I was at Fort Jackson, SC in Sept. 1971 through December ... then a couple months at Fort Gordon, GA. Not pleasant. However, in retrospect, I personally think it was a great experience.
Who here went through Basic, whether Army, Navy, or Marines, and what are your thoughts about how it could help young people today?
Guess Air Force basic training doesn't count.
In reply to yupididit :
Army and Navy are branches of the military. Marines are a cult and the Air Force is a corporation. No shame in that, I wish i’d been smart enough to be corporate. 
I was army. Ft Sill in 1989
Apparently basic training isn’t what it once was (they get to keep their phones!!?) but I’m a proponent of mandatory service for everyone from 18-21.
USAF definitely is valid. As is Coast Guard.
Point is, how was your experience, and how do you think it would influence young people today?
Basic training is a good way for youngins to learn how to be sheep and not think for themselves. It'll also teach anyone just how inefficient our military actually is. 
I think Basic was good for teaching raw recruits how to work together. That they could push themselves further than they thought possible. How to obey orders.
I see a lot of soft in most teenagers these days. I see a lot of people who think that nobody should be able to tell them what to do (surprise, everyone has a boss. Learn that early) I see a lot of teenagers who just don’t have much work ethic.
Growing up on a farm we pushed ourselves hard but I saw the difference between myself and my sister and our brother who came along after we moved off the farm and into the suburbs. He’s soft. Has been since the beginning and I thing basic would have helped some of that.
Hell, it improves people’s posture. Look around at all the slouching you see in high school. It goes away when they have to stand at attention.
In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) :
The slouching comes right back after they're released from attention. 
Also, 'soft' and lazy people make it through basic and pretty far in any branch. Usually on the backs of others lol
Funny thing is basic is just a game that, if you're smart, learn to play along with. There's def a difference on how it affects people of different ages. An 18 year old goes through basic and might come out differently. A 25 year old will come out saying "that sucked and was dumb, next" lol.
Either way the govt spends a lot on people during basic training and lots of people don't make it. Have to weed them out before they are in long enough to receive veterans benefits too lol.
I tell you one thing; people in the military are exactly like their peers in the civilian world. No better or worse. Whatever stupidity and crimes you see in the civilian world you'll find it in the military. Same for geniusness and innovation, except the gov't has their way and good luck getting a better way to happen in under 5 years lol.
13 weeks at Lackland USAF. Even got a 12 hr pass at 7 wks to visit San Antonio.
Once I got into the routine, every thing was fine.
I was in the last company to go through Marine boot with iron sights. Shot expert with those, never got above high Sharpshooter after because I hate the RCO with a passion, and keep on staring at the target because the chevron is too bright. I also didn't learn how to roll sleeves until my first deployment because Amos was a tard. I think it's getting too soft, but then again it's also the DI's fault for half of them not knowing what's over the line or not, like putting a recruit on tumble dry low.
Navy @ Great Lakes, Ill. Stupid, I kept thinking "dumber bastards than me did it", so I survived.
4 months cooking school in San Diego, graduated #2 in the class; got assigned as a Rear Admiral's heyboy in London. (the #1 guy in class was assigned to Camp David!) Two days before leaving I was called onto the office "We see you signed up for Submarines....."
Rats.
Air Force here, 2004. Agreed, basic was a game, and not a great one at that. Teaches you to work together with a diverse group of folks and to pay attention to every detail of instruction.
Other than that, it felt a little like combination of Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies.
Fort Leonard, MO in the winter of '69-'70. In 5 mos. went from 235 to 185, eating everything I could every meal ! Learned that I could do physical things that I didn't think were possible; started a running habit that only recently stopped due to knee problems. Still feel that every able bodied soul should serve sometime in the military; builds teamwork, mental toughness and an appreciation for what our fathers, grandfathers, etc. did for the country.
Ft Dix, NJ 1976. October - November. At the time I thought the worst thing they could do to this SoCal boy was send him to NJ in the winter. Dealing with the climate difference was the hardest part for me. Was told what to expect before I went. The idea is to load you up with different kinds of stress all at once and lead you through it, once through you see that you can do it and anything after is a cakewalk. You also learn people as there will be people from all walks of life and different situations/attitudes. From backwoods country to big city-slickers and everything in-between. From folks used to not having much to folks used to having everything. Not well educated to very educated, but mostly in-between. And strangely, they all learn to get along and work together.
When you start you know how long it's going to last, they give you the finish date before you start. You just have to keep telling yourself they can only do what they are doing to you for this set amount of time and then it's over and done. It did amaze me the amount of people that don't realize that or whatever and try to jump the fence, even days before finish.
Another Ft. Dix vet here. November 82 - January 83. Sent us home for two weeks over the holidays. Reminded me how much i hate Midwestern/Northeastern winters. Quailified at the rifle range in -20 degree weather (with wind chill). DS told us to stick our hands down our crotches so we wouldn't shake so bad. Still managed to qualify. I remember everybody got religion, because going to church was the only way to see and talk to females without some sort of supervision. Every 15 minutes some DS would mention the balloon was going up and we'd be on the plan to bumberkanistan at a moments notice. Learned as much what not to do as what to do, looking back i'm grateful for the experience.
Went through Cape May, NJ (Coast Guard boot) Nov-Dec of 2002. I grew up in Florida, and snow was what happened when the cable went out. It was cold, it was wet, and we lost two days of training for thanksgiving and christmas that we had to make up for. But if we are going to brag, I took home "The Lone Sailor" award for graduating at the top of my company.
Boot was good for a lot of things, but the main one is to make sure that you really want to be there. Without the drive to serve, you wont have the discipline to make it through boot. If you don't, they will help you pack your crap and get you a ride home. Its cheaper to do that than to have someone fake it through and get themselves or others killed. Which is why I don't support any form of mandatory service.
I guess I don't think anything about boot camp would help "young people today." Specific young persons perhaps, but people on the whole won't respond well to military life.
Army, Ft Sill October 92. I was older than most in my class, was 21 and my father was in the Army so mentally Basic eas not difficult. As other have said play the game and you are good, it was the physical part that was tough for me. I went in 5 foot 9 and 118 lbs and came out 145 lbs. I learned your body can do a lot more than you think it can and how to work with all kinds of people, those alone makes it worth it in my opinion. On the other had I still have a hard time walking on grass when there is a sidewalk and it feels odd to carry something around in my right hand.
Never been. So who is going to offer the first commercial version where people pay you to go?
Seeing the popularity of 'tough mudder' and various fitness 'bootcamps', seems like having a 4-6 week private "please get my kid off the couch and teach some skills while you're at it" camp could be a good service.
ThunderCougarFalconGoat said:Without the drive to serve, you wont have the discipline to make it through boot. If you don't, they will help you pack your crap and get you a ride home. Its cheaper to do that than to have someone fake it through and get themselves or others killed.
Things seem to have changed over the years. There is a step missing there that was fact when I went through. Yeah they'll help pack your crap and get you a ride home right after you spent your time in the "retraining brigade" where you spent you nights in a 8X8 cell and days doing hard labor. Medical was an exception to this though, The DS's would personally treat you well and make sure you were taken care of if you were sent home on a medical.
Remember when as one of the senior Sergeants in a unit (I spent 20 years in and retired), some Pvt straight out of school pulled a stress card on us and said he needed to go back to the barracks to reduce stress, we were stressing him out. We all laughed and said get back to digging the foxhole. Barracks were miles away as we were doing a field training exercise, no one was going back until it was over.
yupididit said:Basic training is a good way for youngins to learn how to be sheep and not think for themselves. It'll also teach anyone just how inefficient our military actually is.
Never served, but did work for a DOD contractor for a few years. It taught me plenty about inefficient the military, and their weird requirements are.
I literally had to write documents to explain to 18 year olds, that closing a drawing on their hand could hurt them. Or that sharp edges might cut them.
In reply to wlkelley3 :
And I would posit that the services are better off for it. If someone is volunteering for military life (not drafted) and continues following orders, but decides they do not want to be in the military anymore, I don't see what legal grounds you have for punishments. Is it possible it just seemed like they were doing worse because they were heading home? Or could it have been that they were being punished for other reasons besides quitting, like disobeying orders? Or were they maybe "tall tales" told to you by your DS to keep more people from quitting? Because that sounds like stuff mine told would tell my company that turned out to be 'not quite truths' when I got out into the fleet.
z31maniac said:yupididit said:Basic training is a good way for youngins to learn how to be sheep and not think for themselves. It'll also teach anyone just how inefficient our military actually is.
Never served, but did work for a DOD contractor for a few years. It taught me plenty about inefficient the military, and their weird requirements are.
I literally had to write documents to explain to 18 year olds, that closing a drawing on their hand could hurt them. Or that sharp edges might cut them.
Every stupid warning or regulation the military has is because someone has been seriously injured or died. Which makes your comment all the more sad.
In reply to ThunderCougarFalconGoat :
Saw it. What's the difference between quitting and disobeying orders? By quitting you are disobeying orders and the contract you signed.
Different era.
I'd say that a contract isn't an order, its a contract. We stopped sending people to prison for breaking contracts a long time ago. It was 17 years ago, so I don't remember if my enlistment contract had any provisions for breaking the contract, except for medical reasons.
Disobeying orders require the order to be lawful, and I don't think "complete your contract" would be considered a lawful order. But I'm not a military lawyer, so maybe it would be?
Then again, what are the odds that someone wanting to get out of boot camp isn't disobeying other orders? Even if "complete your contract" wasn't a lawful order, I would imagine a lot of washouts probably missed movement or tried to go awol. Those are definitely things that would get you in trouble.
Wtf is a stress card?
Any of y'all currently serving?
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