Why are guys going awol during Reception?

Question

When my BF was sitting around during Reception at Ft Benning, waiting for Basic to start, he wrote me a few letters. And he was saying alot of guys were going awol. During reception, he said all they did was get up at 3am, get in formation to see if everyone was there, stood in line for over an hour, then went back to the barracks and repeated that for lunch and dinner. So why try to run away then? They hadn't even started Basic yet, so they weren't even doing anything hard yet.

Answer 1

Well, to speak from experience, the first few days of basic training (for me) were the most stressful. Some people just can't handle the sudden change in their lives.

Answer 2

When I was in the Air Force, one guy went AWOL from Basic.

I saw him a couple of years later where I was stationed.  He was a prisoner in the stockade.

Answer 3

Reception was my least favorite part of my Army career so far.

You have no idea what is going on, you are in an unfamiliar setting, and you are getting very limited sleep.

The food was good, though.

After reception, Basic seemed like a pretty good time.  Drill Sergeant gave clear instructions, told us what to do and how to do it, and as long as we kept trying, we were OK.

I'm glad that those kids went AWOL during reception, rather than Basic, so they didn't interrupt actual training and waste anybody else's time.

Answer 4

man I HATED reception. Because when you leave your home airport, when you leave that day, you're kinda all pumped up. Ready to train. For me, when I went to Ft. Benning, I was told reception is going to last about 2 or 3 days. I was there for almost 2 weeks. It was SO boring. I couldn't stand it. 1 or 2 tasks (shots, finance, uniforms, haircut, videos, etc) per day. It was terrible.

I heard some cycles got in and out 2 days, some 2 weeks or longer.

Anyway, yeah, I hated reception, but probably for a different reason than the AWOLers.

Answer 5

This is nothing new. It's been going on since the time of Alexander the Great.

The press counts on people thinking this is all new stuff that has never happened.

It's just like all the people complaining about McCains miltary time, they act like he is the 1st to have his military experience used. Bad news there to:

Washington

Jackson

Tyler

Grant

Hayes

Mckinley

T. Roosevelt

Harry Truman

Ike

JFK

Nixon

Carter

All of them used their miltary past as part of the campaing.

Guy's went AWOL and deserted in Viet Nam, Korea,  WWII, WWI, Spanish American War, Civil War and on and on.

NOT NEW STUFF....but that is what they want people to believe.

Even now while they are making a big deal about the suicide rate in the military the last article I read about that stated "The military rate IS ALMOST as high as the civilian rate in the US" and much less still than during the Cold War. Do they point that in bold type? NO! The Cold War data was not mentioned I just know where it is.

That is the very long version of "nothing has changed much over time"!!

SSG US Army 73-82

Answer 6

they probably just got scared...

it's a pretty scary thing to be at reception, knowing your world is about to be turn up side down.

Answer 7

Alot of people say Reception is the worst part. They cant receive letters from thier loved ones. My husband is also at Ft. Benning got out of reception and started training Aug. 29th. He said guys were doing everything to try and get discharged. The night he got there a guy hung himself. It's stressful.  

Answer 8

It is due to a number of factors, but perhaps the biggest one of all is the more sheltered lives that our youth lead today.  Many of them do not know life outside of their city/town and are used to doing what they want, when they want.  They also have never learned how to take responsibility for their own actions, so when they get to these kinds of environments and act out, they are often in for a rude awakening.  It is not that they cannot handle it.  It is that they pull the ejector switch the second they encounter any kind of turbulence.