"Barracks Life"

[casivac]

Hi All

My question is how "life" is like during TBS and the 2 or 3 years of flight schooling.

I am a prior enlisted marine (HMLA367 ordnance) and am currently set to start the first phase of PLC this July, and then start my path to becoming a Marine naval aviator in 2012.

where is how my enlisted schooling "life" went:

At MCT we trained from the time we woke up till the time we slept Monday through Saturday, and we live in squad bays.
At Pensacola (A School) we lived in 3 man rooms with 2 rooms sharing a head. academics lasted from 6am to 1pm with PT usually before class Monday through Friday.
At Camp Pendleton (C school) we lived in squad bays with the academic and PT schedule the same as in Pensacola.

At all 3 schools we were placed on "barracks support" as we waited to be classed up.
Barracks support is a fancy way of saying we become janitors...and it is very very demoralizing. it usually took about 3-6 weeks until we got classed up.
At all 3 schools we always had to field day our living quarters (pain in the ass!) with Pensacola being the most anal.
Personally Owned Vehicle were never allowed until we got to the fleet.

So my questions are:
how long are the days? (academics and PT) and how many days out of the week do u train?
do u live in squad bays, 2 man rooms, or single man rooms?
how much of a pain in the ass are the field days?
What do you do as you wait to get classed up?
How long does it take to get classed up?
Are you allowed to bring your car?

thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

 

[MIDNJAC]

how long are the days? (academics and PT) and how many days out of the week do u train?
do u live in squad bays, 2 man rooms, or single man rooms?
how much of a pain in the ass are the field days?
What do you do as you wait to get classed up?
How long does it take to get classed up?
Are you allowed to bring your car?

thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.

Are you asking these questions about TBS or flight school? Can't speak to TBS, but no part of flight school is anywhere close to the kind of place that your questions elude to. I will play along though, in relation to flight school:

how long are the days? (academics and PT) and how many days out of the week do u train?

go when you are scheduled for flights, enjoy not needing to study at work in a vault/secret computer lab like you will at the FRS

do u live in squad bays, 2 man rooms, or single man rooms?

I'm not sure if I have ever been in a squad bay. I lived in several nice beach houses with friends/classmattes of mine.....one even had a pool in the backyard

how much of a pain in the ass are the field days?

The only ones doing field days are generally the contract maintainers you will have in the various VT/HT squadrons, though you might be tasked once in a while with cleaning up the student ready room, or making coffee as the SDO

What do you do as you wait to get classed up?

Study, drink, go to the beach, go on leave/TAD/etc

How long does it take to get classed up?

I waited a couple weeks to start API, a couple months between API and primary, another couple of months between primary and advanced, and then about 5 months between getting my wings and classing up in the FRS

Are you allowed to bring your car?

How else are you going to get to work?

 

[OUSOONER]

Basically...you'll have plenty of opportunities to get arrested. Flight school in a nutshell.

 

[81montedriver]

These are good questions but I will tell you that living in the barracks as an officer is a lot better than an enlisted Marine. For the flight school portion, don't worry about barracks because you will be living off base in an apartment or a house. You won't be doing field days. Waiting to class up you might get stashed somewhere but there are other threads on that. Generally you really won't have to do much waiting to class up. And you can have your car wherever you go.

Now for TBS:


how long are the days? (academics and PT) and how many days out of the week do u train?

The days are generally pretty busy. Academics will be about 0730-1630 with some PT mixed in here and there. In the field it's constant. It's 5 days a week unless you are in the field. In a typical month, 2 weeks are academic, 1 week is prac app and 1 week is field time.

do u live in squad bays, 2 man rooms, or single man rooms?

In O'Bannon Hall (not sure if they are tearing it down or not) there was a sleep side and a study side. In the sleep side, it started out having 2 people. Then 4 and when I was there we had six. But in the barracks we had a Subway a pizza place and a bar with cheap beer.

how much of a pain in the ass are the field days?

It depends on your XO. Ours was a douche so they sucked.

What do you do as you wait to get classed up?

Waiting for TBS you will be put in Mike Company. There is nothing good about Mike Company. You are basically a newly commissioned 2ndLt whose sole purpose in life is to do working parties. You get herded around by NCO's and SNCO's who need random things done. When you are not doing this you are standing in formations or getting fat. It sucks, and avoid it as much as possible.

How long does it take to get classed up?

I classed up right away for TBS and very quickly for flight school. It depends on the wait at the time.

Are you allowed to bring your car?

Hell yeh. If you have one bring one to TBS because you will want to leave Camp Barret every chance you get.

Hope this helps

 

[Treetop Flyer]

This has been talked about plenty if you search, but here goes anyway. The only place you will see a squad bay is at OCS. At TBS it was 4-5 dudes per two room/ one bathroom, with one room full of desks and the other full of bunks. They were talking about building new barracks when I left, so it may be different but I imagine it will be similar but just not as shitty and old. Once you leave TBS you live wherever you want. In Pensacola I recommend downtown, in Corpus I recommend on the island.

 

[SynixMan]

Re: OBannon Hall. Pretty sure I saw a picture of it being torn down on Facebook with a bunch of excited/Moto/Yut comments from my Marine buddies.

To the OP: Good luck and hope things work out well for you. Aviator life is pretty good.

 

[pharaelga]

Re: OBannon Hall. Pretty sure I saw a picture of it being torn down on Facebook with a bunch of excited/Moto/Yut comments from my Marine buddies.

To the OP: Good luck and hope things work out well for you. Aviator life is pretty good.

LOL, it is not ALL torn down (I am typing on a laptop from here as we speak).... just certain wings.... I think one more company besides us will be "lucky" enough to live in a piece of Corps history.... Imagine no hot water, and every damn pipe leaking (we have buckets under our sinks and under the toilet handle lol), really no space between racks... 5 people in a room designed for 2....and a constant smell of BO mixed with febreeze and morning shits.

But to the OP you will be living in the luxury that is Manion and Haas halls. No moldy walls, a massive head, a place to put all your gear, including built in gear racks and a place for your optics. All things that you will take for granted and still think your life is hard... I want to f'in slap the complainers from Alpha and Bravo companies....they dont understand.... I really regret the day I toured Manion as JOOD.

 

[JJax107]

LOL, it is not ALL torn down (I am typing on a laptop from here as we speak).... just certain wings.... I think one more company besides us will be "lucky" enough to live in a piece of Corps history.... Imagine no hot water, and every damn pipe leaking (we have buckets under our sinks and under the toilet handle lol), really no space between racks... 5 people in a room designed for 2....and a constant smell of BO mixed with febreeze and morning shits.

But to the OP you will be living in the luxury that is Manion and Haas halls. No moldy walls, a massive head, a place to put all your gear, including built in gear racks and a place for your optics. All things that you will take for granted and still think your life is hard... I want to f'in slap the complainers from Alpha and Bravo companies....they dont understand.... I really regret the day I toured Manion as JOOD.

Sounds pretty rough lol. Glad to know we'll be living like 'kings' when I start TBS in couple years .

 

[AirGrunt15]

LOL, it is not ALL torn down (I am typing on a laptop from here as we speak).... just certain wings.... I think one more company besides us will be "lucky" enough to live in a piece of Corps history.... Imagine no hot water, and every damn pipe leaking (we have buckets under our sinks and under the toilet handle lol), really no space between racks... 5 people in a room designed for 2....and a constant smell of BO mixed with febreeze and morning shits.

But to the OP you will be living in the luxury that is Manion and Haas halls. No moldy walls, a massive head, a place to put all your gear, including built in gear racks and a place for your optics. All things that you will take for granted and still think your life is hard... I want to f'in slap the complainers from Alpha and Bravo companies....they dont understand.... I really regret the day I toured Manion as JOOD.

They must not appreciate how hard we had it in the "Old Corps" in O'bannon Hall

 

[casivac]

5 man rooms with moldy walls and leaky sinks are still better than the squad bays i was expecting.
I lived in squad bays during marine combat training as well as most of my primary training while enlisted.
keep in mind no matter how crappy your living conditions are as officers, enlisted folk live in worst.

i am very glad to hear that i will never ever have to live in a squad bay after OCS

 

[pharaelga]

5 man rooms with moldy walls and leaky sinks are still better than the squad bays i was expecting.
I lived in squad bays during marine combat training as well as most of my primary training while enlisted.
keep in mind no matter how crappy your living conditions are as officers, enlisted folk live in worst.

i am very glad to hear that i will never ever have to live in a squad bay after OCS

Meh, HQBN barracks in 29 Palms is pretty nice. If I had to choose between the two it would be HQBN barracks hands down. I was guaranteed hot water every time I turned the faucet on there and my head was not also a hallway. Prior 3043 supp guy here, I understand how you feel man, but until you experience it you really don't understand what O's go through. 2nd Bn Hotel Co Parris Island graduated Oct 3, 2003.

 

[jmcquate]

I still have a soft spot for the Quonset Huts at Camp Usher.

 

[HueyCobra8151]

I lived in the Q-Huts in Talega for awhile (as seen in the movie Heartbreak Ridge, yut), and those were pretty bad...having to walk outside in the morning to the next Q-Hut over when it was freezing cold in order to take a freezing cold shower shared with a bunch of drowned tarantulas was not a blast.

Open squad bays aren't that bad though man, the living conditions suck, but the comraderie is worth it. Guarantee you will look back on those times with fondness (not MCT/Boot obviously...those were just garlic milkshakes) Now with the two man rooms you have a lot of guys who separate themselves from their unit and just go home and sit on the computer/play video games/whatever by themselves.

 

[KBayDog]

i am very glad to hear that i will never ever have to live in a squad bay after OCS

Never say never, man. Depending on where you go in this MAGTF Machine, you can...and probably will...spend plenty of time in squad bays. In fact, I spent plenty of time in a squad bay this past summer, and while living with 25 other dudes wasn't great, it beat the hell out of being on the boat. The Marines loved it - the squad bay may very well have been Club Med compared to THEIR berthing on the ship.

The sucky thing for you is that, based on your timing, you'll never spend a night in the Hotel Boeing.

 

[HueyHornet75]

casivac,
You're a Marine, dude. The squad bay is probably the best living the Corps will ever provide for you. You can pick from the Hotel Boeing like KBay said, the Huey Hilton, a 29palms BEQ room with 13 other aircrew, a cot outside because said BEQ was just a bit too cozy, a kerosene-dipped circus tent with no working ac in an Iraq summer (and you're on night crew) or same tent pissing rain water on you during a storm because it isn't weather proof. If you're really lucky, you'll be in an aircraft that has to RON after a Wednesday night gun shoot, and you'll go experience "Pigs in Spaaaaacce!!!" at the combined club.
However, you will realize that these still aren't the worst options out there, and every step of the way, you'll have brothers experiencing it with you, and despite the suck, you'll love it. Having re-read your last post, I saw you were enlisted, so I guess you probably have endured some shitty living. So for those who haven't...enjoy!