Introduction to Army Basic and Advanced Individual Training

One of the great opportunities for growth and success in life lay in Army Training, Education and Career development, specifically in the continuing education courses offered at all stages of the Army's training process. Through training and Army education, a soldier can learn the skills, discipline and responsibility to pursue any endeavor in life and succeed.

Soldiers learn mental and physical strength, high-level skills, morals and ethics, and leadership techniques. With an Army education, training for a career can not only be supplemented financially, but the skills sought by modern civilian enterprises are those taught to each and every recruit, and basic to all soldiers who graduate.

Army recruit qualification requirements

To enlist in the Army and become a soldier requires that a few basic qualifications be met: the recruit needs to be an American citizen or Resident Alien, between the ages of seventeen and thirty-four with a high school diploma or an equivalent accreditation, and fewer than two children if married.

All recruits must pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test. Of course, successful completion of the Basic Training course is mandatory.

Army Training - Basic Combat Training (BCT)

Army basic training begins with the Red Phase, when haircuts and uniforms are issues, and the recruit starts to learn the basics of confidence, Army values and heritage, and the first of many physical fitness tests to ensure that the recruit stays in top physical condition. White phase takes the recruit through marksmanship, combat training and other skills to continue to instill confidence; tactical, engagement, situational and field training exercises are part of the white phase schedule. Blue phase draws upon skills learned in the previous two phases, furthering knowledge and skills with automatic weapons and hand grenades and training in the Night Infiltration Course. A tactical foot march is part of the white and blue phases, culminating in the famous 15km march. The end of the blue phase marks the end of the Basic Training period and friends and family are invited to watch the recruits celebrate the hard work and dedication they have applied in the previous nine weeks.

Army Training - Advanced Individual Training (AIT)

The purpose of Advanced Individual Training is to train the recruit for their desired Army career path as a soldier, both hands-on and in-the-field, so that they become an expert in their field. There are seventeen specific soldier careers ranging from Infantry to Engineering, Transportation and Finance. The training time for each Army career is different, depending on the career path selected, called a Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), lasting anywhere from two weeks to twenty weeks or more. The Advanced Individual Training schools are;

• Adjutant General Corps School
• Air Defense Artillery School
• Aviation Logistics School
• Chemical School
• Department of Defense Fire Academy
• Engineer School
• Field Artillery Center
• Finance Corps School
• Infantry School
• Military Intelligence School
• Military Police School
• Ordnance Mechanical Maintenance School
• Ordnance Munitions and Electronics Maintenance School
• Quartermaster School
• Signal Corps School
• Transportation School
• U.S. Army Armor Center