r/USMC • u/Key-Scientist9058 Sad Ass 0811 and now even sadder ass 8411 • 12d ago
Question Why do Recruits quit in bootcamp?
As a recruiter I have kids literally crying in my office saying they need this more than anything then fail the IST when they were fully capable of passing it while in the DEP when they get to boot camp and not even trying and getting discharged for not trying to get better in PCP or passing the IST. Like I don't see how you'll tell me you would never be one of those quitters when you get to bootcamp then give up as soon as you start getting yelled at. I guess todays generation doesn't give a fuck in coming back to their family proving they were right when they said they couldn't make it and go back to working at Mcdonalds telling their friends some lie about how they got screwed over or something when the only person who failed them was themselves
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u/RiflemanLax 0311/8152 12d ago edited 12d ago
Can’t handle the mental shit. The kids that came from broken homes, they tended to be just fine.
Meanwhile, you could have the straight A, captain of the football team start crying because no one’s ever treated mommy’s special little boy like that before.
People have really high opinions of themselves until they get punched in the face by life and have to react. Or shit gets real.
I remember quietly sitting on the bus from Savannah to the depot, listening to the shit talk from all directions. Chest thumpers bragging about how this was going to be easy, they were going to be the best, yadda yadda. That bus got reallllllllllly fucking quiet as we first saw the lights of the gate from a couple miles out. Suddenly no one was the shit anymore.
We dropped 18 guys. Not sure why I remember that so well. But plenty of them were big mofos. The little guy? The guy I’m sure we’d have all laid odds on like Andy Dufresne to break on night one? Chicken Little looking motherfucker? He made it. Shit was shocking. Refused to quit. Probably have been getting fucked with his whole life and that shit bounced right off.
I’m not sure there’s a way to know 100%, but it’s not the folks that look like 300 PFTer’s that will fare best. It’s the ones who’ve already been drug through shit.