Q:How will they discipline me? Can they touch me?
A: Disciplining the flight will begin, after the first 5 days or so..
The standard form of punishment is by making you first do a set of push ups, a set of squat thrusts, and then a set of flutter kicks.. Don't think that sounds hard?? Think again, you do these all damn day, (on top of your normal PT)..
And your T.I will use these for everything from.. forgetting your reporting statment "Sir, Trainee _______ reports as ordered, sir!"
OR forgetting your rank/ insignia structure, or the names of the personelle in your squadron. OR, when you are doing Entry control (dorm guard) if you screw up the lines you are supposed to say when a T.I. is entering your dorm. And the most common form of punishment is SCREAMING IN YOUR FACE. Yep, the spit will fly all over your face! Oh! And how could I forget, getting your 341 forms taking away from you. (these are 3 forms you must carry in your pocket at all times)
And no. They can NOT touch you.. even if they say they are going to bash your head in with your own flash light.

Q:What if I get out of step or screw up marching?
A: Your TI is going to YELL at you! Alot!

Q:When we are standing in formation, or marching, can I scratch my nose??
A: NO, trust me, your TI has eyes in the back of his head. Some quick occasions you may be able to get away with it, but most of the time you get caught.. and you WILL be screamed at..
This is another form of "self discipline" about not letting your self, no matter what, break your military bearing. This will be difficult for MOST to master.. it sounds easy.. but it is harder that the average civilian can do.

Q:If i screw up enough, will I be recycled?
A: It is possible.. I have seen alot of people left behind..
They were the girls with bad attitudes, the ones who thought they were "tough shit" going in.. The T.I. will pick up on those ones right away. In those cases, you may be sent to a baby flight, and spend a few days being tormented there, and then they might let you come back to your flight.

OR. You can get a "U" for the week of training.. (these are bad, most people wont get these) I think, if you get 2 of them, you get sent back. IF you get enough 341 forms pulled, you might be sent back. (everybody who is anybody will get these pulled)

hey so i'm enlisted and i leave for bmt on january 5th, i'm a little nervous hah.
any extra advice would be helpful, what to pack?
thanks so much

Hey kara
congrats on joining, and I will be wishing you luck.
What to pack?
Before you go, they will be giving you a list of stuff to bring, and not to bring.. but here are some things I think you may find useful......
where are you from? hot or cold part of the us?
I was at lackland during that time, it was..pretty cold for texas.. it hovered around 30-50 ..some days 80 degrees..
I ended up wishing I had brought long johns..(long underwear) and pretty much all of us ended up buying them when we were there...
You spend alot of time in the early morning, sometimes in the cold ran... and you are freezing your butt off.



What else to bring?
I know it seems silly, .. but lotion.. you get very dry and itchy with your brand new uniform on.... it is very.."un broken" in..for lack of a better word... it will rub on your neck where your collar is, and on your knees, (where your socks will be jacked up to)..

Bring Spandex shorts...!
YES It sounds silly, but if you dont buy them now, they will make you buy very cheap made ones there for $16 a pair, and you need 3.... (they give you very short shorts to wear for PT... and when you are doing sit ups, they will ride up... also, it will help with the pain of the chaffing in your new uniform if you wear them underneath

Money.... you should bring some cash, and if you do, dont bring alot of little bills......They make you keep a list of all of your money, in your pocket at ALL TIMES...and you have to write down the serial numbers... and you have to keep re-writing it throughout the 2 months...
Also, if you have a debit card, these are very handy
but if you want a tip???

[/i][i][i]they will ask you maybe... a week, to 2 weeks in, if you brought your debit card, those of you who say "yes, i brought it".. they will be like "good" but those who didnt, ........they will let all of the people who did not bring one, run down stairs and make a phone call to your family and to get "it sent" to you...
SO! if you want an extra phone call home!--- tell them your forgot it [/i]


Underwear...
Everyone is going to see you in them...
so make sure they are something you wont mind other people seeing you in.

(Some of these things i mention, sound superficial.... and they are. BUT. as small as they seem, anything helps.)

BRING STAMPS!.. you can bring stuff for writing too, but I waited until I was there.. so i could use the nifty air force logo stuff.

Bring hair spray and HIGH HOLDING hair gel (depending on your hair type) Do NOT NOT NOT forget this... haha, it seemed like this is the only thing that mattered to us in the world![b]

thank you so much. anything is helpful to me right now haha.
when you got to basic were you already really good at distance running and doing a lot of push ups at once? just curious?

you get 341 forms pulled for things such as?
if your locker isn't perfect? stuff like that?
it scares me that if they pull too many you could get sent home.. i feel like that's such a simple way to get sent back, ya know? but maybe they don't get pulled as easy as i think? not sure..

i'm from massachusetts and i snowboard, so hopefully the cold won't be too bad for me. but i still do get cold quite easily so.. i'll keep the long johns in mind.

i SUCKED at distance running.....
before i went in.. if i ran for more than a mile, i thought my lungs were going to explode..
I have never been conditioned for running... so heavy breaths eventually hurt pretty bad for me.
But your body will adjust, and it gets easier.


341 forms: They are designed to scare you... And believe me.. everyone gets them pulled.
No matter how well you think you are doing.. they will find a way to pull one.. and then you are worrying the entire time..
"am i going to get recycled!! omg!!".. so try to understand this clearly BEFORE you go there...
its all JUST one BIG GAME. I think i got four 341's pulled.. some people got more...

You will get them pulled for:
- Forgetting the answer to one of the T.I's questions.
-failing to use your reporting statement "Sir, trainee ____________reports as ordered sir!"
-being late.
-not marching correctly..ie: being out of step consistantly etc..
-not keeping your "military bearing" ie: keeping your face FREE OF ANY EXPRESSION while talking to a T.I.. keeping your hands at your side.

* It is important that you remember, that these 341 forms are for BOTH bad and GOOD behavior.
(Although, dont expect do get one for being good... i dont think i ever saw anyone get one for that reason)

Reguardless, you can get a 341 pulled for all the reasons listed above.... marching good all the time, passing all of your "area inspections" perfectly all the time.. and so on.



They will tell you if you get enough of them you will be sent back.. but you have tot be a real ..um..
disfunctional person to be sent back. ..like.. you are causing fights, if you give the TI attitude...



Im glad you are from the North east too, but seriously. I am born and rasied in northen NH (skiier )
And that is some funky kinda weird cold over there in Texas. It is not like the cold we are used to... it is like a "damp" cold..that gets right to you.. i know.. it was only 35 degrees, but they have you out in it.. standing perfectly still.. without a real jacket.. and it chills you to the bone...

OH YEAH! and then there was this time... they made us do push ups in the rain at 0445 ..yep. with tee shirts on, and yep, it was 40 degrees.
We were out there for an hour in that..alot of us got pretty sick after that, our bodies were so weak, it made us come down with fevers and such.

haha, but dont worry, I am pretty sure that was a freak event, i dont think everyone that goes down there gets that nice of treatment

Aye, you really have to screw up to get recycled. My best friend put a kid in a choke hold and made him go unconscious and got sent back a week. That was his only incident and lemme tell you he's one of them "macho men" and loves to show off.

Here is a question I tend to wonder about for anyone that has gone through BMT. They break you down but do they build you back up?