{"id":40740,"date":"2018-04-08T13:52:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T13:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/04\/08\/the-army-just-made-it-harder-to-graduate-from-basic-training\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:24:29","slug":"the-army-just-made-it-harder-to-graduate-from-basic-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2018\/04\/08\/the-army-just-made-it-harder-to-graduate-from-basic-training\/","title":{"rendered":"The Army just made it harder to graduate from basic training"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FORT JACKSON, S.C. \u2015 It\u2019s day three of basic training\u2019s<\/a> culminating field training exercise, and the soldiers of 3rd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment are lined up along the side of a road on a thickly wooded training range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It looks a lot like a scene out of \u201cAmerican Gladiators,\u201d actually \u2014 two soldiers at a time are suiting up to whack each other about the head and body with foam-padded pugil sticks. The weapons are stand-ins for rifles<\/a>, and the soldiers are in round one of a battalion-wide combatives<\/a> competition on the road to graduation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the Forge, the third and final field training exercise required to complete the Army\u2019s initial entry training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get here, soldiers have had to test into and complete both the Hammer and Anvil exercises, and now they\u2019ll put together every warrior task and battle drill they\u2019ve learned so far to see what it\u2019s like to survive high-intensity combat when they\u2019re hanging by a thread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re doing it on lack of sleep, with heavy equipment, so it tests their emotions, their mental state, their physical state,\u201d Sgt. 1st Class Heidi Dougherty, a senior drill sergeant, told Army Times on April 3. \u201cIt\u2019s all put together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s 44 tasks and battle drills in all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Fort Jackson\u2019s second full-blown iteration of the Forge, Dougherty said, since the Center for Initial Military Training unveiled the new program of instruction in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, soldiers in their last couple weeks of training had a very different experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA year and a half ago it wasn\u2019t very mission-oriented,\u201d Maj. Gen. Pete Johnson, Fort Jackson\u2019s commander, told Army Times. \u201cIt was essentially one mission: it was occupy a defense and dig a foxhole to standard. It would take 36 hours of four days, and there was no real sense of achievement at the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t