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No bawling in my recruit company at NTC San Diego,just a lot of bichin.This was a long ago era,and many men came from a tough background,like myself.Things that are now forbidden were routine back then,even in the supposedly easier Navy and Air Force boot camps.Today?Just how tough can it be when women are integrated in training with the men?When training is dumbed down to let the girls keep up,it should be a cakewalk.Last I heard,the Marines still had separate boot camps for men and women,good for them.As for Marine training and the Hollywood films that portray it,the film pictured above,"Full Metal Jacket" is loaded with errors and stereotypes according to Marine vets of that era.According to old time Marines,the best film about their boot camp is a 1957 black and white work called "The DI" starring the late Jack Webb of Dragnet fame.
I teared up a little bit in the first couple of days because I had very much been a homebody, but once training started in earnest, we were so busy we did not have time to feel sorry for ourselves!!!!!!!!!!!!
i saw a lot of guys cry when they went to their first church service in boot camp. some of the guys hadn't cried up till that point (that i had seen anyway), but the difference when they walked through those doors into a room where people smiled and spoke nicely to them broke a few guys.
i didn't cry in boot camp, but i think it was because i was smart, not tough. i went into it knowing that it was a game that i had to beat in order to enjoy, and that i would be miserable if i didn't. so i tried my hardest to win–no matter what it was, pt, drill, etc. everything was a game to me. doesn't mean that i didn't feel the stress, but that i was able to harness it.
I went through bot Army and Air Force basic training. Both were with men and women mixed. I never saw any man cry I don't remember women crying but maybe they did. I cried once. When it was time to receive out M16s I looked at the weapons and it hit me that these coudl have been used in previous champains... One never knows and that is what caused me to feel/think emotionally. My Drill Sargent said (-----) Is there a problem? I said NO SIR DRILL SARGENT! and that was that.
A couple guys cried when they got their first letter from home. I guess they were really home sick. I don't remember anyone crying from anything the DIs did. Most of the ones who were bothered by them washed out early or they would just "shut down" near the end.
Of course, nowadays they aren't supposed to make disparaging comments about you and your family or physically beat you so I guess there is less reason to cry.
A couple guys cried when they got their first letter from home. I guess they were really home sick. I don't remember anyone crying from anything the DIs did. Most of the ones who were bothered by them washed out early or they would just "shut down" near the end.
Of course, nowadays they aren't supposed to make disparaging comments about you and your family or physically beat you so I guess there is less reason to cry.
of course, "they are not supposed to" is much different than "they don't do it."
I did boot camp at Fort Jackson in very early 1981. Nobody cried that I saw. We had a mixed training company even then- some in the female platoon may have cried, but I wasn't privy to it.
of course, "they are not supposed to" is much different than "they don't do it."
Ya, true!
Even in '93 they weren't supposed to call you names and such but they did it anyway. I guess I could have left my second statement out. Anyone who would cry over that stuff usually left in the first month or so anyway. Although one guy basically quit during the last week because he couldn't take it anymore. Probably good that he did, the instructors at MCT ragged on you more than DIs.
Location: Prescott Valley, Az (unfortunately still here)
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When I was in basic training in Ft. Jackson (back in 1995), I cried just a couple of times when it came to rifle training (the time we had to learn how to put the M-16 apart and put it back together). I got frustrated the first day, but Drill Sergeant Brown came over and really broke it down to me on how to do it and the names of parts (he was the "nicer" of the 2 DI's we had in the platoon I was in. He's the one who could handle to the female recruits and he understood us better too. He was married with 3 daughters!!).
Thank God! I made it and never cried again. The only other time I cried, slightly, was when we had to do Victory Tower (45 ft. high). I have a terrible fear of heights. They knew it too! But I made it all the way through.
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