The other services really miss out by having politically correct and user friendly basic, because those few weeks are a once in a lifetime opportiunity to subject these recruits, fresh from civilian life, to an experience which might remotely resemble combat.
My Marine is home from LeJeune for the holidays. Another truism I left off from my orginal message is that a Marine can drink more beer than I thought humanlly possible. He goes back on the 2nd and anytime from then until March he'll be off with the 26th MEU for Iraq. We went shooting today and he groups his shots like a .......Marine!