Do you think the Military basic training will ever stop getting softer?

I went to Navy boot camp in 75 in San Diego. The Marines had just killed a Down's Syndrome kid in boot camp. The new rules included no "touching the recruits". So my Company Commander, who was a Senior Chief Signalman injured in Viet Nam and given the choice of medical retirement with 28 years in or pushing boots, would give us a choice .... do a billion pushups or get slapped in the the head. As you can imagine, most of us took the slap up side the head.

Of course if you can handle the physical part of boot camp, the rest is just a mind game. Lay low. Do what you're told and you will do fine.

Until we get rid of so many trying to be politically correct and trying so hard for their "sweet little child" to keep from growing up, no

The AF Basic has become the exact same way; kids get smoke breaks, cell phones, hell, they even get base liberty on weekends... without having to earn it!

No, the PC military is only going to get MORE PC until someone realizes what its doing. I can no longer yell and scream when someone messes up, it may hurt their feelings, and in turn I'll get an ass chewing.

I have noticed that a lot depends on where you attend Basic/AIT or OSUT and to a point, what your MOS is. For example, I went to OSUT at Leonard Wood in 2012 as a combat engineer and we had nothing. No cell phones, no internet, no passes until the end of AIT phase, phone calls only the end of each phase. I can count the number of times I spoke to my wife and kids on one hand during the 15 weeks I was at Leonard Wood. Our Drill Sergeants smoked up, often for a very long time, cursed at us, and I had one Drill that had the habit of jamming his campaign hat into the forehead of those troublesome privates. I have spoken with other soldiers that attended Basic/AIT in other locations, and they have different stories to tell. I have noticed that often the "combat MOSes" (infantry, combat engineer, etc.) still retain their harsh environments for Basic/AIT. I attribute this to the fact that all of my Drills were combat engineers, with multiple deployments.

I really like what WO1 Palmer had to say, "As leaders and especially our Drills, we have a set of rules that we operate in. How you choose to do it is up to you. Good Drills can be very creative and know their stuff. Trust me the Trainees know which ones they are." This holds very true, I know which of the Drills in my company were creative and good leaders. Honestly, their job has gotten to be very hard as the caliber of people joining the military has drastically changed. I respect everyone of my Drill Sergeants, and even keep in contact with a few of them to this day. These are the Drills that inspire me to do my best and keep striving forward, with the hopes that one day I can inspire a new recruit as I was inspired.

SSG Allen also made a very good point in his post about the decline in professionalism throughout the NCO corps. I may not be a NCO, but I am not blind or deaf and can see when someone lacks the qualities it takes to be an effective NCO. I do believe that the issues with basic training cannot fully be addressed, until the other issues that are at the core are addressed.

I went through Basic in 2009, D co. 2/47 Ft Benning Ga.

- We didn't have females
- we never once wore gloves or fleeces
- There was no sleep requirement
- No such thing as a stress card
- No phone calls until the very end
- If you sucked at being a soldier, you were kicked out, not pushed through so some other command had to deal with you.
- Our Drill sgt's cursed at us...

I heard nowdays, they give out these stress card's and sleeping quotas and what not. It wasnt that hard when I went through, now its exponentially easier... Pretty much anyone can get in now.

It started going soft when a marines "mommy" complained to her congressman in the late 70s or early 80s that the marine DIs were too rough on her baby boy.

There's no denying that basic training sucked. It sucked every day, from the second I woke up to the second I racked out. The last thing I want to say is I had an "easier" basic training than those in the past, but there were times where it just seemed like it was a step by step process and we only did things to do it, no actual motivation to get it 100% right. I've never heard of stress cards until about a week ago, but just ridiculous... Also I hear stories about people having their phones for the whole basic training.... UNREAL. I felt I changed the most when I was separated from the civilian world and that's just not happening anymore (Ft. Benning is the exception).

I would think it has to at some point, but I doubt it, I know I had it easy at Fort Benning back in 1987/88, and the infrantryman coming out of their even three years later had it even easier, can't imagine what basic is like nowadays, I remember stories from privates about stress cards they can pull out to get DS off their back at a certain moment, discipline was out the window with a lot of new privates in my units toward the end of my 12 years in the Army. What I noticed most was how little soldiers seemed to be broken down in basic, and braking us down and building us back up was always an important cornerstone of basic wasn't it?

Why are "stress cards" still brought up? They're not in use now, and I've not been able to meet one person who can claim this policy was in effect when they went through

I did Basic training back in 1965 and our training NCOs were always saying how easy it was compared to theirs, so I guess every cycle is the same.