I was a BCT Company Commander at Knox as the draft was ending and the Volunteer Army was crankin' up.
Abuse has never been accecptable and training and discipline can be tough without it anyway. During that time a directive came down from I-don't-know-where (probably TRADOC) that the only way a trainee could be addressed was, Trainee, Recruit or Soldier.
As long as a 'cruit knows there is a Chain of Command backing up the training cadre in their job, the mission of building a soldier will be understood by all. Of course the 'cruit has to believe they have rights that go along with their responsibilites.
If it's done right, most of the pressure on the trainee comes from within and from peers. The cadre just has to set the tone and the standards.
Amen. The German Wehrmacht of the 1930's did away with a lot of the hazing and chicken sh*t of the Kaiser's army, replacing severe punishments for relatively minor infractions with the military equivalent of writing "I will not talk in class" on the blackboard fifty times. As a consequence, the Wehrmacht entered WWII a far more dedicated, professional and effective force than the Kaiser's levies. What people forget about the Marines is that the entire Corps is an elite force, so they employ (and recruits expect) a much more demanding regimen than is inflicted upon most Navy, Army or Air Force personnel. Nevertheless, if you watch the "History Channel", "Discovery Channel" or PBS programs on Marine, Ranger or SEAL training, you'll find that even amongst the elites there are different approaches to training and discipline. The only thing that matters is the result.