A New World: Stepping off the Bus

A recruit walks past the barracks at NTC Orlando.

Stepping off the bus, new recruits came face to face with life in the military.  Upon arrival, Navy personnel herded the recruits to their bunks with their minimal belongings.  At four o’clock in the morning, the two commanding officers assigned to each company woke the recruits by either banging on a metal trashcans or blasting an air horn, sometimes doing both. 

Former recruit David Brokaw remembers, “Our Company Commander came in and started beating the trash can with a great, big stick and yelling and screaming at us, telling us to, ‘Get up you so and so recruits!’ We all jumped out of our beds and he told us to stand at attention and then he started the greatest riot act right there.”[1]

The first five days of basic training set the tone for the entire experience. Within the first two days recruits recieved the customary military hair cuts and were fitted for their uniforms.  During this crucial span of time, recruits learned the basic skills and routines expected of them.  These skills involved simple things such as folding clothes, placing them in one’s locker, making their bunks in a straight manner, and attending classes.

On the sixth day, the Company Commander (CC) would reprimand the recruits.  According to Brokaw, commanders criticized the recruits for being “smug” and not working together as ‘a team,’ “The Company Commanders came in, they tear you up, all the bunks get turned over, and you learn that you need to be a team. So that is the biggest thing that a recruit learns, that’s impressed upon him, is teamwork.[2]

Click here to access the Oral History of Jeffrey Edward Clark.