Recruit Training

Recruit training, more commonly known as basic training and colloquially called boot camp, is the initial instruction given to new military personnel, enlisted and officer. After completion of basic training, new recruits undergo Advanced Individual Training (AIT), where they learn the skills needed for their military jobs. Officer trainees undergo more detailed programs that may either precede or follow the common recruit training in an officer training academy (which may also offer a civilian degree program simultaneously) or in special classes at a civilian university. During recruit training, drill instructors do everything possible to push a recruit to his or her physical and mental limits.

Recruit training varies by nation according to the national requirement and can be voluntary (volunteer military) or mandatory (conscription). Approximately 100 nations, including the United Kingdom and United States, have a volunteer military service. In voluntary service an individual chooses to join and thereby agrees to be subjected to the process of building an organization in which each life depends on the next person. The voluntary status has changed the culture of military service.

Recruit training is oriented to the particular service. Army and Marine recruits are nearly always trained in basic marksmanship with individually assigned weapons, field maintenance of weapons, physical fitness training, first aid, and basic survival techniques. Navy and Coast Guard training usually focuses on water survival training, physical fitness, basic seamanship, and such skills as shipboard firefighting, basic engineering, and signals. Air force training usually includes physical fitness training, military and classroom instructions, and field training in basic marksmanship and first aid. In all training, standard uniforms are issued and recruits typically have their hair cut or shaved in order to meet grooming standards and homogenize their appearances. Recruits are generally given a service number. Recruit training must merge divergent trainees often from different levels of culture and society into a useful team. A national basic training will include provision for the basic needs of the recruit (food, shelter, clothing) and they will meet certain unit standards and unit requirements, such as 'mobility' for an infantry unit. A recruit therefore will be 'issued' basic provisions or equipment according to the requirements of the unit and taught responsible management of these provisions.

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