Chapter 4 Summary

Two weeks into basic training, the recruits lose their cots and learn to sleep under any conditions. While theoretically they receive eight hours of “sack time” a night, alarms, night duty, field marches, and other whims of superiors often cut into it. Their free time is likewise often filled with chores rather than writing letters, loafing, gossiping, discussing sergeants and mythological females, or making up on lost sleep. Looking back, Rico sees boot camp is not made harder than necessary or as sadistic as recruits feel. It is as planned as surgery; and the instructors are as impersonal as surgeons on purpose: they are weeding the droves of volunteers who cannot be turned into MIs. This saves money and insures no trooper who climbs into a capsule will let anyone down. Dropouts may either remain in another branch of federal service or accept...