The message string asking about the accuracy of the Basic Training scenes in "Full Metal Jacket" prompts me to resurrect a posting I made on another board years ago. My examples concern the Army, veterans of other services are welcome to add theirs.
1. Fort Dix, Summer of 1964. One Fort Dix alumnus said they had a fatso in his platoon. At every meal one of the DIs would follow him down the chow line. No bread or potatoes, no desserts-the kid lost 50 pounds. Another Fort Dix alumnus from the same time said the biggest loser in his company lost 55 pounds.
2. Fort Dix, Fall of 1964. Another Fort Dix veteran said they had a fatso who was a rea loudmouth redneck-and an NG to boot. They'd be standing in the chow line, one of the black or Hispanic DIs would tap him on the shoulder and say "Let's go for a run." They'd come back 10-15 minutes later, the DI not even breaking a sweat, the loudmouth all red in the face, gasping for breath.
3. Fort Dix, Summer of 1974. One DI had to deal with-The Gasser ! One recruit who was constantly passing gas, and he stunk to high heaven. He gave them their gas mask training early, gave them a big pompous speech about how only the President has the authority to authorize gas warfare, but one individual has arrogantly taken upon himself to launch it. He told them:
"If one of you detects this individual launching gas warfare you will shout 'GAS' and he will put on his gas mask and do 25 push-ups! If I or any of the other cadre detect it first you will ALL put on your gas mask and do 25 push-ups!" The next day he dropped them 4 times, one of the other DIs dropped them 4 times, one of the other cadre dropped them once, one of the officers dropped them once-while they were in the chow line. By the end of the day they were ready to kill that kid.
4. Fort McClellan, 1980. One veteran arrived for MP OSUT, found he was classified as a "heavy drop"-aka a fat boy. He arrived 6'4", 240 pounds, left 12 weeks later, 6'4", 180 pounds.
5. Fort Jackson, the 1980s. Several veterans from this period have said they were restricted to the company area-no snacks, no care packages from home, you ate what they put on your tray, that was it. One said they had a fat boys company-restricted diet and extra PT. Also about this time the "No Smoking in Basic" restriction was established. Those who thought their DIs had been born yesterday saw the error of their ways.

I’m not sure I’d call your examples brutality. I was at Fort Polk in early ‘73. If you couldn’t keep up with PT, you got extra PT. If you goofed up, you got extra PT. Sometimes you’d get extra PT for no reason at all.

People that couldn’t keep up during double time marching (a slow jog - for those that don’t know) got to double time around their platoon during normal marching. If none of that improved their fitness level enough and they were overweight, they went to a “fatboy” platoon. From what I heard, restricted diet and lots of double time marching.

For all it’s faults, from what I saw, the Army had a good track record of getting people to a normal weight in BCT. Skinny guys put on weight. Overweight guys lost weight.

Lots of verbal abuse, but I never saw outright brutality by drill sergeants like by the DI in the movie FMJ.

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Vegan by proxy.

Early 1960s and saw no real physical
punching or brutality by Army sergeants,
most of whom I figured were WWII or
Korean vets.

However, one time on entering mess hall
all of us were checked for bruised knuckles
and word got around that one of the sergeants
was beaten but I don't think it was actually
within our training company.

A little while later heard a story of sergeant who
suffered injuries during the night in a barracks attack.
A blanket was thrown over him and he was shoved
down the stairs.

The Army was mostly draftees and I think a number
of recruits were from the real mean streets of big
cities and weren't impressed by a lot of
authority.

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Ubi Est Mea

I never saw a DI touch a recruit. They didn’t have to. They devised devious ways of making you hurt yourself when you screwed up.
All abuse was verbal and mental and there was no limit to that. You’d learn real fast that it didn’t mean much or you would go crazy.
It was a great primer for life.

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“Look life in its iron face”

Physical abuse in front of the troops was a no-no when I went thru BCT at Ft. Knox in '69. However, there was "laundry detail." When all other disciplinary methods failed on a recalcitrant troop, he was ordered to said detail. Inside the supply room, 3-4 DI's waited. The laundry bags were stacked against the walls in case someone had a violent collision with one. Once the trainee was sufficiently tuned up, he usually returned to duty with a fresh outlook.

Same here, except for when we went through the POW camp during Survival, Escape, and Evasion training. In the POW camp, the cadre got to lightly pummel you, push you around, and whack you on the back of your legs with a willow switch.

No brutality, but it definitely added an edge to the role playing.

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Vegan by proxy.

Basic Training is more psychological training than physical in my mind. You are taking people who are barely adults and turning them into warriors. Not an easy task. There is a very good piece on this available for those who want to read it at: Why is boot camp so intense?

Wait, before you dismiss this information as coming from a left-leaning source, I will attest to the fact that it is almost exactly what I witnessed in the late-Vietnam era basic training. This was from a Marine perspective, but not that much different in other branches of service. I was in a unique situation in that, although my draft lottery number was "4" I was in college and obtained a student deferment. Upon graduation and getting my first job in 1970, the system caught up with me so I was 23 when I went into the Army. In a way my age gave me a unique opportunity to actually study the process almost removed from the emotional stress and strain that most 18 year olds went through. The part that the article did not address is how the system could be worked to a person's advantage. Because of my education and age, I was immediately made a squad leader which was a position that kept one out of much of the tedious chores like KP, guard duty, etc. At the end of basics everyone had to take the "final exam" in order to graduate. Not all made it through the mental and physical testing. Again, having gained insights on how the system worked, I was lucky to be able to gain a perfect score. Why did I bother? Well the test scores greatly assisted one in being assigned to choice Advanced Individual Training. Higher the score, better the assignment. Of course the lower the score, the higher chances of getting very dangerous assignments. The high score also gave me a squad leader position at my AIT training assignment.

Excerpt from article"
The most important single thing to know about boot camp is that it is 100 percent designed to reprogram children and civilians into warriors. It places within them a sense that they are expected to do important things, far more important things than could be expected from other 18-year-olds. This is all happening during one of the most intensely stressful periods of your life, when you are kept isolated from contact from your family and friends and taught that everything you were before entering the Marines was weak and lacking any real value until you too are a Marine. Cults are made this way too. I’m just saying. But in all seriousness, the psychological transformation of boot camp is a very intense and intentional effort by the Marine Corps to make warriors able to fight and kill out of kids who have just barely left high school. From the point that you graduate boot camp, you will be different and have parts of the Marine Corps culture as part of your psyche.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

The "fatboys" were often assigned duty as roadguards. Normal movement to training was by marching. Road guards had to run ahead of the column to block an intersection, then after the columns had passed, run back to their place in formation. Careful use of the commands, "Road guards, POST" and "Road guards, RECOVER" allowed the Drill Sergeant to keep them sprinting back and forth for most of the march.

I wasn't skinny when I went to basic, but I did gain 5 pounds during that pleasant time. It had been a while since anyone had made me sit down and eat three times a day.

In the Air Force, we pushed brooms to keep us in shape

In 1971-72, I did see a Drill Sergeant beat a guy up. The DS was a black belt in several martial arts and the recruit kicked the DS in the "tender area". The DS hit him twice and the recruit went down! The DS told me to call the MPs.

When I was asked what I saw , I replied "I saw the Drill Sergeant forced to defend himself, Sir!".

Ironically, the DS was a nice guy.

Otherwise, it was extra PT, restriction to company area on weekends, extra duty, etc.

Edits: I was assigned to the STC (Special Training Company) AKA "Fat Farm". But it really wasn't that. I was sent because I had failed my final PT tests (due to an undisclosed illness which turned out to be "sub-clinical hepatitis"). I passed after a week but couldn't ship to another company. I was in limbo until they learned I had taken typing in high school. Then they made me a clerk via OJT. We had a PT ("fat") platoon that dealt with fat, skinny and people who failed their PT tests, a motivation platoon (problem cases that didn't warrant the stockade), and an education platoon (bringing people up to standards=we had a whole graduating class from an Eskimo school who needed tutoring in speaking English) After six months of tests, the Army decided I had had hepatitis and they sent me home. Working in the orderly room, I got to know the CO, XO and the DS's pretty well.

I was told the meals were designed to add weight if you were too thin and to lose weight if you were over weight. I guess I was average, as I stayed the same.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Food all looked the same to me and I saw no difference or choices for food offered in my era of basic training. SOS, lots of beef, eggs, potatoes, and lots of calories. I ate it all and lost 25 pounds in 8 weeks and was at the lowest weight in my adult life before or after basic training.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

We had a special platoon where the overweight recruits went to . Don't know what happened there and didn't want to find out . Their training didn't start until they lost the weight and joined a platoon , so no telling how long they were there .

Your number 2 example sounds like they gave the guy a break. They could have waited until after he ate and then took him for a run until he puked.

There's no reason that anyone, especially a young person should let themselves get that out of shape.

Quite true but....listened to an interview of Mexico's
national health director. She said when NAFTA came
in, Mexico started importing all sorts of snack foods
from the U.S. And the health department noticed
that kids were really getting chubby and out of shape.

All the prepared foods are either loaded with salt or
sugars, actually corn syrups.

And the U.S. kids aren't getting enough exercise.
Stories have recently appeared that the pool of
eligible military recruits is shrinking because of
obesity throughout the country.

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Ubi Est Mea

I was a draft volunteer after college, 22 years old. Lots of carbs, solid and liquid, made me a candidate for an extra run before breakfast, and yes, also a road guard. That worked wonders. Came out of basic in great shape. Never saw much in the way actual physical abuse. OK, leg lifts and front leaning rest when not running. Nobody I saw got hit. Wouda been drafted the next month, so nothing heroic going on.
Considered myself an accomplished test-taker, and gave the best scores I could. Not like the smart younguns who thought they would resist authority. Always bad idea.

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It's what I do, not what I am.

I am a former United States Army Drill Sergeant. I was on the trail Jan 1997- Jan 99 at Fort Leonard Wood 3rd Training BDE, B Co 3-10 IN. Best two years of my 21 year Army Career. Some PVT's just needed a little extra motivation to get it right. BTW: The Marine's are Drill Instructors. DI's, The Army we are Drill Sergeants get it strait now drop and give me twenty.

My boot camp take aways:

I went in at 232 lbs. I came out at 210. A week in my TI said that if I didn't shed some weight and improve my stamina I would be transferred out to a (I hope I get this name right) A midriff flight that deals with the marginally fit.

I got busy and started doing push aways.

I never saw TI's get physical with recruits but the worst punishment they could mete out was a day of "pots and pans" in the mess kitchen. A truly miserable experience that I twice earned.

I learned some valuable life lessons there. I can still correctly iron the pleats in a cummerbund and fold an origami dinner napkin.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Ya, I heard about physical conditioning platoon. Didn't want to end up there. We picked up a guy from there about 1/2 way though, he was a big guy but strong. Said he had lost a bunch of weight. Didn't want to end up in motivation either. My brother went over the fence in boot camp and ended up in motivation. Said they were formed into a circle and with E tools. Took a shovelful of dirt and tossed it to the side, took a step and repeated. This while wearing full utilities and belt with 2 canteens of water they were not allowed to drink. Around and around they went making a round ditch. Then the filled it back in same way. Once a kid threw down his E tool and said F it I am not doing it. DI went over and said thats alright son go sit in the shade drink some water, smoke a cigarette. Kid did that while the rest started digging again. Then the DI went over and coaxed the kid back into the trench. Brother said they made a trip around , the kid threw down his shovel and started to say something when the kid behind him knocked him cold with his E tool. I don't think my brother was feeding me BS either.

I haven't even told about the most mentally brutal thing I ever saw. I don't know if our platoon and company was different, that most of those in my era, but I don't thinks so. Lots of others from my time in the Corps, told similar stories to me. We laughed about them later. Physical abuse was very common and sometimes a PVT would attack a nother PVT that was causing the platoon problems. I personally was struck several times, had my throat gripped etc. Made to do push ups on my knuckles. I was never really injured. I saw one guy get his arm broke and another had to get stitches. Dead serious. The one guy was pushed onto the asphalt and the other was hit in the back of the head by another PVT for holding him up during a run.

My ex-brother-in-law, who was raised in Detroit, joined the army in the early 60's to avoid jail. During the self-defense training, the DI asked if anyone thought they could whip him. My BIL said yes, and lived up to his word. Unknown to the DI, my BIL not only had street training, he was a certified black belt in karate. Two days later, several DI's jumped him and repaid the butt-whooping. After graduating, they made him a DI...

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

I went through Navy boot camp in ‘65 and our DI was like Gunny Hartman in Full Metal Jacket but I never saw him hit anyone. He didn’t need to, he was huge in stature and his verbal abuse was meted out to everyone. I did a LOT of growing up in that eight weeks and it prepared me for real life. To this day I’m shaved & showered in less than 10 minutes.

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Old Cop
LEO (Ret.)

In 1966, USAF Basic Training, a buddy and I were "assigned" an overweight troop and we arm-in-arm carried him through two-mile runs and PT. He did OK, but only lost a little weight.

I was 19 at the time and came out of boot hard as a nail.

Not so much anymore...!

Tim

I did basic training at Fort Sill in February 1988. The closest thing I saw to physical abuse was one Drill Sergeant would walk through the mess hall and if he saw you take a bite of food and then put your fork down to chew instead of forking up the next bite as soon as that fork hit the table he'd tell you "You're done get out." It didn't matter if it was your first bite of food.

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Retired Career Security Guard

I attended the Coast Guard boot camp in 1970. I was bean pole thin at the start and came out 40 pounds heavier and in excellent condition. The draft was running full speed during that period, around 90% of my company including myself received directives to report draft notices during boot camp. All of us wanted to serve our country and to do so in a service we chose. If we fouled up we would bounced out and the draft was waiting at the door. This was an excellent motivator for us to get with and stay with the program.

I never received or witnessed any abuse. One instance I remember to this day. A first class petty officer was riding a bicycle and had a large overflowing grocery bag in his left arm. We naturally rendered a salute to him, he returned the salute, lost control of bicycle and crashed into a rose bush hedge. We couldn't stop the laughter and he didn't see the humor. All of us had to high port rifles around the parade ground an hour a day for three days.

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U.S. Coast Guard, retired CPO

IN '83 I went to basic at Lackland. I was 190 lbs and ran 3 miles daily. When I graduated basic I had a two week old sprained ankle that was not getting enough down time to heal. I was put on the fat boy program as I was 4 pounds from my max weight even though I was at 9 % body fat.

I spent the rest of my military carrier just over my max weight but well under the body fat index max. Basic was just a head game. Those who had weak minds were weeded out. The follow on school also had a weeding out process.

I saw no brutality in my BCT experience at Fort Dix, C-4-2, Summer of 1967. Fort Dix was the only large Army base in the Northeast, the only one conducting BCT, since it was between New York and Philadelphia it was subject to a lot of media scrutiny, there were a couple of recruits deaths in the year before I enlisted, that led to a lot of negative publicity.
The word that struck fear and terror into every trainee at that time was-
"RECYCLED !" The 3 reasons for being recycled were illness, injury and-PT failure. There was no fat boys company that I knew of, I don't recall the cadre following any of the fatties down the chow line. At the end of the 4th week there was a make or break PT test, those who failed it were -RECYCLED ! I walked past the room of one of those who boloed it and was slated to be RECYCLED !-he was stuffing his fat face with a hamburger.

AF basic was pretty tame. Didn't see any rough stuff from DIs. While qualifing with M14 the DI slapped me on the head with his cap. I asked what the heck was wrong, he said "That weapon is to be shot from your right shoulder, not your left". I qualified off my right shoulder, then while he was getting 3 or 4 guys to shoot their correct target and not their buddys, I asked if I coud fire another magazine off my left shoulder. Supprisingly he allowed, shot almost perfect score but he wouldn't give me the better score. In the scheme of things it hasn't affected my life one bit.

I went into basic in San Diego, November 1980. It was pretty tame. My friend Kip had been in the Army, and he told me to watch out for head games, and I recognized them almost immediately. I kept my head down and my mouth shut, and it was pretty painless.

At the end of basic, our Company Commander (DI) barely even knew my name. There were eight guys in our company who never went to a "marching party" ((strenuous PT after taps as a disciplinary action) and I was one of them.

I did hear a phrase used while I was in that I hadn't heard before or since. A group of us were cleaning the barracks, and one of the guys knew how to juggle. Well, so do I, and we were having a great time juggling balls of socks, when our CC came in and yelled, "KNOCK OFF THAT JUGGLING!!!" Like I said, I hadn't heard that before or since.

My dad was at Army boot camp at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in the mid-50s. He vividly remembered a boot in his platoon, after having been found at inspection with an uneven shave, being dry-shaved by his lieutenant while in formation.

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

In USAF basic training training we spent all day cleaning the dorm and folding our underwear in six inch squares. Our PT consisted of a few pushups and doing jumping jacks for 20 minutes, unless it was too hot or too cold. The rest of the day was spent in class or eating. We had 2 days of firearms training, one day in the classroom and the second shooting 50 rounds of .22lr with a converted M16. The best day was running the confidence course - real tough stuff!

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213th FBINA

I went Army basic at Ft. Knox. I was 6’ x 155Lb. Came out 8 wks later 165.
Had buddy who was 6’-1” and 230. One of our home town foot ball stars.
DIs walked up and down in chow hall. The chow line doled out grub according to DIs. Buddy was complaining about his portion compared to mine. The DI agreed with him, portion was wrong. Took spoon and put half buddies chow on my tray. I had to eat it, not optional. After chow I got to return to barracks, buddy had to hit the ground running and DI would run them around company area till they puked.

We weren’t beat up but would get punch in the gut or rap on the head for small screw ups. I remember major screw ups would have to run around the formation while we were marched to class. If a boot was really causing trouble he would get a blanket party. If DIs really wanted to put the fear of God in you they would threaten to ship you to Coast Guard Basic. LMAO.

I went Army basic at Ft. Knox. I was 6’ x 155Lb. Came out 8 wks later 165.
Had buddy who was 6’-1” and 230. One of our home town foot ball stars.
DIs walked up and down in chow hall. The chow line doled out grub according to DIs. Buddy was complaining about his portion compared to mine. The DI agreed with him, portion was wrong. Took spoon and put half buddies chow on my tray. I had to eat it, not optional. After chow I got to return to barracks, buddy had to hit the ground running and DI would run them around company area till they puked.

We weren’t beat up but would get punch in the gut or rap on the head for small screw ups. I remember major screw ups would have to run around the formation while we were marched to class. If a boot was really causing trouble he would get a blanket party. If DIs really wanted to put the fear of God in you they would threaten to ship you to Coast Guard Basic. LMAO.

I wasn't exactly skinny while in the Army, but I always stayed below the weight limit for my height, and was in the best physical shape of my life.

During one "soldier stakes" competition on a Saturday afternoon I anchored our company's M113 track pull to victory, anchored our tug of war to victory, was one of four who won the jeep trailer chariot pull to victory, and was well bloodied in our victorious combat push ball competition. Our company won every event, and I was in the thick of things.

Right after, the First Shirt came up to me and said "Sgt XXXXX, they just published new weight limits, and based on your last weigh-in you would be 2 lbs. over now. Come in Monday morning for another weigh-in."

Fortunately I was 2 lbs under that following Monday, and avoided entering the "fat boy" club. It seems that nobody ever told the Army that muscle weighs more than fat.

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Only a cold warrior

My BCT experience was a little "off", the only one of our cadre who wore The Hat was our "field first", the rest were NCOs assigned that duty, most were Vietnam veterans, the "feel" was the more the experienced NCO making sure the new replacement is squared away-and is instructed properly. My company was heavily NGs, ERs and Cat I RAs, we were treated accordingly, told we were expected to act like we were intelligent and had brains, didn't need everything explained to us over and over.

Drafted in 66, went to Ft. Polk, got shots, clothes before being sent to FT. Hood for basic. While at Ft. Polk did see a Sgt. knock a recruit to the ground while we were in line for something, don't remember what. Basic at Ft. Hood was degrading as hell but I didn't see any one hit by a Sgt. It Didn't take long to realize the army was not the career for me. Did my 2 years and got out. I won't willingly be treated that way. It was a good experience since I returned intact and alive.

My dad started out in the army air corps and transferred to the air force. Ended up flying B-17s. I remember his saying they had 3 minutes to shower. Dad never said what all that included. Was that getting undressed, showering and then dried off and redressed? Shaving also as noted above? In memory of my dad I tried the getting undressed ,showered, dried off, and dressed in 3 minutes. I can do it but now time for anything else.

Morgan88

We've discussed a lot about being on
the receiving end by the instructors
and particularly the Marines and Army.

But anyone here or know of what sort of
training an instructor, the DI, gets to do
his/her job. Are their personalities tested?
What do manuals say or perhaps suggest
as ways to get the best results from recruits.

It seems that recruits' experiences vary
widely and most of the extreme stories are
what seem to be capricious and in some
cases sadistic attitudes of the instructors .

And as the U.S. moves more and more into
sophisticated weaponry and methods of facing
an enemy, can the country afford to perhaps
turn away "nerdy" recruits because of an
outdated, if indeed they are outdated, methods
of toughening everyone up for infantry style battle?

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Ubi Est Mea

I went through basic at RTC Orlando July-Sept ‘79. There was no physical brutality such that anyone was hit or punched. The physical conditioning wasn’t really that intense in my opinion, but I was 17 and had played sports through high school. The younger guys seemed to be able to handle the physical and psychological aspects much better than guys in their mid to late 20’s. The psychological games they played really got to some of the recruits and we experienced a lot of drop outs and roll backs. When I first saw Full Metal Jacket, one of the recruits in my company immediately came to mind. I don’t remember his name because he only lasted three weeks or so. He was a heavyset introverted sort of guy that was a magnet for abuse from company commanders. He was rather slovenly, lacked proper military bearing and had really poor personal hygiene. He was even picked out of the middle of our marching company once by the company commander of another company marching in the opposite direction. The CC pulled him out for skylarking and made him do 25 push-ups, yelling at the rest of us for allowing such a sorry individual to grace the likes of his Navy. The penultimate pysche trip came when we had our first major locker and bunk inspection. We all spent hours folding skivvies and towels and making our bunks to have a group of CC’s from several other companies come through, trashing our hard work and screaming obscenities about how pathetic we were and how we would never ever make it in their Navy if we couldn’t even fold our clothes properly. The glaring exception to this was the aforementioned recruit and one other who may have been marginally better were singled out and absolutely praised with their skills of folding clothes and making beds. It was all a staged comedy really; one CC would call out to another to have him come over to see how exceptional these gentlemen were at following orders. They would oohh and aahh over how neatly everything was done, all the while heaping praise upon them. Then they had them go into an adjacent room with a window looking out over the company bay, put them at parade rest and let them observe the “consequences” the rest of us faced for messing up so badly. Push-ups, squat thrusts, running in place at 250 beats per minute with your arms straight out in front of you as they screamed FASTER FASTER! in your ear. It got pretty intense and we had some guys actually crying. All the while these two guys just stood there and had to watch us. They both dropped out soon after, but I always wondered what they were thinking through all of it.

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USS Brewton FF1086
SWCA#3597

This thread made me think about my basic training and I ended up doing some online searching about the place. It went a bit emotional... bitter sweet so to say.

Saw aerial pictures and can zoom in pretty good. It brings back memories.... good, bad, ugly. They weren't allowed to touch us but they still yelled, called us names and made us do physical exercises. Same in NCO school but I dropped out due to my m/c accident.

It's almost all torn down now... they closed it in 2013. Sad to see all them buildings gone. Unreal actually. I don't know why it gets me like it does... perhaps because it was my first real adult thing I did after moving out from home. I don't know. All I know is that I didn't live life to the fullest when I was young and my regrets keep stacking up...

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Jorge

I arrived at Ft. Sill with a big, bushy mustache. They didn't MAKE me dry shave but they did order me to get it off my face by first formation which amounted to the same thing. I marched around Ft. Sill for a week with a great big scab on my upper lip.

The most difficult part of joining the Army for me was that I was 22 years old and had been on my own four 4 years but once I joined I was automatically assumed to be immature and incapable of managing my own affairs. This continued until I became an NCO.

At my first duty station one soldier bounced a check and the First Sergeant ordered everyone in the Battery E4 and below to close their checking accounts. Several of those affected were paying car notes and the like by check, no exceptions. If you had a checking account you closed it. Several married soldiers immediately put their bank accounts in their wive's name that day.

When I moved off post it was determined that as an E4 I was incapable of evaluating for myself if an apartment was habitable and if my rent was fair. I wasn't permitted to sign the lease until a (younger) NCO inspected the apartment.

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Retired Career Security Guard

The army and their silly **** that doesn't matter what so ever. They treated us like human beings in Vietnam but like cur dogs back in the world.

Nice to meet you. I was in B 3/10 Infantry (Bull Dogs) from 81-83 when it was at Ft Polk. We had a Bulldog named Musket until someone messed with him and he latched on to his you no what

That reads like a comedy show compared to what I experienced in 1968 Honor Platoon 2079 MCRD SD.

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"Don't Give Up the Ship"

As with so many things military it depends on the where and the when. I have seen Fort Dix dismissed as the original "Camp Swampy", a country club, those of us who graduated from it would beg to differ.

I bet your experiences were very similar to mine.

Honor platoon 3152 1969

!968 in USMC boot camp was unpleasant to say the least. The training was brutal and, yep, you got slapped around a little. The Corps had recently reduced the training from 12 weeks to 8 weeks and the pressure was on Drill Instructors to turn out good basically trained Marines. 52 years later, I still feel a rush of pride when The Marine Corps Hymn is played and the old vets, like me, snap to attention and honor our Corps and those who paid the ultimate price for freedom. Semper Fi is not a saying, it is a life lesson you carry forever.

February 1952 when I enlisted in the USAF I was 6'1" and weighed 165.
A little friend enlisted with me. He barely made the height requirement
which, I think, was 5'. But he only weighed a shade over 100 lbs.
They told him to go to the mess hall and eat all the bananas he could hold.
He got up to 105, which was the minimum allowed, and was accepted.

A humorous incident, that I posted also on the other thread, a young man
I knew wrote a letter home to his folks. He said "if I had a little bit higher
score on my test I could be an OCCIFER!"

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In Omnia Paratus

If you were smart enough to understand what basic training was all about you would have no trouble. It wasn’t meant to be personal, in fact the direct opposite. Boots that had trouble usually brought it on themselves.
In Military “stuff” goes down hill and DI is last on the chain.