Basic

“Get on your face and give me fifty push-ups, now!” My drill Sergeant yelled in my face, after I failed to recite the Airman’s Creed perfectly without any break in my speech. Doing as I was told, I dropped to the ground and grinded out a continuous fifty push-ups.

“Now, recite me the Airman’s Creed with complete fluidity!” He screamed as I was trying to catch my breath from the absurd number of push-ups I had just done.

“I am an American Airman, I am a warrior, I have answered my nation’s call. I am an American Airman, my mission is to fight, fly, win…”

“Wrong Cadet!” he screamed back in my face as I mixed up the order of my words. “Where’s your nose, cadet?”

“On my face, sir!” My heart sunk, knowing that I would have to do another unreal number of push-ups. Basic military training was absolutely kicking my ass.

July 7th, 2022. My mother and I had hopped into the car preparing to head over to my next destination in life, The United States Air Force Academy. I was an 18-year-old kid, fresh out of high school, ready to embark on my next academic, athletic, and military career. The excitement, nerves, and all other emotions in my body were a jumbled mess that I could not differentiate from one another. I was so nervous that I didn’t know how to feel. Three days prior, I was just like every other high school graduate in the nation, partying with my friends on Fourth of July, now I was headed into what would be the most challenging task of my young life.

The Air Force Academy is located in Colorado Springs, CO. It was quite the beautiful place, and I thought to myself, if I must go through boot camp, this isn’t too bad of a place to go through it. We drew closer and closer to the Academy gates. The Air Force Academy sits right on the edge of the mountains, it’s about a fifteen-minute walk to reach the paths that can take you up the mountains, so we were at a very high altitude. My mother and I finally reached the front gates of the base after what seemed like the longest ten-minute car ride of my life. The anticipation was killing me.

“Any drugs, weapons, or explosives in the vehicle?” the security forces officer routinely asked my mother. This caught me completely off guard, this was when I realized how real my situation was becoming. As we passed through the gate, towards the Academy, my mother was doing her best to calm my nerves and comfort me, telling me that I will kill it, just like I do everything else in life. She was my biggest supporter, my number one fan, and her words of encouragement always put me at ease.

Just as quick as my mother had put my nerves at ease is exactly as quick as how they shot back up when I saw the drop off line for all the cadets. Hundreds of people just like me were getting out of their cars to head to the register line, where we would be handed all our processing information to officially be solidified into the United States Air Force.

“Love you buddy, Go be great!” my mother shouted to me as I departed from the vehicle.

“Love you mama, you know I got you!” I responded to her, knowing it would put her nerves at ease as she watched her youngest son get sent away to military boot camp. I stood in line for a couple minutes waiting for my turn to get my registration done. During this waiting period I took the time to really look around at the faces of the other kids that I would be embarking on this military journey with. The variety of people here was extraordinary. Everywhere you looked there was a different height, weight, demographic, gender, so on and so forth.

. As I looked around, I also noticed that the majority of the people were smaller, and less athletic looking than I was. It was easy to tell who was admitted into the Academy based off Athletics versus academics. Knowing that I was one of the more athletic looking people in the line that I was in shot my confidence up a little. It gave me the mentality of, “If these people can go through this, then so can I.”

Finally, I was called up to the registration table. Time seemed to move very slow here. It was as if all my senses were heightened, and my observational skills were maxed out since arriving on base.

A nice lady sat at a table with a big name packet of all the future cadets that were participating in Basic Military Training. She asked for my last name. “My last name is Lal,” I told her. She looked at me with confusion as if she couldn’t fathom the name that came out of my mouth. “L as in Larry, A as in Apple, L as in Larry,” I explained to her as she turned a couple pages and found my name.

She checked me off and handed me a big yellow envelope with all the things that I would need to finish my registration process. I continued down the line picking up random things on this table that I was going to need in the future. I proceeded to shove it all in the big yellow envelope that I received at the start of the line. As I picked up each item, I was greeted by smiling faces of each person overseeing their station. Something about these smiles made me feel uneasy, it was almost like they gave off the impression that I have no idea what I’m about to get myself into.

Once I reached the end of the end of the table, I was handed a green trucker hat that had my last name in bolded letters on the front, and Bravo, in small lettering on the band that tightened the hat. I put the hat on letting the nice people at the registration table know that I was ready to get sent into the belly of the beast. The person at the end of the table pointed behind me towards the first person that I had seen in OCP’s (Military Uniform).

Following the directions of the lady at the registration table, I turned around and briskly walked towards the man standing at attention in OCP’s. He was glaring at me as I was walking up, almost as if the pace at which I had been walking was not up to his standard. From afar the man seemed more intimidating than he actually was up close. He had sort of a small scrawny build. He was about 5’8 160 pounds, not very intimidating whatsoever. I was twice his size and I couldn’t help but smirk.

“What in God’s Green Earth is funny to you cadet?” he asked me.

“Nothing, sir,” I responded.

“Then wipe that disgusting smile off your face before I send you right back to where you came from.”

Who the hell was he to have the right to talk to me like that? He told me a series of steps that I would have to follow through the rest of the day. All of which slipped my mind seconds later. As I left, I was swarmed by three Sergeants screaming in my face.

“Where are you from? Who are you? Why are you here?” they screamed in my face.

I started stumbling over my words trying to respond to each of their questions. That stumbling ended up translating over to my actions as I tripped over a crack on the sidewalk.

“Woah cadet, the ground comes at you fast doesn’t it? Watch out for that crack,” they said to me as they watched me struggle to pick up my fallen envelope.

My face was red from embarrassment. I hated these people and how they were making fun of me. I gathered my composure and carried on about my business, completely ignoring them in the process. I finally reached the squadron building where I was to drop off all my things, and with it the pestering Sergeants dispersed.

The next step was pretty boring. It was a few hours of paperwork and handing over all my essential items. It was devastating to have to hand over my phone to a bunch of people that I didn’t know. However, I did as I was told. I was stripped of my identity, all the identifications that had any ties to Aiden Lal. Except for my newly acquired green trucker hat with my last name plastered across the front. After that, I was moved to another room. This room was different. It was a lot more sombre and barren. In the middle of this room stood one folding chair, and all around this chair the floor was covered in fallen hair. My heart dropped. I knew this day was going to come, but I don’t think anything could’ve prepared me for the moment itself. I sat down in the chair as the buzzing of clippers rung out behind me.

“Could you at least try to fade up my sides, please?” I asked the old woman about to cut my hair.

“One all around,” she said back with no remorse in her voice.

Aiden Lal walked into that room, and a cadet of the United States Air Force Academy walked out. I felt completely violated from what had just gone down. I came into this building, I got stripped of my credentials, hair, and identity. I had become another pawn at the military’s disposal. Everything I said or did from this point forward was dictated my commanding officers. I was no longer an individual; I was now apart of a working machine.

The rest of day one was filled with a lot of technical things that just tested my patience more and more. After what had seemed like the longest day of my life, I was finally sent to my dorm room to get ready for the night. When I got to my room I was introduced to my roommate, Bennet. Bennet was a cool guy, and he would ultimately make basic training a lot easier for me. Knowing that him and I were going through the same struggle every day, and then would get to talk about it at the end of the days helped me a lot. We laughed and joked about how awful of an experience our first day was. There was nothing quite like being able to bond over the trauma that we had just been put through, it made life a little bit more enjoyable. Ultimately, I wanted nothing more than to just lay my head on my pillow and hope that I wake up somewhere that wasn’t The United States Air Force Academy the next day.

To my dismay, I woke up to the banging of my door, and a bugle going off at 4:50am. A voice came over the loudspeaker saying we had to change into our OCP’s and be out on the drill pad outside of our squadron building in ten minutes. I was completely disoriented. I wondered how I was supposed to be able to put on my full military uniform and be outside in ten minutes. I scrambled around my dark room trying to piece together everything that was supposed to be on my military uniform. After getting completely changed I bolted outside and made it on the drill pad with seconds to spare. This was a pretty big moment for me. It was a moment where my composure and patience had been challenged, and I overcame that challenge. I felt like I was learning to control my patience every second in an environment like the one I was being put through. We were rushed out to the drill pad to watch the United States flag be raised. We were all forced to stand at attention and salute while the flag was raised up the pole. It took the flag bearers about five whole minutes to complete the process. All of which I had to have my hand pointed at my brow, with my arm at a ninety-degree angle saluting the flag. Once the flag was raised and the national anthem quit playing, we were allowed to lower our arms and stand at attention until we were given our next instructions.

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I had gotten my food tray and headed towards my seat in an orderly fashion like we were supposed to. I bumped into the wall, causing half of my tray to spill. Multiple Sergeants yelled at me to pick everything up, and make it look spotless. I did what I was told, but through the process uncontrollable tears started to roll down my face.

I was humiliated. I had dropped my food in front of everyone. I was getting screamed at by my superiors. It seemed like the whole world was crashing down on me. This was when a man tapped me on my shoulder and told me to walk outside with him. This man’s name was Sergeant Jones. He was the leader of my basic training squadron. He was small, but he was feared by ever cadet in basic training. Sergeant Jones had tattoo sleeves shooting down both of his arms, and a notorious moustache that made him stand out amongst all his peers.

“Breathe cadet,” he told me as I tried to stop the tears from rolling down my face.

“What’s the matter, a strong guy like you wouldn’t cry over a little public humiliation, what’s really going on?”

He was right, I wasn’t a big crier, and I wasn’t really afraid to be humiliated like that. At the time I was dealing with a lot of family problems, I had lost my brother just a few months prior to basic training, and that’s exactly what I explained to him.

“I lost my brother not too long ago, and I think all of my emotions just happened to get let out in that moment, sir.”

“I understand son, I had gone through similar loss during my time in basic training. Nobody can truly understand what you are going through, but the biggest thing that I can tell you to do is just breathe.”

It may sound cliché, but these words by Sergeant Jones truly resonated with me. I was a hard-headed kid who was quick to act and carry on about my day, regardless of the circumstances. I never really just calmed down in the moment and took a deep breath. Along with this advice, Sergeant Jones had dumped loads of other advice onto me. I was lucky to be able to experience this situation because not too many people will be able to have a moment like this in basic training. Although basic training went on, and I got yelled at and embarrassed too many times to count, I never broke down again. I became very patient, and when it felt like my whole world was starting to implode, I would take a deep breath, remember the wisdom that got passed down to me, and I would keep moving forward.