Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, is home to the U.S. Air Force boot camp. This boot camp is a six-week program that teaches the recruit Air Force history, military lifestyle, and physical fitness. Also called basic military training (BMT), it is broken into 45-man groups called flights. Each flight will work together to train and learn about the Air Force lifestyle. The top goal of BMT is to teach recruits how to work and function as a group.
Air Force boot camp is broken into training sections that change each week. For example, paperwork and clothing issue are all parts of the first week of training. Haircuts and learning to identify Air Force rank insignias are accompanied with physical training and classes on Air Force history. Medical and dental issues will be addressed, I.D. cards will be issued, and the flights will prepare their dormitory. Recruits will also learn how to salute and report properly.
Week two teaches the recruit to march and drill properly. Basic military lifestyle and military expectation will be addressed, and recruits will begin to work as a team within their flight and individualism will begin to disappear. Each recruit will speak with his or her military training instructor and the flight will prepare for inspection. Personal fitness and appearance will be stressed during week two.
The following weeks focus on physical training and discipline, which are the driving forces behind Air Force boot camp. Turning civilians into military personnel capable of going to war is the job of those in charge. Finding ways to motivate and explaining what is expected of the recruits is the job of the training officers. The experience molds individuals into team players.
When peace time turns into time of conflict, a soldier has only his or her training to depend on in order to survive. Air Force boot camp insures that all of the recruits who finish the training program have the skills necessary to survive any situation. Once a recruit has mastered a classroom scenario, he or she will have a chance to exhibit his or her skills in a mock battle situation. Stress, excitement and fear will all be matters of focused training to help a new recruit survive any form of conflict.
Boot camp is a process, and the result is well-trained soldiers and airmen. Working as a team, airmen learn how to be an individual member of an elite team. Basic training creates well oiled parts of the greater organization.
