What happens if a recruit fails to complete boot camp (or the equivalent)? Are they made to repeat in until they pass or given an administrative seperation (or a combination of the two)? How did the Army handle it when the draft was still in effect?
You go back, & do it again.
And again.
And again.
And, if they think you are screwing up on purpose, there are Drill Instructors for “difficult” recruits. I believe they have MPs to help them? Yes? No?
Yes.
A female friend of mine failed out of Marine boot camp at Parris Island by breaking her leg badly, requiring surgery, the placement of pins, months of physical therapy, etc. She was discharged from service, though I don’t know the exact details of her discharge.
I went through army basic training in 1966, the draft was definitely going on then…
Let’s say, at the end of the 4th week, you are just not getting it, just not making it… they would “recycle” you back to another training company, maybe to the 2nd week or whatever they decide. You then are in a new company, at the 2nd week of basic training. Or, there was also this option: if your problem was lacking the physical condition to handle basic training, you would be sent to the “special training company,” affectionately known as “F troop” after a tv show of the 60s. In this special training company you received an abundance of physical exercise, even more than in a regular training company. Then, when you were deemed “fit” you would be recycled into another regular training company.
If after several recycling episodes, you still couldn’t make it, and they were sure you were not faking it, you would be discharged as “unfit for military duty.”
If during the course of training you got injured, and could not continue training until the injurly healed (broken arm, etc.) you would be given some duties you could handle (paperwork, or whatever) for a couple of months until you healed, then you would go into another training company that was training at the week you were injured.
Things have probably changed since then, but that was U.S. Army basic training policy at Fort Gordon, Georgia, in 1966.
I don’t think this is correct. I believe if you can’t handle basic training, they send you to a different part of camp to shape you up (improve physical conditioning, lose weight) and then add you back to a new class if/when your physical condition has improved. And I think this greatly sucks, because it’s not like you’re in a class with a graduation date; you’re stuck in continual PT until you’re added back in to a class.
And I think they only give you so much time to improve your performance before they wash you out.
And I also think that there are other reasons to wash out of basic, such as an inability to understand orders or an inability/refusal to follow them.
And I don’t believe Military Police are used to jump-start recalcitrant grunts, either; that’s not part of their MOS.
But this is all third-hand recollection from the daughter of a military man. I’m sure someone with actual experience with basic will be along shortly to give us the Straight Dope.
ETA: Possibly, someone will be along before I’m even done with my post. 
Okay, let’s turn this around, and pretend that you’ve just been drafted in the middle of wartime. Absent such things as declaring youself a conscientious objector, if you are bound and determined to not go to war, what are your options? Try to fake a Section 8? Crawl up into a ball when the DI gets on your case, absorbing his kicks and slaps until he gives up? Act totally stupid, several notches below “Gomer Pyle” in Full Metal Jacket? I’m sure any DI worth his (or her) salt has plenty of ways to work around all that and get the recruit all shaped up. Just curious as to how far you could push things to try to get out of your assignment.
Heh. In my experience, it was mostly the other recruits who helped, and quite willingly, too.
During my days in Basic, inspections etc. were quite often performed on the squad level. In other words, if one rifle in the squad is insufficiently maintained, the entire squad will spend the next mealtime cleaning rifles instead of eating. People who habitually lose their squadmates meals, sleep and other privileges will be set straight by their peers in the squad long before the DI has to lift a finger.
When I went through boot camp in 1994, people who were going to be administratively processed out of the Army due to, for example, allergies to bee stings had to endure endless months of limbo that was at least as bad if not worse than boot camp itself. I don’t remember what they called the unit they were put in, but I do remember that they had to do 24-hour duty about twice a week, on top of endless rounds of the usual boot camp treatment. Knowing that you had that to look forward to was a good incentive for making it out of boot camp the traditional way.
This is basically what I remember from Army basic training in 1997. It does vary greatly by branch, but most of the advice given here has generally been true in my experience. Injuries that may heal are left to do so (and the trainee is then ‘recycled’ back the appropriate number of cycles), injuries that won’t get you a medical or general discharge, and people that screw off to try to purposefully get discharged are kept for many weeks or months doing crap duty that sucks worse than training. Plus they get dishonorables, or generals if they are lucky. Of course, all of this comes down to the discretion of the commander.
So does anyone know just what percentage of recruits the training programs fail to make soldiers of?
From about.com:
Service: 1998 rate (2002)
Army: 17.9% (13.6%)
Air Force: 8.8% (7.1%)
Navy: 17.0% (14.0%)
Marines : 13.5% (11.7%)
“Non-medical recycle rates (where a recruit is “recycled” to spend more time in boot camp to overcome problems) for all the services are about the same, fluxuating between five and ten percent.”
Hey Bosda is this GQ or WAG? 
Those that fail out for any reason end up ASMOED back a week to another Training company. I got ASMOED because I fell behind with a trip to the Hospital for Pneumonia and dehydration. We had others ASMOED for failed educational training. Those that failed the PT were placed in a FIT division. FIT was an intensive Physical Training to get the boot caught back up to his company. Some managed to stay with their companies just taking FIT at night.
Those that completely failed out which included drug use, failure to meet Physical Fitness requirements and even in one case a severe Peanut Allergy, were sent to a TDY (Temporary Duty Unit) where they treated little better than prisoners. Some were kept for weeks and some were processed out within a week like the poor kid with the peanut allergy. While on TDY, they had the crappiest jobs on the base. Cleaning, Policing the grounds, cleaning out garbage dumpster, you name it.
I spent 3 weeks effectively as a guard in the TDY barracks, it was pretty good duty for me before heading out to the USS Ranger after completing my A school training. Very easy duty and I made sure I treated the failed boots as well as possible. Some of the Petty Officers were jerks.
Jim
Well I used to command a basic training company a couple of fifteen years ago.
The Army has the Trainee Discharge Program that lets us get rid of dirtballs with no muss, no fuss. (Also a TDP guy gets deducted from the recruiters coup count. Sweet.) I used it a couple of times for kids who could not adjust to Army life. Kind of a shame.
For people with broken arms and legs and whatnot, we keep them around (We had a company cat who took charge of them) until they heal up. Then we send them to another company to continue.
You see, it is a never-ending process. While we graduate this week, someone else graduates next week, and the week after that and so on.
I had a roomate who spent 6 months trying to get through basic. But he was bowlegged and just could not pass the running requirements. He wanted to do it, they knew he wanted to do it. But after holding him back for 6 months, the army finally let him go. After a few months, they really liked having a recruit who new where everything on the base was located. He spent much of his time stepping and fetching for the NCOs.
There is no meaningful difference between your version & mine.
Except, of course, for that part about MPs having anything at all to do with recruit training.
Except that your version was actually a poorly-informed guess with little useful information.
Your guess was not terrible, but as this was GQ, maybe you could wait for someone that actually knew the answer or at least part of the answer to show up. We have plenty of vets on the board and many active service members. As I recall, we even have at least one WWII vet, so we are pretty well covered for military answers by actual military personnel.
**RunSilent ** covered the army during a draft era, **Paul ** actually pushed boots, I briefly helped the failed ones out the door.
Sorry for this junior modding moment,
Jim
BTW, Army Doctrine for Basic Training is AR 350-6. You should be able to find the latest version in .pdf via Google. Keep in mind it’s constantly being revised and updated. It’s a great place to start and it will point you toward other relevant regulations. For example, you can find more specific info on handling conscientious objectors in AR 600-43.
When I went to Basic for the Air Force in '04, if you failed too many inspections, couldn’t pass the run, failed the end exam, they’d recycle you back to the flight behind you, about a week. If the nearest flight was two weeks behind, then that’s what you were sent back to.
If you’re crazy, they’re just going to send you home. We had this one guy in our flight who was a cutter, and just plain weird. So after about the second week, we woke up one morning and he was gone. Later that day we saw are DI inventoring his stuff to be sent back home.
We also had this guy who was a complete dingbat. By the time he got to my flight he had been recycled three times already. He didn’t last long in ours either. About a month after I graduated Basic I was getting my plane tickets to go to Florida for additional training I saw him there getting his ticket to go home. If you fail too many times the Air Force will just cut its loses and get rid of you.