The Infantry is a small band of brothers within the Army brotherhood. Their blue cords mean something special to them, and they will readily fight you if you say something negative about them.

Infantry combines your Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training (AIT) into one school called One Station Unit Training (OSUT). Prospective infantrymen don’t go home after eight weeks of basic training; they stay and keep training.

During the final week of OSUT, these Infantry-hopefuls go through a challenging field exercise and many final stages of testing and trials. It’s a long week that requires teamwork and a no-quit attitude.

The final day, which turns into the night, is a long foot march back to the camp. Rather than stopping at their barracks, they make the long walk up the infamous Honor Hill.

The roads leading to Honor Hill are lined by recruits still in training, cheering them on their final feat.

 This marks the end of their challenges. It’s not dark yet, and the large wooden doors of Honor Hill are open. They file through the doors under the words,

“FROM THIS GATE EMERGE THE FINEST SOLDIERS THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN; FOLLOW ME”

The recruits, tired from the long week, smelly, with their bodies hurting, and now wide-eyed and full of energy, have made it. The torches are lit, the grog of who knows what is waiting.

They’ll have prayer, a history lesson, and a toast with grog. Their toast has several parts, to the Infantry, to the Nation, and finally to their fallen comrades. They will then cross rifles buried into their chests, and lastly, be reminded to seek out and destroy the enemies of the United States. Finally, they are welcomed into the brotherhood.

However, last weekend Honor Hill burned down.

As of now, there is no further information. SOFREP has reached out through multiple platforms to Fort Benning, GA, but has received no response.

Typically, all the drill sergeants are out on the ruck march with the recruits, leaving the support soldiers such as supply, etc., to set up and take down Honor Hill.

It is rumored on several Facebook groups that they failed to properly put out all the fires at the end of the night, which caused the whole place to go up in flames.

The final week of basic training is a light one, with cleaning and graduation preparations.

Future Special Forces hopefuls all go through Infantry schooling as part of their pipeline. They then head to Airborne school, Fort Bragg for selection and preparation, and onwards to the rest of their journey.

As Infantry soldiers, they’ll serve in the field, working to defend our country against any threats on the ground. They have a large mission base with many tasks. They’ll capture, destroy, and deter enemy forces, assist in reconnaissance, and help mobilize troops and weaponry to support the military’s mission as the ground combat force.

Check out this Youtube video about Honor Hill.