Military recruit training , commonly known as basic training or boot camp , refers to the initial instruction of new military personnel. It is a physically and psychologically intensive process, which resocializes its subjects for the unique demands of military employment.
Initial military training is an intensive residential programme commonly lasting several weeks or months, which aims to induct newly recruited military personnel into the social norms and essential tasks of the armed forces. Common features include foot drill , inspections, physical training, weapons training, and a graduation parade.
The training process resocializes recruits to the demands made of them by military life. Psychological conditioning techniques are used to shape attitudes and behaviours, so that recruits will obey all orders, face mortal danger, and kill their opponents in battle. Inductees are required to partially submerge their individuality for the sake of their military unit, which enhances obedience to orders to perform actions normally absent from civilian life, including killing and prolonged exposure to danger.
Once their training has begun, the right of recruits to leave the military estate or to quit the armed forces is denied or tightly restricted. Recruits' daily routine is highly controlled, in the manner of the ' total institution ' described by the Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman.
For example, the training regime determines how recruits must make their beds, polish boots, and stack their clothes; mistakes are punished. Throughout their training, recruits are conditioned to conform to military norms and to work as a team. In particular, recruits are repeatedly instructed to stand, march, and respond to orders in a ritual known as foot drill , which is derived from 18th-century military practices and trains recruits to obey orders without hesitation or question.
