I'm not sure what infuriates me more:  The pathetic antics of the recruits or the Drill Sergeant just standing there like he don't give a shiite.

In my day they'd be in your face (the Drill Sergeants).

In those days you make the military standard, or you f**kn go home.

Plain and simple.  No ifs, ands, or buts.

Seems like an ROTC training class, because the instructor isn't getting in the recruits' collective ass.  Although it might also be an orientation run for new basic recruits -- before they are whipped into shape with all the running, push ups, etc.  I might be off base, but that's the impression I get from the video.

Our AFROTC flight only did the Lackland AFB confidence course once.  We were there with several Basic Military Training (BMT) classes of enlisted recruits.  Not only were the officer candidates older on average by about 2+ years (just starting our Junior year in college), we also took time in our college classes to prepare. PT, lectures from senior cadets on what to expect, etc.  Our ROTC detachment wouldn't send anyone to summer training that couldn't at least meet the minimum running times. The basic recruits were almost all right out of high school and not all of them sports jocks.

We had a 5'2' girl in our flight that scrambled up the first 25' tower like a monkey -- had to weave your body between the horizontal telephone poles going up and then again down the other side.  A 6'+ recruit standing next to me watching her climb muttered, "No way.  I cant do this."

Hence the name "Confidence Course" versus "Obstacle Course."  We weren't in all that much better shape.  We just had a more positive attitude when it came to at least trying to do as instructed.

There was no pass or fail for the confidence course for our program.  But, that didn't mean the instructors didn't take pleasure in getting the faces of us future Air Force officers.   

I think the basic trainees had to have a certain score or they would need to repeat the confidence course.  After a certain number of tries, they could be washed out, possibly to attend BMT again in a later class (a redo).

I'm positive none of the officer candidates ever got washed out of ROTC for not negotiating the obstacles.  As long as we met height/weight standards and could run our mile and a half in under the time allowed, that was pretty much the extent of physical requirements to pass.

"Move it ceeegarrrr. This wall gonna defeat u every time."

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must be AFROTC cadets or Navy

must be AFROTC cadets or Navy

Say that to a SEAL!

must be AFROTC cadets or Navy

I never thought much of ROTC guys regardless of service.
But I used to beat up boy scouts.
The USAF "confidence" course was a joke.
But I used to run cross country races, was raised around guns,
knew how to swim, and hunted with archery and firearms since age 8.
Most my family was ex-military(Navy mostly).

It was more of a challenge for the other kids, all of them were older than me
I was 17.
 

.

I never thought much of ROTC guys regardless of service.
But I used to beat up boy scouts.
The USAF "confidence" course was a joke.
But I used to run cross country races, was raised around guns,
knew how to swim, and hunted with archery and firearms since age 8.
Most my family was ex-military(Navy mostly).

It was more of a challenge for the other kids, all of them were older than me
I was 17.
 

.

I'm going out on a limb here and guessing confidence has never been a problem for you.

The course is less about physical fitness than it is about having a "can do" attitude.  Most of the obstacles are no more difficult than high school PE class.

One of the most telling was the last obstacle: monkey bars and rope swing across a muddy water pit.  So many failed to swing across because they imagined themselves falling in the water.  Anybody can hold a rope for the few seconds it took to make it across -- physically at least.

I'm going out on a limb here and guessing confidence has never been a problem for you.

The course is less about physical fitness than it is about having a "can do" attitude.  Most of the obstacles are no more difficult than high school PE class.

One of the most telling was the last obstacle: monkey bars and rope swing across a muddy water pit.  So many failed to swing across because they imagined themselves falling in the water.  Anybody can hold a rope for the few seconds it took to make it across -- physically at least.

"I'm going out on a limb here and guessing confidence has never been a problem for you."

That is one hell of a good compliment
Thanks!

Every kid that has a solid family
will be that way.
 

"I'm going out on a limb here and guessing confidence has never been a problem for you."

That is one hell of a good compliment
Thanks!

Every kid that has a solid family
will be that way.
 

Yeah, I had a very "under funded" childhood, yet i also had a mother who drilled into my brain the belief that i could do anything I really wanted to do.  If someone else can do it, there's nothing stopping me from doing it, too, as long as I worked hard and learned what I needed to know.

That's why I took college-prep classes in high school when I was 100% sure we could never afford it.  I knew that not trying would mean I wasn't prepared if the opportunity somehow became available.  Wound up getting a full 4-year ROTC scholarship.  Had I not had the right attitude, I would have resigned myself to working in the textile mill my mother and grandfather did, or working minimum wage jobs until I one day made a little more.  That scholarship would have gone to someone else.

Not entitled -- just encouraged.   

I'm not sure what infuriates me more:  The pathetic antics of the recruits or the Drill Sergeant just standing there like he don't give a shiite.

In my day they'd be in your face (the Drill Sergeants).

In those days you make the military standard, or you f**kn go home.

Plain and simple.  No ifs, ands, or buts.

Just wanted to add:

When I went to Basic Training, there were 40 something recruits in my platoon. 

Only 19 graduated.

Not trying to make me sound bad-ass, I just wanted it so bad.  If you put your mind to it you will make it.  It's more a mind thing than anything else.

What I'm getting at is back then, you meet the military standard.  One thing I noticed when I was there is that if you show you really want it, they will work 24/7 to help you make it. 

Once they suspect that your mind doesn't want to be there, , they will drop you so fast your head will spin.

They won't waste their time.  Once you get kicked to the curb, they'll just look back and yell "NEXT MAN!!!"