US Army Basic Training Fort Leonard Wood - 1986 

I went through in October '85 ... you're right

@Wayne Corbett back in the 80s drill sergeants were way more brutal and cruel than they are these days😂

Summer of '85 at Ft Lost in the Woods. C-3-3. This brings back memories. A bit sanitized, particularly the Sundays. Church services yes, but no Px or Rec Hall. I don't remember doing a confidence or PEC. The bivouac was all rain everyday, the DSgts pretty much stayed in their tents and we were felt alone. Every Thursday in the mess hall was fried shrimp and steak for lunch. Great experience, but would not do it again.

I went through basic, summer 1980, was permanent party 1984-1987, HQ-4-4, at TA244, out there near the airport😁

I went to Fort Leonard in 1987 and it was hell. My drill sergeants where brutal.

I got to be a suicide watcher for a guy who'd never consider suicide. He had a standing 10AM appointment with Physical Therapy at the hospital. The first thing they did was issue us a chit for chow. The hospital's cafeteria was awesome. Then we took a tour of the main PX and went to the post office so I could mail a letter. SSG Johnson, our platoon sergeant was walking in as we were walking out. Oh, shit! "Joe Willy what are yo doing in the Post Office" "Suicide Guy", " I had to mail a letter, sergeant" Sgt Johnson to me, "Are you supposed to be watching him?" "My orders are to never let him out of my sight and go whenever he goes, sergeant. I'm not big enough to stop him". SSG Johnson, laughing out loud, "Well, Joe Willy, you two had better get back to the hospital before you get into trouble". "Yes, sergeant" I went through the night assault course with A Company. It was the most pathetic joke ever. You could almost walk through the lanes that had been worn under the barbed wire. You needed to, too. The instructors had through all the large rocks they could find find in there to try to keep them from wearing down so fast. The machine guns were in bunkers on two hills and firing at least 20 feet over our heads. After clearing the wire "obstacle" , we were to wait until the flood lights came on before "assaulting" our way through to the back World War One suicide style. While we waited, the guns fired (WAAAAY) overhead and the propane simulators fired off and we even had a couple of small demo charges fired off safety inside enclosures so nobody could get too close. I sat down behind a jeep that had been 'destroyed by enemy fire" and waited. When one of the propane flashes lit us up, this guy about twenty feet away yelled out, "What do we do now?". He was so terrified that he was literally shaking. I was amazed. I wondered where he could have come from to be so frightened of loud noises. "We wait unit until they turn the lights on and then we play soldier". I went in the second batch. While we waited for the first group to go through, we saw the tracers through the windows of the building we were in. None of us knew at that point just how high those tracers were going to be. I was remembering the stories of my uncles from the the 1950's; including Uncle Thurman's story about the guy who crawled up face-to-face with a snake and stood up just in time to catch a round in the forehead. I was started to be glad that "Little Korea" was so damn cold in January. We were watching the tracers and talking when this A Company guy popped up with, "Oh, hell, it's only tracers". Without thinking first, I said, "And what the hell do you think is carrying that tracer? A fucking bullet!" I'm surprised they didn't all kick my ass. I guess they were as blown away by his stupidity as I was.

Yep. Oct. '87 here!! Alpha 2-10. Gor my ass smoked several times!!LOL

In 1986, the army had just started instituting non-verbally abusive training. Not that they didn't slip from time to time but as explained by Drill Sergeant Moore, they wanted to instill a more positive approach. Man did they struggle with not ripping us to shreds! ))

I was at Fort Leonard Wood for Basic in Bravo 5-3 on July 1984. You are right this was the cleaned up version for the camera. The Drill Sergeants would cuss you up one and down the other. I even saw on several occasions put their hands on a recruit and dare anyone to say anything about it. Looking back though the eyes of a old man I would do it allover again. The best of times during what you think is the worst of times . My Drill Sergeant was SFC Velichek , and Sgt. Williams still remember them to this day.

@@danfunk7307 Dan, I think the Bravo units were next door to us in those old metal buildings. That was one Hot Muggy July in 1984. I remember countless times just hanging my head and watching the sweat drip off my nose. Too tired to wipe the sweat off. With all my experiences in life, that summer of 84 in Basic Training was the best. Even with the harsh conditions Basic used to be.

Still serving?

Your cannot deploy till you finish Basic and AIT.

Ken Knight yep kinda remembered nick name there is fort misery or something like that, I was there 1985

You said the same thing I said after I left there. I still remember 11-12-87 as the coldest I've ever been in my life at that time and I was from the mountains.

C-4-2 August 1986 here. 12B

B2-2 march 1986

Snows in the morning and is 78 degrees by noon. C 2-10

I just graduated in August 2023. They still have the vacuum hoses on the clippers. The base looks a lot different now, but it seems like only a few things have changed in the training experience. I'm sure the Drill Sergeants were a lot scarier back then, as well. Thanks for your service!

I have been in The PX at leonard wood a few years ago and it looked just like a civilian mall with a the typical fast food crap .when I was there in 85 there was none of that no fast food

nah nothing beats the BCGs

It was like 3 bucks.

PenTaFPS I got lucky some how..... they didn’t get me mine until the first time they let us have as much food and ice cream as we wanted.... lol

My barber earned every penny of it.

MrDaviso360 they charged me 13 bucks

1981. Lost in woods summer into fall

93 - Was still Lost in the woods summer into fall

1986-damm rocks are still there

aka Fort Lost in the Woods

were you in desert storm?

Marc-june B2-2 1986

I went through april-june of 82 with. A2-2

Basic Training 1986 March to June. 52 yo now... those were some pretty awesome times when i think back on it now.

What company? I was in D-4/10 2nd Platoon, June 6 of 1989. Just 18 of us started, and then a week later they brought in like 200 other soldiers, and so just restarted the whole cycle -- we got to do Week 1 twice.

Tim Johns Yep I remember that. Too weird. I was D 4-10 4th Plt during the same cycle. We almost had 1 Drill Sgt for each Joe that came running off of the cattle truck that hot assed day. They had dudes crying, puking, and nearly blacking out from heat exhaustion during the shark attack/smoke session. I'll never forget when the Sr. Drill busted out the back door with a stack of papers in his hands and yelled "HOW MANY OF YOU PUSSIES WANT TO QUIT NOW?!?! I have the release forms right here. Raise your hand if you want to get out of the Army and we'll send you home today." I couldn't believe it when about 2-3 cry babies actually raised their hands and wanted to quit after only an hour into Basic Training. Then he said something like "FUCK YOU!!! You ain't getting out that damn easily." LOL. They were crushed. Good times.

Hey what do you mean your tape and know what a year book is. I as out of curiousity, i dont want to miss out on experoences while i go in for basic. I ship to leanardwood on the 1st or 2nd week of march 92f.

I was there in January 89. C35th.....

91. Front back go. We got reserve DS even through AIT. Not sure if there was a sergeant Campbell there. Drove a white firebird. One of my DS told me I could have a soda. Campbell eat me alive.

Good SOLID FOUNDATION FOR ANY YOUNG PERSON. I was at FT / W . in the winter of ‘88 . I thought the place was a hell, even though it was super cooled. I thought the DRILL SERGEANTS WERE CRAZY. But guess what?? . At the end of the training, I didn’t watch to leave the place. The D. Sergeants became the best people I ever came across. They pointed me the right direction in life. I’m a living prove. Thanks S. Sgt, Brown. He was at my chest level, but he pocked the hell out of me with that hat. It all turned out great. I wish I could meet him and some of his colleagues again. I’m about to retire as a police officer. HOOOOOOAAAA GO ARMY !!!!!!!.

You didn't attend and complete RANGER SCHOOL?

No sir

I Did My Basic, AIT (Sand Hill) & Jump School At Ft. Benning, Ga In 1990, B Co / 1-19th / 4th Plt...

I don't know about you but my drill instructors where all Vietnam vets. I was punched in the nose my hands were stepped on when we were dropped. One of the guys in my platoon was kicked in the thigh by a drill sergeant while doing mountain climbers. I heard guys cry at night after lights out. MY basic training was hell till we got to white phase. I was at fort lost in the woods in the summer of 1987.

The contractors running the chow hall changed just as our cycle started. It was so bad that the drills asked for the company to issued MRE's instead. One morning A Company went to chow first. There was 0 milk by the time we got there. We were, ahem, disappointed. We did not know that the milk had been sitting in the dispensers all night, with the power turned off. So many people in A Company got sick that the entire company lost a training day. B/87th Engineers was the first unit to receive bayonet training since 1973. The guys in the next cycle of A Company got pugels, too. SSG Gentry was long-waisted but his short little legs could walk faster than the rest of us could trot. SSG Kelly marched with his hand on his nuts. SSG Johnson took care of his people. SSG "Ken Doll" was a former Misguided Child of Uncle Sam who like to sing "Up jumped a monkey from a coconut grove . . ." when he led marches. SSG Bowman was always a complete dick to us; but his platoon always had toilet paper we could steal when ours ran out. He made sure they had what they needed. Senior Drill SSF Short was from the 10Worst and managed to keep a straight face when he spun around and lunged at my face with a fixed bayonet when I didn't flinch and the rest of the platoon pretty much fell down. I'd noticed he was carefully pacing off from me as he lectured and made up my mind that I WOULD NOT move - although I did pray that he didn't miscalculate or slip on the ice. SGT Smith was a giant from Alabama whose shoulders reached the top of the doorframes - he had to bend door to enter a room. His arms were larger than my legs. He picked me up by my ear when I fell on the ice during a road march. But after SSF Short and I both had been unable to clear and double overfeed in my POS M16A2, he made two grunting pulls on the charging handle and out popped to fairly mangled rounds. I'm surprised the charging handle didn't break. The first sergeant was a former motor pool guy who loved to try to convince people he was some kind of super soldier and bragged about how he was going on the road march with us. Of course, while we had full rucks, his was empty except for the ensolite sleeping pad he'd used to block the form. When he went back inside the orderly room for something, the nearest drill held up Top's ruck with his pinky. We all laughed. Without penalty. SSG Bynum was determined to prove that she had the biggest nuts, but ABSOLUTELY hammered a slut in AIT who was trying to destroy a fellow soldiers life in AIT because he was the first guy to hit on her after she found out that the rest of her platoon laughed at her behind her back because she was such a tramp. The girl's room mate had told SSG Bynum that the girl routinely went onto the open platoon bay wearing her PT shorts pulled as far up her ass as she could them and I'd had to make a statement about how many times I'd seen her pretending to wait to use the pay phone at the other end of the barracks while letting everyone else go first so she could play with the dumbasses in line and how when the projector malfunctioned at the post theater and we all turned around when the house lights came up, there was no way to tell where she ended and the two guys she was wrapped up with began. Hell hath no fury like SSG Bynum at a girl who was busily destroying everything SSG Bynum had spent her career trying to build up and proving every bias and presumption that she'd tried to overcome. SSG Bynum earned tremendous respect from me that day as I stood at parade rest while words hurt my ears through a closed office door twenty feet down the hall. Captain Cowder was the only one who never used profanity. I did see the man so infuriated one morning that he told the drills that, "A Company can go have sex with themselves". The short little bitch who commanded A Company from her Jeep with the, "Women are natural leaders, You're following one now" bumper sticker was so aware of her inferiority that she berated the hell our of me once because I failed to salute her as I exited the Mess Hall directly int the afternoon sun which was conveniently behind her back. Salute her? Hell, I didn't even know she was there. Then there was the morning in AIT that the Brigade Commander gave the new drill sergeant a ration of shit because I had called the couple of new guys working on the floor with to parade rest when I saw through a spinning fan what looked like the First Sergeant. Colonel Dipshit was wearing a yellow PT suit with no insignia at all and I'd only seen him once several months before and the new guys had never laid eyes on him at all.

I also started in Jan 1988. It sure does bring you back!

I was looking for that too

I loved the hostess fruit pies also , and when were able to actually drink a soda from the machine was pure bliss , tasted like heaven!!

Yes...same here C-3-4 from 1985. 5 minutes to eat, sent to bed and they came soon after to get us processing.

I was there the exact same time. Alpha company 31st battalion.

Alpha 6-10 ! 1988

Bryan Tracy E-6-10 1987 ...

Thomas, A-5-3 84

Bravo 6-10 1987

I got stationed there after doing basic training there, then AIT... When the Cadre read my orders, everyone in the room when "Oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhh....." and a small dark cloud entered the room... (best time of my life)... :)

I was in B-2-3 in 1986.

I wonder if they still have the family of civies who worked there cutting hair, passing out uniforms/supplies and maintained the pots and pans? I'm almost certain that they were casted as the imbread group on that movie The Hills Have Eyes.

Stan Mack lmao. those church revivals

Stan Mack

Stan Mack I’m sure they do. I went through basic in Ft Leonardwood in 87 and in 2005 i re-enlisted civilians were still handing out the gear

If you did that and got caught when I went through there in 1982,you would have paid dearly for that pie.

Michael Brock I was there the same time you are... if I remember correctly I think ours was D-2-3

I was also there d42 sept-dec 85 . Was sgt Manuel n sgt korchek(spelling bad, tall white guy super cool) 1st platoon. Man I remember that cattle truck. I was 19 there

E 4-2

Don't forget salt peter so we wouldn't get a boner for two months!!LMAO

I would rather go to Somalia than do that again.

This was an Awesome film!!!

I KNOW THAT FEEL!!! YES! I remember pulling in on that bus and saw a class graduating all I could think of was how fkn lucky they were. I remember the first time going to the PX and seeing another recruit in AIT he asked me "what week are you in?" I said "week 2" and he gave me that "sucks to be you" look LOL. The I remember the day I graduated, Went to the PX after I changed back into PTs and I asked a recruit "what week are you in?" he said "week 2" and I gave him the the "OH man! must suck to be you" look and told him it'll be over before he knows it.

flirtwithapokerface I graduated Delta Co 35th in 01. this video made me lmao. SFC Daniels tore our rooms apart on a weekly basis! And I remember the cs chamber. they let us all load up on chocolate milk before we went. nothing but puke EVERYWHERE.

@@fredwinky12 and they made sure that you shaved real good that day as well

+bitter37 I was there from August 1988 to December 1988. Bravo 5-10 2nd platoon.

I forgot what company I was in> I know I graduated basic in November of 88 and my AIT in January of 89.

me too. What training company?

+Douglas Kirby L I honestly can't remember.

Same here. I was Delta 4-10, and Bravo 58th Trans.

Me to!!! 372nd Eng. Battallion.

I was in Charlie 2-3 third platoon March -May of 1987. Remember many of the same DRILL sergeants.

Ft Bliss they told us if we gave blood we would get a free bowling pass. Well we did and as we walked out the DS took it back and said, "Never said you would get to go bowling." Next we were told we would get to go see the Monkees and the Turtles in concert. We get there get in the stands and hear the Monkees play their last song. Then we got to police the whole area and march back to our barracks. Fun times and got to go to Juarez for the morning just before graduation. Some of the guys had to go to sick call after that.

I was there nov-93 march 94 basic and AIT d-5-10 I believe got food poisoning in field they closed down post and forgot we were out in the field for three days

C-3-3 in May - July 1982.

I was in E-4-3 (tin barracks) April 1982

Note the patches those two drill sergeants were wearing. Those were Army Reserve drill sergeants, so they spend most of their time as civilians.

he did.

+John Simpson yeah, ours wore TRADOC patches all.

IIRC we sometimes has a "shitter" on some of the ranges. LOL

+Amy E.O.D

I was in Jackson in 95 during training!

We have a family history at FLW. I went though BCT there Jun-Aug 1987 (E-5-10). He was based there in the mid-60s as an 88M and laughed his ass off when he found out where I was going.

Amy who is your dad? I'm pete markusic,C-1-2,same cycle

Peter Markusic He was a generator Mechanic. 1984-1987 got out as a specialist. I was a signals analyst, so I went to South Carolina and Pensacola, 05-2013 medical discharge as a Sergeant (Promotable)

I was in Foxtrot 4-4, 4th Platoon in the old overflow barracks, in the summer of '84.

62J. You, me and SGT Smith. He'd already run into the E5 to E6 career-ending bottleneck that waited on all of us.

+James A. Mouton I was there around the same time bro, August 1988 to December 1988. B 5-10.

James A. Mouton C5/10 Aug 93