SOLDIERS

Every Soldier knows what BCT is all about: the yelling, the pushing, the marching, the forced hydration, group punishments, and midnight inspections. They also know the moments of refreshing camaraderie and inspiring solemnity.

SPC Stowell’s story is no different, but he tells it from a unique perspective. He left his high school math teaching position two weeks before the end of the school year to go get an education of his own—from the drill sergeants at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Week by week, beginning with Reception, SPC Stowell describes the tasks and progress of Basic trainees, from the Gas Chamber to the Night Infiltration Course, and all the hilarity in between, such as the time one private fell asleep at parade rest during the First Sergeant’s Inspection.

Nine Weeks is a trip back in time for those who have run the gauntlet of Basic Training. His experience is a valuable lesson about what motivates people and how they learn, and a wonderfully written story of the fraternity of Americans who volunteer to serve their country.

INFORMED PEOPLE

In the summer of 2007 Rich traded in his high school and college education teac hing career to train as a soldier in the most powerful Army in the world.

As the oldest man in the training battery (of over 200 soldiers), and the most educated, Rich describes life among privates who could have been his students just weeks before, and how Uncle Sam prepares young men for soldierhood during the most demanding period in our nation’s military history.

From the moment that all recruits were placed on the assembly line of Army training and given the quickest, meanest haircuts of their lives, Rich chronicle's it all in hilarious detail.

Informed people ought to know how the American Soldier is made. Nine Weeks illustrates the process with a sophisticated insight and humor that is a novelty in military books. Funny, yet reverent; critical and honest, Nine Weeks gives refreshing wit and wisdom to the story of how young men are gathered from around the country and molded into modern battlefield warriors.

TEACHERS

Mr. Stowell left his high school math class two weeks before the end of the school year to go get an education of his own—from the drill sergeants at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Mr. Stowell saw Basic Training as schooling of the most important kind for young American Soldiers. The methods and practices of the vaunted drill sergeants were thrown into sharp contrast against his experiences working with improving schools and educational leaders. His findings are funny, cutting, and smart.

Describing a training exercise in which drill sergeants explained to trainees how to handle enemy prisoners, Stowell concludes "It was messy and chaotic, as if we had just wrapped up a seminar on advanced Shakespearian theatrics and concluded it with a critical analysis of Dumb and Dumber."

At first glance Nine Weeks seems intended for a military audience, but educators of all stripes will relate to the emphasis on teaching models and outcomes.