The Marine Corps holds events where recruits waiting to go to boot camp and other interested prospects can get a small taste of what life will be like when they step on the yellow footprints at either MCRD San Diego or Parris Island.
It can be intense, but it in no way will prepare them for the hell that will be unleashed on them the second they step off the bus for real.
The night I stepped on those yellow footprints on Sept 26 1984 is burned into my soul!
One of the things that sets our Corps apart from the other services is that our enlisted undergo a what is generally perceived as a tougher initial training than their officers. When I was going through Quantico in 1968, you could hear the DIs endlessly screaming some variation of “you wouldn’t last a day at Parris Island.” They’re both designed to weed out the weak, and back then it was a brutal process...but it gives the troops a special sense of “esprit de corps” to think they’e done something their officers couldn’t hack..