Being a Mormon in the U.S. Army *True Story Sunday*

Hey guys, I'm gonna try to go again here. I'm I don't have much time to film but now I've got some time So I'm gonna try to get a couple in so I can have a few true story Sundays in in the bank In the books, so to speak. I really can't see anything so fucked up. I'm talking I Got clean off the lens, too Neutral that fog really watered up the lens Hope that's better It's a beautiful day. I'm actually dressed a little bit too warm. This is like the first day since Christmas That It's it's been like over 40 degrees so I thought what a lovely day for a ride Anyways, uh one of one of my viewers wrote to me and said hey we I want to hear more stories More true story Sundays about and he gave me some ideas Come up with a good story And one of the suggestions that he asked about one of the sessions he made was I want to hear more about what it was Like to be a Mormon in the army And so this is a this is a story that I always like to think of myself as someone who can't be embarrassed but this this was Over the line I was out of my comfort zone in a big way Day zero of basic training day zero. Nobody really knows what to expect. They just know it's gonna be horrible and Basic training starts and all that yelling happens and we We we had just outside the barracks. They had what we called the pit And it was basically a bunch of just a big football size football field sized Pit filled with tree bark and gravel and They would make us drag ourselves back and forth through that low crawl high crawl bear crawl Jump on one foot jump on the other foot do somersaults all the way across the field Run backwards just it's just until you couldn't go anymore They used to torture us and of course day zero It was like meet your new friend the pit and they worked us out there in that pit for a very long time and we were all absolutely spent and exhausted and Regretting deeply our choice to serve our country And Go to the showers the end of the day we go to the showers now this is where it gets awkward for me because it's not something that I really like to talk about but But it's part of a story that happened. So a Lot of you might know especially because Mitt Romney was a Mormon and he just ran for president that Mormons were religious clothing And a lot of people think it's really weird and they call it magic underwear and they make fun of it, but you know what It's nothing new Jews wear religious clothing Muslims wear religious clothing Catholics wear religious clothing priests nuns Cardinals all those people the Pope he wears religious clothing. I Guess it's just weird because Mormons don't do it out in public. We wear them underneath our normal clothes and it's not all Mormons but at the time I wore those I wore those I work in magic underwear and For me, it was normal. I you know, it was it was normal, but At the end of the day of my first day of basic training we went into the showers and the drill sergeant went in with us and And there was like 20 privates at a time that would go into the into the locker room With the drill sergeants and we were all in our underwear and Everybody has army issued underwear except me I'm the only one who was dressed different and the very last thing you do The cardinal rule of starting a new job or joining the army or anything is not to be that guy who stands out and looks Weird and looks different than everybody else. That's exactly what you know, I'm standing there Half naked in front of a bunch of strangers and I'm wearing underwear that no one else has ever seen before and it looks crazy and I look crazy and So what would happen is the drill sergeant was in there because he was searching for any Piercings because you had you couldn't have any piercings when you're in basic training. You have to take all the all your piercings out You couldn't You couldn't have any anti-government tattoos swastikas weird stuff like that So that's what they were in there for and so he would he would get to the private, you know, the first private they're all standing there in our underwear and our t-shirt and in in shorts and He points to a guy he says I dress and he has to undress in front of everyone and then he has to do a 360 degree turn and the drill sergeant searches his body for piercings and Anti-government tattoos and it's humiliating and it's and it's horrible, especially If you're dressed different than me, so the drill sergeant gets to me and he says You know angry angry black man drill sergeant. Okay He says to me Didn't army give you that underwear and I said no drill sergeant Tears not really, but I mean I've felt I felt bad Well drill sergeant shut up, I don't ever want to see you wearing that ever again if the army didn't give it to you You don't need it And I said, but well drill sergeant this this is of a religious nature Which pretty much if it's of a religious nature, it makes it okay In the army because they're very the good thing about the army is is a it's it's like a company but it's one of the most diverse companies ever because there's all sorts of different people and every type of religion and every type of color and you all end up just being green and working together to Accomplish the mission well almost always there's there's people that I don't like but You know what? I mean, it's a very diverse group and you're all accepting of each other and religion is one of those things that the army does not mess with so I Said drill sergeant these clothes these clothes are of a religious nature And he goes what religion private and I said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the Mormons this is ice man This is not gonna end well for me Turn around sorry, no adventure today. That's pure ice. Oh snap Please don't fall down. Please don't fall down So he says what religion private and I say the Church of Jesus Christ the Latter-day Saints the Mormons And he goes so you're telling me Out of all the other Mormons I've ever had up here in some basic training You're the first Mormon that's ever dressed like that And I said well drill sergeant. It's it's possible and it's Kind of difficult to explain and I kind of don't feel like that. This is the right time or place to explain it Shut up private I'm gonna talk to the chaplain about you if he says it's okay You can wear them And then he told me to get naked and then I did my 360 or maybe I did that first And then I jumped in the shower And I never heard from the drill sergeant again, so obviously the chaplain straightened him out, and I mean I heard from him Not about the clothes my religious clothing So anyways that was pretty horrible experience, but that opened me up to can of worms And a spotlight that I hadn't wanted because everybody Everybody soon found out that I was a Mormon and was asking questions about it, and why did I wear clothes like that? what do they mean and and you know one reason that we don't what the Mormons don't wear our Religious clothing on the outside is because it's our business It's something that's between us Upstairs so it's it was something that was private Awkward Anyways, that's what it was like to be a Mormon basic training. It's been a true story Sunday