So in the same vein of you reap what you sow, my son recently finished Air Assault School at Camp Smith. The first day, zero day, started very early with regular army instructors who didn’t have the same rules yelling, swearing, making them do physical activity. My son said it was a shock and way worse than the New Beast. Three cadets dropped out and quit before they even got to the morning obstacle course. It was too overwhelming for them.
Lot's of buzz back from cadets just back from ABN & AASLT. I'm reluctant to comment, but can't leave this one alone. Based on what I heard, you can argue about "the corps has", but I'd not base it on your AASLT feeback unless you have personally been through the course. (Which you may have, in which case, fire away)
Some additional background.... there *will* be 20 drops in an AASLT section, usually on day zero or one. 200'ish attempting, 180 will get wings. They will rank and drop people in the end of they have not attrit'd 20. (But that's rare the cadets were told)
Likewise, the classes are not all USMA. There was a section of 10th mtn in one class, a some of the cadets I know had them in their squad. They were not lightweights, most had multiple combat deployments.
The cadets I know were not shocked, instead they were disillusioned by the RA cadre (mostly NCO's, only one officer).
The difference was that the 101st cadre did not and largely could not do what the classes were doing. And joked about how much the cadets could run and do pushups, that must be all they do, etc. They smoke until muscle failure, and that was dragging on and on for many. They had female cadre which would focus on girls who went down, as male cadre could not single them out. Some of the cadet girls had stronger raw APFT than the cadre did, go figure.
This was the major difference..... USMA cadre (cadets or RA) can and do every bit of smoke they dish out. Lead by example. 101 did not in most cases. This may be an RA thing, but even the non USMA students (RA) were not impressed.
When they could not break any more on day zero they moved the PT to gravel parking lots instead of the fields and made them do pushups on their knuckles in the gravel, etc. Even the RA students were pissed. But they did it to force the attrition. Did not hear specifics on class 2, but class one had roughly 9 hours of smoke on day zero. Virtually none failed inspection or obstacle course. (two cadets I know cleared both with no issues/retries)
As the cadets I know joked, it sucked, but they could handle it. (and did). In one class where we knew cadets, there were no DOR's, and only 2 drops after day one. There were some who had to repeat the ruck due to injury, but they were pulled by cadre and told they could not complete it.
With only 2-3 exceptions for specific cadre, the cadets we know left AAS with much lower respect for the 101 training group. Even 101 cadre did not agree with some of the things done, apparently. It's not clear if this is a difference in the units, or just the course focus.
Very different experience than the cadets we know who went to Airborne. It's just less of a grind, less academics, less smoke. But it does seem to vary by class/section how much special attention the cadets get in ABN, some report none, others were singled out. It's also not clear if ABN has forced attrition.
One cadet who did both called ABN a vacation in comparison!! But ABN had at least one broken ankle, a head injury, etc. Then again, 82nd types I know indicate ABN is now much watered down. "They used to teach you to be a paratrooper, now they teach you to jump out of a plane". I'm sure both "rope dopes" and "bird turds" have their version of "the corps has". Ranger school for sure does.
Regarding yelling, the current USMA teaching is that if you have to yell your leadership has failed. Which I can see, to a bit. Talk to current cadets and ask who they are most concerned with (Cadre/upper class). It's not the yellers, it's the ones who whisper.
And, there are some generalizations which I wont' repeat about which types of UC's yell vs not. Hint: the yellers are not the hardest cadre, and certainly not the most respected.
They still hit the cadet candidates with multiple cadre in their face, issuing contradictory orders. There is also much that is done not in public. The uniform factory seems to have consistently bad memories for cadets. "Nothing good ever happens at the uniform factory".
Most 2015 for sure had table duties, did not know it was dropped for 2016. No starving cadets for sure, they had weight monitored. Some had to regain weight or would be put on profile, possible forced to drop. DS had to eat squared in CBT and much of the 1st year, but that can vary by squad leader and even table. Hot companies have kept more of the tradition. Based on cadets we know, there is huge variation between companies, and even squads for both CBT and AY. Some largely quit plebe duties in general after 1st semester, others kept them to the day before graduation.
The shade and water on R-day in 2015 was only used in cases of heat exhaustion to our observation & knowledge. They did have the reporting in the shade, usually the sally ports, but the formations were in the sun. I personally saw cadet candidates pass out on R-day last summer and there were definitely heat exhaustion. All while being forced to guzzle water all day. (how much that helps, who knows. DS did not think it helped much, 100 degree water does not cool much, just stops dehydration)
I can't comment on "The corps has". I've heard old grads and recent grads go both ways. And have seen full COL's shoot down some old grads with direct challenges about comparative difficulty and service records. Maybe recent cadets don't ping, but there are many challenges they face that 80's grads (and even 90's) did not. I'll leave it to grads to argue which makes better leaders.
I am convinced of one thing- USMA is still an excellent leadership school, probably the best that exists, especially when combined with the supplementary training & AIAD's most cadets get.