Back around 1980 I had a friend who went through Air Force Basic Training. Said he never did a push up or fire a gun. They weren’t training warriors 40 years ago either.
Maybe she had a waiver, because back then ALL basic trainees—male and female—had to qualify on the M-16 in order to graduate.
If you didn’t you got washed back.
Throughout my military career of 22 years (and I was FORCED* to do 7 years at the Pentagon in joint duty assignments), I had troops of all kinds tell me war story** after war story that were embellishments, enhancements and outright lies about their training, previous assignments, battles, duties and even civilian life.
Good war stories are meant to be taken with a big grain of salt.
*Forced as in I didn’t want to be at the Pentagon or Washington DC, which cost a fortune for a young troop, spend hours in rush hour, and put up with all the crap only Washington DC has socially. I though after my first assignment at DIA I’d get out of there, but the DCA was able to grab me and stick me in the second, deepest basement/dungeon of the Pentagon, not far from the Purple Water Fountain. I had to volunteer worldwide to finally escape.
**War story - a tale about some aspect of a soldier, sailor, marine or airman’s life, usually meant to make them more of a badass, hero or legend of some kind... Or, conversely, a major doofus or sad sack. Example: “Did I ever tell you about my first sergeant back at Fort Stumble who made us do this thing, until I told him...blah, bah, blah (insert story about how the troop bested the 1st shirt)...” “Or “I never qualified on the M-16, but they let me graduate anyway because they just wanted to get rid of me and out of there because I constantly pissed them off.”
Not new. USAF basic training was a joke during Viet Nam. The AF never got its head on straight about basic military training from the start and when Korea broke in 1950 it simply swamped the training base. There literally was no basic training for 2-3 years. That is why tech school was such crap for decades, petty harassment there was supposed to make up for no real basic training. This is completely different from the RAF in which basic training is real basic training concluding with real tactical military problems using Royal Army units as aggressors or red force. The goal is to inculcate ‘regimental spirit’ and a sense of being a part of a military service.