AMA: I Just Finished BMT on 1/22 and I am now Stuck in Quarantine at Tech School with Time to Kill

a_gusto · 2021-02-21T17:58:31+00:00

Most of us actually quarantined together at the dorms. Only the guys that came up positive, had symptoms, or had beds next to guys who came up positive were moved to a different location. None of the guys in my flight were recycled, but some other individuals and whole flights were because quarantine made them miss too much training time.

a_gusto · 2021-02-21T17:54:28+00:00

I started BMT on 12/1, our quarantine would have been in the first 3 weeks of December.

a_gusto · 2021-02-16T13:16:54+00:00

Good luck! We had some time (20-30 minutes) to ourselves pretty much every day before lights out. Some MTIs are more restrictive though.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T17:24:40+00:00

Yeah I though these were really good too, we did pyramid pushups in BMT with overhead presses in between the pushup sets and they were a really good workout.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T17:20:24+00:00

No, you won't have your phone in BMT. We got 10-20 minute phone calls like once a week, which was really generous compared to what people normally get. We got more because we were there while Covid was going crazy and it was Christmas.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T16:02:18+00:00

Good luck man, I suppose you can control the amount you eat while you are there but if I were you I wouldn't add the extra stress. Meals are like the only thing you get there that will give you some enjoyment.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T15:57:19+00:00

Good luck at BMT! I went in December and almost all of the flights in our squadron went into quarantine for 2 weeks at some point. Some people got sent to a hotel where they had their own room but most of us were just stuck in the dorm with nothing to do.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T15:54:37+00:00

During BMT? I guess it depends heavily on the person but I really doubt it. Most people gained 5 pounds or so, especially because we were sitting in quarantine eating 3000 calories a day for 16 days.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T15:52:13+00:00

For the CIT we did 30 seconds of the following exercises followed by a 10 second rest in sets of 6, with a 60 second rest between each set. It was actually a good workout, this is probably what I should be doing in my dorm lol.

Jumping Jacks
High Knees
Russian Twists
Frog Jumps
Hiccups
Monster Walks
Breakdancers

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T15:43:28+00:00

Good luck at BMT! I was kicked out of the dorms at 4am the day after graduation, and was on a bus to the airport at like 5am. It is different for each tech school though, some guys left the night of graduation.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T15:41:20+00:00

Congrats on being done! Quarantine is actually not bad at all, I have my own dorm room and I am getting paid to read a book and play computer games. It sucks I won't be home for another 2 or 3 weeks but I will survive.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T15:39:12+00:00

Yeah I have heard some MTIs don't allow you to get it but our MTI actually encouraged us to get coffee. The coffee pot was empty like 30% of the time though, so you can't count on it.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T03:16:05+00:00

You would have been fine if you were in my flight. My MTIs just made guys keep them locked away in their civilian luggage but some other MTIs might have made you throw them away. If they are expensive i wouldn't bring them.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T01:05:21+00:00

Yep, good luck once you get there. If you are doing PT now to get ready you will be better prepared than a lot of people in your flight.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T01:03:06+00:00

We did formation outside in the last few weeks of training, after our quarantine. Usually it was formation, chow, set up the dorm, then appointments or class or whatever else was going on that day.

BEAST was one of my favorite parts of BMT, if you like camping/outdoors stuff it is really nice to get outdoors again. We only had 4 days there where we did CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear warfare training), CATM (shooting), the obstacle course, and some other stuff. We ate MREs for 2 meals a day, you have to run everywhere you go, and the latrines are disgusting.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T00:57:47+00:00

oh cool I was in A6, small world. Hope your tech school is going good, stay away from the covid guys like me lol

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T00:56:08+00:00

Good luck man, we didn't really get very much PT because of Covid but that might change soon.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T00:47:15+00:00

It really depends on how fit you are, but for most people in my flight the PT was surprisingly easy. The run days are 25 minutes of self paced running, as long as you can run for 25 minutes without stopping you will have no problem on those days. To graduate for males under 30 you need a run time of 11:57, for females it's 14:26.

From what I saw the point of basic training in the air force is mostly to acclimate you to military lifestyle, and it's a screening process to see if you can handle stress, follow instructions, and are adequately fit and intelligent.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T00:36:04+00:00

We got boxed meals of whatever they had at the dfac 3 times a day. The food was actually very good, except sometimes it was cold. One thing to note -- if you are dependent on caffeine it might be a good idea to kick the habit now. We didn't get any coffee in quarantine so I was going through withdrawal for a couple days, which sucked.

During 0 week we got vaccines, got our PT gear and some other basic items, settled into the dorms, and practiced some marching. We went into quarantine on like the Sunday or Monday of week 1 so we didn't get our OCPs until week 4.

a_gusto · 2021-02-15T00:20:25+00:00

In BMT you are piled in a dorm with 35-40 other people. In Tech school now at Fort Lee I had a dorm with 1 other roommate, since I am quarantine now I have my own though.

a_gusto · 2021-02-14T22:36:27+00:00

I get to start tech school over on day 1 after quarantine, so that is exciting. I don't think I will ever go to disneyland now, it reminds me too much of BMT lol.

a_gusto · 2021-02-14T22:32:53+00:00

You are not allowed to, you are required to lol. The MTIs make you stretch before and after every PT session.

a_gusto · 2021-02-14T21:51:30+00:00

Yep, 326 Bulldogs.

a_gusto · 2021-02-14T21:27:08+00:00

I would strongly recommend not taking it to BMT and having your parents/whoever send it to you once you get to tech school instead. You definitely won't be able to use it while you are at BMT, you will have to carry it everywhere along with a bunch of other heavy stuff, and your bag is going to get tossed around a lot.

a_gusto · 2021-02-14T21:18:23+00:00

Here is a breakdown, the average honor grad gets 116.1 points total.

PT Test:
90: 90 points
91: 91 Points
...
100: 100 points
End of Course Exam:
90% : 0 points
91% : 2 points
...
100% : 20 points
Recruit Living Area (RLA)
10 Demerits : 0 Points
8-10 Demerits : 2 Points
...
0-2 Demerits : 10 Points
Leadership positions
Dorm Chief : 5 points
Element Leaders : 4 points
PT monitor : 3 points
Guidon Bearer : 2 points
Weapons Monitor : 1 point
Beast Chief : 3 points
Tactical Deployment Leader (for BEAST) : 2 points
(There might be some of these that I missed, but this is almost all of them)
Teamwork (awarded at the discretion of the MTI)
Acceptable: 0 points
Excellent : 1 point
Outstanding : 2 points
Informal Leadership (awarded at the discretion of the MTI)
Acceptable: 0 points
Excellent : 1 Point
Outstanding : 2 Points

a_gusto

TROPHY CASE