What was different about the military back in your day?

PO2 (Join to see) - Hazing. Now, before I get going, I KNOW things have changed. I'll let you all decide if for the better... or not. To conclude a promotion, all those of senior rank "pinned" the new rank upon the promoted. Those graduates from jump school got "blood wings." Newbees, usually had some form of a physical beat down during their "welcome aboard." I won't even go into Shell-backing. Depending on the rank, some would simply excuse themselves from such ceremonies and allow the SNCO's or NCO's run the show. It gave the units their own set of bragging rights and sea-stories. It built camaraderie throughout. And it also told the younger leaders to define boundaries and SUPERVISE! Unfortunately, video cameras and smart-phones created magnetic and digital records --whose content offended most civilized Americans. I'm not sure if hazing policies improved things or just pushed such shenanigans underground.

#1 I got my butt kicked in a hand to hand bayonet fight with a DI
#2 I was in a Guard Company in the Boston Navy Yard with guys who had been up in the Chosin Reservoir including my CO, XO, & Gunny & these guys were legends in the Marines.
#3 I served under Chesty when he shook up things at Camp Lejeune and Camp Geiger
#4 I had a Plt Sgt who was 20 years older than me and treated me like his son, & I really learned a lot from this guy who had been in China, WWII & Korea..
#5 The Marines really helped for me to return to Boston College after I dropped out three years earlier. They had a good relationship with Boston College back then & not so sure about now.
#6 We learned a lot after the mistakes made in Korea so that never happened again. Chesty had us spend more time in the field and at PFT which helped. So when the Marines landed at Pleiku in 1962..they had it all together this time..

PO3-It's been a few years since I left in the mid 2000s, but I saw some of what you speak of during my tenure as well. I think there's too many factors to list, but ultimately, it probably comes down to the fact that with increased coverage by media, the prominence of "social media", and the general shift towards making everything "political"...people are frankly "afraid" of upholding traditions and discipline. We used to be a "closed" organization with our own culture...a true meritocracy in many ways...an oligarchy in others. In the "good old days", rank was a hard earned badge of experience and trust; Now, it's become an 'expected' quality of someone's job description. That's truly sad because the mission is still the same, as are the challenges, and if we've drifted so far off course, we really and truly believe that isn't the case, I am concerned with where we're heading.

One other thing to keep in mind, however...

The military has become undeniably more 'technical' over the last half century. This means that to some degree, the roles of leadership have shifted from "deckplate" to "digital". When I went to my first ship, we still got message traffic on a clip board. Now, I'm sure the OOD gets it on his iPhone. It really comes down to whether or not one can adapt to changing times...I doubtless could not have. The one great advantage to this shift is that education has a greater place in our military, and extends more opportunity to the service member. In your rate, that's an even greater truth. My advice would be to continue to learn, continue to (as they used to drill into us) collect things from the "good" leadership bag...discard things from the "bad". Time passes quickly, and one day, you might find yourself in a position to truly make direct change in the organization.