Day Zero

Reception Battalion

Now this book isn't only going to be about my horrible time at reception, it's also going to have some cool things I got to do there as well as a survival guide for Reception, pretty much everything about reception you will ever need to know. So once you leave MEPS you head to Reception either by a bus or plane depending on where you live in relation to you will be conducting BCT. Once you arrive there you will be immediately greeted by a drill sergeant. They will not scream or get up in your face as much because these are not your drill sergeants. There job is to get you to BCT. They will still scream just not as bad as actual BCT drill sergeants. On my first night we only had one guy get screamed at for not shaving when he was instructed to.
Just keep your head low for this entire week and everything will go smooth. Once you get of the bus they will lead everybody into this one room. You will sit at a table and they will give everybody a number. This number is called your line number. You will be called by this number a lot during the next week. You'll also be given a roster number, mine was 16263A2 so it will look like that. Make sure you don't forget either of these numbers!!! Once they finish labeling everybody, you will receive a blue book which you will be expected to read everyday and mostly memorize. Also a bag containing: sunscreen, Hand sanitizer and Chapstick will be issued to you as well. Next they will inspect your Personal bags. You'll dumb them out and they will do a quick scan for contraband, also at this point you will get to make a quick phone call before you get it taken from you. Then you fill out some paper work again. It's not a lot of paper work just some forms. The main one in there is the form you will fill out so that if it gets lost or stolen somehow they have to reimburse you for it.
That is pretty much all you have to do in this room aside from a quick briefing by all the Drill Sergeants there. At this point you'll move on to getting some basic clothing issued to you. Your no longer able to wear your civi clothes after this.