Or spent 10 days in the Arizona desert (clay desert!) digging fox holes, living off MRI’s and playing war games. 
I was supposed to be in the Air Force damnit, not the friggin Marines! 
Ahhh - those were the days …
Actually once they made us pull off the masks to fully appreciate the ambience a few of us jogged around the burning pellets singing and then did push-ups until the instructors threw us out in disgust … 
Only 10?
I take it you were not going through PJ or CTC school then?
Nope, I was supposed to have a cushy job though.
Physical labor to me is means a night of doing 12 ounce curls and a couple of two-steps!
OMG! Flashback city. Had an NO2 tank at a dorm party about the same time I first saw Cyndi on MTV. Not good. It was fun for a while but then the headache started. Did I mention I never graduated? When we go to visit Z4 if Bosshank will bring the PJ I’ll get a NOX tank.
You know that might be better than sacrificing poor bond. A PJ party at Z4’s with a NOX tank might be the fountain of youth. 'course there’s the whole spontaneous combustion issue we’d have to deal with.
How many times did I hear that - “But sir, the recruiter said …”
Sorry man. Don’t know what else to say, except, …
“Keep diggin, dammit, before Top comes by and puts a foot up your …”
J/K
It did give you at least one memory of the military you will never forget and convinced you that you did not want to dig wells or work on road construction in civilian life, right?
Hey I am sure I have one weekend free sometime this year …
Especially from bond’s perspective .. lol. I tend to agree but Mark seems really intent on this eternal youth thing … must be having a hard time with almost middle-age.
Well at least we would be acting young and foolish if that is the same thing …
Yeah it does kind suck when a perfectly good evening is otherwise marred by third degree burns over the top half of your body … Just keep a fire extinguisher on hand … we oughta be OK. Or maybe at least survive.
Yeah, the SOB gave me a report date of Friday the 13th, and told me that it would be great because I’d have the whole weekend to explore the base, before we’d get started! Being dumb and naive, I believed him. 
Yep, no digging and no jobs that I’d have to work 12 hour days - seven days a week - for 6 months at a time.
Actually, the desert crap came after I re-enlisted so I could accept an assignment to Belgium and cross-train into the Ground Launched Missile System. Then 5 months into training they postponed deployment of the system, canceled my assignment, and wanted to keep me in Arizona as an instructor.
3 years later when I was eligible to re-enlist again, wanna take a guess what I got? Orders to Belgium for the Ground Launched Missile System, but to accept the orders I would have to re-enlist again.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I refused to re-enlist and got out a year early under the early release program. 4 Months after getting out we signed the Intermediate Range Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union, killing the Ground Launched Missile program.
Sounds about right - that is the “Big” Army/Air Force/Navy/Marines for you.
I had a job like that once - put me into a specialty they knew was dying within a couple years, bounced me around different bases, then wondered what to do with me for a year when they closed it out a year early. But I had fun.
LOL, my favorite basic training memory was falling out in the middle of the night to be told that the President of the United States had ordered a full scale invasion of Grenada and our unit was on stand by…in full view of a newspaper rack announcing that Reagan was pleased with the job the military had done in securing the whole island in a few hours.
Something I’ve always wondered, why do all drill sergeants seem to have red faces and big ears?
I was actually stuck in a career field where I could have spent 20 years at one base if I had wanted too. I got dropped into missile electronics on the Short Range Attack Missile system on B-52’s. There were only 19 bases I could go to, all in the U.S. and most in places like Minot North Dakota, Loring Maine, Ellsworth South Dakota, Blythevilee Arkansas, etc.
My only chance at getting anywhere decent was to cross-train, which was also nearly impossible, as my career field was always on the chronic critical shortage list.
I was TDY in Shreeveport, La. training on the Air Launched Cruise Missile when we struck Grenada. I remember going to class in the morning and seeing 4 KC-10’s in the middle of the tarp with just about every piece of ground support equipment on the base around them, and on a full alert status, which was very, very odd. When we broke for lunch the planes were gone. When I got back to billeting that evening the news were reporting that we had invaded Grenada and rescuid the students.
My fantastic basic training memory is actually about something that happened in the unit next to ours. A couple of MTI’s had got together and decided to play a prank on a trainee. They removed the door bolts from one of the doors to the barracks. Then in the middle of the night an MTI not in charge of that unit came pounding on the door demanding entry.
We were trained not to open the door for anybody, except our own MTI’s. So, the airman on guard refused to let the guy in. The MTI became nasty and obnoxious demanding that the Airman open the friggin door, but the Airman persisted in refusing entry.
The MTI kept it up until finally threatening to rip the door off it’s hinges if he didn’t open it, and still the Airman persisted assuming that he was being tested.
Then the MTI did just that: grabbed a hold of the door knob and yanked the door away (of course the bolts had been removed making it rather easy). As the door crashed down, the Airman turned and ran through the barracks and out the fire escape door.
The next morning in the chowhall everybody heard the story and the unsuspecting airman was singled out, and chastised for leaving his post.
I’m in. I’ll bring the helium. …and EoW.
We’re gonna bring bond with us to Z’s. Dontchaya’ll worry 'bout bond …Bella will take care of him…gonna hide him in my pink bags, with my pheromones, and the rabbit flogger.
Funny…I was thinkin’ a whoooole other kinda combustion…still…gonna need the extinguisher…
Works for me…temporarily…
LOL that’s a good one Mark. Much of my time seemed to be spent pushing the ground so I really don’t remember a lot except that the DIs wore very shiny jump boots. It completely mystified me how they could yell at us for seemingly 24 hours a day in perfectly shined boots. I eventually figured out that they had lots of boots and and probably paid their kids to keep them shined.
I can hear it now, Alvin and the Chipmunks singing “Why Don’t We get Drunk and Screw”
Gee, you guys had all the fun. I graduated college and a couple of months later got my draft notice (the 9th). Rather than get put in the Army and get sent to Nam, I joined the Air Force. Went to basic, then got sent to Homestead AFB (Miami) where I was told the photographer for Nixon was getting out and I was his replacement. Spent my whole time in Florida. 1 TDY to Egland (North Florida) Join the Air Force and see…Florida.
Or possibly “Mama Told Me Not To Come”
LMAO. Boot Camp was more about mental games than physical training for us. To graduate we were only required to do 15 push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks and pull-ups, and run a mile and a half. And, we worked up to that!
I agree on the yelling and the shiny boots though. We just kind of assumed that when they showed up in the morning, they had their balls roped and tied back, like they do with Rodeo Bulls. As to the boots, they must’ve been made of plastic, cause leather don’t get that shiny!
It might sound like hell but at least it wouldn’t look like this…yet.