week by week at boot camp

[NI39]

Info on what the recruits go through in order to becoma a sailor!

I have added two versions! ;)

[NI39]

The First Half of Navy Boot Camp

I hope you're ready for an intense time. Your experience at Boot Camp begins as soon as you step off of the bus and are met by one of your Division Commanders. If you show up at Boot Camp having not prepared physically for the experience, you are in for a wild ride on that front. Be prepared, mentally, to be picked apart for being different. Here is a brief run-down on what you'll experience in the next eight to nine weeks:

1. Week One - During week one you will go through processing. You will fill out a lot of forms regarding health, benefits, wages, direct deposit, insurance, the Montgomery G.I. Bill and much more. If you haven't yet memorized your social security number, you will want to before you leave for boot camp, you'll be writing it on everything. Once you've finished processing, then the real fun starts.
2. Week Two - Week two finds you tired, irritable and wondering what the heck you got yourself into. You will get used to waking up at 0600, I promise. This week you will begin physical conditioning and participate in a confidence course. The focus for this week of training is team-building. You will learn to rely on your shipmates, and the confidence course is a big start.
3. Week Three - In a hands-on environment, this week you will learn first aid techniques, signalling with flags, the proper procedure to board and disembark a ship, and basic seamanship. You will do this training on a real ship situated in a large hangar. Your first PT (physical training) test is administered during week three, the areas tested are 1.5 mile run, push-ups and sit-ups. This is often called the PT0, because it is the starting point from which you will improve.
4. Week Four - Time for weapon training. You will go through safety training, then weapon training in a supervised range environment. This is the halfway point in your academic training, as well as the week during which you will take your graduation photos in preparation for your Pass and Review ceremony.


The Second Half of Boot Camp

You've reached the home stretch at this point, with four more weeks to go! Here's what you'll do during the second half of boot camp:

1. Week Five - More classes, more training, and a lot more PT. By this point you've learned how to do everything the way the Navy wants you too, and though you may not feel like it -- you've changed. Rigorous training and a restricted diet, a fast paced and active training style in and out of the classroom, and a behavioral structure deeply rooted in forming a team bond between you and up to 100 total strangers have all contributed to your change, and in most cases this change is for the best.
2. Week Six - Fire fighting training, and shipboard damage control classes. This week you will learn how to put fires out, how to properly don fire safety gear in case you must fight a fire onboard ship, how to open and close watertight doors, and operate fire fighting equipment. This week also finds you and your shipmates inside the gas chamber, being exposed to tear gas while you and everyone else recites name and social security number. You will also go through the confidence course again, further solidifying the concept of teamwork and comraderie.
3. Week Seven - At this point, you're nearly finished with boot camp. Excitement sets in and now you're ready for the final test: Battle Stations. Battle Stations is a twelve hour event held to test your entire division on how well you've absorbed everything you've learned so far. If you are present at the call for Battle Stations, this means you have successfully passed all academic and physical challenges presented to you up to this point, and are ready for this final test. You will be pushed to the very brink here, and will find that once it is over and you stand in the finishing room, dirty, beyond weary, emotional and drained. All that fades away as the Commanding Officer in charge of RTC Great Lakes comes in to personally congratulate you, presenting you and your division with your new status as a United States Sailor -- your Navy ball cap.
4. Week Eight - Graduation/Pass and Review. Aside from everything mentioned above, part of your training has been in drill and ceremony. That portion of your training will come in to play here, where you march proudly, shoulders squared and with a bolstered confidence before friends, family, and thousands of supportive individuals from all walks of life. There is nothing like it in the whole world.

What happens after boot camp?

After pass and review, your newly capped Sailor will pack his or her bags, be given orders and travel information for their next level of training - "A" School - and be on a much more mundane journey to learning their actual JOB while they serve their time. During "A" school they'll experience life as a Sailor in a whole new way...

[NI39]

WEEK 1:
Processing Week. Once you arrive you’ll be given Navy-issued clothing, be taught the right way to fold and store your new belongings, and make your bunk (bed). You’ll receive complete dental and medical exams, if you need a haircut, that’ll happen too.
As the week progresses, you’ll knock the days down conditioning, swimming, marching, drilling, and most importantly attending Navy classes. Everything you do from week to week is designed to prep you for what lies ahead. You will push your physical limits and achieve higher performance levels than you ever thought possible. In the Navy, you’ll be judged for who you are and how you prove it.
Honor. Courage. Commitment. Three words that before Boot Camp probably held little meaning. Here, they’ll become words you’ll live by. These Navy Core Values will become the ideals you and your fellow shipmates live by. What you make of this experience makes you.
WEEK 2.
This is a confidence-building week. As such, you’ll be going through the confidence course — a course designed to simulate shipboard situations that you could encounter in an emergency. Be sharp because your life and the lives of your fellow shipmates depend on it. If you haven’t already caught on, teamwork in the Navy and especially in Boot Camp is a driving force.
WEEK 3.
Reality check: This week, you’ll board a land-bound training ship. Everything will be hands-on — something your Recruiter told you the Navy is big on. Here’s the proof. You’ll learn everything from ship nomenclature to first aid techniques to semaphore (signaling with flags). All the real-world lessons you’ll need to survive in the Navy world. Classroom studies will focus on Customs and Courtesies, laws of armed conflict, money management, shipboard communication, Navy ship and aircraft identification, and basic seamanship.
Step up for the first of two physical training tests — curl ups, sit-reaches, push-ups and a 1.5-mile run. Good luck — but if you don’t pass the first time, your Recruit Division Commander will work with you to ensure you do next time. That’s because success is everybody’s goal in the Navy — not just yours.
WEEK 4.
Weapons fire: heads up! If you’ve never fired a weapon before — this week you’ll get your hands on a M-16 and a 12-gauge shotgun. When you’ve proven you know how to properly use both, you’ll graduate to the live-fire range. This is where it gets really interesting.
Keeping the end in mind, graduation pictures are this week as well as your second academic test on everything you’ve learned to date. This is about the time you’ll feel as though you’re flying through Boot Camp. It’s all good — because there’s so much more adventure awaiting you after Boot Camp.
WEEK 5.
This week is all about you. Where you want to go, what you want to do, and how fast you intend to get there. So you find the shortest distance between where you are and where you want to be. If you’re feeling a sense of accomplishment for making it this far — good for you. That means that 180-degree-life-change your Recruiter told you would come — has come.
WEEK 6.
Shipboard damage control and firefighting. Two of the most vital skills you’ll need on board. You’ll learn to extinguish fires. Escape smoke-filled compartments. Open and close watertight doors. Operate Oxygen Breathing Apparatus and carry fire hoses. No pressure: but your life and the lives of other shipmates depend on you mastering these skills. One more test, and perhaps, the most challenging of all: the Confidence Chamber. Inside the Chamber, you and about 100 other recruits will line up, put on a gas mask while a tear gas tablet is lit. You’ll be ordered to remove your mask and throw it in a trash can while reciting your full name and social security number. Relax. Every Sailor before you has mastered it — and so will you. Because if you didn’t know it before, you know it now: You have what it takes. You are Navy material.
This week you’ll also have to finish the confidence course — as a team. This is when and where your newly developed self-confidence and self-assurance shines. “If they could only see me now.” You suddenly find yourself thinking that a lot.
NTE: DV286
WEEK 7.
Battle Stations. Boot Camp’s ultimate test. Here’s an exercise of 12 different scenarios incorporating what you have learned during the previous weeks. You and your team will be graded on your ability to execute the required tasks.
Successful completion nets you the ultimate reward — a U.S. Navy ball cap. The cap that tells the world you’re no longer a Recruit, but a full-fledged Navy Sailor.
This is pivotal. This is where you and your Commanding Officer recognize what you’ve always known: You were destined to do something extraordinary. For you. For your family. For your country.
You’ve done it. You’ve proven to yourself and to the world you’ve got what it takes. Your future is now in full motion.
WEEK 8.
Graduation in your dress uniform. Pass the mirror. Stop and stare. Recognize that person? You should. Stand tall. Walk proud. You are a Sailor in the U.S. Navy. After today, your family and friends will envy you. Strangers on the street will thank you. Your Navy family will always have your back. Savor this moment. Not everybody makes it; not everybody should.

[SumiK0125 (wife of a Nuke MM)]

i found this pretty informative... my recruiter sent it to me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMUHFQnj7uI

[johnsmom (ship 09 div 223)]

WOW!! Very informational... It helps having the step by step info.