I was discussing basic training with a friend of mine (who was about to go through it) recently...
I said it would be a fun/memorable/challenging experience, and if I ever had to do it again, I'd probably snap and kill maim most of my platoon... solely because of crap like that... setting an alarm to go off 30 minutes early for PT? Why? Because you think it makes you keen? I could set an alarm for 4:57 and be up, dressed, ready and formed up for 5:00. Set it for 4:52 and I've got time to take an early morning dump.
Shockingly, same crap on PLQ... prior to the the field portion, we were given orders the evening before going to the field, and told "they weren't sure when we were going the next morning, but it would be early and they'd come wake us up".
My section, being fairly sensible, packed our gear, had uniforms ready to go, and could reasonably be expected to be leisurly out of the bunk and on our way in about 3 minutes. Then we all did the most reasonable thing, and went to sleep.
1:00AM, I got up to take a leak... and found the most of the rest of the platoon (other two sections) in the hallway, uniforms, body armor, and webgear on, either standing around, or sitting on their ruck sacks... "Are we leaving or somthing?" I asked (In my boxes and a pair of flip-flops) the individual looked at me wide eyed "Are you not ready to go? They said they'd come get us! They could be here any minute! We have no idea when we're going! Shit, you've got to get ready!" "So we're not going yet?" I went, used the washroom, came back to our sections room, locked the door, and went back to sleep.
3 hours later, when we were ready to leave, my section got out of bed, grabbed our stuff, and off we went, with an extra 5 or so hours of sleep that no one else had gotten because they figured they were being keen.
