JJA #4 - Reception

From Harrisburg, they flew me to Fort Jackson, South Carolina for Basic Training. Now, in the movies, they show recruits arriving only to immediately encounter their screaming drill sergeant immediately. Well, in reality, they have to do some housekeeping before you can meet your drill sergeants.

This is called Reception.

I think I spent a total of 3 or 4 days in Reception.

They had us spent alot of time on "the mat".



They would have us wait here between the different stations that we needed to visit.




Some of the things they had us do here was get a haircut.


And yes, they actually made us pay $4 for it. The barbers were so fast that they cut one guys forehead while moving the shaver towards his head.



They also gave us all of our immunizations here. This was a very interesting experience. They used no needles for the shots. They had these hydraulic pressure guns that squirted the medicine in a high-pressure stream so that it would pierce your skin. They warned us not to flinch while getting the shots, otherwise we would have a gash in our arm. I got 3 shots in one arm, and 2 in the other. I saw some of the other guys flinch...





Then came the best shot. I think they stored this thing in the refrigerator, because the medicine was VERY cold. It was also so thick that it took 30 seconds to get it all in you. And they gave it to you in your butt.



Here was where we had to relinquish our civilian clothes and go all military. They took away everything that you brought with you, except your toiletry bag. They gave us new everything down to brown Army underwear that didn't quite fit, and horrible itchy hot green wool socks.

The elastic band of the underwear was so unelastic that a week into basic training it had cut into my sides so I had perpetual raw skin around my waist.


Here's a photo of the clothes line.




The boots also did not fit very well.

During the course of Basic Training, I got blisters on my feet. Then I got blisters on top of my blisters. Then I got blisters on top of those. To this day, I have large pads of skin on my toes where I got those blisters that were not there before the Army.




The guys who wore glasses had to give up their civilian glasses, and get Army issue glasses. We called them BCGs, or Birth Control Glasses. They made you so ugly that, well, you get the idea.


One other memorable experience from my time in Reception was the acclimatization process. There was record heat that summer in South Carolina, and right before I arrived, someone on post had died from heat stroke.
So they made us drink, and drink, and drink more water. 1 quart per hour if I recall correctly. I never peed so much in my life. They made us drink so much that one guy puked water all over the floor in front of me. No chunks, just water.

Next stop - Basic Training!