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US Army BCT and OSUT questions

StillBallin75

StillBallin75

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Hey guys. I know I've been gone for awhile and haven't been as active in recent months as I used to be. Now I sure as hell don't know as much about the military as some of the other board members around here, but I just completed and graduated from U.S. Army Infantry OSUT three weeks ago, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to field questions from anyone who's considering joining the military or who simply has questions about initial training in the military or what Army BCT is like now. Or from you old geezers who think us millenials are getting soft-ass training and want to reminisce about how much harder it was for you back in the old days.
 
StillBallin75 said:
Hey guys. I know I've been gone for awhile and haven't been as active in recent months as I used to be. Now I sure as hell don't know as much about the military as some of the other board members around here, but I just completed and graduated from U.S. Army Infantry OSUT three weeks ago, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to field questions from anyone who's considering joining the military or who simply has questions about initial training in the military or what Army BCT is like now. Or from you old geezers who think us millenials are getting soft-ass training and want to reminisce about how much harder it was for you back in the old days.
Click to expand...

I hear it's all ice cream and stress cards, you weak millenial. Back in my day, way way way way way way back 120 months ago, it was a different world, we were men then, I tell ya....
 
Are "stress cards" an actual thing now or is that a myth?

Back when I went through they made us each take care of a puppy for the whole course. But in order to graduate we each had to kill our puppy in order to display our ruthlessness.

The previous paragraph was a total lie. But seriously, are "stress cards" for real?
 
StillBallin75 said:
Hey guys. I know I've been gone for awhile and haven't been as active in recent months as I used to be. Now I sure as hell don't know as much about the military as some of the other board members around here, but I just completed and graduated from U.S. Army Infantry OSUT three weeks ago, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to field questions from anyone who's considering joining the military or who simply has questions about initial training in the military or what Army BCT is like now. Or from you old geezers who think us millenials are getting soft-ass training and want to reminisce about how much harder it was for you back in the old days.
Click to expand...

Congratz! What is OSUT? I think I figured out BCT, but OSUT I am struggling with, and too lazy to Google.
 
cpwill said:
I hear it's all ice cream and stress cards, you weak millenial. Back in my day, way way way way way way back 120 months ago, it was a different world, we were men then, I tell ya....
Click to expand...

120 months ago? You young latetimer! Back in my day, we did more in a day, we did not have them fancy cellphone things, hazing actually hurt...
 
cpwill said:
I hear it's all ice cream and stress cards, you weak millenial. Back in my day, way way way way way way back 120 months ago, it was a different world, we were men then, I tell ya....
Click to expand...

Not gonna lie. We were allowed to eat ice cream at the chow hall. We also promptly got smoked for it as a company. I got so tired of getting smoked for not eating ice cream I figured I'd just eat some if I was gonna get ****ed up anyway.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
Are "stress cards" an actual thing now or is that a myth?

Back when I went through they made us each take care of a puppy for the whole course. But in order to graduate we each had to kill our puppy in order to display our ruthlessness.

The previous paragraph was a total lie. But seriously, are "stress cards" for real?
Click to expand...

Stress cards are a ****ing myth lol. Not that there aren't ways for ****bags and quitters to get away with being ****bags and quitters though (i.e. being a sick call Ranger)
 
Redress said:
Congratz! What is OSUT? I think I figured out BCT, but OSUT I am struggling with, and too lazy to Google.
Click to expand...

OSUT = One Station Unit Training where one's basic training and MOS training (in my case infantry but I believe it also applies to Cavalry Scouts, tankers, and possibly MPs) is conducted all at once at the same training location.

As to most jobs in the Army where the individual completes BCT first and then goes to a different station to complete their AIT/MOS training.
 
Did you have women in your unit and if so how did that go and if not were the guys talking about it and how do they feel...generally?

tyvm
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Did you have women in your unit and if so how did that go and if not were the guys talking about it and how do they feel...generally?

tyvm
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True story: friend of mine transferred over to shore duty about a year before I got out. He told me the story of putting an actuator in, trying to get it lined up right, and he accidentally without thinking told the woman he was working with to "just needs to go a ****hair more". Now, ****hair is a regular unit of measure when women aren't around, but he freaked as soon as he said it to a woman. She apparently interrupted his chain apologies and asked him if they could get this **** done sometime today, she had moved it a ****hair, now did the ****ing holes line up.

Problem people will be problems. Most people just want to get the ****ing job done...
 
Redress said:
True story: friend of mine transferred over to shore duty about a year before I got out. He told me the story of putting an actuator in, trying to get it lined up right, and he accidentally without thinking told the woman he was working with to "just needs to go a ****hair more". Now, ****hair is a regular unit of measure when women aren't around, but he freaked as soon as he said it to a woman. She apparently interrupted his chain apologies and asked him if they could get this **** done sometime today, she had moved it a ****hair, now did the ****ing holes line up.

Problem people will be problems. Most people just want to get the ****ing job done...
Click to expand...

Really...that used to be a common term and I am not aware that it was ever gendered....

But then you are probably aware of my feelings on how men are treated now, and how few are willing to step up for themselves when women are around, because they have been trained to expect to be punished for doing so.

That said I have met many women who dont go in for that BS and they are great joys to be around generally.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Really...that used to be a common term and I am not aware that it was ever gendered....

But then you are probably aware of my feelings on how men are treated now, and how few are willing to step up for themselves when women are around, because they have been trained to expect to be punished for doing so.

That said I have met many women who dont go in for that BS and they are great joys to be around generally.
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I think you are unaware of what the word is since it is starred. Since it refers to a part of the female anatomy(using a word beginning "C", ending with "T", and containing a "U"), it is pretty clearly gendered.
 
Redress said:
I think you are unaware of what the word is since it is starred. Since it refers to a part of the female anatomy(using a word beginning "C", ending with "T", and containing a "U"), it is pretty clearly gendered.
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I heard it a lot growing up, so that is not likely. "Move it a hair over" has nothing to do with "I've got a hair over my can", which is what you are talking about I think.
 
StillBallin75 said:
Or from you old geezers who think us millenials are getting soft-ass training and want to reminisce about how much harder it was for you back in the old days.
Click to expand...

Back in my day (3 years ago), we didn't have any fancy shmanzy training programs.

We had sticks! Two sticks, and a rock for the whole platoon!

And we had to share the rock.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Did you have women in your unit and if so how did that go and if not were the guys talking about it and how do they feel...generally?

tyvm
Click to expand...

Interestingly enough, my company was all male but there was another company training at the same time as us that happened to be the first Army infantry enlisted training company to include females, and the Army was kind of using my company as a control group to compare us to them.

My thoughts on women in the infantry are somewhat complex so I'll elaborate more on them when I'm on a computer instead of on my phone. I can't speak for the males in that company but I imagine many of them had reservations about the women but tried their best to help all their battle buddies succeed through the training as much as possible.
 
StillBallin75 said:
Interestingly enough, my company was all male but there was another company training at the same time as us that happened to be the first Army infantry enlisted training company to include females, and the Army was kind of using my company as a control group to compare us to them.

My thoughts on women in the infantry are somewhat complex so I'll elaborate more on them when I'm on a computer instead of on my phone. I can't speak for the males in that company but I imagine many of them had reservations about the women but tried their best to help all their battle buddies succeed through the training as much as possible.
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I would love to hear about it when you have time, thanks.
 
Were you a part of the gender integrated Infantry companies?
 
CMPancake said:
Were you a part of the gender integrated Infantry companies?
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I direct you to post #15 cause Hawkeye asked a similar question. I believe at this time the 198th only has two out of its five battalions (1/19 and 2/58) running gender integrated training companies. Mine was all male.
 
Redress said:
I think you are unaware of what the word is since it is starred. Since it refers to a part of the female anatomy(using a word beginning "C", ending with "T", and containing a "U"), it is pretty clearly gendered.
Click to expand...

**** hairs are graduated in thickness, the finest **** hair is the 'red' one. Never got to blond, brown or black!
 
Redress said:
120 months ago? You young latetimer! Back in my day, we did more in a day, we did not have them fancy cellphone things, hazing actually hurt...
Click to expand...

True story - one time, as punishment for eating too much ice cream during our stress-free nap time, one of my buddies got his cell phone taken away for the whole day. The whole day. He couldn't check facebook, or his instagram, or anything.

I don't like to talk about it. Takes me back to a dark place, ya know?
 
Oh boy...basic training. I can tell some stories...

First, I should mention that I went through BT (they didn't call it BCT the first time I did it) twice because I spent six years in...got out...re-entered later...had to do BT again. There was a world of difference between the two times, partly because of me...my maturity level...and partly because of the change in focus in the Army.

The first time...1969...the draft was in full swing (I enlisted) and the DI's job was to kick some discipline into us so we wouldn't die right off the bat when we went to VN. It was non-nonsense training. You did what you were told...you learned what you were taught...and if you succeeded, you moved on.

The second time...more than 10 years later...it was all-volunteer and the focus was on training. More in the way of weapons training...maneuver tactics...more knowledge-based stuff. The discipline was more tolerant. Explanations were more detailed.

Personally, I liked the second time around more than the first. Also, since I was prior service...heck, I had two combat patches and more ribbons than my Drill Sergeant...I didn't go through the adjustment to the Army way like the others.
 
StillBallin75 said:
OSUT = One Station Unit Training where one's basic training and MOS training (in my case infantry but I believe it also applies to Cavalry Scouts, tankers, and possibly MPs) is conducted all at once at the same training location.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the Army, Warrior.

Yep, MP is OSUT, or it was last time I checked.
Back in my day MP's did their OSUT at Fort McClellan. 10[SUP]th[/SUP], 11[SUP]th[/SUP] and 12[SUP]th[/SUP] MP Battalions. It was also some of the first integrated training.
The Battalion numbers changed shortly after I was there and then later McClellan was shut down for chemical contamination and the Chem Corp and MP Corp moved. Things change. :shrug:

My understanding is that MP OSUT is now at Fort Leonard Wood.



Just in case you haven't heard it, here is a good running song for personal use.
It wasn't around in my time so I do not know if it would be good for unit cadence or not.

​
 
StillBallin75 said:
Hey guys. I know I've been gone for awhile and haven't been as active in recent months as I used to be. Now I sure as hell don't know as much about the military as some of the other board members around here, but I just completed and graduated from U.S. Army Infantry OSUT three weeks ago, so I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to field questions from anyone who's considering joining the military or who simply has questions about initial training in the military or what Army BCT is like now. Or from you old geezers who think us millenials are getting soft-ass training and want to reminisce about how much harder it was for you back in the old days.
Click to expand...

I went through bct in 09 in fort jackson, my brother went to fort sill. They called them chill sill and relaxin jackson, but my brother got his cellphone the whole time and had icecream, me neither. His bct though they had a major suicide right before he got there and they were in freakout mode, at fort jackson they seemed to care none, infact if they had an icecream machine in bct you would get ****ed up walking in it's general direction.

For me it was running 2 times a day on odd days and 1 time a day on even, as even days were muscle failure, odd was running, and we managed to run or do sprints/relays during the evening anyways. Chow was my favorite time of day, we got 2 minutes from when the last person sat down, and no matter what position I was in 2 minutes was challenge accepted and I would win, usually got over 7k calories a day in with that limit and still lost weight.

Lastly full metal jacket was a pansey experience vs what I had, and what I had was far less than marine boot camp. Seriously if every got beat like private pyles for having a donut, we would not have had a platoon left. I was also the guy who would bust out laughing every time we got smokes, the drill sgt would always yell oh you want more, I would respond well you were gonna mak us do more anyways, bring it on.
 
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