The US Navy training camp is held in Great Lakes, Illinois. It is a place with square-shaped concrete buildings that look like the grounds of an old school. When it first arrives, it goes through an initial processing phase that lasts a few days. I thought MEPs were pretty horrible queuing for 12 hours. When you get to the Great Lakes, you do this for 3 days straight with hardly any sleep!
The arrival
They reminded me of getting off the bus when we arrived and yelling at me to get straight into a line. There were constant yells from drill instructors and senior recruits to shut up and not speak until a question was asked. There were many lines of recruits at different stations for different things. Below is a list of things you need to do before being processed into boot camp:
Fill out thousands of forms to create your first service records
Cut your hair
Return all your civilian stuff
Get your first uniform (sweatshirt called SMURF’s)
take a urinalysis
yell at you a lot
many more things
The first thing you need to do is fill out tons of forms to create this detailed service record. I remember hating this the most. After the records are created, you are sent to a new station where you can pick up your first uniform.
The Smurfs
This is the first military uniform you will ever wear. They had about 80 of us in a room and told us to strip completely naked and change our clothes. This was our first lesson in how to change in front of other people. Most of you who played sports in high school are probably used to this.
The reason it’s called smurfs is because it’s a completely blue uniform that makes you look like a smurf. It’s just sweatpants, a sweater, and a hat that says recruit. When you walk the base in this uniform, you stand out like a video of Paris Hilton sitting in a church pew.
All the other senior recruits will jeer and laugh at you as you march around the base with 80 other guys you never met, doing their best to march in line. I remember watching in awe the major divisions marching in a super tight, flawless bunch. Everyone in the division moved as smoothly as a solid entity. The RDC would tell us that if we listen to them, one day we too will be like them.
the first haircut
I remember my haircut. For guys, they simply shave their entire heads with a small clip. The girls have their hair cut very carelessly down to the bottom of the neck. I distinctly remember most of the girls crying after their hair was cut. Many boys laughed at them.
the piss test
Also, when they did a urine test they had to see you come out of the fountain. At the same time they were looking at me, calling me names, saying a lot of clever comments and all sorts of awkward things that had to do with sexuality, masculinity, being gay, size, etc.
without sleeping
The first day you should sleep 1-2 hours if you are lucky. The second night you can get 3-4 and the third night it depends. When I was there, I remember sleeping between 1 and 2 hours when I suddenly woke up to prepare my things to start the next day.
assignment
Once you complete all registrations and get all your things, you will be assigned an RDC. RDC is short for Recruit Division Commander. Your division will have between 1 and 3 of these guys in charge of you at all times. Once you are assigned an RDC, you will be assigned to your bunk where you will sleep (HARDLY) for the next 8 weeks.
After everything is done
Short and sweet. Not much to see the first three days, but a lot of queuing and being scared of everything. These days go by like a blur, and before you know it, you’re walking around this base wondering what you’re doing there.
Stay tuned for the next episode of Navy Stories. In the next posts I will talk about each week of boot camp and what we did.
