The pundits say they were intimidated by the Secretary of Defense. You should have seen my Drill Sergeant in basic. Now he was intimidating. After him I, almost chuckled when someone tried to ream me a new one.
I always kept that experience in my life first and foremost in my mind.
In real life you always had the opportunity to tell the ahole to F off and if you didn't like it, you could always quit.
In Basic, you were SCREWED! You couldn't tell the DI to F off and you certainly couldn't quit without serious consequences........LOL!