Basic: Surviving Boot Camp and Basic Training

by Jack Jacobs, David Fisher

There is absolutely nothing in the American experience comparable to basic training or boot camp. If you haven't been through it, you can't understand it. But if you've been through it, you never forget it. No matter where they live, all American fighting men and women have one thing in They have survived basic military training. They've crawled through the swamps on Parris Island, stood in the frigid cold guarding a Dumpster at Great Lakes, struggled to complete fifteen bars on the horizontal ladder to get to the chow hall at Ft. Jackson, fought desperately to stay awake after long days without sleep at Lackland. They were shaved and screamed at, they barely ate, they marched a hundred miles, and they accomplished things they never would have dreamed were possible. They made the epic journey from civilian to soldier in eight weeks… and gained a lifetime of memories in the process. If you've done it, you will recognize the Drill Instructors, the marching chants, the movie segments, the proper way to make a hospital corner, the jokes, the camaraderie and the shared feeling of triumph. And those who haven't done it―yet―will understand and appreciate this life-changing experience. Basic is the story of that training. Col. Jack Jacobs and David Fisher tell the funny, sad, dramatic, poignant, and sometimes crazy history of how America has trained its military, told through the indelible memories of those who remember the experiences as if they happened yesterday.

Genres: Military Fiction, Nonfiction, History, Memoir

320 pages, Hardcover

First published May 8, 2012

Reviews

[cyd⭐️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“When it seems that every high-powered military weapon is aimed directly at you, and when the melon that used to be the head of your best buddy is disintegrated in a sickening pink spray just inches from you, the entire chemistry of your existence changes into something that can't be duplicated in any other laboratory of life.”

"Surely, survival is a triumph of chance over choice, for the randomness of selection on the battlefield is staggering. A spray of automatic weapons fire will miss one man and tear to pieces the warrior inches from him. In the midst of a firefight, whether you live or die is often the result of blind luck, the serendipity of fate, and the first derivative of this luck is fear."

this book was telling a lot more stories than i had hoped, and what i mean by that is i had anticipated a guidebook. A step by step, if you will. And what i got was: (This person from 1918’s military experience was a little different.”) it was very experience based, while i was hoping for more advice. Like “oh these are some simple things to remember when going through basic training.” And that wasn’t what i got.

The writing was so good though oh my god. I found myself getting so excited to read this!

10-18-25 (44 pages!)
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(5/5)⭐️🇺🇸

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Brought back great and not so great memories of basic training. I enjoyed learning about the different branches of the service and how they conduct their recruit training. If you have been through basic this will make you laugh if you haven't joined yet it gives you a good idea of what to expect when you report for duty! I highly recommend this book!!!

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book going into it like I was going to get a lot of tips but also just a lot of dialect. Yes this book does have dialect but it is not stale. It is actually very enlightening. Throughout the book are quotes from military movies or actual personal that endured boot camp/basic training. Although I have never actually been in the military, I did get a little taste of what it would be like to enlist in the military. I was in the Civil Air Patrol and I was gone for a week at the Air Force Academy. I had to follow all of the rules as if I was actually in the military with the 45 degree hospital corners, dusting and cleaning my room, the bathroom, and polishing my boots as well as ironing my uniform. Oh and taking a shower what is that. I was lucky if I got to take a 5 minute shower. It was because of this that I have learned to take quick showers and get dressed quickly.

So I could relate to stuff that people were talking about. I even understood the reason for the yelling. The stories that people would share were funny. This is a well-written, quick read.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I was hoping it would give me motivation to go to the gym. It didn't, but I found it surprisingly entertaining anyway. For a book about the grueling weeks of training that are supposed to turn you into a 'killing machine,' it's a breezy read. The anecdotes, from recruits throughout the decades, are perfectly bite-sized, often funny, and nicely organized by subject into short chapters. No one seems particularly bitter, which I find suspicious, of course.

[RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN · Rating 5 out of 5]

RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “YOU EITHER LEARN TO KILL OR YOU’RE GOING TO BE KILLED.”
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As an Honorably Discharged Vietnam Era Veteran let me make one main point before I get into the detail of this book:
** IF YOU ARE A UNITED STATES MILITARY VETERAN **
** YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK **
** FOR MANY REASONS **
** SOME OF WHICH WILL ONLY BE KNOWN BY YOU!! **

When you enter the United States Military… in most cases as a teenager or a young adult… except during the war years where you may have been drafted at a more advanced age… you are promised by your brand new D.I. … T.I. … or whatever name they’ve assigned to your branch of the service for the mostly malicious… egomaniacal… slave driving… short on brains… dripping in prejudice… supposedly having your best interests in mind… etc. ... etc. … person who’s going to eventually save your life and the life of your platoon/flight/etc. teammates life… that this time in basic training will become the experience that you will look back on with the greatest joy and admiration of anything you’ve participated in during your entire life.
This is of course absolute B.S.! Just off the top of my head… the birth of my children and grandchildren were way higher on the lifetime enjoyment scale among many others.
And it so happened that my D.I. was the most anti-Semitic individual I ever met before my enlistment in 1968 and for the forty-four years since then. In fact he would have been a perfect wing man for Hitler… except for the fact that I don’t think Hitler ever had minorities in executive positions.
But putting that aside… this book is so spot on in it’s descriptions and examples of every single part of basic training that I don’t think there’s an American Veteran alive who won’t get some joy out of this book… as over and over… in countless and innumerable situations… us veterans will say to ourselves: “Wow… so it wasn’t just me!” And despite what your lying D.I./T.I. told you… you won’t be talking about your experiences in basic training with every other person you meet for the rest of your life. But reading this book makes up for it. THERE IS SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS WHAT YOU WENT THROUGH… THIS AUTHOR!
It’s all there… scrubbing toilets and floors with tooth brushes… push up after push up… polishing shoes… making beds… do I need to say hospital corners that you and I continue to make for the next half a century… without even having to think how you do it or how you learned?? Learning how to salute… and knock on the dictator’s door as he bellows… “Louder clown… I can’t hear you!”… (As I punch a hole through the wall.) (Note: I just found a picture of that destroyed wall in old photo’s a couple of weeks ago.)… And any true veteran will get the clammy sweats when I mention… **KP**… all covered here in detail. And how about when you’re trained/tested/educated on using a gas mask… including of course having to pull off the mask in the middle of tear gas detonation and either recite the alphabet… or in my case… recite a string of pre-memorized five digit numbers that would determine if I was the right man for a classified mission. (With snot… mucous… spit… and any other thing that can possibly ooze and gush out of your eyes… nose… and mouth… doing so… with a complete will of its own!)
And of course… probably the truest part of this book and life… is the fact that your basic platoon or flight will be the greatest melting pot of diverse human beings… races… religions… smells… eating habits… acceptance of standards of life… accents… drawls… and did I say smells?... that you will ever encounter in three lifetimes.
There are quotes from men and women who served from the first World War on that verifies each unique tortuous method and maneuver that us Veterans went through in basic trainings that took place anywhere from Paris Island to the Great Lakes to San Antonio to Oklahoma and everywhere in between.
As I said earlier… in my life at least… I haven’t found many people in the last forty-four-years to share my basic training experiences with… but this book took on a life of its own as I read it… and I told the book what I went through… because I knew it would understand… and I was just as good and a compassionate listener… as the book told me its travails.

[Night Knowledge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pleasant collection of accounts of the shared hardships enlisted folk must undergo across the service branches. From previous underwhelming experiences with books made up of collected stories in an environment that I was curious in peering into, I was at first skeptical, but I as I dug deeper into this book's pages, I was pleasantly surprised at how much insight I got from reading this. As a military brat myself, I am close to family who have regailed their own tales from the dreaded boot camp, I loved recalling their experiences through these stories. And something that made me love this even more was just how funny it was! I found myself chuckling and even full on laughing at a few segments, which is always an amazing feat for a book to accomplish.

My respect for the boys and girls in blue and green has exponentially increased after this read, and even for the author Jack Jacobs, after a quick search, as this guy has his own interesting stories to tell that I will be surely looking out for. A strong 4/5 stars for sure!

[Stephanie Harless · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's funny, entertaining, and has heart. It felt like I was there when I was reading the stories of men and women in the military. It make me laugh, smile, and made me say WOW to myself. What each branch of military ha to go through, through the years is amazing. I salute all who served or all those continuing to serve. Thank you is not enough. I enjoyed reading and learning more about the military branches. If I could I would rate this book 10 stars. I'm glad I read this book and am excited to keep learning about the military. Enjoy this book for sure.

[Neal Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memories of basic training in the four main branches of the US armed forces, cut up and pasted together again by theme (e.g. initiation, drill, weapons), with a little connecting tissue from the author, a West Point professor. So, it’s not a very deep critique, but is insightful, not only into what happens but why; in particular, the way the instructors try to break down the trainees, e.g. by humiliation and lack of sleep, in order to then build up an effective fighting team.

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very interesting to read. All of the facts, information, and experiences shared in this book are not only extremely helpful to anyone looking to enlist in the army, but it was also just intriguing to hear about the things that go on in our military and what people have to go through to get there. A lot of it is stuff that you'd never expect them to have to do, such as guarding dumpsters in the cold rain for no reason, digging holes only to fill them back in and re-dig them again, or or take off your gas mask as you stand in a gas chamber full of tear gas. It was eye opening to learn about all this stuff, a lot of it is unbelievable, ridiculous tasks that make no sense, but the U.S. has one of the strongest, most disciplined militaries so obviously they're doing something right.

From the standpoint of someone who is planning on enlisting in the army, it was really cool to be able to find a book like this that could explain everything, share others' experiences, and give out all the information that they do. I feel like I have a much better understanding of what I'm getting into now, and this book has just been extremely helpful. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in the military, whether it's because they're looking to join or if they just find the information and experiences interesting.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic is the story of basic military training for the United States Armed Forces. Through anecdotes and other sources of information, we are shown how Civilians are transformed into soldiers. The only previous introduction I had to Basic Training, or Boot Camp as it is sometimes called is in movies, the primary one being Full Metal Jacket.

I figured the movie would have taken some liberties, and I was correct in that. For instance, it shows that Blanket Parties are not a part of the deal anymore, which is pretty good, but it had happened before. They also dispel other myths and things. There are many common threads throughout the training of our armed forces, and one of the major ones is PT or Physical Fitness. So they have people reminiscing about people that try to break rules and get out of training, and it's really interesting and amusing.

I would recommend it but only if you plan to join the Marine Corps, Army, Navy or Air Force of the United States.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colonel Jacobs rates an "outstanding" for this lively, anecdotal look at basic military training in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. As a "survivor" of Parris Island, I can vouch for the accuracy about of his commentary on USMC training.

Recommended for all, especially those younguns who anticipate entering the armed forces anytime soon.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I lost faith in the author when I ran into a major misstatement before I got to chapter 3. (Females are NOT only at Ft Leonard Wood for Army basic training). Otherwise, the anecdotes are amusing but the writing is pretty awful. I assume his other book is much better - it had to have been, as mediocre as this one ended up being.

[Darren Sapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for those that survived boot camp regardless of branch of service. I laughed out loud several times at the antics and awkwardness that comes with boot camp. Jacobs includes several first-hand accounts spanning seventy years of basic training.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable conglomeration of anecdotes and information. Although a few of his descriptions of modern warfare were out of date before the book was published, overall it's a very good read. Recommended for all Vets and for most civilians

[Hans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun read. Mostly just a collection of people's thoughts and stories on Basic Training since WWII. Nothing specific about it.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book- and I learned alot.

[Sally Grey]

This should have been a Reader’s Digest book. The anecdotes were interesting and it gave me a glimpse into basic training.