Re: Fort Benning in May 2012?
Been there back in Feb. 2011 as 11B and went Airborne school, and let me give you advice. If you get assigned to 1-50th INF BN, be prepared to suffer extremely hard. Also bring $20, a $20 AT&T Prepaid card for the payphones, a cellphone or ipod, and DO NOT EAT THE JUNK FOOD AT 30TH AG RECEPTION.
Once you land at fort benning, you will go straight to 30th AG Reception, and you will be there for over 7 days. You will be bored out of your mind, and you will not have ANY SLEEP depending on capacity. When I was there I was awake for a total of 72+hrs with no sleep. So get as much sleep as you can. While at the DFAC at 30th AG please DO NOT GET THE JUNK FOOD, YOU WILL REGRET IT. The drill sgts at 30th AG are considered "NICE" compared to your real drill sgts.
Once you get to ship out to the real basic training, make sure you put all your heavy stuff in your ruck, and the light stuff in your laundry bag. You will go thru your shark attack, (Mine was run up sandhill to 1-50th barracks, and do sack benches). If you get 1-50th you will RUN up sandhill.
Once you get settled onto your platoons, and company, you will be doing paperwork for 3 days. You will get smoked, and you will be in pain. After 3 days you will start your Minimum PT assesment with a 1 mile run, situps, and pushups. By this time I bet some of your battlebuddies in your company will be wanting to quit.
I can go on, but once you get a hand of things it will feel second nature to you. If you want to go to Airborne school in the national guard you MUST score 300+ in the APFT. Drill sgts DO NOT LIKE NATIONAL GUARDSMEN. My drill sgts recommended me to Airborne school due to my PT scores, and I was the only national guardsmen to get that recommendation.
If you get your PT all set, you are pretty much okay for the rest of the weeks. You will spend hours and hours cleaning your barracks, weapons, and doing demeaning tasks. It is designed to lower your morale and increase stress to weed out the weak ones.
Get use to standing in the position of attention for hours and hours. You will get SMOKED especially if someone eats cake at the DFAC ESPECIALLY if you are in 1-50.
Infantry OSUT is different from POG BCT, so do not take it lightly if you are going to be a 11B. Anyone going to 1-50 WILL grow hair on the balls, I admire everyone that graduates 1-50. 1-50 also has the HIGHEST ELS rates (Quitters). I guarantee some people will go suicidal over the stress. Also a lot will just refuse to train because they missed 72hrs of training which they say is the maximum you can miss.
Biggest Advice:
If you do miss training DO NOT LOSE MORALE. I know if you go to Winders Clinic for Sick call you will end up losing morale and think about quitting. DO NOT DO IT. Your drill sgts will scare you by saying if you miss 72hrs of training you will be restarted to day 1. DO NOT LISTEN TO THAT BS. I've seen many people miss 2+ weeks and important training events and they still end up graduating, because they DID NOT QUIT. Mostly the ones that quit is if they go to sick call, and think they will be restarted because they missed 72+hrs of training.
Morale and PT will get your thru your training. 300+ or 300 average will get you into Airborne school. As for ranger school I doubt it unless its in your contract. RASP will ONLY take active duty, and your drill sgts will say the same thing regardless if you are good enough to be a Ranger. Only way to go to Ranger school would probably to enter WTC Pre-Ranger school when you go back home.
MOS: 11 Banger
Current Evolution
Enlist > OSUT > College > ROTC > SMP > COMMISSION