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Originally Posted by McClain
RDC's are always yelling at you. More so if you don't pay attention or if you are bringing the rest of your division down. If one person fails in a particular area, the ENTIRE DIVISION gets punished. This is a method utilized to keep the recruits from fucking around. Someone is less likely to goof off or do something improperly if they know that everyone else will pay the price.
All the learning is fast-paced because they don't have time to go over finer details. And they teach us EVERYTHING.
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This is the harsh part that most people equate with being mean for no reason when actually it is the ultimate kindness. To get you organized out of your past state of mind and into a state of mind wherein your perception is so lucid, so perceptive for every detail and ready to be able to not only react but also to anticipate will be invaluable in certain possible future military situations.
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Originally Posted by McClain
Some people can't handle the emotional stress and find ways to escape. They think that boot camp is reality and that things will continue in the same fashion once they're sent out in the fleet. That's a huge misconception. The people that were resistant didn't make it. Their brains would give out and they'd just stand there shaking, or they'd threaten to throw themselves off the roof. They were usually processed out of the Navy.
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It is my belief that for those that did commit suicide, it was because the military was a last desperate attempt to straighten out their lives and, failing that ...
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Originally Posted by McClain
In my boot camp tenure there wasn't a single suicide. They do happen, but not as often as your buddy lets on. Perhaps he did have a couple that decided to kill themselves while he was there, but it's not that common. And because I am a cynic, I think that anyone weak enough to kill themselves in boot camp could have been just as capable of doing as a civilian. Boot camp is just a catalyst.
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I, too, never KNEW of an actual suicide taking place. There was a rumor that one occured at a distant company in our battalion but, oddly, know one knew him, his exact name, his exact company, ect. I still believe, to this day, that it was some sort of twisted scare tactic by the cadre.
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Originally Posted by McClain
If you keep your mouth shut and do what you're told, boot camp isn't so bad. You take everything with a grain of salt and don't give up your inner individuality and you'll be fine.
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Hell, most of us were cynical and considered it a game. It was. The pure foolishness of it made me and my platoon mates LOL at times. They never really "broke" anyone that I knew. Conformity is for cultists and marines.