What to Expect During Air Force Basic Military Training | Full Documentary | JBSA-Lackland

This is San Antonio International Airport, the first stop for every future airman. At the United Services Organization, or USO room, Air Force military training instructors conduct initial check-ins, verify identification, and allow brief calls home to confirm a safe arrival. From there, buses transport trainees directly to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, the home of US Air Force basic military training. Upon arrival, the bus pulls up to the Finkston Reception Center, known as the PRC, the official gateway into the Air Force. Inside, staff members issue the first essential items of training, a backpack, water bottle, study guide, and other gear, marking the official beginning of Air Force basic military training. Each year, around 26,000 to 30,000 recruits graduate from Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, the sole location for enlisted basic training for both the US Air Force and the US Space Force. Within the first few days of arrival, every trainee receives a regulation haircut designed to promote uniformity and hygiene. Male trainees are required to keep their hair short, clean, and tapered on the sides and back, following official Air Force grooming standards. Female trainees may maintain longer hair, but must keep it neat and professional, ensuring it doesn't interfere with equipment or uniforms. Licensed civilian barbers on base provide these haircuts, which are typically repeated every two weeks to maintain grooming standards. During basic military training, recruits live inside dormitories modeled after the Airman Training Complex, or ATC. These facilities serve as the center of daily life, where trainees live, sleep, and train alongside their squadron in flight. Each dormitory includes a day room, used for flight meetings, evening briefings, and discussions. Inside laundry rooms allow trainees to wash and dry uniforms throughout their time at BMT. Nearby, a utility room stores cleaning equipment used to maintain the dorms. Every ATC also features a latrine, a restroom area with multiple toilets, sinks, and showers designed for shared use. The recruit living area bays house rows of beds and lockers where trainees keep their issued gear and personal belongings, from uniforms to letters from home. Living spaces must remain in inspection order at all times, a standard that reinforces discipline and attention to detail. On the ground floor, the charge of quarters, or CQ, serves as the central command post for the dormitory. Staff members here monitor accountability, requiring recruits to sign in and out for appointments or off-schedule activities. The dining classroom facility, or DCF, is where trainees eat and attend war skills and military studies classes. For medical support, the independent duty medical technician, or IDMT, provides on-site care. Each morning at basic military training begins before sunrise, when trainees assemble for physical conditioning. The sessions include a mix of running, calisthenics, and strength exercises designed to build endurance and resilience. Instructors closely monitor form, discipline, and teamwork, ensuring every movement meets Air Force fitness standards. By graduation, most trainees improve their run times by over a minute and exceed minimum standards, reflecting the transformation from civilians to airmen in peak physical condition. So the CIT program is a cardio interval training, and it comes as a full body workout. Currently right now, the 323rd training squadron was the start of the whole program, so we've been implementing this for now two flight cycles for roughly about four months. We're actually getting a full type of workout, so you're feeling like every type of muscle will get worked out in this program. It's easy as far as, yes, you can do it at home and stationary, so it's not a requirement for you to go to the gym or have these type of equipments. So in that aspect, yes, but otherwise the workout, if you put work into it, you're going to sweat, you're going to feel it, you're going to know that you actually got a good workout from it. Basic military training trainees face one of the most challenging experiences of their first month, the basic expeditionary airman skills training at the Mask Confidence Training Facility. Commonly referred to as the gas chamber, this training is a core part of the chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense course. Hey, go this way. You're going to stay on the perimeter of the wall. You're going to walk all the way around, all the way around. Stay up against the wall. Up against the wall. During week four of BMT, trainees are instructed to don protective masks and ensure a proper seal before entering the chamber. All right, listen carefully. I know it may be hard to hear me, so I'm going to project my voice so that way everybody can hear. First and foremost, I need every last one of you to take two deep breaths. So go ahead and do that now. Take two deep breaths. Once inside, a non-lethal chemical irritant is released, forcing recruits to perform marching drills, equipment checks, and basic task exercises while managing the stress and discomfort caused by the gas. All right, so what I need you to do for 10 to 15 seconds, I need you all to rotate your head up and down. So ceiling to floor, ceiling to floor, ceiling to floor. The exercise develops confidence, composure, and proficiency with protective equipment, ensuring every airman can operate effectively in hazardous conditions. All right, this time, side to side. So wall to wall, wall to wall. By the end, trainees emerge with a clear understanding of CBRN defense protocols and the ability to maintain readiness under extreme environments. Put your hands together and remove your mask. Place it on your chest. And reporting statement, go. Let's go, go, go. After exiting the gas chamber, trainees keep calm, avoid rubbing their eyes, and follow decontamination procedures, letting the irritant dissipate while instructors ensure safety and proper recovery. Basic military training may look familiar to veterans. Intense, disciplined, and as challenging as ever. Yet change is constant. All new trainees are issued the operational camouflage pattern, replacing the older airman battle uniform. The Air Force adopted the OCP for its improved fit, comfort, and durability, while also aligning with the Army's uniform standard to enhance interoperability with joint forces. This update ensures trainees not only meet the demands of BMT, but are also better prepared to operate alongside other branches in real-world missions. Basic military training is implementing a training tablet pilot to provide airmen with a personalized and adaptive learning platform. Instructors use it to identify knowledge gaps, update lessons instantly, and track progress in real time. The data collected from the pilot helps leadership optimize the curriculum, making training more efficient and effective for every recruit. Here, Senior Airman Robert Allure, a combat arms instructor with the 37th Training Support Squadron, steps in to teach trainees how to handle the M16A2 rifle. Today is very important because when Tony the Terrorizer finally starts shooting at you, if you go downrange and you deploy, Uncle Sam calls your name to head downrange. You always bring the weapon up to you. You don't go down to the rifle. So what's our first step? Charge. Everyone charge. With five years in the Air Force and a background in security forces, he's spent the last year and a half training recruits on the fundamentals of marksmanship. Put your weapons on semi. If you say the steps and you tell yourself what to do, you can't fail. I love instructing and being here, specifically Lackland, having the opportunity to instruct basic trainees is outstanding. My biggest thing out here is safety, safety, safety. So as long as they're doing everything that they're supposed to be doing as far as safety is concerned and they're getting the material as far as their loading procedures, their commands of fire, their reloads, that's the best thing I can hope for. Instructors, is the line ready? We are ready left, ready center, ready right. The line is ready. Fire. For many, this is their first time firing a weapon, a milestone moment in their Air Force journey. I want you guys to be very loud, understand? Yes, sir. Show me that you know what you are doing and you are... Allure is driven by purpose. His goal is to become a military training instructor, shaping the next generation of airmen who will follow in his footsteps. Each evening, trainees tackle meticulous cleaning duties, maintaining dorms to meet strict Air Force hygiene and appearance standards. Chores rotate daily, covering mopping, sweeping, surface wiping, and disinfecting communal areas. While every recruit is assigned a role, from fire guard to latrine detail to reinforce accountability. Beds are remade with precision, pillows centered and facing away from the door, ensuring readiness for early morning inspections. Hey, where are you calling me at? Floors are spotless, boots and shoes aligned with heels together, toes outward, and lockers arranged so uniforms hang evenly. And folded items meet exact dimensions. All edges are even and flush. Every detail is scrutinized, instilling discipline, attention to detail, and pride in the spaces trainees call their own during basic military training. Pacer Forge is a 36-hour deployment exercise that pushes trainees to their limits. It's designed to test how they perform under pressure, evaluating teamwork, discipline, and problem-solving in a simulated combat environment. Held during week six of basic military training, this exercise marks the final step before trainees earn the title of Airman. Out here at Primary Agile Combat Employment Range Forward Operation Readiness Generation Exercise, there's a trainee-led environment where they are expected to complete exercises for their culminating event. They're setting up the DFP, they're setting up the base defense, with little instruction from the cadre from the start to finish, and then cadres start to probe their defenses. It's not to point out any flaws, it's to really let them see like, hey, this is what translates from the classroom to real-world scenarios. And we stay in the scenario as long as possible. We guide them by offering the expertise that we pulled from either our career fields before becoming MTIs, or from our various experiences deploying in many different locations. This empowers the trainee to think, act, and decide on their own. A stark break from where, in the BMT curriculum, where the trainees just do as if they're told. At this point, they get to make some of these decisions themselves and have to think about where their decisions lead them. Our job is to help the trainees to think critically, to understand the attempt behind the mission so that they can execute with precision. Essentially, if they face these real-world challenges where it might be high stakes, might be stressful, we want them to be better prepared so that they can get the mission done, and execute, and meet those challenges, and rise to the occasion. Each week at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, between 600 and 800 trainees complete Air Force basic military training, transforming from civilians into airmen. Over 245 hours of physical conditioning, discipline, and combat training lead up to this moment. The two-day graduation features the airman's run, retreat ceremony, and a formal parade at the Finkston Reception Center. Families from across the nation gather to watch their loved ones earn the title of airman. Joining the 35,000 recruits who graduate from JBSA-Lackland every year. If you're enjoying this video, don't forget to hit that subscribe button for more content like this.