Boy that sure is the truth as only a GI can know ! They can show up with PHDs or be drop outs and all get treated exactly the same ! Even growing up as a pretty rough farm boy I was shocked at the treatment in boot camp and that was the Air Force which I assumed would be much milder than the rest of the services my buddies were in and talking about.
Drilling all day every day, marching in formation every where and being treated like dogs in between KP duty and standing guard at night.
I remember the only time to write a letter home was after lights out,under the dust cover with a flash light.
The TI's were all meaner than snakes and went out of their way to make life as miserable as they could ! I thought now how can this treatment be used to train any one but in six weeks time we were a pretty tight and cohesive out fit thinking as a unit before being sent off to our respective tech schools.
Now why does an Airmen need to learn how to disassemble and reassemble an M-16 blind folded you might ask? Didn't make any more sense to me then the gas house or the belly crawl through the constantina wire obstetrical course and those dang noisy bomb-lets going off in the pits. At least they didn't make us crawl under live fire like in the Marines or Army. Whew, finally a break for being in the AF!
I liked the AF way of thinking though as all the non coms were trained to support the officer pilots who were the ones getting their butts shot off or winding up as a POW while we stayed back on base safe and sound.
I was told the Tet Offensive didn't quite work out that way for our guys on base though !