Blog 28 The First Day of Joining the Navy

(The sailor suit that my nephew is wearing was passed down to each of my nephews born after him. I have a picture of each one of them wearing it, thanks to my sister-in-law, Les.)

(My life would change drastically, but mostly for the better.)

          When I entered into the Naval office, it was wild to see all the people that were beginning a new life with me. I watched my parents drive away, so realization sunk in my body knowing that this was all really happening to me. I roamed around the room and found the check-in desk. I signed in and, like everyone else, I found a spot in the room and waited for someone to tell me what to do. I talked with the people around me and we told each other why we joined the Navy.

          Finally, someone told us to enter a room and have a seat. The man began telling us what to expect that day. It was like pouring alcohol on an open wound. Most of us already knew the agenda. We were separated by male and female and sent to another room to receive our official physical. It was done in front of the entire room of guys. They lined us across from each other and told to strip down to our underwear. A doctor and a Hospital Corpsman went one by one doing the main points of the physical. This was followed by having everyone pull their underwear down and completed the physical by doing the part that looked at our genitals and our butts.

         After we got dressed, everyone gathered back in the first room. A high ranking officer came in and we all stood. He officially swore us into the Navy. We were given our plane tickets and everyone got on buses and sent to the airport to await our flight  to Boot Camp.

          We arrived in boot camp around dinnertime, and we were introduced to our training officers. Our barracks were not ready yet, so we stayed in a special barrack. The next day was an all-day preparation day. We went from line to line being given our outfits, dog chains, sheets and blankets, taken to our barracks, and then, our haircuts! We were taken to a room where they had markers and name markers and we spent the entire day labeling everything they gave us, including our underwear. We had intermittent breaks, where they taught us how to march, talk, and salute. We finally got to our barracks around 3;30am. Those that could sleep did, but by 5am, they came in banging trash cans and yelling to get up! we had 80 guys in our platoon, 40 on each side of the barracks. They had each side take turns for 20 minutes to shower and shave and trade to make our bunks. Even their language changed from nice to vulgar. “Hello Boot Camp”!

        The first week of the ten did not really count. They took this time to show us how the bunks should be made for inspections, right down to proper creases in our uniforms. They drilled us everyday for PT. (And man, I heard more cursing from the two of them than I ever heard in my life,(literally). I was having a breakdown. I had heard the term “you talk like a sailor’s mouth!”, but I never thought it would be that bad. Things got worse when I realized I was not going to be trained for a doctor, but as a hospital corpsman. (a glorified orderly)! I began thinking I was making a mistake and NOW decided I wanted out!  

(THIS IS MY EMBARRASSING PART)

        By the third day, we were allowed to call our parents, wives, loved ones, and tell them we were safe and doing fine. My call was one of desperation. I was lied to by my recruiter (and misled by my friend) that I was signing up correctly to be a doctor. They knew it was not. I begged my parents to get me out, but they could not, it was too late. My next step was to plead with my platoon officer. Not only did I accuse my recruiter for lying, I even asked the platoon chief to please stop using the Lord’s Name in vane. Or cussing like a race horse. I assured him that he could make his points to us without it, and I had grown up as a Christian and was not use to this kind of talk! Boy, did I begin a hard next two days on myself.

• 4th Feb 2018
• mylife
• 4 Comments
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