Whats "Fire Watch" at boot camp?

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sportsfreak01234

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its a dumb question and the name gives it away but im pretty sure the buildings are fireproof. is it just for tradition and training today? do all branches perform this? so basically you sit in a chair for a couple hours and try not to fall asleep

thx
 
Two reasons I'm glad to be out of the Army:

1) No more goddamn Staff Duty

2) No more goddamn Staff Duty
 
Fire watch is a form of guard duty or guard patrol. You take turns staying awake and walking guard duty in a barracks area. The original idea was to watch for fire and protect the sleeping troops. But nowadays, its just a walking patrol. Cadre may check you, and ask you questions.
 
what fire watch boils down to is that later, when you are in the field, a certain percentage of people have to remain awake and ready. it teaches the importance of this early on.
 
it means you stand guard at night in shifts, I think in 2 hours shifts if memory serves me correctly. Every Marine barracks in the world has a fire watch, we don't just turn out the lights and hit the rack...
 
watches are esential to security. whether its called fire watch or barracks watch, duty driver, gate guard, SDO, GDO, ASDO, there purpose is the same to always have someone there to provide scurity and assistance when something arrises. It is used in boot camp to instil this most basic concept that you are there to support all, and as a more mental disipline when they are training you. Many boot camp traditions will never go away becasue they stive to build compliant and good order and disipline. what would the military be without compliance to any given order.
 
you sit awake for a few hours and (most of the time) clean.
its meant to build discipline to stay awake.
southoftheborder worded it better than i could
 
you're right, most of the barracks i was in were made of cinderblock and completely fireproof. It's more of a tradition and discipline thing, and it's also used by drill sergeants in basic as a punishment if they need to. fire watch in one hour shifts on and off throughout the night kills your morale and breaks you down. It's good training though. Although, after basic, fire watch wasnt really done, except as punishment, now that i think about it. i guess it depends on the unit.
 
It goes back to before the incandescent bulb and wood buildings when fire was a real concern. Now it is mostly for traditions sake, to keep people from going AWOL and general crime prevention, and as a test of discipline.

Different branches have different names for it, but it is basically the same thing. The Drill sergeant will have 24 hour CQ and employee the fire watch as runners (fire watch will usually have an hour or two shift). When you reach your permanent duty station, you still have CQ, but not the fire watch.
 
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