Fort Jackson Week 1 of 3.

For those going to Fort Jackson you will arrive on a Saturday and be checked into your barracks which is open bay. You’ll be given your linens bear in mind it’s not much only a few sheets and one wool blanket. As I am here they are renovating some of the barracks and adding new furniture into them. The one’s I currently am is old Army gear from the 80’s-90’s that is falling apart in multiple pieces.

You will be broken down into either Bravo or Charlie Company and from there into 1 of 4 Platoons and then even further into squads. As far as I can gather most of the Djibouti people are in Bravo Company, there are some Iraq/Afghanistan in it but majority are in Charlie. Your schedules will differ from each other as well. Also please note that although your orders say Fort Jackson you are going to be working out of Fort McCrady Task Force Center which is a small facility/base ran by the SCARNG(South Carolina Army National Guard). The SCARNG also holds OCS here and those people who have been called up from inactive duty process through here so you might be likely to run into some pissed of Soldiers.

From what it seems while I am here things will be easier for you if you are in Bravo Company. Charlie has been up every morning Pting in order to get you in shape for when you arrive in theater. Each Platoon is assigned 3 Drill Instructors my own would be Drill Sargeant(1SGT) Capers, (SSGT) Reilly and (SSGT) Rutledge. They have been monumental in making this process less gruesome.

While you are here you will become a Soldier(Saildier) and indoctrinated into the Army(NARMY)(These are how we refer to them). Your first Sunday will consist of a muster just to ensure everyone is here and class will begin bright and early Monday morning.

Your day’s here will usually begin in the 04-0500 time frame, sometimes later depending on your schedule for the day. Like I said each companies activities varies so one may be ahead of the other or they might at the same point in the training.

Your first week will start off with an inbrief and many power points, possibly an introduction to PT and how the Army does it. Trust me everyone thinks it’s stupid and you will feel stupid doing it that way. Show up in DCU’s if you have them so they know who does and does not have uniforms. Otherwise Navy issued PT gear. Tuesday you will process through and get your gear. Expect to get 3 seabags while you are here, so that gives you a total of 4 or 5(1 from NMPS and an extra one if you brought it.). You will be issued a plethora of gear that you will most likely never need but will still have to drag around. You will be issued uniforms if you don’t have. Your Kevlar(helmet) I.B.A(vest which can weigh anywhere from 50-100 lbs depending on your size) knee pads, elbow pads, your glasses, gloves and your M16/M4/M9. You will be issued a loner if you do not require one in theater otherwise this gun you are given will be your ‘go to war’ weapon so ensure that it is a quality rifle and will not break on you. Otherwise you will spend your time in combat with a piece of shit rifle.

If you don’t like the boots that you were given at NMPS you will be issued a cold weather pair of boots lined with gortex. As you probably heard if it touches your skin you keep it, so these boots will be yours in the end. They are more comfortable and better quality. From what I have seen the regular boots have common defects in them that make them quite unbearable to wear. I recommend these for the time that you are at Fort Jackson.

Your ‘Battle Rattle’ which consists of your I.B.A., googles, knee and elbow pads, camelbak and rifle will become your new wardrobe. Very rarely will you go without it and when you do your Camelbak is still considered apart of your standard uniform. View this training as a mini Boot Camp, you are not going to be yelled at like a Private/Recruit and you will be treated with respect since you are seasoned Sailors but again you are here to be trained. You will march in formation, eat as a platoon and do everything as a platoon.

Your rifle is your friend as they say. You will have nightly/weekend watches in which your only purpose is to watch rifles locked up in lockers. Otherwise your rifle never leaves 6 feet from you unless someone is watching it for you. Never go to the restroom(latrine) with your rifle. Also expect to clear it every time you enter a building. For those who are familiar with carrying a rifle in the Navy the clearing procedure is almost the same save for 2 additional steps the Army uses. The same applies for your M9.

Remember you are apart of the Army for the most part while you are here so the lingo is different. Secure to the Army means pickup not put up. They don’t know what a Chit is so when you round a Special Request Chit they won’t have a general idea of what you are speaking about. You will attend class Monday-Saturday and Saturday evening you will be cut out on liberty if the DI’s and ECRC deem so. You cannot go beyond 100 miles, and if you go further than that you need to route a Special Request Chit.

Fort McCrady is actually a 30 minute drive from Fort Jackson. On base there is a AAFES PX which is rather nice but that is all there is to do. On McCrady you will find a mini PX, the Impact Zone(bar/movie lounge) and another tv lounge. McCrady is rather small and does not provide a lot of entertainment. Wireless internet is available for everyone however it becomes quite slow.

The rest of your first week may consist of weapons familiarization. You will spend time in a simulator practicing good marksmanship. You will fire many rounds in order to Zero and eventually Sight in your Rifle and then you will go to an electronic range that will make your rifle even more accurate and then lastly you will do your ‘Prequal’ shoot. In the Army you 23 out of 40 hits to qualify. 36 out of 40 for expert. It is not like the Navy or Air Force where you shoot at a piece of paper. You have multiple targets from 50 meters to 300 meters that pop up at random points for a certain time ranging from 3-8 seconds depending on the distance(farther one’s stay up longer). Save your long shots if you are not good at making them, you can miss all the long one’s and hit all the closer one’s and still qualify. If you do better on your Prequal shoot and do not pass on your actual Qual shoot they will count your Prequal scores.

You will become tired of putting your IBA on and taking it off all the time. When you exit the ranges here they will make you take off all your equipment and they will pat you down to make sure you have no extra rounds on you. If you get caught with one expect to standby. If you loose your rifle expect to standby and loose a Stripe of your sleeve. It’s a bad thing when someone catches your rifle by it’s lonesome unmonitored, same for your M9. You will fire your guns until you get sick of it and then you will fire more. Eventually you will get to fire heavy weapons during your second week.

When you are not shooting there will be concurrent training stationed around the ranges, this usually consists of First Aide, IED recognition class, Reflexive Fire practice, Heavy Weapons familiarization and again waiting around.

You will learn that Hooo-yah(Huah as it’s pronounced in the Army) stands for Hurry Up and Wait..Again. For the Army Hooyah means anything and everything with the exception of No. So you will hear it every other sentence when speaking to a DI.

When you are away from McCrady your lunch will consist of MRE like meals(I say MRE like because these meals are worse than MRE’s(yes there is such a thing) . They were created for Katrina Relief and are disgusting.) and Bag Nasties. You alternate between the two so you do get some variety.

Your day is usually over about 1600-1700 and you will have to muster one last time for dinner formations. After dinner it’s all done.

There is an ECRC Staff here to help you out. You will also feel out ISOPREPS which are designed for Special Forces to identify you incase you were captured and rescued by them. They are 4 short phrases about significant events in your life. They are meant to be detailed and not common knowledge. You will also come up with a 4 digit number that you MUST remember that only these Special Forces people will know.
If you have any outstanding medical/dental issues or gear issues that were not taken care of while at NMPS they will be solved while you are here. For those of you who are going to Afghanistan or Djibouti you will be issued Molaria pills either a daily(Dioxycycline) or a weekly one. They are rumored to cause hallucinations however according to pharmacists it’s not apart of the side effects.

Lights out is at 10 and you are only allowed to drink while on liberty however this is not a rule actively enforced. Expect to see the OIC and AOIC of ECRC, and the CO and XO of Ft McCrady around during your training a lot. They take an active role in the training since they only get a new group every 3 weeks. Do keep in mind as well a lot of the ECRC Staff as well as NMPS are Reservists.

If you are a E9 or O4 and higher you will be issued your own berthing. It is said that 01-03 also get there own berthing together however they made the mistake while my group was here and did not follow that rule. Otherwise it’s all Enlisted together in open bay barracks. Expect a lot of cleaning too these buildings are old and dirty and it’s liberty dependent.

That is for the most part the first week in brief. Majority of your week is spent at the shooting range with filler classes here and there.