Army Basic Combat Training
Caleb Arendt
Instructor Doreen Johnson
ENGL 1117-47
16 FEB. 2015
Essay 1
Army Basic Training Changed Me
My life changing experience was when I spent my past summer at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri completing Army basic combat training; I joined the Army National Guard on March 28th of 2014; I always knew that I wanted to take this path but there were many things that surprised me once I arrived. This was such a huge life change for me as I learned how to kill the enemy and had adjust my everyday life and live by the seven Army values. The seven Army values are loyalty, duty, respect, selfless-service, honor, integrity, and personal courage which now influence my life a great deal.
Once I arrived at Fort Leonard Wood on June ninth and spent the first nine days at the facility known as the 83 adjacent general, but we know it as reception. During reception we received shots, financial paperwork and issued our military uniforms. After completing the nine days I was sent to Echo Company 787th MP BN to start my training. The first three weeks of our training was called ‘red phase’. During red phase the Drill Sergeants are there to break you down mentally and build you back up around the seven Army values. While in red phase we also did team building obstacles, IED classes, learned first aid and finally, drill and ceremony. Drill and ceremony is all about taking commands and learning how to march through discipline, which was not my strong suite but eventually I grew familiar to the training and executed all the commands.
After the completion of red phase the next three weeks were called white phase. White phase consisted of basic riflemanship and advanced basic rifle marksmenship. We spent every day except Sundays at the ranges firing our M-4 carbines that we were assigned. We first had to group and zero our rifles, which is adjusting the rifle to fit our personal comfort to shoot precise and consistently. After grouping and zeroing we spent a few days shooting at
Instructor Doreen Johnson
ENGL 1117-47
16 FEB. 2015
Essay 1
Army Basic Training Changed Me
My life changing experience was when I spent my past summer at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri completing Army basic combat training; I joined the Army National Guard on March 28th of 2014; I always knew that I wanted to take this path but there were many things that surprised me once I arrived. This was such a huge life change for me as I learned how to kill the enemy and had adjust my everyday life and live by the seven Army values. The seven Army values are loyalty, duty, respect, selfless-service, honor, integrity, and personal courage which now influence my life a great deal.
Once I arrived at Fort Leonard Wood on June ninth and spent the first nine days at the facility known as the 83 adjacent general, but we know it as reception. During reception we received shots, financial paperwork and issued our military uniforms. After completing the nine days I was sent to Echo Company 787th MP BN to start my training. The first three weeks of our training was called ‘red phase’. During red phase the Drill Sergeants are there to break you down mentally and build you back up around the seven Army values. While in red phase we also did team building obstacles, IED classes, learned first aid and finally, drill and ceremony. Drill and ceremony is all about taking commands and learning how to march through discipline, which was not my strong suite but eventually I grew familiar to the training and executed all the commands.
After the completion of red phase the next three weeks were called white phase. White phase consisted of basic riflemanship and advanced basic rifle marksmenship. We spent every day except Sundays at the ranges firing our M-4 carbines that we were assigned. We first had to group and zero our rifles, which is adjusting the rifle to fit our personal comfort to shoot precise and consistently. After grouping and zeroing we spent a few days shooting at