What To Expect At Navy Boot Camp
Read this carefully before you go – make your life at boot camp as easy as possible by doing the legwork beforehand!
WEEK 1: IN-PROCESSING
Once you arrive you'll be given Navy-issued clothing and taught the right way to fold and store your new belongings and how make your bunk. You'll receive complete dental and medical exams, and if you need a haircut, you'll get one.
The first week will also be filled with conditioning, swimming, marching, drilling, and most importantly, attending Navy classes. Everything you do from this point on is designed to prepare you for what lies ahead. You will push your physical limits and achieve higher performance levels than you ever thought possible.
Honor, Courage, Commitment: Three words that probably held little meaning before Boot Camp. Here, they're words you'll live by. These Navy Core Values will become the ideals you and your fellow shipmates live by.
WEEK 2: CONFIDENCE
This is a confidence-building week. you'll be going through the confidence course, a course designed to simulate shipboard situations you could encounter in an emergency. Stay sharp because your life and the lives of your fellow shipmates depend on it. Teamwork and confidence are the themes for week two.
WEEK 3: HANDS-ON
This week you'll board a land-bound training ship. Everything will be hands-on, something your Recruiter told you the Navy is big on. You'll learn everything from ship nomenclature (Names), to first aid techniques, to semaphore (signaling with flags). Classroom studies will focus on customs and courtesies, laws of armed conflict, money management, shipboard communication, Navy ship and aircraft identification, and basic seamanship. In week three you will also have your first physical training (PT) test.
WEEK 4: LIVE FIRE
If you've never fired a weapon before, you'll get your chance in week four. You will have the opportunity to train with the M-16 and a 12-gauge shotgun. When you've proven you know how to properly use both, you'll move to the live-fire range. Graduation pictures are this week as well as an academic test on everything you've learned to date.
WEEK 5: CAREER
This week is all about you. Where you want to go, what you want to do, and how fast you intend to get there. Find the shortest distance between where you are and where you want to be. You are more than half-way through basic training, the finish line is in sight. Remember that 180-degree-life-change your Recruiter told you about? It's happening.
WEEK 6: FIRE SAFETY
The big topics for this week are shipboard damage control and firefighting. Two of the most vital skills you'll need on board a ship. You'll learn many ship safety techniques such as how to extinguish fires, escape smoke-filled compartments, open and close watertight doors, operate Oxygen Breathing Apparatus, and carry fire hoses. Another academic test, and perhaps the most challenging of all, is the Confidence Chamber. Inside the Chamber, you and about 100 other recruits will line up and put on a gas mask while a tear gas tablet is lit. You'll be ordered to remove your mask and throw it in a trash can while reciting your full name and social security number. Relax. Every Sailor before you has mastered it and so will you. This week you'll also have to finish the confidence course, as a team.
WEEK 7: BATTLE STATIONS
Battle Stations is Navy boot camp's ultimate test. This exercise consists of 12 different scenarios incorporating everything you have learned during the previous weeks. You and your team will be graded on your ability to execute the required tasks. Successful completion nets you the ultimate reward, a U.S. Navy ball cap. This cap tells the world you're no longer a Recruit, but a full-fledged Navy Sailor. All that is left is graduation
WEEK 8: GRADUATION
You made it! Don your dress uniform and get ready for graduation. You are a Sailor in the U.S. Navy. After today, your family and friends will envy you. Strangers on the street will thank you. Your Navy family will always have your back. Savor this moment. Not everybody makes it; not everybody should.
The Core Values of the United States Navy
Honor: When we say "bear true faith and allegiance," we are promising to:
Conduct ourselves in the highest ethical manner in all relationships
Deal honestly and truthfully with others
Make honest recommendations and accept those junior to us
Encourage new ideas and deliver the bad news, even when it is unpopular
Abide by an uncompromising code of integrity, taking responsibility for our actions and keeping our word
Fulfill or exceed our legal and ethical responsibilities in our public and personal lives 24 hours a day
Be mindful of the privilege to serve our fellow Americans
Courage: When we say "support and defend," we are promising to:
Meet the demands of our profession and the mission when it is hazardous, demanding or otherwise difficult
Make decisions in the best interest of the Navy and the nation, without regard to personal consequences
Meet all challenges while adhering to a higher standard of personal conduct and decency
Be loyal to our nation, ensuring the resources entrusted to us are used in an honest, careful and efficient way
Have the moral and mental strength to do what is right, even in the face of personal or professional adversity
Commitment: When we say "obey the orders," we are promising to:
Demand respect up and down the chain of command
Care for the safety, professional, personal, and spiritual well-being of the people entrusted to us
Show respect toward all people without regard to race, religion or gender
Treat each individual with human dignity
Be committed to positive change and constant improvement
Exhibit the highest degree of moral character, technical excellence, quality, and competence in what we have been trained to do
Work together as a team to improve the quality of our work, our people, and ourselves
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