A Day in Boot Camp, Reposted

This post seemed to be popular, and I've been asked to bump it back to the main page...

So I've been reading a bunch of threads on here about boot camp, and I wanted to clear up a few things for anyone with a new recruit going in.
First off, no matter what their paygrade is (most often it'll be E1, but could be something else), they will be called Seaman Recruit for all of boot camp. Don't get confused about that, they will still be paid whatever they are supposed to be making.
Next, there are very few instances where there is an entire division of one rate (I say few because I'm sure there has been one all-SEAL division). There isn't one division for just nukes, or just SEALs, or just air rates. It all depends on who is shipping to boot camp at that time. My division had 8 nukes and 2 SEALs. My brother division didn't have any of either.
As far as divisional jobs go, who gets what isn't usually dependent on anything except what the RDCs want for the job. Divisional leaders tend to be the loudest people in the division, just because they end up yelling a lot. The educational petty officer (who leads the divisional study time), is often--but not always--someone with a high ASVAB score. That makes sense, right? The other jobs just depend on who is in the right place at the right time. Section leaders are usually people that are on point, who can set an example. The master-at-arms, who runs cleanup, is often someone who knows how to scrub a toilet, but is better at leading. It just depends on the RDC really.
RDCs will be yelling at the recruits. That is their job. They will /not/, I repeat, /not/ hit them. The RDC will never touch a recruit, except to maybe shake his hand after graduation. But even that is so rare that I've never seen it, only heard about it. Once.
Also: RDCs will not read anyone's mail before they get it. That's illegal in boot camp, just like in the real world. If the recruit gets a letter from, sayyyy another recruit, the RDC has just cause to read it. This happened when I was in boot camp. A girl sent a letter to a guy in my division. The RDC came in with said letter, told him to open it, then after he had read it, it was confiscated.
RDCs will not use information posted on this website against recruits. If there's something on here that /could/ be used "against" them, it shouldn't be on here to begin with. And as far as reading this site, the RDCs probably don't do too much of that. If they even have internet access at work, they'll probably be looking at youtube or something. At home, they've got better things to do than read gossip on their recruits. If they want information on their recruits, they have plenty of it in the personnel files they keep in their office. Those include, but are not limited to, medical/dental files, boot camp report cards, high school grades, references...basically everything that the recruiter gathered and sent off to the Navy with the recruit.
The 900 division is what is called the "military" division. This is the division that will be the drill team for graduations, and tends to be more militaristic than the other divisions. No one in this division is picked to be in the division until they get there, and it's not anything that really has any effect on their career. It's just a job they have while in boot camp, and from what I've seen, it pretty much ends after boot camp graduation. Some 900 division guys join the honor guard, but that is offered to everyone else that can apply. In my A-school, the class leader was from the 900 division, but he was the only one that applied for the job.
Sleep is never an issue in boot camp. Every night, the recruits go to bed at 2200, and wake up at 0600. Unless they screw up and are assigned AIT (Advanced Intensive Training...early morning pt and stuff), then they have to get up at 0400. There is a compartment and roving watch stationed all night, so for two hours some nights a recruit might be up. If a recruit isn't sleeping enough, he's probably messing around after lights out.
During the day, the recruits will march wherever they need to go. There aren't cars for them to ride in. After about a week, marching is basically like walking, and it isn't that bad. If the division can't march, they will practice marching. If the division is really good at marching, sometimes they will learn parade style marching, which is more advanced than what is shown in the graduation ceremony. That is really cool stuff, by the way.
The gas chamber is part of the fire training program at boot camp. The recruits get into ranks in the chamber and put on gas masks, and the instructor opens a couple tear gas pills, then rank by rank the recruits remove their masks. It's weaker than normal tear gas, but it will clear out the sinuses pretty well.
Hell week is a SEAL thing. I never went through it, only heard about it from other people that know SEALs. Regular boot camp has nothing to do with that, unless the recruit is going to be a SEAL. I don't know exactly what happens there, so I can't attest for anything, other than I know I never went through anything like it.
Battle stations isn't that bad either. It was the only night when I didn't sleep, and that was because we started running it at about 2100. I'm not allowed to say what happened during it, but we did a lot of activities that were simulations of casualty situations in the fleet. The new battle stations program was designed by a movie studio and is all in one building. An article about it is here http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/09/navy_bootcamp_070909w/

Let's see...

So a day in the life of a recruit goes kind of like this:

0600: The lights in the compartment turn on, the RDC says "Reveille reveille, out of the racks" and everyone jumps out of bed and half the compartment goes to brush their teeth and shave while the other half gets dressed and makes their beds. After something like 5 minutes, they switch. After the second group brushes their teeth, everyone forms up in front of their beds for a time that is kind of like quarters in the real fleet. The RDC tells everyone news for the day or whatever they need to know.
0630: The division lines up for breakfast. They go into a height line, and depending on the RDC's mood, the tallest might go first, or the shortest might. Sometimes, in my division, a recruit that did a good job would just get sent to the front. In any case, everyone gets plenty of food and time to eat. Where they go in line only affects when they get to sit down. There isn't any talking allowed in the line or when eating, however.
0700: After breakfast could be PT or class. If they go to class, they will line up into the ranks and columns to march in and march to class. Classes are on a variety of different things, from water safety to gun handling to personal financial management. PT lasts an hour or so and happens three times a week. After PT, the recruits take a shower and get dressed in their utilities for whatever is going on in the afternoon.
1100-ish: Lunch time is basically like breakfast, only with a different meal. Still plenty of food for everyone and plenty of time to eat.
1130: Afternoon activity, it could be class, a trainer, or PT, sometimes just studying. Could also be learning how to fold and stow clothes or make your bed. Bunk and locker drills were pretty common for us here. That's when we would take all the stuff out of our rack, put it in a very specific pile on top, then have two minutes to make the bed and fold everything up perfectly. There could be uniform inspections here, compartment inspections, graduation practice, cleaning. There's always something to learn or clean at boot camp.
1730-ish: Supper, same as breakfast and lunch.
1800: Start evening routine: study sessions, sea stories from the RDCs sometimes, or maybe just cleaning. Like I said, there's always something to learn or clean.
2100-ish: Mail call from Monday to Friday. This is when the mail PO goes to the post office in the barracks and gets letters that were sent to the recruits and passes them all out. In my division you weren't allowed to read the mail until after lights out, or Sunday during holiday routine--That's when the recruits basically have the morning off, from 0800 to 1200.
2200: Lights out. The recruits form up in front of their racks and when told to, get into bed and go to sleep.

Now, remember that every day might not go like this, and it's been two years since I was in boot camp, so I might have missed stuff. But that's what I remember as a general routine.
The biggest thing to remember about boot camp is that there's always /two/ sides to every story your son or daughter is telling you. When they write a letter home, you're only getting their side, and might be missing some important details. Remain supportive, but calling the base or filing a complaint, or something like that won't do any good for anyone.