Basic
By
Berry Michel
The summer of 1994 was my last as a civilian. It was one of the most memorable summers of my life, but like all seasons, it came to an end and marked a period of change that would start my journey in the U.S. Army. I was scheduled to ship off to basic training in September of that year and one of the last moments I remember that summer before leaving my small town was a moment with my father. As contentious as my relationship with my father was, I remember him saying goodbye to me before I left home for good. He pulled me in for a hug and told me how proud he was of me for joining the Army and that he loved me. I can’t say I expected that of this extremely hard man, but that moment of love and affirmation from my father will stay with me forever. With that hug I think my father was trying to reconcile and bury the hatchet that had divided us most of my childhood and teen years. I don’t know if I made peace with him that day, but it was a nice moment still. With that I left my hometown and would never return to live there again.
My trip to basic training was the first time I took an airplane anywhere. It was quite the experience for a small-town boy. I flew from Richmond, Virginia to St. Louis, Missouri. I was finally free of that small town and hundreds of miles away. It was a new beginning and I finally felt like my own man free from my father’s shadow. At the St. Louis Airport I was greeted by an Army Sergeant that made sure that I and the rest of the Army recruits that arrived that day got on a bus to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The bus ride to Leonard Wood was two hours and as we left the city it appeared that we were headed to the middle of nowhere. Fort Leonard Wood is affectionally known as “Fort Lost in the Woods” because of the rural terrain that surrounds it. As we got near the base, I was thinking we really were “lost in the woods.” I remember thinking I can’t even run away if I want to because I most likely will die in the wilderness before reaching civilization. I was stuck whether I wanted to be there or not.
The first few weeks were an adjustment for me. Drill Sergeants controlled every minute of your day, and then there was the screaming and physical tasks of doing endless push-ups and flutter kicks for every mistake that was made individually or as a group. Bottom line I did not like the Army initially. I remember calling my mother telling her that I wanted to come home and the Army was not for me. Despite my initial disappointment with the Army, I decided to persevere. Something was driving me to not quit. Maybe I didn’t really want to go back to my small town. There was nothing there for me. As the weeks passed in basic, I started getting used to my new life as a Soldier. Life wasn’t that bad, and I was starting to flourish, and I enjoyed the camaraderie.
There was one moment in basic that sealed the deal for me, and I knew I made the right decision. In basic training, recruits come from all over America, from different races, religion, and backgrounds. There was this one private from Iowa, named Private Grapefruit (not his real name) that was having a hard time keeping up with the group. He was strong as hell, but he was stocky and slow. On the other hand, I was in great shape. The physical challenges were easy to me, and I would often encourage others to keep running or overcoming whatever obstacle was put in front of us. Private Grapefruit was always the slowest and I would find myself most days trying to keep him motivated and moving forward. Private Grapefruit and I didn’t have much in common. He was a white farm boy from Iowa, and I was a black kid from southeast Virginia. However, even though I had just met Private Grapefruit in basic, I didn’t want him to quit or any of my teammates to quit. So, I always cheered him on or would slow up or come back to get him on those arduous long runs.
One day near the end of basic training there was this difficult obstacle course we had to get through to complete our training. As usual, I didn’t have much trouble navigating the obstacles and I was motivating my teammates as always. At the end of this obstacle course there was this extremely steep hill that had to be climbed to finish the course. I watched all my teammates scale up this steep hill and I was cheering them on as they reached the top and then came my turn. I started to scale that steep hill, but for some reason I couldn’t get a good footing and I kept sliding back down the hill. I don’t know what happened to me that day, but on the third attempt of trying to get up that hill, I ran out of gas. I was exhausted. I had to get up that hill because I was the last Soldier that needed to complete it so our group could finish. So, I started climbing and it seemed like an eternity getting to the top of that thing. My teammates at the top noticed that I was struggling, and I remember when I finally got near the top this white hand was coming back down the hill to help pull me up to the top. That white hand was Private Grapefruit coming back to help me that day. That one moment during basic made me realize that in the Army it didn’t matter where you came from or what color your skin was. Here we were all green, Army green. From that point on I knew the Army was the team for me. No, I didn’t think the Army was perfect, but I thought it was fair. Fairer than anything I had experienced in my life to that point. They say you learn a lot about yourself and teamwork in military basic training. I would say I most certainly did and thank God, I did.
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