Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Fort Leonard Wood. Missouri?

Yup..Fall of 62. Actually had fun going through basic..really enjoyed shooting the M-1.

In 1963, my high school best bud and I were on our way by train to Lackland AFB, TX for basic training. It was a hot summer there, for sure.

Yes. June, July and part of August 1973.

kwg

Basic and AIT in the summer of 70. Hot and humid. The training was a joke. They were running them through as fast as they could so they could ship them off to Nam. I was NG and came home. I always felt sorry for those who went into combat with the poor training we had. All they cared about was filling quotas of warm bodies. One week of combat would teach them (the survivors, that is) more than FLW taught them in 16 weeks.

Then I started hunting in Northern Missouri and found out what real cold was all about...

Basic training jan 1956 cold and wet all the time...

I, and I guess all of us had to blow on the ice on the peep sights in November. and December.

What time period?

I did basic training there in August of 1994. I freaking loved it! Yes it was hot. Best Drill Sgt's...SFC Anthony Smith, SSG Longcor, SSG Blair. Cant remember the batallion, I would have to check my letters home during that time period.

My one regret is that I wish I would have done a stint RA instead of all NG. Kind a wish I could do it again.

Oct70-Feb71

I did AIT there the Summer of 67. They trained me to operate a Road Grader and after AIT they stationed me there permanent party in the Concrete Paving Equipment Operators Course. They did not even have a road grader in the outfit. One cold February day in 1968 we were chipping dried concrete off of steel forms when the SFC in charge walked in and said he needed 2 volunteers to try out for the FLW rifle team. I jumped to my feet and volunteered. For the next several months we shot the National Match Course twice a day and once on Saturday. I also was exempt from the duty roster. I went on to shoot the 5th Army Matches in Fort Riley and shot well enough to make the 5th Army Team for a few months. When I returned 1st Sgt Crabtree was so pleased one of his engineering troops made the 5th Army team that he put me in for soldier of the month and I even made it. They promised me a $50 savings bond but I never saw it.

It got to minus 20 F one week during the winter and froze the propane lines to the furnace. All we had was 2 wool blankets and our long johns. That was one cold night. They had to move us to an old barracks that still had a coal fired furnace for the rest of the week.

I remember sitting on the roof of the barracks watching the lighting storms off in the distance. That is the only place I have seen Lightning Bugs. One of the troops was from Kentucky. He paid a visit to a black whore and caught a case of the crabs. He did not want to see the medic as he would be reported and get in trouble. So he stripped naked and proceeded to rub a bunch of stuff on his crotch. As I recall it was a mixture of aquavelva rubbing alcohol and what ever else he could find. When he finished he literally ran around the barracks twice screaming and then he sat on his foot locker picking out the dead crabs.

Yes I remember Little Korea well.

My cousin Nathan is a drill instructor there right now. He enjoys his work. He has been nominated best DI at least once. Not bad for a Canadian boy from Strathmore Alberta. (His mother is American, so he chose the US Army.) He is very fit.

May-July 1988,Basic Training, 1992, EOBC, 1997 EOAC. Didn’t leave anything there, so no need to go back. But my CG wants me to be an MP now, so there may be one more trip in my future. Yikes.

Old70

I did an Army Reserve active duty tour there.

I remember a canoe trip down the Big Piney River. Our guys flew a Huey for 10 miles, located a bridge for us to meet a duce and a half for the canoes and trip back to base..

Well, we paddled and paddled. Beautiful scenery, still water, fast water. All day we paddled. It was dark when we arrived at the bridge.

Ten miles by chopper turned out to be 26 miles by river.

Took a bit longer than expected, We were tired.

DF

Basic training, the summer of 1985.

Back in 63, and the old coal heated barracks, , I learned quickly when that fireman with the red helmet liner headed to the shower, I'd best as well if I wanted any hot water.

Basic training there, Feb-Apr 97. Went to much worse places than there in my 20 years.

I've got a buddy that's retired AF and is a GS on Ft. Leonard Wood. He's asked me several times if I wanted a job there with him when I retired from the AF myself. The wife usually answers him quicker than I can, with "Hell no"! Can it be that bad, I spent 3 years at Ft. Hood though. The oldest son may be heading there next summer if all goes right, as he's looking to join the Army Guard to help pay for college.

I completed basic there in 1985 and then was off to Ft Jackson. My son completed basic and AIT there in 2005.

My son-in-law just finished basic there.
I don’t think he enjoyed it any more than you did.