What's It Like At Fort Jackson?

[Elle]

Is it old and rickety? How are the facilities? Separate showers? Open stalls?

[VTguard]

Here's their website with info on basic training and lots of pictures:

http://www.jackson.army.mil/BCT/BCT.htm

[williet9]

i live in columbia and have only been on base a few times, but I can say it's gonna be really hot and even more humid.

[Chris89]

Compare to ATL ?

[DannyHall]

are the showers sepaerate or are they open and what are the times during the day during basic are we allowed to use the bathroom

[DannyHall]

are the showers seperate or are they open??????????? when r we allowed to use rest rooms during the day?????????????????
what happens if we cant make it through a certain part of basic training???

[Mr_Nasty]

http://www.gruntsmilitary.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=49314 Here you go enjoy!

[ping9798]

Same for females, I would assume?

[Elle]

Open toilets?? Oh gosh...

[DannyHall]

huh....... wowzers

[PvtHumphrey]

Hi. I just found out that I iwll be sent to Ft. Jackson, NOT Ft. Leonard Wood as previously mentioned. I would be deployed there in Novemeber. How are the winter months there? I can't say I hate the cold, but I just want to know if it's THAT miserable & if the ds's take it easier on you if the weather is THAT bad. Thanks.

[Jan]

Hi. I just found out that I iwll be sent to Ft. Jackson, NOT Ft. Leonard Wood as previously mentioned. I would be deployed there in Novemeber. How are the winter months there? I can't say I hate the cold, but I just want to know if it's THAT miserable & if the ds's take it easier on you if the weather is THAT bad. Thanks.

LMAO!:p I can't remember if you ever said where you were from... I am SOOO looking forward to the weather in Ft. Jackson in January! When I was figuring out with my recruiter when I would ship out, he was very nice and family oriented and wanted to make sure I was home for the holidays... I just said "Please, if you have any shred of compassion in you, please DO NOT send me to basic in the summer! Anytime else, have me miss Thanksgiving, have me miss deer opener, but just not Basic in August..."

You have to realize, when I'm in comparitively "balmy" SC, it might be around -20 to -30 here in Minnesota. If it gets to 30 ABOVE zero, we start wearing shorts in January!:D I might be running til I puke, but at least I won't need to plug in my van or shovel a 4 foot wall of snow to get to work! And during those loooooonnnnggg peaceful showers we get to take (all 30 seconds worth) I won't have to say to myself "Thank God the pipes didn't freeze and burst last night"!

Don't worry- if it gets too cold, come on over and visit me- I'll let ya borrow my killer parka and fur hat with the ear flaps. I usually look like the stay-puff marshmallow man in them, but at least I don't get frostbite.:D

[Jan]

I guess I didn't really answer your question, though... I was too busy thinking of all the winter fun I get to miss here (wind chill, chipping my van out of an ice cube after it sleets, etc)... let's try this link thing again...

http://www.wunderground.com/NORMS/DisplayNORMS.asp?AirportCode=KCUB&StateCode=SC&SafeCityName=Columbia&Units=none&IATA=CAE&lastyear=on&normals=on&records=on

So, from what I can tell from all the ziggy lines that track last year's weather conditions ... while you are there... the lows might be 30-40 above, and it's still gonna get up to 60-70 most days. There was quite a dip mid-December, where the high is in the 40's, but that didn't last very long.

[PvtHumphrey]

Hey thanks for the link! Omg I think that type of weather is perfect compared to RI's weather of possible -10 in the winter. Are you going to BCT this winter? Maybe we will be there together, so I can steal your' parka during the night when you're sleeping(LMAO).Anyways that's good to know. The only thing that's making me feel guilty is the holidays, because I have 2 young girls. Part of me tells me to go, and the other part says what the **** are you thinking!?My fiance knows I am planning on signing up in october, and he's familier with the military so i'm sure he already guesses i'll be away. I figured maybe we can have a pre-xmas holiday before I go, we can make it our own holiday you know?Are you also going to Ft. Jackson?:)

[ElevenBravo]

I went to Benning, you can use restrooms when you need too and when its smart too, you will know when. You will be able to do your training trust me they will build you into a soldier there will be few things you wont be willing to do just to get em done.

[Catracho]

Hi. I just found out that I iwll be sent to Ft. Jackson, NOT Ft. Leonard Wood as previously mentioned. I would be deployed there in Novemeber. How are the winter months there? I can't say I hate the cold, but I just want to know if it's THAT miserable & if the ds's take it easier on you if the weather is THAT bad. Thanks.

November, thats when i am shipping out too, i am shipping out from LA, California on the 7th of november. what day you shipping out Pvt?

[PvtHumphrey]

Cat...That's awesome! I'm not exactly sure yet, it would be a guesstimate to say proably mid november, seeing as i'm going to MEPS in late october, the 27th to be exact if everything falls into place & they have openings on that date in Boston. I'm in RI. Right now i'm awaiting a MOS list & the results of my asvab I took. Also considering RPS(???), I figure 2 days a month, and maybe that'll help me on the running portion at least. In my area, in Narragansett it's held roughly the first weekend of the month, so I could potentially squeeze in 4 good days of this before I actually ship out. I'll keep ya posted, who knows. Maybe i'll be shipping out when you are? What is your MOS?

[Jan]

Hey thanks for the link! Omg I think that type of weather is perfect compared to RI's weather of possible -10 in the winter. Are you going to BCT this winter? Maybe we will be there together, so I can steal your' parka during the night when you're sleeping(LMAO).Anyways that's good to know. The only thing that's making me feel guilty is the holidays, because I have 2 young girls. Part of me tells me to go, and the other part says what the **** are you thinking!?My fiance knows I am planning on signing up in october, and he's familier with the military so i'm sure he already guesses i'll be away. I figured maybe we can have a pre-xmas holiday before I go, we can make it our own holiday you know?Are you also going to Ft. Jackson?:)

Yup! I'll be at Jackson Jan 17th. As far as the holidays- I had to jiggle my BCT plans a bit. I had originally planned to ship out Sept 20th, so I would be back right before Christmas and the Exodus. But, since I got delayed a month by MEPS, I just enlisted this week... and didn't think I could handle shipping off to basic in 3 weeks. I didn't want to be there over Christmas- not so much for the holiday itself- but I guess the Forts close down for 2 weeks, and you can come home (at your own expense, plus it's unpaid, plus it goofs up vacation time, I've heard...didn't want to deal with the details) or you can stay there, which extends basic by another 2 wks. Since I have 3 kids at home, I wanted to be there the least amount of time. So, we pushed everything back to Jan 17th.

[just.new]

They are right in saying that we will get used to the open showers, I've gone to RSP only twice and now have gotten used to it. We were more concerned about reporting to formation than we were about being seen.

But one thing I would like to know about is the waking at FJ. Does anyone that has been to FJ know if waking up a 0530 h. every day is easier than it sounds?

[Teuvil]

I went to Jackson in the middle of the summer. I hate the cold, so I dont know if I could stand Jan... that would be WAY to cold for me.

Yeah, waking up at 530 was the plan. It's actaully hard. In the begining, everyone will be running like mad when tehy wake up...but later on 5 - 9th week, you'll see everyone walking out of their rooms (it's like a very small, jail like, hotel with small rooms... a college dorm!) and they're wiping their eyes, dragging their feet, going slow...and the drill sergeant would just stand there making sure they get there in time. It will get very easy, trust me, and you willl stick with that even when you get out..for awhile atleast. What sucks is sometimes you have last fireguard shift which is probably from 330 or 430 to 530 or 630... sometimes we got up at 05 and sometimes at 06. But you wake up earlier and you stay up. Try to get one of the first two shifts!

[reamit42]

I just returned from BCT and AIT at Ft. Jackson, and it all depends what unit you are in. The showers are all open, and most of the buildings are pretty nice. The "trailer park" looks bad, but it is pretty nice and is the newer part. Most of the beds are new, they just put a bunch in. The part that will scare you is reception because it looks nasty. There is also a real nasty fire ant problem on most of the post, and a cockroach problem in some other places, but that was mostly in the males section. Keep your head up and you will have fun.

[Teuvil]

Yeah. I forgot to add the fire ant problem.

On your week out in the forest, you'll meet A LOT of ants. And not regular ants...fire ants, red ants, black/red ants and worst of all...the scary Bull Ant. I had to sleep next to one for 7 days. We eventually got the e-tool and found it's queen and held her hostage until the bull ants left. They didnt, so on our last day, we threw the queen in a nest of red ants and watched the epic battle between red ants and bull ants. Red ants OWNED the bull ants easily.

Watch out for them. Also, be respectful to the DFAC ladies! They're so sweet.