As a graduate of OCS at Pensacola, with an almost all AOCS class. The Marine Corps Drill Instructors are still there, and were phenomenally hardcore & professional at the same time. The school is now in Newport RI, a huge mistake I hope will be corrected again in the future as Pensacola had a lot to offer.

The reason you should watch the Full Metal Jacket opening is because the Class Drill Instructor (never called the DI!!!) is still this intimidating, harsh, and full of unscripted whit designed to defeat you with your own stupid antics. They will never stike a candidate these days, but you will pay a physical price for the simplest of errors - pushups, mt climbers, 5 count bodybuilders, etc. Looking back it was funny, in the moment it was anything but.

When you graduate (if you graduate) you are forever changed. You may consider quitting many times, but never never quit... OCS life is nothing like the life of a Navy Junior Officer flying airplanes - my career was awesome looking back to summers in Virginia Beach, launching/catching jets from a aircraft carrier flight deck, and my final tour of duty living in Pearl Harbor as a single LT.

I'll trade you positions right now....