Army Basic Training - How to Prepare and Succeed

Victory Forge

Army Soldiers at Victory Forge

The Army took the Crucible and changed it in ways to suit their needs. At Fort Jackson, Victory Forge was the result. "All Army basic training sites have a culminating event like Victory Forge," said Army Maj. Gen. John A. Van Alstyne, commander of Fort Jackson.

Basic at Jackson once climaxed with a classic field training exercise. "I got here in July 1997 and I took a look at the FTX. It became clear to me we needed to do a lot of work," he said. "The recruits were bused out to a point, there was a short road march and then they went into an area and established positions. Drill sergeants referred to it as a 'Dig-X.' In other words, they did more digging than anything else."

Van Alstyne and his planners visited Parris Island's Crucible. He said they changed it to fit their situation. Victory Forge starts with a 10-kilometer march out and lasts 72 hours in a tactical environment. Though Marine recruits carry weapons during the Crucible, their environment is one of training.

Teamwork gets a soldier over the wall during Victory Forge exercises at Fort Jackson, S.C. The 72-hour tactical exercise climaxes Army basic training at Jackson.

The general gathered his brigade and battalion commanders and drill sergeants and charged them: Implement Victory Forge and make it the high point of basic combat training.

The result is a combination of team-building events and tactical lanes. "We wanted to finish with a night infiltration course and a long road march on the way home," Van Alstyne said. The final march started at 12 kilometers, but now averages 15.

"Soldiers now feel like they are pushed both physically and mentally, and they are proud of what they have done," he said. Training companies, he added, routinely come out of Victory Forge looking like rifle platoons that just finished two days of combat operations.

Victory Forge ends at night, and the soldiers gather around a forge. Flames spew from the top as the battalion commander puts the soldiers' experiences into perspective. He holds up a rod of iron and likens it to them when they arrived at Fort Jackson -- metal with a lot of potential but unshaped. But then, he says, they went through the fires of Victory Forge. And as he speaks, he reaches into the forge and pulls out a sword.

Then the drill sergeants go down the line and congratulate the soldiers. "When the drill sergeants walk down the line and tell [the soldiers] they've 'done good,' many of them break down," Van Alstyne said. "They are being told this by someone they really respect. It means a lot to them."

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