How to Be a Super Recruit at Basic Training

In my book, The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook (www.UltimateBasicTraining.com), I discuss many uncommon tactics you can implement at basic training to gain an advantage over the other recruits and drill sergeants.  Listed below are a few of the most popular tips you can instantly implement to gain an edge at basic training.

1.       Initial it!
In basic training you will have to secure your clothes and your equipment at all times.  However, many times your clothes and equipment will be intertwined with other recruits.  Could you recover your pair of socks if it was mixed with 8 other pairs? I bet you could if your initials were on it! Be sure to initial everything you can with a sharpie.  Who knows, it may prevent you from wearing your battle buddies underwear some day.

2.       Lock it
I can’t stress enough how important it is to lock everything you can at all times in basic training.  Let me tell you a quick true story. Eight recruits were in a room cleaning their weapons. One recruit, let’s call him John, got up to go to the latrine, leaving his weapon in the room with the other recruits.  As soon as he left the room the drill sergeant yells down the hall for every recruit to get out of their room and out to the courtyard to do exercises.  As John returns he finds his room empty and his weapon gone.  He learns that the other recruits are in the courtyard and runs to catch up.  As John gets outside there are over 100 recruits doing push ups for every second John has been without his secured weapon.  In order to get his weapon back, John had to recover it successfully from the drill sergeant who resembles a cross between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Captain America. As you can imagine, it was a long night for the recruits.  This could have been avoided if John were to secure his weapon in his locker before he went to the latrine.

3.       Know the terms
Here’s another story.  A drill sergeant walks up to a recruit and yells “Private, fix your snake”. Dumbfounded the recruit looks around and checks the buttons on his uniform, he even checks to see if his fly is open. The drill sergeant yells again, this time louder “Private fix your snake now”! The private again checks himself over and can’t find anything that could possibly be a snake.  Little did the private know, a snake is a portion of your shoelace that sticks out of your shoe.  To conclude the story quickly, the private had a long night ahead of him for failing to follow his drill sergeants’ orders.  The lesson here is to do some research before leaving basic training and understand the terms and lessons you will learn.

4.       Experiment with phone cards
Undoubtedly you will bring many phone cards with you to basic training to keep in touch with your friends and family.  However, your time on the phone is going to be limited.  When I went through basic training, I had to listen to the operator give 7 minutes worth of instructions before connecting my call.  That is not such a great feature when you have 10 minutes of time reserved for the phone.  Therefore, before you leave for basic training, experiment with different phone cards and determine which card will transfer you to your loved one the fastest.

SGT Michael Volkin is the author of The Ultimate Basic Training Series