When retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Mike Sanders attended boot camp in 1967, he had plenty of ambition and patriotism. What he lacked, however, was a guide to the entire BMT experience.
Sanders, a former surface warfare officer, left the Navy in 1986 with a goal to change that. Nearly 40 years later, he published two side-by-side books on the topic: “Preparing for Military Basic Training: Your Complete Guide to Get Ready for Boot Camp” and “Preparing for Military Basic Training: Reference & Journal.” While he draws from experience in the Navy, these books target recruits from any branch.
“I’ve been kicking around the idea since I left the Navy,” said Sanders, who became an engineer, software developer and author of a dozen technical guidebooks in his post-military life. “What could I tell the people coming in to make their life better?”
The Complete Guide contains chapters such as “Health & Medical Preparations,” “The Rules” and “Daily Life in Basic Training,” while the Reference & Journal has writeable pages with detailed checklists, personalized phone book pages and space for journaling thoughts and experiences.
When Sanders first moved out of his parents’ house, he didn’t have a plan, which he said definitely made things harder.
“I stuffed everything into my dresser and left,” he said. “I got four little brothers, and they ransacked through everything. Somebody stole my motorcycle — it just disappeared.” If he had prepared, he knows now, those things most likely wouldn’t have happened.
Sanders spent about two months writing the bulk of the guides at home in Texas, with lots of online research thrown in. Boot camp, after all, has changed greatly since he graduated, and each branch has a different flavor. There are now multiple how-to books on BMT, but he said his are different.
“A lot of guides say how to succeed, but I think you succeed by being ready when you get there,” Sanders said. “I don’t want to set up expectations of what’s going to happen in boot camp except in very broad terms, so that’s why I recommend setting yourself up with preparations before you go.”
That includes sometimes-overlooked steps like suspending autopay for Netflix accounts, but also mentally preparing for getting yelled at by drill instructors and learning when to keep your mouth shut around fellow recruits (“Talk about neutral things; stay away from things that are none of their business”).
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Ideally, Sanders said, trainees will head to BMT with far more direction thanks to his books.
“Adventures are happening,” he said, “Keep on track and focused.”
“Preparing for Military Basic Training: Your Complete Guide to Get Ready for Boot Camp” and “Preparing for Military Basic Training: Reference & Journal” can be purchased on Amazon. For more information, visit Mike Sanders Books.
