FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Barely 72 hours with their basic combat training unit at Fort Leonard Wood, trainees with Company A, 3rd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Chemical Brigade, were thrown straight into training. No transition, no preparation — just their first brutal BCT test — Entry to Excellence.
In the pre-dawn darkness of Sept. 21, 2026, more than 100 recruits breached the dimly lit tactical assembly area within the 3rd Battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment’s headquarters building where tactical smoke generators flooded the room with a thick fog to simulate a visually obscured battlespace.
“We begin Entry to Excellence at our battalion headquarters building at 5 a.m., where Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Scott Perkins, delivers a motivational speech to the trainees,” said Capt. Brittany Aikin, Company A commander.
The moment they locked in at attention, the screens flashed to life with the legacy of the warfighters who walked before them.
“Rise and shine,” the motivational video’s narrator said. “It’s 5 a.m. and your hand can’t make it to the alarm clock before the voices in your head start telling you that it’s too early, too dark and too cold to get out of bed. But the voice you have chosen is one of defiance — the voice that says there is a reason you set an alarm in the first place. So, you sit up, look forward and don’t look back — we’ve got work to do. Welcome to the grind.”
They watched as their predecessors crush the very gauntlet that awaits them: tearing through Fort Leonard Wood’s Confidence Course, mastering their weapons on the range, dominating the Physical Endurance Course, subduing their fear in the gas chamber and conquering the sheer drop of Warrior Tower.
As the video faded, Perkins stepped to the podium to officially induct them into training.
“Assassin Company, welcome to basic combat training,” Perkins said. “Thank you for raising your right hand and taking the oath to become Soldiers. That oath binds you to defending the Constitution and to fight and win our nation’s wars.”
During his speech, he told recruits becoming a Soldier “would not be easy.”
“Over the next 10 weeks you will transform from civilian to warfighter,” Perkins said. “You will be challenged physically, mentally and emotionally every day.”
Perkins said they will learn the basics of “shoot, move, communicate, survive,” and through BCT, they will learn the true meaning of the Army values and “how to take care of one another.”
“We will develop you into a warfighter of confidence and character,” Perkins said. “Today, you start building your place into an Army legacy of more than 250 years.”
Perkins then set the stage for their first trial by fire — a grueling, time-sensitive combat resupply mission.
“In a few moments, you will leave this room, and you will face your first challenge. It will demand teamwork, physical fitness and clear thinking,” Perkins said. “From this point forward, only you can decide if you possess the drive to become a Soldier.”
He said they are now part of something larger than themselves and everything they do, or fail to do, will have consequences for their team.
“When you are tired, sore and overwhelmed lean on your team and they will get you through it,” Perkins said. “Listen to your drill sergeants, they are among the best the Army has. They will coach you and push you. But the decision to keep going is yours and yours alone.”
With their voices united, the trainees thundered the Soldier’s Creed. The moment the last syllable fell, chaos unleashed. Blinding strobe lights sliced through the heavy haze as drill sergeants ambushed the room, their raw, relentless energy snapped the recruits into immediate motion.
“Go, go, go.” “Get out of here.” “Form up platoons.” “Hurry, up.” “Faster, what are you waiting for.”
Under the harsh glare of a lone security light, trainees were met with three piles, one for each platoon, of hundreds of items including boxes of ready-to-eat meals, heavy demolition cratering charges, water cans and crates of ammunition.
Stenciled onto the 40-pound cratering charges were the seven non-negotiable Army values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage.
“After the motivational speech when we moved outside, the drill sergeants explained the importance of the Army values to the trainees,” Aikin said. “Then, each platoon received their mission brief from a grader and were released to execute their resupply mission.”
She said they conduct Entry to Excellence every cycle “to provide the trainees with an introduction to our cadre, our values and we try to present it in a realistic mission-set scenario with cadre members participating in the event to set a firm foundation of trust between cadre and trainees.”
Hauling their heavy payloads under crushing physical strain, the platoons pushed toward the objective behind Nutter Field House while company officers and drill sergeants sprinted alongside their trainees, talking them through each battle drill.
Waiting in the darkness, company cadre initiated an ambush, plunging the trainees into a simulated warzone of thunderous explosions, rattling gunfire, flashing lights and wailing sirens.
On the physical training field trainees were instructed to drop their supplies to low crawl, high crawl and perform tactical up-and-down maneuvers called individual movement techniques across the length of the football-sized field.
Shouldering the heavy load once more, the platoons hustled the supplies back to the company’s physical training pit.
Demonstrating selfless service, many of the trainees who crossed the finish line first didn't rest. After squaring away their supplies, they immediately doubled back into the fray without hesitation, hauling loads for their struggling battle buddies to ensure the entire platoon made it back to the PT pit.
Pvt. Andrew StClair was one of the recruits who turned back to help his peers.
“I went back for my battle buddies because we are a team,” StClair said. “One day we won’t be in BCT, lives will be on the line, and I am going to be somebody my fellow Soldiers can rely on when they need me.”
StClair is currently being forged into an American Soldier within the ranks of Company A’s 3rd Platoon.
“I have always wanted to be a Soldier,” StClair said. “I joined for my personal development and to earn discipline and integrity through learning to lead, but more importantly to excel as a unit.”
StClair joined the Army to become a 12N Horizontal Construction Engineer, and said he thought Entry to Excellence was an “appropriate way” to begin BCT.
“I learned about the Army values and why it is critical to work as a team,” StClair said.
At the finish line Capt. Aikin stood waiting to evaluate their performance, ready to separate those who conquered the mission from those who failed to make the cut.
Aikin awarded 3rd Platoon the Entry to Excellence streamer and ceremoniously attached it to the company’s guidon.
“This is just the first streamer event,” Aikin said to the platoons. “You will have more opportunities to collect streamers throughout your training.”
For the rest of Week 1, trainees spent time in physical readiness training familiarization and nutrition classes. They also met their chaplain, were issued gear from the Central Issue Facility and learned more about Army life by attending briefs from professionals with the U.S. Army Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Academy, legal department, Criminal Investigation Division, Ready and Resilient Performance Center.
Drill sergeants established the baseline for the new physical standard, leading a hands-on demonstration of all five events of the Army Fitness Test during a company-wide familiarization at Training Area 160, Sept. 26, 2026.
Trainees executed each physical fitness event under the critical eyes of their drill sergeants, who corrected their mechanics and coached them to reach peak physical proficiency.
As they march into Week 2, the physical tempo accelerates. Trainees will cement their passage through Yellow Phase by throwing themselves against the obstacles of Fort Leonard Wood’s Physical Endurance Course.
More Week 1 photos are available to view on Fort Leonard Wood's Flickr.
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