Did basic training got easier over the years?

I was at MRT on Fort Jackson last week. A trainee saluted me with her cellphone in her right hand. Three others behind her didn't render customs and courtesies.

I graduated basic as a non-infantry BCT class at Ft. Benning in Feb, 2017, and was a part of the last all-male graduating class (we saw the first females going through OSUT in reception when we were fitting ASU’s). I can’t speak to how Basic was back in the day, but my experience may be helpful for this thread. Yes, all DS cursed at us, all the time, relentlessly. Yes, they woke us up in the middle of the night and put us on the line or in the company area and smoked us for someone failing on fire watch. Yes, we even “earned” the privilege of using our cell phones a few times for a designated period of time under supervision. It’s probably very similar to the experience of the previous generations in some ways, and in others (phone usage sometimes, “designated sleep time”, and such) seems foreign. But I posit this, remember the current generation. As flawed and dumb as we are, this is the crop from which the Army can pull. The standards don’t change. But the battlefield does. When the battlefield changes, and the Soldier changes, so do the conditions of warfare and of training.

P.s. stress cards aren’t a thing.

No more end of cycle test or “infantry” tasks.

I would say basic in general is definitely different today than when I went thru. But that is due to 9/11 happening just as we hit White phase. So we had to stand down for a day or two while everything was figured out. We had to pull entry control points and roving guard duty along with CQ and fire watch. We lost supplies due to them be taken for units that were rolling out. It was a different experience. We did get an extra call on The night of Sept. 11 to check on family members but we still did training just were in the FPCON D and C until graduation.

Back in 1974 there were no cell phones, just land lines and 8 hours of sleep never happened. We were lucky to get 4 or 5 hours and sometimes not even that much. Couldn't make a phone call until the 4th week and even that wasn't guaranteed. I will admit, when I went through Basic we did not have the weapons training but we did a lot of running and PT!! I suppose you could say it was easier in 1974 but it was hard then!!

June 83, Ft Leonard wood. I lived in quansut hut with concrete floors, the latrine was across the gravel lot. I didn't see a pass until AIT. Lotsa boot shining and area maintenance. Standing in line for the phone booth if you had any time to call home.

From what I have been told the United States Army has been going to Hell since Valley Forge. Honestly though I think every generation seems to get a little better than the last one.

I wouldn’t know how hard basic is today. Having gone through basic in 1970 all I can say is it was very physical, very hot, very intense and never ending. Except for the food poisoning from the chow hall, I enjoyed every minute of it. Unlike today, we didn’t have to suffer through smart phone withdrawal or waiting to see the next episode of Game of Thrones.

Basic (for the Navy) has definitely become a lot easier. I went through it in a stride, and definitely did not feel challenged one bit.

Every time I talk to someone that went through basic a long time ago, they are surprised at how easy it is. They'll ask me a question about how I enjoyed this or that (sarcastically) and when I mention that we don't do that anymore, they look at me round eyed and shocked. I mean c'mon, no physical contact? If a recruit has a temper tantrum nowadays in boot camp, they just get escorted out of the compartment, and it's dealt with there. With the way things are now, what can the RDCs at Great Lakes do if someone decided to say, "No. Go F@$% yourself." Nothing, really. Maybe call it in and wait for someone to escort this recruit away.

I was wondering the other day, what would happen if they took volunteers for recruits to go through an old styled basic training with the physical contact and all that and pushed a whole division like that through. I personally believe we would have some amazing leaders from that division.

Has TRADOC ever put out any form of study or graph that illustrates the amount of attrition in Basic Training throughout the decades?