.
You mean to tell me you didn't aks yourself 'why the hell don't they put AC in here' when you were a cadet?
No, I was pretty sure WHY they didn't do it.
Why the AC? Uhmmm, because it's the 21st Century?
I bet wiring the barracks for electricity and not having to trudge out to the outdoor latrines caused some heartburn amongts old grads, too.
Times change and technology sometimes mandates new ways; very often for the better.
You mean to tell me you didn't aks yourself 'why the hell don't they put AC in here' when you were a cadet?
Yes they do....
I didn't! I was still in the old Wooden Barracks in 76. We had two hatches with windows all around. They would get nasty Hot in the summer. But they were building the "New" brick barracks then and we were told that they would have A/C.....
I am Guessing that you were in the "new" Brick Barracks by 79 so yea, you too had A/C in your barracks. Now that does not mean that they were working or that they were turned on. Most Di's never turned them on. They used the two Fans instead. They wished to keep their recruits "acclimatized?
I know when I was a DI in the Mid 80's, those barracks would be 85-90 in mid june with A/C running.
2nd BN Casual was still in the old wooden Barracks as late as 93'. I have no idea if they are still in use today as some form of Barracks. They no longer make recruits wash their cammies out in those wash sinks instead they all get boiled in the base facility. Things have changed…..
About time they did something about the AC.....I was in the sixth floor of Ike Barracks during beast...although I don't remember not being able to sleep at night due to the heat.
The kids are frying this week...Hot and humid...
Yeah, good thing there's AC ready to be installed. We wouldn't want them to get accustomed to discomfort and hardship. Those are conditions they'll never encounter in a military career, so there's no need that they should suffer the brutality of sleeping in a non-air conditioned room.
No more boot shining, no ironing uniforms, no 2-qts...goodness things change.
I see your point on the AC, Scout. Though I do remember when visiting both a DIVARTY HQ and a Combat Aviation Brigade HQ during Desert Shield - being struck by the fact that they had somehow managed to AC their TOCs. Guess the computers and radios needed the climate control. I know we sure as heck didn't have it out on tap-line road. And I remember being very willing to go visit these bastions of cool whenever duty demanded it.
They still have to polish their low quarters, don't they? (That is intended as a legitimate, not a sarcastic question)
I don't understand the animous i've seen in several postings towards the camel backs versus canteens. They still have the canteen and cup as part of their TA-50 (which I do agree, having laid out for them was weak), as evidenced by what they are seen carrying to the July 3rd concert photos. I think the camel backs are great, and I'd have loved having them if they'd existed during my basic training. They also present an excellent training opportunity. Ever try 'properly' cleaning those things? Swabbing out the hose, properly cleaning and drying the bladder, etc. is a great substitute for some of the detail oriented jobs that the 'Corps has' done away with.
It's the same reason we deleted an entire uniform class. .
I saw the new Army Service Uniform while I was commuting to work the other day. Awful. I mean, just an absolutely hideous uniform. There are a ton of private security guards that work in DC, and for a minute, I mistook an Army LTC I saw at the Metro station for a rent-a-cop. I bet you guys stick to the ACUs whenever possible. I was AF, and am by no means a fan of our Blues or Service Dress Uniform (which looks like something an airline employee would wear), but this new Army uniform might be the new ugliest uniform in all of the Armed Forces.
Hardly. It's a slight adaptation of the Army Blues which have been around forever. You guys still take the cake in your Russian suits...I mean service dress.
You'll get no argument from me on the attractiveness of the Air Force's uniforms. I stuck to my Space and Missile Crew Uniform ("Blue Bag") and, when that was retired from service, my flight suit. It was a bad day if I had to sport the Service Dress.
VMI has something similar to "The Corps has." Every class, in an effort to show how much harder it was for them, likes to throw out "back in the Old Corps.." to the new crop of Rats.
Some examples from my time:
I graduated in 1999, and we were just getting internet access in Barracks at the end of my senior year. Also, if you wanted to make a telephone call, you had to trot down to a room underneath the Barracks where there was a group of pay phones. I'm not sure a cadet at VMI today has ever used a pay phone at any time in his or her life, and the concept of a "computer lab" is probably foreign to them. Back in the Old Corps...
scout I love you man but, you can't seriously believe this stuff...right?
Back in c. 1980, we had K-Rats from WWII and a single canteen! Oh and no such thing as a "Black Flag" day either...!!!!
I'm happy the military is responding to the "new improvements" thank goodness!
Plus...this is the Army (and my son is in it) and not USMC Boot Camp, which we've all agreed a few posts before...is always harder J/K!!!!
Don't care if you love me or not. I says what I mean and I mean what I says.
There are many time-honored traditions in the military that have gone y the wayside because some jerk-off in a high place needed to leave his mark.
In 1980 you had that stuff...and did you survive? Yup. Was anything better you got after that a luxury in your mind? People adapt to what they're given. If they're given nothing, they learn to succeed with nothing. If they're given luxuries, they come to expect them.
We see it every day in the military. 2LTs *****ing because their computer at work is slow. Even just 6 years ago, LTs didn't even get computers. That was the CG's policy. He didn't want LTs behind desks. But now, they come right to a unit and ***** about how fast their computer isn't.
Remember when people used to practice marksmanship with iron sights? Now, soldiers think a weapon is worthless without an Eotech or an ACOG on it.
You can always start out hard and then make things easier on a soldier. It's nearly impossible to start out easy and become hard.
Somehow, West Point has turned out amazing leaders for 208 years without AC. Last I checked, it hasn't moved, so I bet Eisenhower and Petraeus slept in a hot room once or twice. Somehow they lived. Fancy that.
So when you ask, "do I believe this stuff" the answer is YES. Just like you learned at Parris Island (try to let the mention of the name pass without a story or three ), hardship makes hard men (and women). That's a truth that has endured for centuries. Do I think our military will be ruined? No, but I do wonder where it will stop. Someday, somebody is going to say "why ruck march? We'll never be without trucks." Or maybe even "why do a Crucible? That's not realistic anymore."
It sounds crazy, I know. But so does the idea of laying out TA-50 for new cadets.
All you young people!
Back in 76’ we carried one canteen when they let us; wore green sateen uniforms with the shirts tucked in; we carried a bed roll on an old M1944 “Load Carrying Equipment”; oh and we wore real steel pots on our grapes! Black flags…..never heard of that either!