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this is boot camp we go inside the u.s military's basic and advanced training programs as well as military academies and colleges to find out what it takes to make it through day one and past the final tests [Music] on a mild thursday in june more than 1100 appointees arrived at the united states air force academy in colorado springs where future officers prepare to be commissioned into the u.s air force and space force good luck good luck insider was there for in processing day or i day which marks day one of new cadets time at the academy pretty much all of my family has been in the military both my mom and dad our air force veterans i'm not from a military family so i have no idea what i'm going into i'm just really excited when we drove up here i was like wow this is actually real it didn't really feel real until we got here and got dropped off iday kicks off the air force academy's basic cadet training a challenging six-week program that all cadets are required to complete we're gonna push them to their physical emotional and and mental limits we're gonna find out where that line is and then over time deliberately and safely we're going to push them further than they thought they could go just under 10 percent of the more than 11 000 applicants were admitted to the academy 29 of this incoming class is female and minorities make up 32 percent applicants must pass a physical fitness exam and receive a nomination from their congressional representative it's a very rigorous process we look for candidates who have strong academic backgrounds strong athletic backgrounds but also have demonstrated leadership potential in their careers as students it hasn't hit me yet but i think once we like start getting into like briefings and stuff and my parents are like actually gone i'm not going to see them more i'm probably going to get hit pretty hard [Music] yes sir you're on your own [Music] once inside the athletic center the appointees make their way through seven different in-processing stations congratulations good luck appointees are issued a copy of contrails a 192-page guidebook that contains important information about the air force and the air force academy they are going to be required to for the most part memorize that book from cover to cover for the next step you only need your proof of citizenship everything else you can put away the appointees have one final opportunity to discreetly dispose of any illegal drugs weapons or pornography the easiest way to get in trouble today is be on your cell phone okay do not be that guy the appointees make their way to the cadet gym to take the oath of allegiance raise your right hand i do solemnly swear or affirm that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies foreign 70 miles south of denver the academy is nestled into the foothills of the rocky mountains sheltering the united states air force academy congress authorized the creation of the academy in 1954 we're out to develop motivated dedicated regular air force officers all around men who can handle themselves anywhere in the world and eventually in space congratulations you're now officially a basic cadet of the air force academy have a great air force academy day this warm welcome won't last for long because these new cadets are about to meet the cadre close this cap close the gap a select group of upper-class cadets who run basic training come on don't look at the ground it's not going anywhere they are my eyes and ears every single day down to the individual basic cadet put your back down pick them back up they've been training over the last several weeks as far as how to properly train the basics you will not be looking at the cadre you will not be looking at the ground it's not understood so they know how to put pressure on them and more importantly they know how to hold them to standards that they themselves are held to it's row get over freaking bus go go go go go you are now based at cadets welcome to the united states air force it's here the cadets learn the seven basic responses yes sir no sir no excuse sir yes no excuse sir so the seven basic responses that's a tradition here at the united states air force academy and what that does is it ensures that they're responding correctly when we talk about customs and courtesies which is expected throughout your entire air force career have i made myself clear yes sir so they're expected to respond a certain way and say certain things and that's the only thing that will be accepted by the cadre i will warn you now if you are not willing to sacrifice your personal comfort your safety or your life for your country stay on my bus but basics if you're ready to dedicate yourself towards something bigger than us all and to fight for the united states then get off my ball move [Music] that is that real with a real shock and all happens there's a lot of command voice it's very loud but there's a lot of kind of teaching going on at the moment but also kind of demanding that they respond and that they listen kind of getting that first experience of what we expect from a person in the military when you accident that bus you took the first step that every member of the long blue line had taken do not disappoint those that came before you the new cadets stand on gray footprints which are used to teach them how to stand at the position of attention and the cadre ensures that they learn quickly i think uh initially the basics are probably pretty scary they're probably not sure what to expect so when they get that shock and they hear the yelling and screaming they're probably a little thrown back the new cadets are also quizzed on the seven basic responses that they learned on the bus that's why your classmates can hear you he's struggling over there the cadets then make their way up the core values ramp [Applause] which is easier said than done for some cadets pink freaking slides look i was a stupid basic i know but i made some smart decisions before i got here upon arrival at vandenberg hall the new cadets receive a colored hat signifying their graduation class which they'll wear throughout their time at the academy after that find your squadron aggressor's new he'll get left to right the cadets are then sorted into their squadrons before a stop at the barber shop male cadets must shave their heads female cadet's hair can't extend past their shoulder blades and they must keep it in a ponytail braid or tight bun one more line down this wall you understand yes sir move let's go then it's time for equipment issue grab your duffel bag walk on around to the first window cadets receive everything they'll need for basic training including pt uniforms bed linens and a computer tuition at the air force academy is free but cadets commit to five years of active duty service after graduation while at the academy cadets receive a salary of about twelve hundred dollars per month the new cadets pack all of their gear into their duffel bags and head to their dorm rooms to prepare for six challenging weeks of basic training iday starts their journey for four years into the rest of their lives the change that we hope to see and that we usually do see is their change as leaders of character people who are ready to live honorably but also ready to lift others lift their teammates their wingmen to be their best possible selves if we get that from our cadets as they leave and go on to serve our country then we will consider ourselves successful this is day zero a physically and mentally grueling test it's the first challenge that students at the sabalowski air assault school must overcome before beginning what's known as the army's ten toughest days day zero is kind of the gut check day that's the first moment where we filter out who is prepared to be here and who wants to be here students at the aerosol school located inside the fort campbell army installation trained to insert themselves and equipment into combat using helicopters an air assault graduate is prepared to fight and win on any future battlefield but if students don't pass day zero their time at air assault school is over before it officially begins roster staff sergeant cobb second brigade 6-0 sergeant quintos the day starts before sunrise when students form up to receive their roster numbers about 9 500 students enroll in air assault school every year but only a little more than half end up graduating from the course insider followed two students to find out if they have what it takes to survive day zero and move on to day one of air assault school my name is megan anderson miller i'm a military police officer it's a requirement for us here at fort campbell to have airsoft wings before we can take command of a coach platoon but not only that i'm motivated and i like the physical endurance i'm cw4 rj mccurdy i'm the brigade master gunner for the aviation brigade here so i'm 40. i'm venturing to say looking at the ranks of everyone around here i'm probably the oldest one here i wanted to come out to the air assault course to improve my skill set as a helicopter pilot all right our cell next items one one quart canteen with stencil tape affixed the student's first test is an early morning inspection of their gear headlamp with fresh batteries installed execute they're given a list of 37 items they're expected to have in their rucksacks one two three four five six seven five if one single item is missing they're automatically dropped it relates directly to what soldiers do in combat if you're assigned a certain item of equipment that you need to carry and you don't have it but that's an operational failure for the entire unit 17 students from this group were missing at least one item from their packing list and were dropped the next test is a two mile run with an 18 minute time limit 17 minutes you got one minute [Music] eight students from this group failed to cross the finish line on time those who passed moved on without them but they don't have much time to rest before their next event the obstacle course with nine events designed to test students strength agility and confidence when it comes to this obstacle the only thing that can touch these beams is your hands instructors demonstrate how to negotiate each obstacle you cannot use any of the vertical beams to assist you and show students what they can and cannot do on the course aerosol we know it's warm stay loose stay hydrated be smart be aware everyone's a safety look out for each other two of these obstacles are major obstacles and students must pass both in order to complete day zero first up is the aptly named tough one aerosol on the left go ahead it starts with a three meter rope climb and then tests balance along with upper and lower body strength at a height of over 30 feet students wait in line with their backs to the obstacle so they don't get a chance to observe other students attempts i don't think a lot of people can climb the rope so i would i would say that one would be their toughest one so over the past two months if there was a rope i go find it and i practice on it i felt good going up it but it was also a little bit of dumb luck that was my very first thing where i had all my strength on my side i would promote others to work on their upper body strength to kind of be able to do that one to its fullest the second major obstacle is the 35 foot tall confidence climb students must climb up 10 wooden beams as they ascend the distance between each beam subtly increases before they climb over and begin their descent down the other side use that black beam and then try to get that leg to swing over the top they have those vertical beams on the side to hang on to it makes it very easy to actually just climb onto the next one but a lot of people you could even see taller people that you think could just reach up grab it pull themselves to the next one but they're scared of the height and they let it get to them mentally there you go at this point in the day the heat index had risen to 105 degrees and it started to affect some of the students it's it's he's he's tidier in that teeter in that line a medic gave this student a packet of powdered electrolytes to mix with the water inside his canteen to increase hydration i like heights i like being in a pie so just being able to look beyond and i just kind of suppress the fear i guess i don't really fear it though i enjoy it airsoft my height definitely helped like i said i'm six foot three up that high it was challenging which is funny because i'm scared of heights being a pilot but once you got over that top rung on the way down it felt good obstacles like the confidence climb and tough one prepare students for what comes later in air assault training it builds their confidence at high elevation so when it comes to phase three it's easier for them to repel off of the tower as well as when we get aircraft they're a lot less scared and they're more confident in their ability to hold on to something if they need to or climb down something if they need to with the two major obstacles out of the way seven minor obstacles are all that stand between these students and the end of day zero but if they fail two of these obstacles they're out [Music] upper body strength is key when it comes to navigating the incline wall which can be challenging for some students but miller conquered it with ease as did mccurdy in the low crawl students keep a low profile to avoid touching the barbed wire above them flexibility is put to the test with the high stepover where they swing their legs over ten horizontal beams of varying heights off the ground on the sixth vault students can only use their hands to vault themselves over the wooden beams but for some students it's not so easy i feel like i have really good upper body strength and it kind of compensates for other things only thing that is a challenge for me the belly over it's the only thing the low belly over requires students to jump onto a horizontal beam use their stomachs to catch themselves and swing their legs forward onto the other side for people who are vertically challenged i would say the low belly over is one of the biggest ones for them you're looking at it and it's already at their eye level and you gotta jump high enough to where it reaches under your rib cage to be able to flip over miller was struggling i think it's just not pushing myself hard enough i think i can push myself harder i've seen people smaller than me go over it students who fail their first attempt at an obstacle are given one more chance to complete it all right aerosol you just can't miss another miner all right this was miller's first failed obstacle which means she'll have no room for error on the rest of the course mccurdy was also having trouble with a minor obstacle on the swing stop jump students must swing from a rope onto a wooden beam using their core and upper body strength to establish balance certainly would have helped to have a little bit more upper body strength to get up that rope a little bit more i would say at that point on the obstacle course that i was not necessarily burnt out but i was feeling it especially with that older age i actually passed it multiple times in my practice sessions and i couldn't get up on that on that rung this was mccurdy's first failure which meant that both he and miller could not afford to fail the final obstacle known as the weaver after the rope swing my spirit was hurt because i knew i was going to be climbing up mount everest looking up at that weaver as its name implies students navigate the weaver by dipping over and under a series of ascending and descending wooden beams it's pretty physically exhausting and it'll leave some bruises if done properly but miller handled it with ease i don't know what it is i just tell myself okay just like i when i was a kid let's go play on the playground and i i get it done it just happens mccurdy on the other hand leading into this obstacle course the only one that i didn't want to do was the weaver something that everyone has told me about that it does take a lot of strength a lot of technique you're going to get bruised [Music] i was unsure as to whether or not i can do it but i kept pushing pushing pushing there stop it was a really good feeling getting off that damn thing by completing the weaver both mccurdy and miller conquered the obstacle course and could finally catch their breath overall i thought it was a fun course it was very challenging i'm happy that i don't have to do it again though feels good feels like a refresher it's good to see everybody smiling and kind of build that camaraderie between all of us 250 of the 292 students who arrived at the sabelowsky air assault school survived day zero they're given the rest of the day to refuel and rest because they'll need their strength before the army's 10 toughest days officially begin virginia military institute the oldest public senior military college in the u.s [Music] on a hot and humid saturday in august 496 new freshmen or rats arrived at vmi to begin the first week of the rat line [Applause] a challenging six-month process they must complete before they officially enter the core of cadets what is a rat i believe it's described as the lowest dirtiest thing on earth you will straight at all times you understand me yes sir you're savvy yes sir since the 1850s new cadets have been called rats and refer to each other as brother rats brother they dropped the moniker after the rat line ends golf company all right excited you ready yeah awesome let's grab your stuff on matriculation day new rats are welcomed by cadets welcome to the virginia military institute and the corps of cadets and by vmi superintendent major general cedric t wins so today your journey begins a vmi graduate was appointed in april 2021 as the first black superintendent in the school's 182-year history a milestone since vmi didn't racially integrate until 1968. the new rats say goodbye to their families before it's officially time for them to join the rat line it was a sad moment but at the same time it was a sense of excitement knowing that i have a new path ahead of me [Music] [Applause] [Music] the rats march into barracks to officially meet their cadre [Applause] the group of upperclassmen charged with training and disciplining the new rats it was surreal i was not expecting any of that people are yelling screaming running around and everything i didn't know what to do what to think i just felt so alone [Music] with all the rats inside the barracks gates were locked barring all visitors it was nerve-racking but at the same time awe-inspiring that moment where you know this is it the slow walk-in is like the intimidation factor it's supposed to like intimidate the rats and it's just to give the rats like a culture shock of where they are so they understand what they're getting themselves [Music] into they will teach [Applause] not so warm welcome from the cadre [Applause] the rats next stop is the barber shop female rats must wear their hair in a tight bun or ponytail and can't have it fall below the shoulder blades male rats have to shave their heads why are you holding them hair longer than eight inches is cut and donated to charity vmi cadets are not obligated to serve in the armed forces after graduation intuition costs about thirty thousand dollars per year for virginia residents and about sixty thousand for out-of-state cadets why come to vmi if you don't have a plan to serve a normal college like the way i'm wired i feel like i wouldn't be able to succeed as well as at a normal college i i think i need some discipline a common appeal of vmi is the alumni network which includes politicians like virginia governor ralph northam i think the connections here will be useful so many opportunities connections about half of cadets do not go on to serve in the military yet they still chose this for their college experience the rat line it's all mental it's to put pressure so that you can be more mentally tough giving rats a very stressful environment shows them that you're at the bottom you have to work your way to the top and also you need to be able to like overcome pressure and like obstacles in your way the rats form up outside where they continue to get to know their cadre right now right now you right here what don't talk back to me shut up shut up that's how life is here you just had to stand there try not to do anything try to be as invisible as possible rats learn the vmi honor code which they repeat over and over again [Applause] what's it like to be a female student at bmi so if i'm being completely honest it's a little harder you definitely have to be stronger as a female here because any sign of weakness their excuses oh they're a female so there's a term here for female it's called sheed i think it's supposed to be like she cadet something like that i personally don't like the word i don't let anyone around me say it because i take offense to it because even though there's some females here that take pride in it like i'm not a i'm not a female cadet i'm just a cadet and that's all i will be female cadets couldn't fully matriculate at vmi until 1997 after a supreme court decision forced the school's policy to change and the culture of vmi continues to be scrutinized systemic racism and sexism at virginia military institute tuesday the special investigation team released their findings in a 150 page report in june of 2021 a special investigation ordered by governor northam concluded that quote institutional racism and sexism are present tolerated and left unaddressed at vmi first i would tell any parent or any prospective student that i'm a product of virginia military institute as a superintendent i'm focused on doing what needs to be done to make sure that the corps of cadets understand that that type of behavior is inconsistent with the character of honor and honorable cadets and we need to eliminate it from our ranks since the investigation began monuments touting vmi's ties to the confederacy have since come down including a statue of confederate general and former vmi physics professor stonewall jackson what was your reaction to that report how did that impact you when you found out about this news it was disheartening to hear that such a prestigious school had to deal with it but at the same time i wasn't deterred i've grown up i've dealt with racism in so many different parts of my life that if there's some here so be it i won't let that hinder my personal aspirations [Music] with the companies formed hell week officially begins taking breaks hurry up they teach you how to wear your uniform properly shine your breath shine your shoes fold your clothes get this on the table rock johnson that's mr team guys hurry up pick it up for rats don't leave a mess life is no less stressful in the dining hall where they adhere to strict protocols during meals you bring your food to your mouth not your mouth to your food do you understand me rat bowls you get back to your room fix your name tag you can get harassed anytime about literally anything don't eat like a cowboy you eat like a civilized person do you understand me the upperclassmen have basically free reign to yell at you for whatever they want to open your mouth they just learn how to be rats learn the basics so that they can get through this semester and then halfway through the next roll get your fart back who am i one of the basics rats learn during hell week is how to properly strain which refers to the uncomfortable position they must take yes whenever they're inside barracks for the duration of the rat line yes sir brain strain yes sir can you show me what the proper technique is when you put it back and you just kind of like lean back at the waist shoulders back chin in and then stick your forehead back as far as it can go yes sir every class has certain privileges rats their only privilege is to strain and as you go up you get more privileges long-held rat line traditions like straining continue at vmi yes corporal but the institute has adjusted some training since the appointment of superintendent wins cadet cadre now participate in a leadership academy on professionalism accountability and appropriate behavior when dealing with new cadets remember who i am and new measures for reporting incidents have been put in place we have what's called a cadet equity association and it's intended to a deal with reports that might come about where an incident of racism or sexism has occurred hell week culminates the following sunday with an event known as the crucible a series of physically challenging events including a swim in a nearby river and a physical challenge where rats race each other to flip over large tires but after lightning struck near post the rats were ordered to return to barracks with the rats safely back in their rooms it appeared the crucible would be cut short they told us to just clean our room so we didn't really expect anything after that we thought the day was over but the cadre had different plans the crucible events canceled by weather were replaced with what's known as a sweat party let's go we had a five round sweat party each round was three minutes long and it's just a high intensity workout is the best way to put it i wouldn't call it a pleasant experience but i don't think it was supposed to be after five exhausting rounds the sweat party was over and so was hell week the first step of the rat line the six-month journey that the class of 2025 must complete before officially joining the core of cadets [Music] this is the f-35b lightning ii the marine corps multi-role fighter jet is equipped with the most advanced sensor suite of any fighter in history and the most powerful engine of any jet in the world which can reach a top speed of 1200 miles per hour it's just revolutionized what fighter aircraft are capable of and these are the pilots training to fly that 100 million dollar aircraft a lot of people just think you know you show up fly and then go home have a beer but it's not all like that not only are you flying but you're talking about four different radios you're working the radar you're working the t-flare you're working the electrical optical system there while you're still navigating talking to atc and then working weapons on top of that student pilots spend a year training to fly the f-35 bravo here at the marine corps air station in beaufort south carolina this is a pilot's last stop before getting deployed to a fleet squadron overseas and it's here they learn to handle the multirole fighter jet in a variety of missions we do strikes so aerial interception we do oca dca so offensive counter air defensive counter air arm reconnaissance and then really the bread and butter though is seeds expression of enemy air defenses the pilots we met are part of marine fighter attack squadron 501 also known as the warlords once you complete here they send you out to the fleet squadrons you know out in yuma or japan student pilots in the training squadron have already completed flight school so training is focused specifically on operating the f-35b eventually every fighter pilot that comes through the marine corps is going to go fly on f35 i'm michael watts my major in the marine corps my grandfather was a pilot in world war ii and i would always go to his house see his models of his b-25 bomber and also my father was a navy pilot in vietnam so i kind of grew up with it you know in my blood right here we're just basically sorry you learn how to fly the airplane and then you go through all the different mission sets and basic skills because there are only so many jets that can fly at a time most of the pilot's instruction comes on the ground in the simulator and in the classroom we weren't allowed to film some classified aspects of the pilot's instruction but we were allowed to film the pilots practicing the aircraft's most unique capabilities and go behind the scenes as they suited up for a training mission during training it's crucial for the pilots to get comfortable executing the f-35b's stovall maneuvers because they'll have to master those techniques on an aircraft carrier really the main thing is when we fly off the ship so when i get out to japan here in a few weeks i'll eventually be learning how to fly off the ship how do we get on there we do vertical landings how do we take off we do short takeoffs and so that's really the big reason why we're doing that lockheed martin makes three variations of the f-35 lightning ii but the marine corps f-35 bravo is the only one with stovall capabilities this feature is a big reason why the marine corps 2019 aviation plan called for replacing its current fleet of aircraft with more than 350 f-35bs we're replacing all of the hornets all the harriers and all the prowlers with f-35s conventional jets need about 3000 feet for takeoff but in optimal conditions an f-35b can take off in just a couple hundred feet for a take-off we get onto the runway and then at that point is when we initiate a conversion we literally just hit a button and then the plane like goes through its like transformer sequence right once that's complete we're now what's it called stovall mode there's different kinds of short takeouts we can do my favorites the the button it's called the button stow and as i'm accelerating down the runway and literally just click a button and then the plane will take off by itself it's pretty pretty incredible and then shortly after takeoff we can convert back to conventional mode once we get to a certain airspeed once in the air actually handling the jet isn't the most difficult aspect of operating it it's actually a really easy airplane to fly it's more difficult to process the amount of information it provides to you i would say knowing where to look at the right time the student pilots already have experience flying jets so much of their training is focused on utilizing technology unique to the f-35b a lot of the difficulty is trying to absorb all the information the jets giving you operate all the sensors and the systems at the same time and fly and really that's probably the number one struggle once a practice mission is complete pilots must take on another of the jet's unique features executing a vertical landing having never done it it was an experience my brain telling me not to slow down because in the hornet slow down that meant you're gonna fall out of the sky it's a normal approach to landing like you're as if you're going to the runway right and then you're going to level off and then set a certain ground speed and then at a certain distance from the pad you're going to start a deceleration and all that is is just a click of a button and then from there you're making sure that you're centered on the pad then you just push forward on the stick and then descend right onto the pad [Applause] i would say the first time doing a vertical landing in the f-35b is is pretty crazy you practice a lot in the sim you do it you know dozens of times in the simulator but the first time you do it in the plane just slowing down for the first time like that and hovering over a pad with over 30 000 pounds of metal 150 feet in the air is pretty neat usually you have like the world kind of coming at you when you're flying right and so you're kind of sitting there just like looking outside as if you're like in the tower or something and you trust that you're you're fine there you know that you're still flying before stepping foot in the cockpit student pilots need to familiarize themselves with the gear needed to operate the f-35b starting with their anti-gravity suit which helps prevent them from losing consciousness while operating the jet it's a fabric material that has bladders inside of it and whenever you pull g it uses pressure from the engine to inflate and then it prevents your blood from pulling down to your legs and it pushes it up to your abdomen as much as possible each pilot's g-suit is custom made to fit perfectly around their lower body and then we have a flight jacket that we put on and it has a bunch of survival gear the pilot's flight jacket is filled with a multitude of survival tools in the event that they have to eject from the aircraft including a flare emergency strobe light compass survival knife extra water whistle radio and an oxygen mask they have a code car for hand and arm signals just a signal search and rescue basically then they have a signaling mirror just to signal the aircraft with just the mirror and the reflections some less conventional survival tools are supplied by the pilots themselves i always try to take my wallet in case i have to to land somewhere else other than back here that's happened to me before you land somewhere yesterday you don't have any wallet or phone or anything which is kind of difficult so definitely take my wallet with me every time in the event the pilots have to eject from the jet their flight jacket is embedded with a unique safety feature there's arm restraint lines that are routed throughout the jacket when you eject they pull your arms basically in towards your body you're basically ensuring that your arms aren't going to get flailed out into the wind the jacket is also equipped with a flotation device in case the pilot has to eject over a body of water so as soon as it touches the water it will inflate the entire jacket so they don't have to do anything if their arms are broken or anything after ejection last but not least the pilots learn to utilize the most technologically advanced piece of equipment their 400 thousand dollar helmets each helmet is custom fit to its wearer based on a 3d scan of the pilot's head it's also equipped with noise cancelling headphones night vision and a forward-facing camera that records each flight the pilot's heads-up display is projected directly onto their visor rather than on the glass at the front of the cockpit thanks to two small projectors inside the helmet this allows the pilot to easily view key data such as altitude air speed and direction since the jet is able to help us so much really flying should be second nature that way you can focus on all the information that the jet's giving you finally the f-35s distributed aperture system creates a 360 degree view of the jets surroundings by stitching together feeds from six cameras mounted on the plane enabling the pilot to see through the base and walls of the aircraft i think a lot of people underestimate the amount of work it takes to to become a pilot and a fire pilot specifically a one-hour flight even a simulated one might mean up to six additional hours of briefing gearing up flight inspections and debriefing not to mention the hours spent studying for each mission so you could spend a whole day preparing and debriefing one single hour of flight i think it's awesome to be in the fifth generation stealth fighter kind of at the tip of the spear it's a heavily weighted aircraft in terms of the combat power that the marine corps brings to the fight and i'm honored to be a part of that these if i say what are marine corps drill instructors conducting a pickup of new recruits and boot camp but before they get there [Music] it all starts here at drill instructor school at the marine corps recruit depot in paris island south carolina for too long for you to be messing up your simple thing insiders spent three days with a class of students in week six of their nine-week training drill instructors are the front-facing element of the marine corps to those new recruits that are joining the organization we make it abundantly clear to them that at the end of the day they're setting the example for the future of the marine corps you will be turned over to a team of drone structure who will train you for the next 12 weeks a marine corps drill instructor is a non-commissioned officer responsible for training recruits from the moment they step on the yellow footprints at boot camp to the moment they officially become marines 13 weeks later the base pay for a drill instructor is about 30 000 a year with opportunities for extra pay [Applause] [Music] this class has 75 students [Applause] including 12 females one of whom ranks as class commander being in this institution where the female rate is low nothing is just given to you just because you're a female you have to work 10 times more than a probably a male marine what made you decide to become a drill instructor it all goes back to boot camp from recruit training i told myself i wanted to come back to paris island i want to change people's life i want to give back to the marine corps and make marines [Music] what are we here to do [Music] our curriculum is 540 academic training hours packed into 57 training days about 10 hours of training a day they come from all walks of life across the marine corps some of them are very young and junior beginning their second enlistment and other ones are more senior and have maybe seen combat there's a whole breadth of experience talent and skill that shows up your little scumbag movies like full metal jacket have created a perception of marine corps drill instructors that the school is trying to change i think the general stereotype of what a drill instructor is is just this uncompromising foreboding disciplinarian that lords over a recruit but the stereotype isn't just based on pop culture the marine corps has confronted multiple reports of abusive treatment by drill instructors for years something the school says it acknowledges and addresses directly with students in its curriculum a true dream instructor will have the respect of the recruits we all understand these concepts right yes sir you can be you know stern with them strict because we got a job due here but at the end of the day we're here to take care of you can we handle that yes sir my edi she was the role model i wanted to follow i told myself i want to be like her yes yes sir so today we're going to be going on overview of the specific allegations of abuse students review cases of past drill instructors who were found guilty of abusing recruits kick them and force them to drink water until they vomited you're not going to be that driller happened in the sucker does that have to happen in the future and you as future marine corps drone instructors you make the future do you understand one of the most important responsibilities as a drill instructor is in the name leading drill it's time to perform the grind don't start once you get out in the rest man it starts now drill instructors teach recruits how to march in step perfectly spacing themselves apart and executing precise turns as a group so in training they're expected to do everything a recruit is required to do it with perfection [Applause] this job is incredibly physical for them they are on their feet for as much as 14 to 16 hours and the drill instructor has to have the physicality to develop the recruits throughout the training day even when you think you're tired you need to keep pushing because you're in front of recruits if you're tired don't let it show off because they're looking up to you you're that role model that they want to emulate in the future [Applause] students don't just train their bodies they also train their voices [Music] close and extend the line as you work the voice isn't number one so we have to have it damn besides you so on average you have around 70 to 90 recruits that you are instructing with three to four draw instructors you're not screaming you make a correction on a recruit yell it out and then if that recruit hears every single recruit hears how many people try to track three pages right even the most cordial commands are delivered at a high volume take your time there's no rush i like to burn flush ready they tell us to use our diaphragm not to use your throat because that's how you get the froggy voice we don't want to scream 96. oh that's all you have your mess too you're part of the series hey so at night i drink tea with honey and sometimes i put a lemon and that actually helps get my voice back the next morning i know we scraped this tool gets plenty of practice the place where the drill instructor will spend the most time with their recruits is in the squad bay for this exercise students are practicing bdr or basic daily routine protocols where recruits prepare for bed after a long day of training three students are chosen to take the role of drill instructor while the rest of the students act as recruits half of the platoon prepares and cleans their racks while the other half goes to the head for hygiene protocols they're going to be responsible for the livelihood and the welfare as many as 80 to 90 young adults many of which don't necessarily understand the tenets of basic hygiene you're looking for internal toenails you're looking for you know blisters you're looking for united states who has a broken toe or what's the spray make when everyone comes from different places in the world some of them never had a big brother or big sister someone never had a good mother a good father figure and that's what we really are for the first time and they look at us like that and i said everything that we do is send that example [Music] what are some reasons that marines do get married somebody stand up and come sorry one of the reasons marines may get married it's because they just feel that they're at that level of commitment leadership training in the classroom prepares students for conversations with recruits making the transition into adulthood sometimes marines get married just to get out of the barracks or just for bah purposes there's a lot of important aspects that we teach here besides you know drill and physical fitness but inside we teach a lot of core values we don't really have a good way to measure our moral and our mental strength right those characteristics and those fibers that really make up who we are okay the school administers mental health screenings for students and gives them an assessment of their perceived strengths and weaknesses it's about being proactive trying to be able to look at identifying these things earlier we overestimate our abilities or we underestimate our abilities inherent to that new role of being a drill instructor and training drill instructor school there's some unique stressors that happen regarding that and we're trying to understand both personally professionally what we can do to set them up for success so what you're telling me now is you have no attention to detail as the end of training nears students report to the parade deck for a strict uniform inspection you got one two three four five visible any mistake like a strand of fabric hanging off a uniform known as an ip is critiqued and brought back to the ribbon dirty box is even the class commander had issues with her uniform double creases in charges double crease double crease the finishing touch for a drill instructor uniform is the campaign cover which students receive upon graduation from drill instructor school after graduation new drill instructors commit to a three-year tour working with recruits in boot camp receiving special recognition for superior achievement in physical excellence is sergeant aramula from third meth information group it feels amazing to to wear the cover and finally walk across the stage i want to make sure once i get to my company that i make an impact on every single recruit that's my main aspiration i want to show up and give a hundred percent at all times to those recruits and be that example when this airborne student collided with a humvee parked in the drop zone our camera crew feared she was seriously injured if not worse hey sir what are you doing me yeah filming you can't no an instructor ordered us to stop recording while the medics tended to her a few minutes later she was back on her feet and walking without assistance when we caught up to her she was all smiles getting ready for her next jump the medic checked me out i didn't pull anything i didn't tear anything i didn't break anything i was very grateful and also very conscious of the fact that i didn't hear a pop that may be due to the fact that davis listened to this instructor's advice right before she crashed keep your feet together keeping the feet and knees together is an essential component of executing a safe landing after a jump feet knees together feet knees together feet knees together feet knees together feet knees together keep your feet and knees together it's a phrase heard ad nauseum at airborne school a three-week course where the army trains students to become paratroopers throwing yourself out of an aircraft is not a natural thing especially at an altitude of 1250 feet it is a feeling like nothing you have ever felt before insiders spent five days at airborne school where we observed different classes in the three phases of training ground week is pretty much an introduction when they land on the ground what procedures they need to take and it's just building that confidence then they equip entire week it's the second week overcoming your fears of jumping jump week is the culminating event you're jumping out of aircraft you successfully make five jumps and you graduate airborne school overall objective is to provide a capability to put a battalion size plus element in a location within 72 hours on day one students have to pass two physical assessments first group get ready first the flex arm hang uncross your feet where students must perform a pull up and remain in place for 10 seconds this exercise requires the same technique and amount of upper body strength to perform what's known as a slip where a paratrooper grabs handles on the harness called risers and pulls down to adjust the parachute's direction to really pull good slip you're pulling i think 60 percent of your body weight if you cannot hook up to the inca line cable you are a reach assessment failure do you understand the second physical test assesses a student's ability to reach the cable they must connect to before jumping straight down your fingers being a smaller human i was definitely nervous about that but when i got there i stretched my arm out as high as i could and realized all right i qualify and that was a good feeling because i was a little bit nervous while most pass with ease for some students a failed reach assessment brings an end to their training before it officially begins about 15 000 students enroll in airborne school each year and roughly 13 000 graduate about 10 percent of students are female i'm 17 and so i joined right out of high school my friends now they're just graduating they're just going to college that's the new things that they're starting and the things i wanted to start right out of high school is you know saving people's lives and jumping out of planes the army wants still more volunteers from its ranks for parachute duty since 1940 paratroopers have been trained at the fort benning army installation which straddles the alabama-georgia border about 100 miles southwest of atlanta stand by for the jump light that's it for more trips like this one and the fledgling paratrooper gets his wings his pay will be 50 a month more than regular soldiers of his rank today paratroopers still get extra pay students who graduate from airborne school get 150 dollars per month added to their paycheck classified classified hazardous hazardous incident incentive pay all right you're gonna grab one parachute students use mock parachutes to learn how to safely don and rig them before a jump airborne walk all the way to the end marking the beginning of ground week slap step kick count the ground week phase gives you confidence in your competency if you're on the left door your static line is in the left hand you don't have to be the strongest or the smartest recover if you can remember to do very specific things at very specific times you'll be fine these are your equipment rings below that you have your saddle we teach them how to properly put on what's called a harness teach them how to rig it the different components of the harness everyone once you're finished and you're ready for inspection come to me after donning and rigging the harness an instructor inspects the student's work hold squat turn bend recover recover recover sergeant what's up with the little like love tab so that's basically called the seal of approval um cover basically they have what's called five points of contact the balls of the feet the cab the thigh the buttocks and the pull up muscle recover the fourth point of contact is the easier accessible part of the body that doesn't have anything to interfere as far as the harness itself recover that fourth point of contact is that seal of approval that your equipment is good i've checked it and you're good to go you're like oh step kick count then they'll move to what's called the mock doors so the mock doors is where they learn how to properly do individual exits from the aircraft kick count which is basically keeping those elbows tight feeding these together knees slightly bent and so and so forth the mock door prepares students for what it's like to jump but not to land [Music] paratroopers land at speeds of about 13 miles per hour with the force comparable to jumping from a 9 to 12 foot wall which is why they practice the parachute landing fall or plf from a height of roughly 3 feet to develop a safe technique for landing essentially it is a choreographed movement of them creating a banana shape or a rocking chair shape they do a small bunny hop off the wall they hit the ground they tuck their chin down in their chest but their elbows high in front of their face i like to concentrate on keeping their feet together so that there's more surface area for the impact of jumping out of the aircraft to absorb into so that they can roll getting them to bleed off the momentum so that they do not get injured it hurt it was annoying falling over and over and over until you get it right and even then you have to fall more and more this is my life that's on the line so i appreciate that stuff after plfs they move to the lateral drift apparatus a zip line they slide across until they're ordered to let go and land it simulates the lateral drift that will happen in the air due to wind so then they'll have more momentum to actually complete the parachute landing fall and kick it up and over students use the suspended harness to practice pulling a slip so you would pull a slip in the direction that you want to go so if you want to go to your front to your left you're going to pull a front left slit as it would be all the way around all four risers the t11 parachute is not technically steerable but executing a slip is the only option for avoiding a collision whether it's avoiding trees other jumpers they do work and that's why we teach them here doing it constantly knowing which way to slip so in the air i'm confident which direction i'm going to go everything taught during ground week is taken to a new height the following week tower week you're 34 feet off the ground what are you gonna do you know nobody knows how they're going to react when they're staring that door in the face and i think everyone had that gut check if you will when they were up there but once you send it once you're jumping off you're good the height of the tower is typically where a lot of people are going to show the panic and the fear of heights and the tower is used to help them control that fear when you get up in that tower everybody is excited you walking upstairs just like anybody else but then now reality sets in when i'm standing up here 34 foot in the air and now you asking me to jump out they're going to kick out creating the explosive power required for them to exit the aircraft getting a good up six out 36 inch exit far away from the aircraft as soon as their foot leaves the platform they begin to count to 6 000. at the end of your 6 000 count your main canopy will have fully deployed and has begun its inflation process and begun its descent to the ground you did everything right students are observed and evaluated by instructors who critique them until they have developed an exit worthy of a live jump i actually jumped the mock tower 22 times just because i just had to perfect it and get it right you got to kick out a certain amount to get far enough away and that was probably the thing i struggled with the most [Music] the final exercise during tower week is the improved swing landing trainer an opportunity to practice a parachute landing fall in a more realistic way it simulates the oscillation and downward movement that you would experience on a normal parachute jump they will swing until they get into a good parachute landing fall position in true parachute landing fall you are not looking at the ground so you don't know when you're gonna hit we don't tell them i'm dropping you now we just say hold what you got prepare to land that way they know the ground will be coming soon they just won't know when the instructor pulls a cable that causes the student to fall this is also the most dangerous course when it comes to the actual training we've seen broken bones we've seen concussions result from this training more so than any other training training culminates with jump week where students apply everything they've learned in five different jumps from a live aircraft flying 1250 feet off the ground jump week begins with a jog to the airfield running down here from the barracks it's a very slow pace i found out the purpose of that was to check to see if anyone had any injuries and then it's a waiting game until you finally get to jump students pick up their main and reserve parachutes which have been meticulously packed and inspected by riggers the team uses a 13-step process to pack about 75 000 parachutes a year for airborne students if the riggers discover any deficiencies in a parachute it is removed from circulation what was the deficiency with that guy holding the apex hole in the apex students head to the harness shed where instructors inspect their parachutes so they go through five five rounds of inspections by the time they exit the aircraft just to verify re-verify triple verify make sure that everything is in order everything from checking the helmet and the actual t11 harness and the parachute for any deficiencies any cuts phrase any twists anything that could injure the jumper or cause malfunction [Applause] after the inspections students wait and wait and wait their jumps often delayed for hours by weather and air traffic control i will say the harness shed is not fun you can't talk you can't go to the bathroom you just have to sit there in our nice comfy harnesses until you get to jump finally the students get the signal that it's time to board the c-130 hercules that will fly them to the drop zone [Music] say hi to your mom [Music] the c-130 flies toward friar drop zone on the alabama side of the chattahoochee river [Music] when you're sitting there waiting it's like it's not real yet when they open the doors it's like oh you know if your heart's not already beaten that's that's when it starts because uh you're just about to go before the students jump two instructors go to assess wind conditions so they'll jump out not pull a slip see where the wind's taking them and then we'll send that wind data up to the aircraft on the ground a smoke bomb ignited in a barrel provides an additional sense of wind direction and speed the students hooked their static lines to the anchor line cable this connection will open the chute upon jumping it's one of those things that you don't know that much about it until you do it and it's not as scary as people think it is we all have fears a lot of folks are scared of heights you know you hear the stories possible fatalities and you allow that to get in your head but once you get here to the school you'll see that it's nothing like you ever thought it would be that 18 to 20 something seconds you have fallen out of the sky you're in your happy place the most surprising thing that i experienced when i exited the aircraft was the calm it's like slipping into the void and there's absolute silence and it's such a cool feeling but accidents can occur i knew i was coming for the humvee i tried to calm down as much as i could keep my slip cover my face and just wait for what happened next at first lieutenant davis landed just a few inches to the left her face and head could have collided with a metal handle on the side of the humvee mentally i was back in my plebe combative class at west point there's a point in the class where you are going to get hit in the face and you have to prepare for it and i thought i'm going to get hit and i have to prepare [Music] when you jump you can't have a clear drop zone we have to have vehicles out there for emergency purposes and the best you can do is pull a one riser slip opposite the direction of the hazard feed knees together ready to land our next jump was the night jump so you can imagine a somewhat traumatizing experience occurring and then i was really really trying to just remind myself that i'm good at this and just have faith in the equipment so how did that one go it went flawlessly flawlessly it's great together flawless landings are rare during the final jump when students jump with about 35 pounds of combat gear added to their load it was really nice to get it over with on a combat jump which that isn't fun because you're carrying all the equipment but once you get out of the aircraft and you realize that being a smaller person kind of aids in bringing you down to the ground a little bit slower it all pays off right comes in for a nice target landing friends and family gather to see the newest class of airborne qualified soldiers graduate after three weeks of training [Music] [Applause] what you see is a student that comes here they don't know what to expect they chose to do something that probably over one-third of the army won't do it's something to have this wing on your chest you have proven that hey you jumped out of a moving aircraft so they confidence just get greater and greater at each phase of the course i was afraid of heights but managed to step into the plate jump out the plane and now i can say that i'm able to qualify i've definitely grown in confidence in myself i'm a signal officer so i work on computers and it's very different having a trust that a modem will function versus a parachute opening i'm the last military member in my immediate family to become airborne qualified so as my mom would say it i'm no longer a dirty nasty leg so that's fun [Laughter] what's the leg thing so a leg is someone who don't have everyone wings you can have everything you ain't got airborne wings your leg so that's what we call your leg 376 airborne students that just graduated no longer legs move forward this stop talking is air force boot camp before they join the united states air force or space force all trainees must graduate from the air force's seven and a half week basic military training program known as bmt our mission is to motivate train and inspire the next generation of airmen to deliver 21st century air power training happens here at lackland air force base located just 10 miles outside of downtown san antonio texas on a sweltering week in august insiders spent four days observing different squadrons at various stages of training whenever i said i was going air force everyone's like oh the chair force like basic's going to be nothing and i was sitting there thinking man i should have went another route this is going to be way too easy you're wearing your failure all over your face and i could not have been more wrong on day one new trainees arrive on a bus from the san antonio airport some of these kids come here never having left home you know no job experience but not long after they leave here they're going to be given a job and a task and expected to perform that task with no supervision there hug your back enough to close out that's all this gun about 35 000 trainees graduate from bmt each year the average age of a basic training here at bmt is 20.6 years old what that means is they don't remember a time when our nation wasn't at war but they raised their hand anyway and they said they want to serve all trainees are sorted into smaller groups known as flights although training squadrons are composed of both male and female trainees the flights are divided by gender during zero week male trainees receive haircuts female trainees must wear their hair in a bun a ponytail or up to two braids right away the air force wants to get a little muscle on those pretty arms females were first allowed to join the air force in limited roles in 1948 and in 1976 began being accepted on an equal basis with males today 20 of the air force's active duty service members are female along with about 25 of all trainees at bmt trainees learn how to line up and march in formation from their military training instructor or mti [Applause] which for some can be easier said than done [Music] there you go leave it all on the track mornings at bmt begin at 0-600 with physical training come on man keep going all right you're done all trainees must pass a physical fitness test during the fifth week of their training which consists of one minute each of push-ups and sit-ups as well as a timed one and a half mile run good job keep going gentlemen they kind of flip a switch during pt from mti to personal trainer good job good run like they come in and they really encourage you if you're struggling they'll tell you like hurry up let's get this done and they'll do it with you there you go bird through this last one after morning pt it's time for breakfast known as chow but meals aren't a time for relaxation sir flight 727 dormitory alpha 1 is prepared to enter the dining facility from the west side it's the responsibility of the chow runner to announce their flight's arrival to the dining facility yes sir thank you sir you gotta do the right amount of steps the right drill movements you got to say the right words or you're going to get screened that what are you doing what are you doing chow runners who don't follow procedures correctly may face the wrath of the snake pit the area where mtis sit during meals you looked stepped out in traffic and almost got ran over because it was not your turn there's no explanation for it back up really it's an important job because you represent your flight they put people in there who got confident issues you know to build their confidence so you're forgetting to do so because we've got you stop talking what i'm talking you gotta really be stable to be able to remember everything and then be in that fire and you know perform well after doing it a few times it get easier attention to detail is a critical aspect of bmt and it starts in the dormitory trainees are expected to keep their living areas and uniforms in pristine condition and both are inspected regularly by their mtis there's a plethora of things that they have to make sure are perfect down to the tee and if they aren't we're gonna let them know that this does not meet the standard they're gonna be expected to correct it during zero week each trainee is assigned a rifle which they learn to care for my heels are pretty much trying to touch the ground and i'm facing downrange 35 of bmt is classroom instruction right now what you're going to do is go to the high viewing position trainees learn the basics of how to hold their rifles in a variety of different shooting positions because we're an expeditionary force an airmen can find themselves in any location around the world really at a moment's notice so we have to maintain our qualifications and our service weapon nowhere is attention to detail more apparent than in drill practice drill is a lot of precision and discipline incorporated into certain movements in a formation i will say during the first couple weeks of training they are drinking from a fire hose the drill is much more difficult for them because they are having an overload of information being given to them typically after the second or third week of training is when it all starts to make a little bit of sense and around that time is when it looks a lot better training culminates in week six with an event known as beast which stands for basic expeditionary airman skills training beast puts them through all the things that they have learned in five and a half six weeks and we rehearsed it if you will during beast week trainees live in a simulated combat environment and are tested on various field training exercises and scenarios i want their backs to hurt and i want their feet to hurt after that five days of training out in the field because they need to ingrain to them right now the character what does it take to be our agile airman and an agile guardian in the united states air force during combat arms training and maintenance trainees learn how to handle and fire an m4 carbine trainees first learn how to safely load and fire their weapons in the classroom before heading out to the firing where they'll range their weapons from several different positions trainees fire a total of 76 rounds and must hit their target on at least 12 of them trainees who score 22 or higher qualify as expert the reload if they lose fundamentals they get frustrated they get frustrated they tend not to qualify you guys ready yes all right let's do it again let's go well if you keep them motivated that part will ensure that they either qualify or get that expert there's a sense of accomplishment that when an airman leaves here that they're they're confident in holding in operating a weapon some people come here they've never touched any weapon of any kind in their life so that confidence is important to us [Music] trainees don gas masks during sea burn training where they learn how to protect themselves during a chemical biological radiological or nuclear attack trainees run through a simulated attack and conduct post-attack reconnaissance of their surrounding area where they check for damage as well as any unexploded explosive ordnance due to covit-19 protocols trainees are not exposed to any dangerous chemicals during bmt but training that does include exposure is scheduled to return in early 2022. i believe it's 97 degrees right now and the gear that they're wearing adds about 15 degrees of body heat so it's it's challenging both physically and mentally i know it's hot i know it's miserable out here but you need to make sure you're paying attention i think it's a unique experience i remember the first time i put on a gas mask and how cool i thought it was but there's no doubt that after wearing that gear for a few hours especially in the texas heat they probably get tired of it pretty quickly i like to joke with some of my students and tell them hey the best part of seaburn is returning to gear at the end of the day ldp one what is ldp run figuring out how to coordinate with your team that would be the most difficult part especially in like all that really clunky gear it's hard to move around but it was still fun trainees are also trained in tactical casualty combat care or t-triple-c which teaches them how to perform potentially life-saving first aid in combat once i go through once i want to go back the opposite direction that's what's going to create that direct pressure the trainees learn how to properly apply tourniquets as well as how to evacuate a wounded airman to safety [Music] skills they'll need to know when it comes to the culminating event of beast week simply known as the village the trainee's mission is to infiltrate the village and rescue an injured airman located somewhere inside but the sounds of gunfire and explosives along with the presence of role players acting as opposing forces and innocent bystanders make for a stressful environment we all kind of rush in and then didn't really know what to do we were all just kind of like looking around like what the heck is going on we had a plan and then it completely fell apart like as soon as we walked through pretty much it fell apart bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang we are responsible for throwing the different scenarios at them having them feel the pressure while they're out here at the village that way they can actually use their minds and think about what it is that we've taught them and trained them on in a scenario where they're actually under pressure put your hands above your head put your fingers hold your trainees are taught how to diffuse situations with opposing forces and are instructed to use minimal force on those who are non-compliant what are you doing comply oh i'm sorry but the stressful environment can cause some trainees to freeze cassie oh thank you or overreact some of the things that i see most of the time which is very detrimental to our force is trainees utilizing deadly force when they're not supposed to be why did you shoot me you have a grenade in your hand and a weapon in your hand sir how did you know it was a grenade you're that far away you don't know and i'm not pointing my weapon at you why would you shoot me obviously we all know that's against code it sets us back in a mission that we're trying to accomplish overseas bang hey sir common mistakes not forming the 360 degree perimeter i see that all the time hey what are you man what are you doing right now no 360 degree perimeter i want them to make mistakes i want them i want to correct those mistakes and tell them this is why it was a mistake and move forward from it y'all are all training teacher we'll see right [Music] somebody sends us down there and then once the trainees reach the injured airmen they must quickly and safely apply t triple c wake up calm down and think before evacuating them to safety you guys ready we're going this way let's go hey this is why we train out here this is why we harp on all of those things that we teach you when you're doing fast and teacher we'll see because this all of this stuff comes into play whether you're here or downrange and you have to apply real world hey if you shoot somebody out in the desert and they didn't have opportunity capability and intent you're going to live and work we try and expose the mistakes that way they can make them here where it's a safe environment and actually leave the village with a different understanding of where they need to work on themselves good job having survived beast week the trainees returned to base with the toughest week of bmt behind them they see it often as a rite of passage they've been out there they've achieved that difficult thing so by the time they come back from beast there's a new sense of accomplishment friends and family gather to see their new airmen and guardians graduate it's remarkable to watch how in just seven weeks which is not very long it can make such a difference in someone's life they walk a different way they talk a different way the amount of confidence they exude and the pride that they obviously have after having gone through this is so clear and so evident [Music] after graduating from basic military training airmen and guardians head to technical school to start the next chapter in their journey in the u.s air force and space force those who joke about us being the chair force i would tell you well it's easier to sit in a chair than this sit on a rock we must out-think our enemies every single day and how we fight but what i would tell those who joke is to stand the post because we have a nation to defend this is army air assault school [Music] where students train to insert themselves and equipment into combat using helicopters as we start looking towards the future fight large nation states like in north korea where you'd be able to go behind enemy lines deliver formations of air assault soldiers who could seize objectives destroy enemy formations that's the concept all air assault qualified soldiers have to graduate from a program known as the army's 10 toughest days who's gonna get it who's gonna get it [Applause] it's physically demanding and also it's very mentally demanding a lot of attention to detail some of the hardest things they've done in their lives in these 10 short days i definitely think it lives up to the 10 toughest days there's definitely nights where i was very nervous and good reason to be nervous insiders spent four days inside air assault school where we observe students at various stages of training the first phase is an academic phase where the students learn the basics of aircraft capabilities and air assault planning the second phase a sling load phase which is how you move equipment around the battlefield under a helicopter and the final phase is the repelling phase training happens here at the sabaloski air assault school inside the fort campbell army installation that straddles the tennessee kentucky border [Music] it's home to the 101st airborne division nicknamed the screaming eagles first name aaron but before day one of air assault school begins all students have to survive what's known as day zero roster three staff sergeant rivas the test is designed to weed out students who aren't ready for the challenges ahead it begins before sunrise when students form up to receive their roster numbers the first test is an early morning inspection of their gear earplugs highlighter lacking pen one gallon size ziploc style bag students are given a list of items they're expected to have in their rucksacks good good if one single item is missing during the inspection they're automatically dropped 17 students in this group were dropped because they were missing items in their packing list a lot of the things that get people dropped is not paying attention to detail and that's pretty much what aerosol school is about because it comes to the littlest thing can get someone hurt or injured and we just want to make sure that they take it seriously after the inspection a two mile run with an 18 minute time limit followed by a quick smoke session which gets the students warmed up before the main event the obstacle course that's the first moment where we filter out who is prepared to be here and who wants to be here the course contains nine different obstacles to test student strength agility and confidence seven of them are considered minor and students are allowed to fail one without being dropped all right this is a major the last two are major obstacles and students must pass both otherwise they have failed day zero first the aptly named tough one go ahead on the right a multi-part obstacle that starts with a three meter rope climb and then tests balance along with upper and lower body strength at a height of over 30 feet if you're afraid of heights it can be very frightening and if you don't know how to climb a rope you're just going to be out of luck all right assault what's your roster number all right take this over to the white truck right there you're kind of gassed once you get to that point so it's all technique the second major obstacle is the 35 foot tall confidence climb i have a fear of heights so the confidence climb was definitely one that was mentally challenging for me okay air assault kept on pushing you gotta you gotta push through for students who successfully conquer the obstacle course day zero is complete of the 292 students who started day zero 42 failed to complete it by this time these students have worked up an appetite and they'll need their strength before the army's 10 toughest days officially begin here why does everybody say aerosol so much so that goes back to the culture we're building their culture both in the division and throughout the air assault community anytime they're being addressed by an instructor they'll usually say air assault instead of you know roger or yes great job dude we will refer to students as uh air assaults let's go arisa and really just when you're having a good time and you're motivated you pass another soldier you might say air assault to that soldier do you ever find yourself just saying aerosol when you're off all the time yeah my wife's probably sick of it every year about 5 000 students graduate from air assault school about 18 percent are female and the students come from a wide range of backgrounds we absolutely have a large scope of soldiers to come here not only army we have air force marines navy that come to the schoolhouse students range from privates who just completed basic training to experienced officers who want to learn new skills so i'm 40 years old i wanted to come out to the air assault course to see if i can do it number one and then to improve my skill set as a helicopter pilot i'm a veterinarian and so this isn't something we get to do every day i signed up for air assault school to get a little bit of a challenge um to kind of diversify myself as far as what i do in the army on day one students begin the first phase of training known as combat assault much of which happens in the classroom handbook starting on page 80. get there phase one is giving them a foundation in basic aerosol operations you will have the basic knowledge on how to select the market control a helicopter so it's a fair amount of memorization a little bit of math and then just understanding the process that goes into aerosol planning move aircraft right move aircraft right execute phase one moves outside the classroom when students practice hand and arm signals used to guide helicopters in a landing zone lecture says release sling load release sling load execute the instructors use a game called black shirt says lecture says similar to simon says to test the students on their knowledge of the signals and their attention to detail during the commands recover if you moved you're out i did not say blackshirt says recover the hand and arm signal's purpose is simply to guide the aircraft to place that aircraft over the load so that that hooker team can then hook up move out of the way and then the aircraft can then pick up and take the sling load set wherever it needs to go now you might want to get down phase two of training is focused on sling load operations where students learn how to prepare a heavy payload and hook it to a helicopter which descends to as low as eight feet off the ground during the operation that's kind of our if we want to call it our bread and butter here at turner first where we can go deep behind enemy lines and resupply soldiers whether that be beans and bullets or you know aircraft or artillery pieces we take pride in that students learn the rigorous process of preparing and inspecting six different loads here in phase two they'll learn how to rig whatever equipment that they're gonna send inspect that and they'll sign off on an inspection form which the pilots need for their sling load operation now you're going to check your hood latch sling load operations was challenging that's definitely the most mentally demanding hands-on part of the course so when you lift this up you lift it up as such we learn it rapidly and we're tested on it rapidly but luckily the instructors here give us so much time to practice so we have one deficiency already right we have a wide range up to about 24 deficiencies that we could use on a given load the arrow go towards the aircraft so would this be a deficiency we'll show them clean loads so they understand how the whole process looks then we give them dirty loads dirty loads have all the deficiencies then you ensure that your chains aren't twisted all right and they're wrapped one time at one time only but what do we have right here deficiency okay because it's wrapped more than once so then they can work through and say okay i see how this is different or this looks weird this is the wrong type of whatever that way they have full confidence come test day that they'll pass the hands-on portion everybody good any questions all right good luck don't stop students have to pass a 50 question written test with a minimum score of 70 percent you have two minutes to identify three out of four deficiencies on the humvee remember you only have five responses they inspect the rigging of six different payloads and have to identify three different deficiencies on each efficiency the students are timed during each inspection if they fail to identify the deficiencies they're classified as a no-go and are given a second chance to get it right if they fail twice students have to start their training all over and repeat day zero there are a lot of students that get dropped because there are so many finite details but when they fail they'll get a re-test and a retrain so that they have a second chance in order to get through it again students who pass the inspection then perform a sling load operation with a live aircraft this group's objective to attach the a-22 cargo bag to a hook on the bottom of a ch-47 helicopter [Music] that was super fun because we've learned all about all the equipment that we can sling load from these aircrafts that was rewarding to be able to actually hook up a load and watch them take off [Music] while part of phase 2 is spent under a helicopter in phase 3 students spend time on one but not for long the last phase is focused on repelling students first master their safety equipment they all are taught how to tie a hip repel seat or a swiss repel seat they're tested on it and they have to do it in 90 seconds within phase three are three separate stages repelling from a 14 foot ramp a 34 foot tower and finally 60 feet down from a live aircraft we go to the ramp good lock unlock and lower yourself they do a falling procedure just to get them comfortable with going down it's really more of a making them know that their equipment will hold them after that students move to the 34-foot tower where they practice rappelling on the open and wall sides kneel down hook up get ready gotta step down to the top of the letter do you understand yes here we go can you do the wall where you're just learning the basics because there's still a surface there that you're bouncing off of there you go keep going it's very scary you look out and you see how far down you actually are i feel like the tower is actually more frightening than the helicopter it's trust in your equipment trust in your repel master it's kind of out of our hands at that point and so that can be a little bit frightening and then you do the open side repel because that'll simulate what it's like out of an aircraft where you're just using your brake hand and nothing else to control your descent to the ground the idea behind it is once you're at 34 foot you can't really tell how high you are so then when they get 60 foot in an aircraft they can't really tell much of a difference then it's time for the final part of phase three rappelling out of a live aircraft a steady rain didn't hinder students from boarding the ch-47 once airborne it hovers in place at an altitude of 60 feet in a ch-47 we can fit 30 students in at a time they're all hooked to a monkey tail or a daisy chain if you will it hooks them into the aircraft so if the aircraft were to go down we have a secondary safety device inside the aircraft that they're hooked to so nobody falls out of the bird the repel master that's hooking them up will call them forward make sure that that student is hooked up correctly once that rappel master makes eye contact with that student then they stand up and he'll push him to the edge of the aircraft and then he'll send him two soldiers on the ground known as belay personnel control the ropes from the bottom just in case somebody becomes a fallen repeller or can't control their descent they would be able to pull the ropes stop them and they'd be able to control their descent for them all the way down the ground safely their job is even more difficult due to sustained gusts coming from the rotor wash it's a lot of work for the belay map they get a good workout over the three hours they're under the aircraft i was actually the first one in my group to jump and as i was getting closer to the edge i will admit it did feel a little surreal and i did get a little nervous but just being confident knowing that you are going to to land on the ground within the next like 20 seconds it was really fun super exciting turn your red lens on [Applause] top before dawn on graduation day students face the culminating event of air assault school a 12-mile ruck march that each student must complete in less than three hours while wearing about 40 pounds of combat gear the 12-mile ruck is more of a a mental game i would say just being able to push yourself through all 12 miles [Music] let's go airsoft roxanne it's hard but it's nice to have your other teammates around you kind of encouraging you as you're doing it hey great job guys six to zero great job sometimes that's all it takes one guy or gal to really put themself out there and let them know that you care great work man good job you genuinely do care and that you're you're proud of them right and that really sparks that motivation to get that soldier to go that last mile that last six feet in some cases motivated another ten we can make that happen no no no okay everybody wants to be a gangster so it's time to do gangster right [Music] all right undo your rook and dump it out after the ruck march students have to pass one final inspection of their rucksacks ach or chin strap jacket extreme sweat weather and patrol cap [Music] [Applause] just one more opportunity to get dropped before graduation earplugs highlighter upon inspection this student told an instructor he didn't have his ear gonna go back plugs and then you need to look in your gear and you need to find them by the time they get back otherwise you're gonna be a drop once the instructor returned the student had managed to find them got airplanes in your gear hairstyle no students were dropped during the final inspection all right congratulations you're airsoft qualified of the 231 students that started with this class on day zero 191 finished the course friends and family gather to see the newest class of air assault qualified soldiers graduate on the final day of training you now have the crucial skills to maximize the effective use of helicopter assets in both training and combat missions wear your air assault wings with pride your peers without them will be envious of your accomplishments it's almost a transformation of sorts right you have a soldier that's timid at times and not sure if they really want to be here you fast forward 10 days and you have a soldier that's chest is a little bit further out staying a little bit taller and they're absolutely proud to earn that air assault badge [Music] meanwhile a new class of students is just beginning day one of air assault training to find out if they have what it takes to survive the army's 10 toughest days [Music] rest feel a little low very right actually [Music] these air force pilots are refueling their c-17 globemaster 3 at 26 000 feet in the air the pilots rendezvous with a kc-10 refueler jet that pumps gas down through a controlled boom at eleven hundred gallons per minute contact the litter phone contact it's one of three missions we saw while embedded with a crew training to fly the c-17 at 174 feet long and 55 feet tall the c-17 has a maximum payload of around 170 thousand pounds and can land on runways shorter than 3 500 feet with just three crew members manning the aircraft we can do everything from supporting contingencies so the war downrange we can support cove admissions has been a big thing recently we can also do humanitarian missions so helping evac sick patients wounded soldiers due to its high payload capacity c-17s were used in august 2021 to evacuate people from afghanistan with one plane carrying 823 passengers the basic crew of a c-17 uh there's three of us there's a pilot a co-pilot and one load master so my role here as a c-17 load master is to load these aircraft whether it be helicopters tanks humvees ambulatory patients ultimately our mission is to support someone else the average salary of a c-17 pilot stationed at travis air force base is around 117 thousand dollars and the typical tour is about three years training happens here at travis air force base in fairfield california one hour northeast of san francisco and before pilots complete missions in the sky they practice the complicated maneuvers in a state-of-the-art simulator it's pretty realistic we use it to practice emergencies that you can't practice in the jet or you wouldn't want to practice in the jet whether that's multiple engine losses or really poor weather conditions fire number two engine confirm number two number two students train for emergencies like enemy threats and hydraulic failures but the first scenario is a simulated engine fire would you please uh scan the number two engine for us uh we're showing engine fire indications and then i've got the radios you've got the checklist a lot of crew coordination happens at a time so that's a good safe space for young co-pilots to first get the feel for what the stick and power inputs feel like before you go do it in the jet emergency engine shutdown checklist is completed 321 cleared to land roadway 2 one left after practicing in the simulator the crew meets in the briefing room to plan a live training mission uh so training flight tomorrow show time is a little non-standard we're gonna do 6 30 local showtime at baseops pilots and crew spend hours the day before a mission discussing the route the objectives and backup plans if anything goes wrong so if we're in a failure to disconnect position the main thing is just maintain a good stable platform keep doing what you're doing if you're pilot flying the crew finalized their plans and were dismissed to prepare for the flight precisely at 100 the crew boarded the plane and ran through their final checklists [Music] the first exercise of the training mission refueling in mid-air so air refueling is basically think about a gas station in the sky the whole concept there is we have two aircraft meeting at the same point in space so it can be potentially sensitive cargo you're carrying and you don't want to stop um or perhaps they're just not a good place to land or maybe you don't have the time to land feel a little low pretty right so we'll be about a thousand feet below the other aircraft and then eventually closing that altitude gap to where their boom uh that's the long pole that sticks out of the aircraft to actually pass the gas from their aircraft to ours we end up making contact with their boom i think we got big throttle inputs in the back and up so you just have to now you have to work a little harder to kind of find the null again now be patient a good saying is uh you know aim small miss small when we're air refueling we're focusing on very small details and trying to see like small movements because small movements that close can make a big impact refueling happens while pilots maneuver the c-17 at 300 miles per hour nearly 30 thousand feet in the sky contact contact for me i was thinking about improving my power movements so my uh my stick movements so my right hand i was sitting in the right seat were pretty solid but like my my throttle movements could have been a lot better so it's something that i can work on in the future break away break away break away phase two of the mission involves low level flying so low level flying during the day we can go as low as 300 feet above the ground which is pretty low for a large aircraft and the intent there is to stay below the radar picture of a potential adversary so when you're lower there's a few tactical benefits that we have that help us get to a not so great spot in a safer manner that's what out there flying it we're watching our altitudes and making sure that we're clearing any obstacles or anything like that we also had another pilot in the back looking at the map in the chart calling out different towers on each side of the route and helping us avoid them and clear them that way appreciate you huh yeah the c-17 headed north towards moses lake washington to practice landing in an assault zone so an assault zone is a short runway typically they're about 3500 feet and then it has a marked zone that's 500 feet long and our goal is to put our aircraft in the 500 foot box and then use max effort to stop on the remaining runway crews have to master landing on a traditional airstrip as well as temporary runways so the tactical part of the c-17 is it goes to fields that maybe have shorter runways or dirt runways and oftentimes those are in combat locations or steer fields pull back up on the stick and put a little bit of power in 500 feet in front of the zone not sure and full stop everybody minimum 300 feet from the zone with correction the final mission a combat offload back at the travis air force base basically what we'll be doing is simulating a an expedited offload typically if we're in a situation in which we don't have the equipment to do a download if we have to get in and out really quick maybe a hostile location once we release the lock we'll save brakes released as well to the pilots and then they will hit the throttles release the brakes and the pallet will go out at the aft into the aircraft we'll call load clear close up and then we'll get out of here [Music] overall was a great sortie for everyone it was very busy and very long so it's always tough to go fly for six hours and constantly be engaged but i think everyone performed really well i think a lot of people relate cargo jetso like an airliner but what we do i think is very different specifically we go anywhere and everywhere in the world sometimes that means you have lots of information on that airfield sometimes it means you have none and so like i said you have to be a problem solver and really think on your toes so it's really rewarding when you go pick up you know 150 guys who have been deployed for six months and you get to bring them home to their families this is the most crucial moment for every student during airborne school the moment the parachute deploys after jumping if anything is wrong with the parachute itself no amount of training can stave off a potential disaster that's why every parachute is packed and inspected by a team of riggers who collectively prepare about 75 000 shoots each year it may seem like a simple job but the stakes couldn't be higher it doesn't matter how many i have to pack every shoot matters every jumper matters there can be no compromise with perfection without the riggers we can't do anything i tell them all the time hey you have our lives in your hands you want to put one on insiders spent a day with the riggers of the first 507th parachute infantry regiment to find out how these shoots are packed and checked before a live jump i had a gi joe back in the day and he was a paratrooper i used to just sit around packing his shoe i always told like my family if i ever did join the military pretty sure i could get a job packing parachutes and here i am along with graduating from airborne school riggers must complete 13 weeks of specialized training culminating with jumping out of a live aircraft using a parachute that they packed themselves to fully understand the gravity of the equipment that you are preparing for a jumper who's putting his life in your hands as the parachute packer i don't believe that you can fully comprehend that unless you are prepared to take that leap yourself base pay for a rigger is about 22 000 a year and increases with experience and ascension in rank they're supervised by in-process inspectors or ip's who wear red hats and perform eight different checks during the packing process so the parachutes being packed right now on the table behind me is the t11 main it is the static line parachute that we use here at the airborne school and it is the primary static line parachute for the army each t11 parachute costs about four thousand dollars and takes 24 to 30 minutes to fully pack serial number 40884 we verify that we have the correct information in the book so an event of a situation the information can be tracked down and traced back to who packed it when it was packed who inspected it flaking the canopy exposes the panels ensuring each one gets folded and packed for a safe deployment upon jumping this is pretty much the longest process the air channel must be clear so that it can inflate properly this is my line separator put it in between my group of lines and i place the packing weight on top 28 suspension lines connect the parachutes canopy to the harness separated into four groups so i'm going to verify that i don't have any twists turns or tangles my pee is down there making sure that they're not tangled my ip will count the panels of the parachute you should have 15 on that side and 13 on this side i'm starting the long fold i grab my sleeve now i can begin to pull the chute into the deployment bag now i can begin stilling keeping the lines tight neat as i can close my flap the entire process contains about a dozen individual steps and down here take my static line secure it and that is the back of the t11 each rigger is limited to packing 15 parachutes a day due to the severity and seriousness of our job we want to avoid anybody overworking themselves or over exerting themselves and becoming fatigued because everybody can only do so much before they start losing the ability to perform at a hundred percent each parachute has a service life of 12 and a half years before it's removed from circulation what was the deficiency with that guy holding the apex hole in the apex yeah sometimes riggers discover deficiencies during packing and take the parachute out of circulation shoots that are successfully packed and inspected are sent to a hangar where students pick them up before donning them every step i'm taking i'm like hey this is someone's life in my hands i know that they would they would want me to pack a good shoe for them yeah yeah and make sure that they can get down to the ground safely and make it home to their families at the end of the day these recruits are 36 hours away from officially becoming united states marines [Applause] but to get there they have to fight each other first using hand-to-hand combat in an event called the battle of bellow wood it's just one of several tests recruits complete during their final challenge of boot camp a 54-hour gauntlet called the crucible at some point you need to engage the enemy at some point you are going to be face to face with somebody through all these conditions and you're still going to have to be aggressive enough to win during boot camp marine corps recruits learn 17 different fighting styles from taekwondo to brazilian jiu-jitsu as part of the marine corps martial arts program or mcmap recruits learn techniques like hammer fists and delivering knees to the body when a fight has gone to the ground and all of that comes to a head during the battle of bellow wood where they go toe-to-toe with their fellow recruits everything that takes place during the crucible is considered a tactical evolution when you break down the subcontext of what they're doing they're either fighting for their lives or they're fighting to subdue someone else one recruit has a considerable advantage my name is montserrat carmona correa from dallas texas recruit carmona correa entered boot camp with the unique experience of a semi-pro boxing career i have heard she has a wicked hook when it comes to sparring i started when i was 15. my record's 13 fights 11 wins two losses out of the 11 wins i have two knockouts trying to go to the olympics and then eventually turn pro according to carmona correa her training emphasizes body shots uppercuts and hooks do you feel like you have an unfair advantage over your fellow recruits yes i take it more like playing around are you afraid you're gonna hurt somebody yes sir recruits face off in a structure known as the octagon they'll have headgear they'll have gloves and they'll also be wearing like a flak jacket [Applause] across the freaking octagon do we understand come back with some broken gear to my boss screw my shirt get me in trouble cause you broke my gear i think it's meant to kind of get them prepared for any aspects of combat you could be fighting an enemy that you don't really know anything about although they know each other and they're in a platoon together there are still a lot of things they don't know about each other their capabilities i think this is a way to just kind of keep them on their toes and keep them cognizant of their actions or the other person's actions the gym sectors they always tell me to go hard and to keep clinching although recruits wear headgear punches to the head are strictly prohibited body shots body shots if i take a shot at your head you might get a concussion you might get knocked out especially because i'm cold i'm tired i'm fatigued so i'm much more susceptible to the injuries occasional accidents occur we get medics stand by in case of injuries finally it's carmona correa's turn to enter the octagon body shot shot body shot yes [Music] recruits spar for about 60 seconds the instructor judges the match on technique effectiveness and effort and then declares a winner and a loser carmona correa the winner exits through a hatch labeled devil dogs while the loser is sent to the penalty box get your butt down i am you get down if the recruits aren't making a strong enough effort they're both declared losers i think about who wants it more who is willing to mentally push themselves and their bodies out of their comfort zone to accomplish a mission and i think pushing through all that adversity to accomplish that is a perfect venue for for those martial arts skills having successfully completed the battle of bello wood these recruits are now ready to conquer the remainder of the crucible and become united states marines this marine corps recruit isn't actually injured he's playing the role of a wounded marine during a simulated casualty evacuation oh you drove faster now sir and his fellow recruits have to drag him inch by inch to safety [Music] it's not a comfortable thing to carry someone on your back and drag them through the mud you sweat more in training so you bleed less in combat [Music] it's part of their final test at boot camp known as the crucible a 54-hour event that all recruits must complete fox you're breaking down i sir insiders spent four days at the marine corps recruit depot in paris island south carolina to chronicle one company taking on the challenge the last step before officially becoming marines the crucible occurs in week 11 of the marine corps 13 week boot camp the day before recruits from the gender integrated hotel company assemble in front of their barracks for a briefing although female recruits have trained at paris island since 1949 gender integrated companies didn't emerge until 2019. as of january 2021 this group of recruits was the most gender diverse company of enlisted recruits in the history of the marine corps [Applause] and among those in hotel company are a brother and sister from georgia 21 year old lacero cisneros and his 19 year old sister myra my sister and me are here doing the crucible together we're in the same company we usually don't see each other often but we always get like a glimpse of each other it's actually motivating just being able to see him be there i know that there's somebody here that knows me he's going through this with me he knows the pain i'm going through at 0-200 or 2 a.m it's lights on in the squad bays of hotel company hit it guys [Applause] [Music] we had to rush very stressful thinking about how the day was going to go recruits don their desert utility uniforms known as desert [Music] fold the first cammies with you and your rag mate now they square away their racks and ready their gear which weighs about 50 pounds [Music] while some recruits may be smiling now they won't be for long after one final trip to the head the recruits form up outside to officially begin the crucible we all understand what that means right yes sir we should probably scream a lot louder their first task a long hike in the cold darkness approximately six miles in length so nothing too arduous for the beginning but just enough that they understand like hey you're on your own we're not getting you bust out there you're gonna walk out there just like you're gonna walk back [Music] when the sun comes up the events of day one begin corporal dunham immediately alerted his fellow marines to the threat each crucible event is inspired by an actual occurrence in marine corps history corporal durham covered the grenade with his helmet and body and before the event begins the squad leader educates the group on its historical significance he saved their lives with at least two fellow marines all gears should be on you are facing forward light it up two calls pick it up this group begins with an enhanced obstacle course i don't know why you're responding when you're struggling with a simple obstacle so the obstacle course is out there they've seen it all before it's just now we're adding a couple more factors in there to make it more difficult now they also need to safely transport 35 pound ammo cans across the course when recruits fail to negotiate the obstacle [Music] their drill instructor orders them to do burpees and they're punished as a group although this recruit was able to conquer the obstacle her fellow recruits were not i'll let you get down between burpees so she had to pay alongside them [Music] [Music] i'm just going to think about all good stuff miami setting yeah we got some something that's crazy only six hours into the crucible and tensions are starting to flare oh you want to freaking roll your eyes at me no sir you sure yes sir because i literally just saw you do that no sir so a lot of times they could get frustrated because they're cold they're uncomfortable no sir you gotta add your problem no sir execute the diagram training that's a very common thing that we see oftentimes the recruits just correct themselves though because at this point they already know what's right and what's wrong fortunately they'll soon have a chance to blow off steam when they step inside a structure known as the octagon [Music] [Applause] recruits fight each other with bugle sticks [Music] they're tired they're hungry and now we're pitting them against each other at some point you are going to be face to face with somebody through all these conditions and you're still going to have to be aggressive enough to win the winner of the bout runs through a hatch below a sign that says devil dogs the loser reports to the penalty box where they perform a series of planks and other exercises intended to motivate them to avoid returning there and they soon get a chance to redeem themselves [Music] all recruits face off again in one on one body sparring i think this is a way to just kind of keep them on their toes and keep them cognizant of their actions or the other person's actions recruits are only allowed to strike the body with no punches allowed above the neck but stray punches do sometimes land all right and injuries can occur all right what company is this hotel company there's a saying in the core that every marine is first and foremost a rifleman recruits spend two weeks devoted to marksmanship during boot camp during the crucible recruits combined the skills they've learned on the firing range with movement in a simulated squad attack all right so first it's going to be cover and move all right and then automatically you're going to movement under fire right if people are shooting at you automatically going to go to the prone right you're not going to give yourself that easy target right yes sir the squads move together through a wooded area before they reach the entrance to the range so you're going to stay tight for this tree line you're going to run to that block go go go go go go go go go right here what's that roll oh recruits fire blank rounds during the event which simulates providing cover for their fellow recruits while they advance you're going to call that guy to that board stay alive by now these recruits have worked up an appetite [Music] it's supposed to be santa fe rice and beans don't taste the rice they're used to going to the chow hall getting three square meals a day now they're going to be receiving essentially field rations right our meals ready to eat mres these are spicy jalapenos i know they're jalapeno typically a single mre counts as one meal for the crucible recruits have to ration five mres over the course of the event mix it up just right it's like pudding it's the best pudding you will ever taste in your life that pudding right there [Music] there are no naps during the crucible during breaks for chow recruits are tasked with posting security over the course of the 54-hour event recruits sleep only three to four hours a night and this is where it happens in structures known as sea huts how tired are you right now for now i have like good energy left to complete the day i've been trying to ration my food and been trying to keep a steady mind three more days before becoming marine for lacero his day comes to a close with one of the most intense events of the crucible let's go you gotta a simulated casualty evacuation in a combat scenario it takes 40 seconds to bleed out listen listen to him you're freaking out you're not making the right choices all right sir no choice is still a choice all right you're just standing there looking at me confused he's already bleeding out you just helped him slow the bleeding all right sir you're being too slow you're not communicating where are you even going you came from this direction i sir fox you're breaking down i sir now i know that if you ever need to help anybody you can't even help you can't do anything because he's not okay he's out of his leg just got blown off he's got to turn the kid on and he's scared and he doesn't know what's happening that lies on your ass you'll be all right bud we got you let's go sisters let's go i've been learning a lot lately combat training combat care this recruit noticed that he still has a lot to learn meanwhile myra attempts to negotiate one of the most intimidating obstacles on paris island the 30-foot tall stairway to heaven ready step step together which all recruits must attempt without any safety equipment ready step step together i joined the marine corps with my older brother because of financial need i was going to college i needed the money and the career i want to follow is pediatrician so obviously i have to go to medical school for that and i obviously thought well i need the money and so i went to the recruiting station and i told them in the phone call i have a brother do you remember him and they asked me to bring him over so we went both together they just convinced us and we joined it turns out that having a sibling and training at paris island isn't that uncommon we met another pair of siblings in hotel company the relationship has grown stronger because at home we kind of just separated we only played xbox together from across the hall until we came here we knew each other but we didn't really like talk every single day like we have been for the past three months it's a pretty great feeling because whenever you think that you can't like turn to someone you can always just turn to your actual blood brother [Music] right yes tonight i'm going to basically pray a little bit for strength as the sun sets on day one of the crucible these recruits are in for a long night and an even longer day ahead [Music] oh simulated casualties play a big part and one of the most challenging crucible events the battle of way city named after one of the bloodiest battles of vietnam where an estimated 10 thousand people died including more than 100 marines loudspeakers sounds of gunfire and explosions to create a more realistic combat environment along with simulated mortar explosions that occur when a spark plug ignites a combination of propane and oxygen triggered by the push of this button the goal of the event is for each fire team to maneuver across the area with all casualties and gear intact drill instructors designate recruits as casualties if they fail to conceal themselves during their approach it's the responsibility of the still healthy recruits to transport the casualties recruits must climb over walls crawl through sand get into the wire now and barbed wire he's bleeding out all while slowly moving the casualties i need assistance out [Music] embrace the suck couldn't have been more true here once you embrace the suck and you look to your left and your right and you see the guys next to you doing it it just makes you want to push even harder and some of them will crack a smile and then you'll crack a smile and it just keeps you going sir macdonald sir he's bleeding out hi sir recruits who stay healthy and who don't have to tend to casualties are free to negotiate the course as long as they don't do anything that catches their drill instructor's attention the event gets even more grueling in the rain which is where we found myra and her squad thanks to a passing storm what began as dirt quickly turned to mud my hip is starting to hurt and i had trouble keeping the weapon off the sand so it was really hard this morning the recruits move into the woods to navigate a series of obstacles as a team which in the rain made things trickier for lazaro and his squad it has been very exciting pushing through just like the beginning of boot camp to the end and and happy to be here with my sister having a once in a lifetime moment i've seen a lot of improvement in myself i try to work on myself more like more than just physical recruits are invited to share their personal stories in sessions called core values i've been pushing myself as much as i can everywhere i can and while i had the smarts for college i never had the motivation but somehow the marines was the one thing i always have motivation for you know that one thing that everybody says that helps push them through that's my mom and that's my dad he passed away two years ago and it's been hard on her so it's kind of hitting home and i'm here so i can't wait to call her and be like yo mom finally did it i feel like i found a part of myself that i didn't have before and i never really fit in anywhere else as day two winds down all that stands between these recruits and officially becoming marines is a nine-mile hike back to the parade deck for hotel company the crucible has come to an end but one last step remains each recruit receives their eagle globe and anchor emblem symbolizing that they have officially become united states marines [Music] for the recruits it's what they've been battling for for these past 12 weeks and a lot of times is what they've wanted ever since they were a child it is absolutely amazing to see these men and women who have fought so hard for what they want and to finally see them achieving it [Music] we started together we were going to end this together yes what did that feel like when you put that in your hand it felt like hope a new future for a family are you proud of her yes she has accomplished maybe surpass me i'm her older brother so i see she has grown to become a very strong woman and murray are you guys hungry yes yes sir howard how excited are you for this breakfast oh very sir very excited [Music] while the eagle globe and anchor ceremony is the most anticipated moment of boot camp the warriors breakfast may be a close second they're so happy to be indoors at that point and they get steak and eggs to them it's probably the closest thing to home-cooked meal they can get while they're here they're incredibly happy y'all are all training teachers we'll see right somebody said this down there even then and they're trying to get right there wake up calm down and think these trainees are performing life-saving first aid on a mannequin you guys on my cover let's go yep it's part of a combat exercise at air force basic military training simply known as the village put your weapons down are you two stuck and it's one of the final exercises of beast week for basic expeditionary airmen skills training the culminating event of bmt the trainee's mission is to infiltrate the village and then locate and rescue a wounded airman in less than three minutes but instructors acting as opposing forces both hostile and non-threatening and the simulated sounds of explosives and gunfire create an intimidating environment you're dead you're paying attention to me i was right in front of you the whole time with the weapon located approximately six miles from lackland air force base the village is filled with dilapidated buildings and broken down cars simulating the look and feel of a town that airmen might encounter during a deployment each team of trainees is briefed on their mission hey you got to go in there fast all right once you hit the village you don't hesitate you got to go right in and you're going to go find that down airmen make sense yes sir the right's going to go first left second middle last that way we can cover them copy yes sir perfect let's hit it trainees march along a one and a half mile trail to reach the village watching out for unexploded explosive ordinances or uxos welcome village village chief dump upon arriving at the village the trainees are met by instructors acting as opposing forces fred yes sir the trainees assess the situation to determine whether or not they pose a threat and enter the village to locate the downed airmen adding stress adding sounds explosions simulated ieds like i want them to be able to think under that stress and be able to react when they stress appropriately all bunched up let's go make a decision most often they don't they freeze up at first i thought i was just gonna rush in and like know what to do but i still froze like i didn't know what to do i didn't know where to run at one point an instructor tested this trainee by walking up and slowly taking away their weapon cassie oh thank you somebody tries to take your weapon the appropriate response would have been used in force white building trainees are taught to use minimal force on non-compliant individuals and are only supposed to use deadly force on those who exhibit a clear capability and intent to harm your weapon but nerves can get the best of some trainees why did you shoot me you have a grenade in your hand and a weapon in your hand sir how did you know it was a grenade you're that far away you don't know and i'm not pointing my weapon at you why would you shoot me because of that heightened stress that we put them on they tend to forget which type of force they're going to use in what scenario trainees utilizing deadly force when they're not supposed to be sets us back in a mission that we're trying to accomplish overseas trainees also have to look out for mock ieds the booby charts i have in place they are tripwire set or manually set don't even see that right there yes sir you know anything nothing was strange about it you're supposed to be able to recognize the warning signs of an ied more often than not they don't recognize it and they get dusted with baby powder y'all are all training teacher we'll see right somebody send us down there and then let's go once the trainees reach the injured airmen they utilize their previous training in tactical combat casualty care or triple c so with triple c they start applying things that they need to do to actually save that wingman's life and actually sustain them until actual medical personnel can be brought in and provide the proper care that they need after successfully applying aid the trainees must evacuate their downed airmen to safety to complete the objective communicate make a decision let's go watch your muzzle hey this is why we train now some of y'all made a couple of mistakes i wouldn't call it too bad what's some of the things you did poorly talk to me communication sir communication a lot of you all stalled right at that entrance that's a normal behavior that we see out here there's a lot of stalling you're trying to feel it out but y'all came up with a plan before you came out here right yes sir you all need to follow that plan and execute get in save the airmen deal with everything as it comes because that's how it is real world we don't have a plan for what it is out there that's why we do it here so y'all can start learning how to think on your feet quickly teamwork is important there were times where they would sneak up behind you and nobody was paying attention to your back so you just got to stay aware and try your best not to be scared like it's hard to explain but the less like shaky you are the easier it'll be the smoother it'll go i like the running i like like ducking for cover it kind of felt like the real thing and that's what we're here for it's actually very much a learning experience we are here to expose weaknesses and mistakes that way they can see it firsthand again this is basic military training so you're gonna learn some basic expeditionary skills it lays that foundation when they do go to their career fields and go through a more advanced expeditionary training and then when they do go downrange they'll be ready you

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 5,001,880

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, Boot Camp, US military, US Army, US Marines, US Airforce, Military bootcamp

Id: uSKARETXGt8

Length: 154min 22sec (9262 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 21 2021