- pugil stick bouts drill US Army Basic – US Army photo
The US Army, since the days of Baron Von Steuben at Valley Forge in that cold winter of the Revolutionary War, has long had a tradition of producing highly skilled foot soldiers. These fighters wear the crossed rifles insignia of the infantry branch on their collars. The home of infantry training is Fort Benning, Georgia, where a fourteen week (98 day) course turns civilians into combat infantry. This training course is broken into five phases, Red, White, Blue, Black, and Gold.
Red Phase
Known as Patriot Phase, this covers weeks 1-3 during basic training. Here the recruit undergoes simple two and four-mile road marches, meets the obstacle course, learns first aid, and ceremonial tasks such as wearing the uniform and drill and ceremony. Towards the last part of this phase, they encounter Nuclear, Biological, Chemical (NBC) orientation, which includes the infamous gas mask chamber drill where recruits endure first-hand the effect of chemical gas exposure. The all-important skills of using the M16A4 rifle, land navigation, and hand-to-hand combat are introduced.
White Phase
Known as the Gunslinger phase, this covers weeks 4-6 of basic training. In this phase combat skills and soldier training is imparted to the recruits who made it past the introductory first three weeks of training. Recruits are introduced to the M2 heavy machine gun (better known as the ‘fifty-cal’), hand grenades, the M203 grenade launcher, and spend a lot of range time with their M16’s. Road marches are not forgotten and are pushed out to six miles in length. To provide the warrior spirit, pugil stick training and ground fighting techniques are touched on.
Blue Phase
This phase concludes the basic training that all soldiers in the US Army, even such non-combatant soldiers as food preparation personnel, water purification specialists, and motor transport drivers, undergo to be able to claim the title of soldier. This period, weeks 7-9 of training, builds on the skills the recruit learned in the first two phases. Recruits learn advanced marksmanship techniques including the use of the M68 and PAQ-4 optics, firing AT-4 anti-tank rockets, as well as M249 and M240 machineguns. Putting this all together in a night infiltration course, patrol base operations, moving under direct fire, and fire-team training, the recruits learn to move and shoot effectively as a unit. With lessons-learned from the Iraq and Afghanistan, convoy operations including live-fire reaction exercises to ambush are incorporated to help save lives on future battlefields. The road marches continue, but are expanded to eight and 10-miles in length.
Black Phase
Recruits who choose to be infantrymen continue with the OSUT program in the Black Phase of school. This phase covers weeks 10-13 and is considered the most grueling. In a tightly packed 21-day period, recruits learn how to operate checkpoints, process enemy prisoners of war, build and maintain defensive fighting positions, fight in urban terrain, and navigate effectively using GPS, maps, and compass. This phase is very physical with 12-mile road marches, a 5-mile Eagle Run, a 7-day Field Training Exercise meant to mimic combat as close as possible, and a 48-hour continuous operation exercise without sleep or rest known as the Gauntlet. The recruits are now soldiers and are given the 11-B MOS (Military Occupation Specialty) designation and awarded their crossed rifles insignia.
Gold Phase
Week 14, Gold Phase, is the final processing out period for US Army Infantrymen. They are given final skills assessments, turn in training equipment, and hold their graduation ceremony. And with that, another class of army infantrymen is born.
Sources
US Army Fort Benning Website http://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/basictraining/osut.asp retrieved December 2011.