Basic Training was a really great experience for me but at the time it was a shock to my system because I was experiencing things that I had never experienced before. When I joined (took the Oath at MEPS), it was the day before my 28th birthday, which is the age cutoff for the U.S. Air Force. So, I was the oldest in my flight. My first day of basic training was my birthday and we were so busy and on the go that I didn’t even have time to even remember that it was my birthday. The intake process was so involved because we had to get issued our gear, our uniforms, get immunizations, fill out form after form, etc. …just so much to do. We finally got to bed at 3 a.m. after being up for 23 hours straight and then one hour later at 4 a.m. just as we were finally dozing off, the Training Instructors (IT) came back in yelling for us to get up and get dressed and be outside for Reveille in 5 minutes. Before we went to bed at 3 a.m. they told us what to have ready to put on in the morning, so we had our clothes laid out and we just had to rush to get them on and get outside.
After Reveille, we went to breakfast then went back to our dorms to learn how to clean. When we all walked into our dorm room our IT’s noticed there was a girl still asleep in her bunk. LAWD, all hell broke loose… We all got yelled at for that one. She got screamed at and we did too for allowing her to be left behind. One of the biggest lessons in the military is never leave anyone behind. When one falls, we all fall. When one fails, we all fail. When one succeeds, we all succeed. So, the TI’s gave her the nickname, “the Sleeper”.
Marching on the Wrong Foot
Have you ever marched on the wrong foot? I have and it can earn you a new job… I was made a Road Guard because I was always on the wrong foot. I am 5 ft tall and was the shortest girl in my flight, so everyone else’s stride was wider than mine and when we marched, I was always double-timing to keep up with everyone else. When we marched, we had to be uniform and stay in line and even with our row and column. We had to march everywhere we went and stay in formation and on the right foot and be in synch with everyone else. I was the shortest and the Sleeper was the tallest, so she was always on the wrong foot too. So, the TI’s made both of us Road Guards. We had to march a few feet behind the flight and when the flight was coming up to a street intersecting with the street that we were marching on, we had to run up ahead of the flight and stand as a guard with our hands out to stop any potential oncoming traffic (other flights marching or cars) while our flight past the intersection, we had to run to catch up with our flight and get back in our place a few feet behind the flight.
From Baby Flight to Mother Flight
A few days after Basic Training started, we were introduced to our “Mother Flight”. We were told that we were their “Baby Flight”, the men who came in with us were our “Brother Flight”, and the men that came in at the time our Mother Flight came in was our “Father Flight”. So, the Air Force rotates their new class of Air Force recruits in on a schedule so that when one flight graduates, their Baby Flight is halfway through Basic Training and now that they are graduating, their baby flight becomes Mother and Father Flights, and they each get a new baby flight in that they can mentor. The cycle continues because the first three weeks they are breaking you down to get rid of the mess that you were so that the last three weeks of basic training they can build you back up into the outstanding soldier that you need to become. Whenever we were anywhere near our Brother Flight, if we tried to talk to them or even look at them, our TI’s would scream at us to “LOOK AWAY! THEY ARE BALD & BROKE! DON’T EVEN LOOK AT THEM! LOOK AWAY!”
Our Mother Flight would mentor us and show us tips to make things easier and how to do things when we cleaned our dorm to pass inspection, etc. Once our mother flight graduated and we became the Mother Flight to the new incoming baby flight, we were able to give some good advice to them as well. We mostly passed down what we had learned from our Mother Flight, but we did pass down a really good tip that our TI’s were impressed with.
When you are in a flight of 50 women, and everyone has to go to the bathroom at the same time it can be time consuming for all to stand in line to wait their turn even if the bathroom has 4 or 5 stalls. We were not allowed to Lolly-Gag and take our time so we were still getting yelled at to hurry up even when it wasn’t much that we could do to speed up the process, so we tried to come up with ways to get the flight in and out of the stalls as quickly as possible. We were required to be in uniform at all times unless it was lights out. To be in uniform was to be completely fixed right and our uniform worn correctly with nothing added to or taken away. For example, if we were in uniform and our belt buckle was undone, we were considered out of uniform. So, one time I was in the stall and once I finished using the restroom, I came out with my buckle undone and my tee shirt untucked so the waiting airman could go in and use the stall while I stood by the sink to tuck my shirt in and buckled my belt before washing my hands. Well, when I came out of the stall my TI walked in to yell at us to hurry up and she saw me with my shirt untucked and my belt buckle undone. She tore into me and then another airman came out with her shirt untucked and buckle undone, while the waiting airman went into that stall, and so on. Our TI look at me then her and I said, “we do this to make the line go faster because we can get dressed out here instead of in the stall so the other airman can get in the stall faster”. She looked impressed and said to carry on. This is just one of many examples of how we came up with ways to make it easier on us and our baby flight.
The two belt buckles are examples of the type of belt buckle that I used while I was in the Air Force. The top buckle was worn with the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) and the bottom buckle was worn with our dress blues.
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