God Bless you Breakdaddy for your service, but graduating Air Force basic is not quite the same. I did my LE training at Laackland Air Force Base. Your basic is MUCH shorter, and I hate to say, easy. Marine Corps basic is a whole different animal. When I went to the eclub at Laackland I would see recruits there. They got to go out on the weekends?!?!?! Most of them I talked to said the most challenging thing about basic was folding their t-shirts properly. There PT consisted of a few jumping jacks and about 5 minutes worth of running on the parade deck! (The commander of the Air Force recruit station used to complain about us doing "boots and utes" runs because he felt it intimidated and demoralized the Air Force recruits.) While the Air Force is perfectly honorable, completing Marine Corps basic is something truly unique and special. God bless all the Marines for what they have done and for what they do every day.
My platoon at MCRD San Diego started with 144 recruits. We graduated with 84. That included about a half dozen guys we picked up who had washed out from previous platoons. One of the guys in my platoon nearly died when we were about three miles into a hump. We had just scaled MT. M*** F*** and had been humping on the beach in ankle deep sand when his body temperature climbed to about 105. He dropped out and his heart stopped. Thankfully he survived. Coincidentally, he had 8 years in the Air Force before coming to the Marines. He was a really nice guy when I new him. He still graduated with the platoon so I give him a lot of credit. Please don't take my comments on the Air Force the wrong way. Its just that you have no idea now our young guy feels unless you have been in his shoes. God BLess all of those you have been and God Bless everyone who has given their service to our country!!!
