I went into Navy boot camp in Orlando in 1969 and “played” around for 3 or 4 days waiting on others to get there to form the training group. We had 4 companies....205, 206, 207 and 208. I was in 205 so we were there the longest. Some E2 who had graduated from boot camp but hadn’t gotten orders yet was put in charge of us and taught us some basic marching and the 96 counts of physical drill.
Columbus is a pretty good drive from Atlanta. And the one night I spent in Columbus a few years ago....didn’t seem like much to do there.
Thanks for the input.
I was in Orlando in 1984 for Nuke school. I’m sure it was very different from when you were there. I know that even then, the boot camp was VERY different from what I experienced in Great Lakes. One of my class mates was sent over to RTC while my Nuke class was classing up and he was assigned to help the MAA in the Chow hall. Well, he starts telling these boots (remember half of these boots are women) “nut to butt” and he gets pulled to the side and told you can’t do that here.
Where in Great Lakes, we had what was called “pass in review” (meals that lasted only until the last person in the company sat down), in Orlando, they were guarenteed 15 minutes for all meals. They also got a break half way through to go to Disney World. They also had a little sandy rec center where I saw recruits playing volleyball and chilling out. Very different from my Boot experience in Great Lakes in 1983!