Word: drilling
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...Thursday, the hard part - the Army I signed up for - began. As we sat on the bus waiting to leave Reception Camp for Basic Training, our heads down so we wouldn't be able to find our way back, a drill sergeant popped his head in to say a hearty good-bye. "Y'all can make it," he said. "But y'all gonna get scuffed...
...nine weeks you can follow any order they give you, with a stone face and an inner glow, just because they said so and because the Big D sure will come in handy if you ever have to start shooting people. At least that's the plan, and the drill sergeants, more than anyone, seem to buy it with all their hearts...
...drill sergeants have one saying for pretty much all of this - "Too easy." To which we are to gustily reply, "Too easy, drill sergeant," and when he walks by in his big-brim hat, a guy who's not only done all his asking but jumped out of airplanes besides, it really is difficult to tell him it's too hard. But that little saying is still a taunt. The time runs too long when it's theirs and much too short when it's yours (shine boots, clean locker, floss). Monday, they always promise you, it's going...
...with that, we were initiated. Three platoons were leaving for boot camp that night; we moved into the spotlight. The punishment began immediately; some guys had run off to the PX without permission. But that was hardly the point. We had the drill sergeants' attention now, and we were going to get what we had come for, a whipping, with whatever excuse was handy. That one did just fine...
...Drill sergeants must have huddled for generations over precisely what exercises, in precisely what order, cause young men to scream the loudest. The sergeant, a very funny guy when he wanted to be, had the routine by heart: push-ups, sit-ups, bicycle kicks, squats of all varieties, shoulder touches, arm twirls - more than I can remember, until the lifting of hand over head was quite nearly impossible...