Wish me luck - I'm going to basic

[Jaguars!]

I know I haven't been here long, and now I'm going.

On Friday I join the NZ Territorial forces* at Waiouru for a seven week all-arms recruit couse - In other words, army basic training. Apprehensive would be a pretty good description of my mental state right now.

I'm expecting pretty much anything to happen- I'm hoping they've told me the important stuff, and as for the rest, well, shit happens.

So here's hoping that I won't be able to talk to you guys for a good two months - and not, say, 3 weeks.

Oh, and what should I do if they tell me to go fetch a box of grid squares? ;)

* Army Reserve

[Lanzy]

Good luck but you won't need it, just do what you're told, including the grid squares. Laugh a lot, I did.

[Cunctator]

Good luck. I'll be driving through Waiouru next week. I'll wave over the fence.

[Pai325]

Good luck!

[maggenpye]

Good onya mate.

[Crowbar of Irony +3]

Say hi to Frodo if you find him camping out on your minefields or something.

[Lust4Life]

Good for you mate, there will be shit times if its anything like Brit basic but just keep on going.

[ExTank]

Oh, and what should I do if they tell me to go fetch a box of grid squares? ;)


Bring them some saltine crackers from the mess.

[Khadaji]

Wow! Good luck with your new adventure.

[Autolycus]

Good luck and errr... have fun?

[Quasimodem]

Best wishes and thanks for serving your country!

Quasi

[Rysdad]

Good for you mate, there will be shit times if its anything like Brit basic but just keep on going.

I imagine all basic training experiences 'basically' suck.

Just remember three things: Do what you're told, try not to "stick out" (thereby drawing extra attention from the training NCO's), and it'll be over soon.

You will make it. It may not seem like it at first, but they overload everyone at the beginning. Keep up as best you can. Try as hard as you possibly can. You will make it.

Good luck!

[phouka]

Have fun stormin' da castle!

[Jaguars!]

Thanks all, See ya later.

[Poysyn]

Remember - they want you to improve, so if you do everything perfect the first time, it's actually worse.

Keep working and remember it's a game. They are beasting you because someone beasted them...

[BaneSidhe]

Good luck to ya!

[don't ask]

Rhys Darby (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMZREeAx6yM) has all you need to know.

[WordMan]

Best of luck Jaguars!

[Uosdwis R. Dewoh]

Good luck Jaguars. Basic training wasn't as bad as I feared, in fact, it was pretty fun. My advice is to not take the things the NCOs might say personally, they're supposed to ride your ass hard in basic. Also, always have an extra pair of dry socks handy.

[faithfool]

Good luck!

[Gukumatz]

Stuffing your socks with cotton balls overnight will help them dry if you don't have any other way. (The cotton can then be left back in camp while you're out.) Because you don't want to familiarize yourself with the concept of "swampfoot". Trust me.

[Cunctator]

The seven weeks must almost be up by now Jaguars! How has it all gone?

[Siam Sam]

Cool! Will they make you do any of those Maori war dances where everyone sticks their tongue out? A Kiwi rugby team -- the All Blacks maybe? -- plays in our annual elephant-polo tournament every year, and they always do that beforehand. It looks neat as hell.

[Gleena]

Cool! Will they make you do any of those Maori war dances where everyone sticks their tongue out? A Kiwi rugby team -- the All Blacks maybe? -- plays in our annual elephant-polo tournament every year, and they always do that beforehand. It looks neat as hell.

It's called the Haka

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd0kDxP04eI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haka

[Jaguars!]

Hello Everybody! I didn't expect to see this thread on the front page on my first view here!

I marched out saturday and I've been back at my civvie job for two and a half days now.
All I can say is that it is a world apart in there. All we knew of the outside world was that there was an earthquake in christchurch and an earthquake in japan. It was a incredible experience that varied between pure awesomeness and pure suck.

I did do a Haka called 'Tu' during the March out parade. It's specially written for the Army and is named after Tūmatauenga, the Maori god of war (You can see why he is normally just 'Tu' ;))
I have a nasty cough right now from shouting myself hoarse while doing it.

I'm only on a break from work at the moment but I'll get back with more info later, and I'll try and figure out somewhere to upload and share a video of the Haka.

[Bookkeeper]

Please! I love hakas.

[HappyDays]

Darn it, I wish I would have thought of this BEFORE he left. :smack:

http://www.samliew.com/blog/2011-03/nsf-with-maid-carrying-backpack-sparks-debate/

Military life would be so much more civilized with a little domestic help. :D

[Cicero]

Good on you Jaguars. And the Gallipoli celebration coming up- will you get to be in the parade?

[kopek]

Good luck! Come back some day and let us know how it went. And remember, the RSM (DI for us Yanks) may think he's God but God knows damn well He isn't a RSM.

[Jaguars!]

Our Haka. A low quality video from a poor angle, so it'll never convey the same impressions as those in attendance would have experienced. Standing in front of a haka, you should be nervous or even scared, and the accounts I heard say we did a pretty good job. As you guys see it, I am about 10th from the left, behind and left of the big blonde guy. As it was on the ground, I was to the left of the leader, immediately behind our 10 females who perform a different, eerie introduction.

The day prior, we performed our haka in greeting to the incoming Chief of Army. That's pretty high flying by anyone's standards. Of course it was all last minute and I was in my worst 5th hand uniform with a hurried shave and a 6 week old #2haircut!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjbfb7IL1bw


Good luck Jaguars. Basic training wasn't as bad as I feared, in fact, it was pretty fun. My advice is to not take the things the NCOs might say personally, they're supposed to ride your ass hard in basic. Also, always have an extra pair of dry socks handy.

I wrote for about 30 minutes on the moment that the swearing lost it's effect on me, and then the internet ate all my writing. But it was on the range, doing the snap shooting near the end of my rifle qualification and my instructor called me a motherfucker one to many times. I overloaded and just started shooting whenever the targets turned, on the idea that a hole in the target is a score regardless, which is pretty well how it worked out.

Darn it, I wish I would have thought of this BEFORE he left. :smack:

http://www.samliew.com/blog/2011-03/nsf-with-maid-carrying-backpack-sparks-debate/

Military life would be so much more civilized with a little domestic help. :D

Indeed it would. Perhaps all the maids could have scrapped it out over the two remaining unbroken washing machines, or who gets the one vacuum cleaner and who is picking dirt out of their carpet :D

Good on you Jaguars. And the Gallipoli celebration coming up- will you get to be in the parade?

Yes. It's called ANZAC day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps), it's on April 25th and its a public holiday. We don't get paid, we are just expected to attend. I'm quite fine with that.

Good luck! Come back some day and let us know how it went. And remember, the RSM (DI for us Yanks) may think he's God but God knows damn well He isn't a RSM.

Our RSM and CSM were awesome guys! (Pretty Gruff, of course) Most of our drill was from our platoon sergeants until the later part of the course when we had got better at it. Does the US have Flagpole? (Drill at the double time as a punishment.)

It was amusing during the last week of the course as all the godlike lance-corporals and corporals were ordered around as sergerants, staff-sergerants, Warrant Officer 2s, WO1s, and officers came out of the woodwork in a perfect progression, until finally the second to last day our CO (Major) was seen to hurry as we were preparing our Haka for the Major-General's visit.






Right now I am busy adjusting back to civilian life. It's amazing how much has changed in seven weeks. I keep being presented with choices about how I want to live. Do I want to restart this old habit? keep this one from the army? It's quite an experience. Even mundane work fizzes and is new at the moment.It's a privilege to get this choice of starting over on so many things.

I make quicker decisions, and I know now how I react to panic and stress ( I freeze up). My days are regimented and full, and when I rest I find small useful things to do, and I don't rest until what should be done is done.When I do painful or unpleasant tasks, I just don't regard the pain and unpleasantness until I'm finished or can't go on.

On the downside, my thinking is not as free. I used to be quite cynical and though I still automatically scan everything others for the true meaning, a large part of me wants to take everything at face value. My memory at the moment is completely shot. For example, it took me a day and a half to think of youtube when I was trying to think of how to share my haka video. I had to remember how to drive, that civvies put on Deodorant and shower every day, that I used to enjoy playing starcraft ( I still haven't played any computer games ). How crap a large portion of television is. I used to be the office expert at computers, In the last three days I managed to screw up two programs and I am still remembering new things every five minutes.

So for now, my main task is trying to retain the best of the army thinking with the best of civilian thinking, and to not surrender to the easy life. A nice trick if you can pull it off.

P.S. I was told that you can't train with an army anywhere in the Commonwealth without seeing Blackadder Goes Forth clips and more tea than you can shake a stick at. Happily for me, this was indeed the case ;)

[chacoguy]

On the downside, my thinking is not as free. I used to be quite cynical and though I still automatically scan everything others for the true meaning, a large part of me wants to take everything at face value.
So for now, my main task is trying to retain the best of the army thinking with the best of civilian thinking, and to not surrender to the easy life. A nice trick if you can pull it off.


Just remember that a large part of the training is to put you under stress and discomfort and to see how you deal with it. If they say :"Men, today we're going on a ten mile march and then we'll meet the trucks and come back here for chow." There are no trucks and there will not be any chow. Expect to be disappointed. If you're wrong, it will be a pleasant surprise. If you buy in to what they tell you, you will be on an emotional roller coaster. If you take a course of mild cynicism and say "Fuck it, it don't mean nothin'. I can take this" You'll do well.

Take sleeping in the open, in the rain; if you just snuggle down in your poncho and make the best of it, it will suck, but you will get rest. If you lie there cursing the Fates (And your Drill Team), you'll be much worse off.

Good on you and Good Luck.

[Jaguars!]

To clarify, I've already been, and found much of this out. ;) Regarding the cynicism remark, I mean that I'm now coloured by the attitudes they've installed - Unthinking loyalty and obedience, dividing the world into good guys and bad guys. When you are a soldier on manouvres or deployment you may need that attitude to survive, but for civilian world I just like to think a bit deeper than that.

You were right of course, in that the march back to camp in the wind and rain turned round at 5.30 to collect a trip flare that had not been retrieved (yeah right) and on the last day of the next field evercise the morning horsechow was delivered 10 minutes before lunch ( We ate that slop anyway) but I never expected anything less.

[Siam Sam]

I think New Zealand should send Haka instructors to the Libyan rebels.