O/T Army recruits Ft. Benning

Riverslim · Oct 24, 2015

Any special significance to the different colored shirts?

Riverslim · Oct 24, 2015

Forgot to attach pic

El Toro · Oct 24, 2015

They will be in good shape when they finish basic training. I went to jump school at Ft Benning in 1953. I was with the 82nd Airborne Div. Here's several pictures. Hal

RyanTN · Oct 24, 2015

(quoted from post at 00:57:24 10/25/15) Any special significance to the different colored shirts?

So the graders of the physical training test know who to look for as they cross the finish line on the two mile run, notice they are holding their score cards.

Source: Recently retired from the Army after 21 years of service.

RandyB(MI) · Oct 24, 2015

Shorts and athletic shoes ?? Things sure changed since 1970. Fatigues , boots and hats , didn't matter how hot it was ( Fort Polk , La.) in summer.Polk was the infantry training center for the Vietnam Soldier. Big sign at entrance said so. One didn't go there to become a mail clerk. Everyone knew where they were going next.

Den N Ms · Oct 24, 2015

El Toro ,Yes Airborne, nice pics, That looks like a 49 or 50 Ford going down the road.

electro · Oct 24, 2015

PT cards are card stock, they are holding pieces of paper, likely their inprocessing checklist.

They are wearing civilian glasses. Normally get your military glasses on day 3.

The black clothes are the normal Army pt clothes. If it was a pt test, they would all be wearing numbers, not just some.

All have a camelbacks which they carry during the day when in-processing or going from training site to training site. Years ago you had a belt with a canteen everywhere you went in basic, now it is a camelback. They would not have a camelback for a pt test.

These are new recruits, first 3 days in the Army. The different colored shirts are so the squad leaders, Drills can determine which squad they are with. Once done with inprocessing, they will ship to a training battalion to start basic, or in the case of the 11Bs at Ft. Benning, they will start OSUT.

30+ years, still active duty.

oldtanker · Oct 24, 2015

Randy B: Yea they went to running shoes in the late 70's and PT uniforms in the mid 80's. Big reason for the running shoes where too many foot injuries running in boots.

Electro: I did basic in the first experimental OSUT unit. 5 of us did not stay at Ft Polk for AIT. 2 went to Ft Sill to be 13B's and myself and 2 others went to Ft Knox, 2 of us for 11E (later changed to 19E and then 19K as the M60 series tanks were phased out) and the other guy to be an 11D (back in them days Scout).

Rick

JerryS · Oct 25, 2015

Took basic at Polk in July/August of '66. You're right about fatigues and boots; no hats, but helmet liners. The only concession they made to the heat was when the heat index reached a certain point we were told to "unblouse" our boots, meaning remove the elastic bands in our pants cuffs and let the cuffs fall to our boot tops. If the HI got really high, we'd take 15 minute breaks. The only time the fatigue shirt came off was when we did PT at about 0700. The neck of your sweaty T-shirt scooped up the sand from the PT field and it stayed there for the rest of the day. Fun. Didn't kill us though.

Don't know if boots were the problem, but several guys in our company developed stress fractures in their feet early in the cycle and suffered with them for the rest of basic. They weren't excused from training.

oldtanker · Oct 25, 2015

(quoted from post at 22:06:10 10/24/15) Took basic at Polk in July/August of '66. You're right about fatigues and boots; no hats, but helmet liners. The only concession they made to the heat was when the heat index reached a certain point we were told to "unblouse" our boots, meaning remove the elastic bands in our pants cuffs and let the cuffs fall to our boot tops. If the HI got really high, we'd take 15 minute breaks. The only time the fatigue shirt came off was when we did PT at about 0700. The neck of your sweaty T-shirt scooped up the sand from the PT field and it stayed there for the rest of the day. Fun. Didn't kill us though.

Don't know if boots were the problem, but several guys in our company developed stress fractures in their feet early in the cycle and suffered with them for the rest of basic. They weren't excused from training.

Big part of the PT uniform was that they started doing PT at 0600 hours in the mid 70's (some officer decided that the Army would have fewer alcohol related problems doing PT that early cause the good little boys and girls would go to bed earlier). With PT at 0600 and having to work a full day it was decided that soldiers needed a chance to shower and put on a fresh uniform before actually working all day. We went to PT at 0730 hours to 0600 and from 3 days a week to 5 days a week right before I left Ft Riley in 76.

Rick

keh · Oct 25, 2015

1962 in basic training at Ft. Jackson, SC, we always ran in combat boots.

KEH

RandyB(MI) · Oct 25, 2015

Yea, Jerry, I remember they did also "let" us pull our shirt tail out too when real hot. Otherwise pretty much like Northern Michigan, sand and pine trees. I was "11 C 10" 81 mm mortars.

O/T Army recruits Ft. Benning

Riverslim

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electro

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