Here's the description of the training process, provided to players in our campaign:
We know roughly what courses of instruction were provided during training; but how did the trainees experience their last eight months before armageddon?
You had a Project agent managing your "separation from society". Once that was accomplished, you were picked up by a motor coach, and taken with a couple dozen other new recruits to an anonymous office park somewhere. Later on you learned that (besides the driver and a couple of security guys), one of the other recruits on the bus was actually an undercover security agent of the Project. For a week or two, you lived in a cheap hotel or on cots in the office building.
Those two weeks were spent filling out paperwork (oddly enough), obtaining whatever personal effects you'd need for the next eight months, and the most "talkative" stage of the training. Project staff (including psychologists) interviewed you again, and formed up the cohorts. The classroom sessions were much more in the way of indoctrination, and preparing trainees mentally for the world after the War. Asking the "frequently asked questions" was encouraged here. Immunizations and final medical checkups also happened at this time; if you agreed to have your appendix and gall bladder removed, that procedure and recuperation adds about a month to the induction process. The Project attempted to have all trainees in a cohort preparing for the same branch -- Recon, Science, MARS, etc.
After induction-and-indoctrination, each training cohort spent the next few months at eight or ten camps, for anywhere from ten days to five weeks at each camp. Transportation of trainees between camps was usually in motor coaches, large enough to carry a cohort and its personal effects, plus a cohort supervisor, two drivers, and a three-man MARS team. Stops for gas and food by these coaches were always stressful for the MARS team -- trainees would wander around, get in trouble in bars, carry on indiscreet conversations, etc. Some travel to cold-weather or mountaineering sites was accomplished in chartered aircraft. Personal effects were limited to a suitcase or two -- the cohort had to fit all the luggage in the motor coach. Except for discreet (and licensed) pistols carried by the security team, nothing in the motor coaches would draw much attention. No materials which might be a security risk were allowed during transport - no Project manuals, for example. Before most travel, a Project security agent would go through the trainees' bags, but the number of ways to hide things from the agents and supervisors was pretty high.
The camps were located in remote areas (mostly in Nevada, Wyoming, Washington, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, North Dakota or Alaska), and were themselves temporary -- they moved to new locations every year or so. Living conditions weren't too bad - if you like living in a mobile home. The usual "trainee bunkhouse" mobile home was a 14' wide, 70' long single-wide, with four bedrooms (two-person bunk bed in each), two toilets, two shower stalls, two sinks, two shallow closet/lockers in each bedroom, air conditioning ... and not much else. The trainees cleaned the bunkhouses very thoroughly before moving on to the next camp -- both for security and sanitation. Training staff had slightly nicer quarters (three single bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen); other trailers or skid-mounted sheds provided electrical power, kitchen and food storage, sick bay, communications and security, laundry, storage for training materials, etc.. Depending on the course, there were firing lines, simple sheds for vehicle parking, quonset huts or Butler buildings for workshops, and (usually) a big military tent for classroom exercises and group dining. Some camps combined two separate training programs; for example, the SCUBA/swimming program was often conducted at the same camp as the wilderness survival training.
The usual camp had 5 or 6 trainees bunkhouses, a couple of "instructors" mobile homes, a couple of mobile homes for security staff, a couple more for service and support staff, etc. -- about 13 to 15 "single wides" before any structures needed for training. Here's a typical camp circa 1980:
On the right is the quarters area; to the left is the actual training area. Security was maintained by a six-person MARS team, both at the camp and out around the perimeter of the training area.
Exceptions to the "trailer park" camps: some courses were held at Boy Scout or National Guard camps, with pre-existing wood-framed tent housing, cinder-block shower/toilet buildings, etc; and much of the wilderness survival course was spent "camping" in the outdoors.
There were televisions and radios available, but reception was usually poor and the formats limited: radio stations were often gospel, country, Spanish language, religious (often Mormon), or very middle-of-the-road music. No telephone service, and usually no utility service of any kind. Usually when a cohort completed a course or a major training milestone, there was a beer night, with something like a barbeque cookout (depending on conditions).
Female trainees were grouped together into "women-only" tents or mobile homes. A typical cohort of 40 trainees would usually have only 3 or 4 women, so they usually each got a room to themselves in their bunkhouse. Fraternization and romance was slightly frowned on by the Project, but instructors didn't usually take much notice unless it was causing problems with training.
Except for the physical conditioning training early on, the Project wasn't trying to "wear you down and build you up". No screaming drill instructors, no gig lines or yes-sir-no-sir culture; but hours were long, and the rest periods were spent entirely at Project facilities -- no contact with the outside world for trainees once they started (except for those short bus stops). About half of the Recon and Science team trainees had some prior military experience. Project coveralls and insignia were never worn; trainees wore sort of "oil field worker" garb, either their own or provided by the Project. Each camp had a vague and often forgotten cover story: oil drilling site, geology graduate student training, paleontology dig, and environmental monitoring were common. Most camps had their own hard hats with appropriate markings.
The weapons training segment (4 weeks long) was conducted in US army uniforms, under the cover of being a National Guard training area -- but the appearance of the supposed National Guard camp wasn't very convincing (depending on your opinion of the National Guard). This segment was thus conducted on the largest possible secure area, with more MARS teams for security.
Clothing in the camps was a mix of blue jeans, army cargo pants, chambray shirts, plaid shirts, and tee-shirts; work boots; and various hats (including, fairly often, construction-worker hard hats). Facial hair wasn't allowed if it would interfere with the fit of a gas mask, but hair was otherwise unregulated. Cigarettes and cigars were discouraged -- the Project would rather you ditched that habit before going into cryo-sleep. Hard liquor in the bunkhouses wasn't allowed, but could be gotten anyhow. Also found in the bunkhouses: posters (women and rock bands were the commonest), cassette players and tapes, playing cards (unsurprisingly, high-stakes poker games were common), plastic plants, bowls of chips and salsa, canned beer. Personally-owned firearms had to be kept locked up in the camp armory. Some camps had videocassette players, but the selection of tapes was always poor. When the trainees weren't too tired, there were sometimes crude exercise facilities: a weigh machine, or a basketball hoop on the side of a shed ...
Minor injuries would be treated in the camp, moderate injuries were taken to a local hospital, but major injuries (especially involving firearms or explosives) sometimes involved moving the injured persons quite a ways, by plane or Project-owned vehicle, to a safe (Project-controlled) facility.
Hard drug usage (cocaine, most often) was very rare, and was grounds for a washout -- either to rehab and re-entry into training, or to (it was rumored) an involuntary cryo-sleep program. Marijuana and methamphetamines were used a bit, but the remote camps and lack of money made supplies scarce. Drinking could be a problem in some cohorts.
Since cohorts had little contact with each other, the teams as a whole didn't have a well-defined subculture. However, some traits did appear: a definite "Marlboro man" masculinity, with an emphasis on hard work and unconcern for personal safety. A particular cohort might be notable for religious issues, gung-ho survivalism, rowdy brawling, too many serious accidents, dedication to/jealously over the female members, heavy boozing, trouble between factions (most often seen when cohorts were combined), suicides or other breakdowns ...
A seriously broken cohort might have its members divided among other, more stable cohorts. Project psychologists, therapists and security agents visited camps from time to time, but weren't always successful or respected.
Thus, you spent 8 months or so traveling with the same 40 or so men (and maybe a few women), from camp to camp. If cohorts got too small, due to injuries or washouts, they would be combined with another understrength cohort. Cohort supervisors stayed with the cohorts through the entire training cycle. At the end of training, the team you were assigned to was almost always formed up from members of your cohort. About half-a-dozen teams in the same branch had spent a lot of time together in the cohort; you would all be flown in a chartered aircraft to some nice place for a week of secure relaxation. There was a speech or two by Project staff, some gag gifts and awards, black berets were handed out, and usually a lot of beer drinking. Some recently-graduated trainees got stressed-out by reading their last magazine or watching their last television programs ...feelings of alienation or impotent frustration could get pretty strong.
The final R&R locations were chosen first on the basis of security; mountain resorts and island hotels were typical.
After that, final interviews, filling of personal effects boxes, a briefing by the Project on where your team would be and any additional standing orders, and zoop into your cryoberths you went.
Trainees were sometimes dropped back to a later cohort, most often due to serious injuries. Also, at the end of training, the remaining members of a cohort might not match up with the needs of the Project -- some graduated trainees would spend a month or two as instructors or Morrow staff members, until they were grouped with the "correct" team for freezing.
|