New recruit- 13B

Hi all,

Just joined today as a cannon crewmember. Even with my GED I was able to land $6000 bonus as well as an airborne slot. I feel very lucky, like it was meant to be... my recruiter was pretty surprised as well at the stuff I was able to land. I will be doing my basic in Oklahoma (?) I guess and I would like to know if anyone knows about this base. It says Sill, on my reservation paper, for OSUT and Benning for BAT. Any comments about that base in general that I should know about?

I leave November 9th for basic and I cant wait. Been waiting for a year now to get the red tape out of the way sine I had to be a DEP loss as well as getting my GED.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi!

Regards,
Pvt. Randy A. Reamer

Ft Sill, OK is a fairly old installation, it used to be a cavalry post. There is not much new or really modern about the post but it is chock full of history and if that's your thing then you will be thrilled....the old cav post is still there and is now a museum, also many famous Native Americans tribal chiefs are buried at Ft Sill to include Geronimo and Quannah Parker to name a few. Ft Sill is adjacent to Lawton, a pretty typical military town. The area you will be in is a little bit of a walk from the PX and clothing sales...they keep the IET troops isolated. Just do what you are told and disregard all of the knuckleheads you will meet that want to keep doing their own thing.....they will learn, but the hard way.


Ft Benning is also very historic, visit the Infantry museum if you get a chance, it is awesome. You will run into lots of different types at Benning, lots of infantry and Rangers...best thing to do is to keep you mouth shut, concentrate on your training, and stay out of trouble. Airborne school is pretty easy, just long, lots of slow running...by the time jump week comes along, you'll be chomping at the bit to go out the door of the plane.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks for the history lesson on the bases. I will be sure to take the time to absorb it all when I get the chance to. Too bad I wanted to leave yesterday

Randy

[SteelRain]

Just wanted to ad my own two cents about Sill and Lawton, The skies are beautiful and the wind blows almost constantly, I wenjt through OSUT Training as a 13B before they reclassed me to 13M (still at Sill)

My advise, on Sill everyone is watching you, they know your a recruit because you don't have a permanent party patch on your left shoulder keep your nose clean do what your told go where your told wear what your told and you should be ok.

It gets pretty cold there in the winter especially since the wind never stops blowing be prepared for this and never leave your cold weather gear behind.

Should you be given the oppertunity to leave base don't let the cab drivers talk you into going to one of the massage parlors or down to Texas to get a tattoo they will try. There will be plenty of time for tattoo's and women later, stay focused on your training.

A smart man learns from his own mistakes, a wise man learns from others'.

OSUT sucks a little because you have the same Drill Sergeants you had all the way through Basic and AIT unlike going through Basic with one Unit then AIT with another where you get to start over with a relatively clean slate. The advantage of OSUT training is that you form a much tighter bond with the other guys in your platoon.

Take care of your buddies even if they don't take care of you everyone will benefit from this.

Do your best and hang in there, you will find that you are capable of doing things you never thought you could.