Becoming A Marine

Chapter 3

Third person point of view

Once everyone had spoken on the phone. The boys were  taken to get their hair shaved off. As for us girls,our hair had to be shoulder lenght or shorter if wanted.

Once everyones hair was cut.We we arrived at our basic training unit, there we were  issued our TA-50, also known as field gear. Field gear consists of things like the Kevlar helmet, sleeping bag, LBE (load bearing equipment), a canteen, field pack, poncho, wet weather gear, mess kit, and so on. Also we were given clothes which consisted of our
dress uniforms, boots, black shoes called low quarters, belts, hats, coats, and even towels, socks, and underwear. After that we had to place all our items in the huge storage chest at the foot of our bed.

Arrival at bootcamp was complete after the boys and girls had been assigned into their different dorms and had been medically examined and eye glasses had been issued to the recruits who wore glasses they were all marched off into dining hall. At the dining hall they all ate in silence,lots of people had different attitudes and it was easy to see people who were nervous to be here or that some felt under prepared looking at how fit the other recruits were .

Taylor sat down with her 3 pieces of chicken,a small portion of salad with a couple of slices of bread.

A sense of freedom and peace had overcome Taylor since she no longer was living with the people that caused her so much pain.

The new recruits were then instructed to go shower.

First they were to strip down and put their clothes on top of their storage chests, later on they would wash their clothes once free time was given. Then they were to take out the sleeping items of clothing and undergarments and place it on top of the chest next to the dirty laundry. Once that was done everyone had wrapped themselves up in towels. And headed to the showers.

When Taylor and the rest of the girls entered the showers, some were shocked, others weren't surprised that there would be no privacy meaning there were no cubicles or shower curtains,it was one big room with thirty  showers heads next to each  other spaced out enough so all the recruits were not standing on top of each other.

The shy girls took time to remove the towels off of their bodies while the girls who were exhausted and didn't care what people thought about them jumped right into washing themselves down and their hair.

Taylor was shy but she got the message quickly to herself that this is how life was going to be. She'd have to show herself as a courageous and confident person if she did not want to he kicked out from bootcamp whether it be during practice or while she ate, showered and the way she presented herself infront of people. There was no more time for her to be a wuss.

There were no hair dryers so many of the girls hair were wet and she started to understand why some of the girls had cut their hair into boy cuts.

Once dressed in pajamas which consisted of a pair of brown shorts and a pea green shirt,she put on her flip flops and trudged towards the laundry room.

Taylor Pov
I chucked my clothes into the washing my machine and then turned towards the girl next to me who happened to be the girl who was shouted at by the sergeant Curt for being on her phone.

"Hi there,I was wondering if I could get some washing powder?",Taylor said.

The girl looked at Taylor and passed her the bucket full with washing powder. She then replied, "I'm Charlize by the way."

After Charlize had introduced herself so did Taylor. They both had started a quick conversation about what they thought would happen tomorrow when bootcamp began. They too then agreed that they would do washing together and help each other out when the other was busy or too tired to wash clothes.

The clothes were washed, ironed and placed into the chests. It was now 20:45 and lights out would be at 21:00.
Taylors bed was next to Charlizes bed. They were assigned a bed in a alphabetical order. Taylor Anderson was therfore before Charlize Bailey.

The lights went out at 21:00 exactly. That night non of new recruits had to patrol at night and stay awake but once tomorrow hit they each would take a turn to stand guard and patrol outside of the dorm. This would then show the drill instructors who was capable of handling pressure when 1 of them hadn't had a nights rest. This would help to allocate the recruits to their jobs or to see who needed more training. Only a few lucky recruits would have the opportunity to start serving the country straight after training.

Training period could range from 6 months to a full year depending on how the drill instructors chose to do the training programs.

The next morning would hold many surprises for all of them.

While Taylor lay in bed she chuckled at herself feeling a bit guilty that she had left her two year old gold fish,Orangette. She wondered if anyone would feed  the fish or  change and clean it's aquarium. Maybe her father would just flush the fish down the toilet once it died or give it to the neighbours son.

While thinking about her goldfish she drifted off into a deep  sleep.

Next morning
*alarm sirens* went off, waking up the people on campus. Everyone quickly got out of bed, got dressed into their training uniforms and quickly did their daily hygiene routine. The next time they would get to shower would be after training.

Everyone tried their level best to make their bed the way sergeant Curt had showed and instructed them to with the folding the inner sheet up at a 90° degree angle and then tucking it in and setting the second sheet on top and flattening it out so there were no creases.

Sergeant Curt came and randomly examined a couple of beds. At random he marched to Taylors bed and inspected it after inspecting it he looked Taylor up in the eyes and said,"Recruit Anderson well done for listening and complying to my orders correctly."

Taylor then nodded. After inspection they all went to have breakfast. Taylor and Charlize sat together at a table having some tea,eggs and toast.

Once breakfast service was over the new recruits then lined up once again on the yellow footprints.

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Hey guys new update,maybe I'll introduce a special new character in the next chapter no promises X hehe.
Stay tuned😁

Btw I changed Taylor Harris to Taylor Anderson.
Please give me some feedback like direct msg me I'll give you a shout out even and vote pls.