Quick little story. I was on the island over Xmas. The drill instructors let us get care packages from our families to be opened and enjoyed on Christmas day. All kinds of cookies, candy, homemade sweets of all varieties. Great day, church in the morning, no PT, lots of food. If you havent had cookies and candy for months and you overload and stuff yourself, it takes quite the toll on your system. The drill instructors watched us, they laughed with us and then that evening they made everyone fill four canteens, stand in line in front of their foot locker and drink water until people started puking. Once a few puke and the smell hits everyone starts throwing up. Then we had the privelege of getting on our hands and knees and scrubbing the deck of yours and your buddies vomit. Great way to end Christmas day.
Similar story:
We'd just been picked up by our Senior Drill Instructor and taken back to our barracks. The first few days you're in a receiving barracks and have interim drill instructors somewhere there by the main base. Senior marches us to our barracks in 3rd Battalion...where the fun begins.
Senior tells us how we're his last platoon...and how he set the base record for drill and PT for his two previous platoons...and now he's going to focus on making us "the hardest platoon that's ever walked off his island."
He disappears and leaves us with his drill instructors...who proceed to fly through the barracks like crazed badgers...screaming and throwing stuff. They get us to strip down to our skivvies and start to PT us until we're standing in our own pools of sweat on the floor. We strip off the underwear and wear our little green towels. They run us into the showers...single file line. The showers is just one big room with shower heads all along the four walls with one opening. The drill instructors have turned each shower head on full hot or full cold...alternating. They have us take our towels and hold them out so they don't get wet while we run single file around and around the perimeter of the room. Hot, Cold, Hot, Cold...over and over. They get us all in there and have us cram our bodies from one side of the room to the other...back and forth...packing 80 guys into a smaller and smaller space.
We get done with shower games and they have us put our towels back on. We fill our canteens up with water and they make us drink as fast as you can. All the while they count down...10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...You're done!
We have to turn our canteen upside down...if any water spills out...we do it again. We do this over and over...full canteens.
We get better and better each round...fewer and fewer guys are failing to finish all of the water. But we're still failing.
At this point, everyone understands the goal and really guzzles that water down...problem is...the drill instructors countdown changes to 10, 9, 5, 3...YOU'RE DONE!
Back to filling them up again. This continues until guys are throwing up all over the place. Like the above poster mentioned, the smell, sound and sight of someone throwing up can cause a sympathetic response. About half of the guys left have held their vomit.
We continue until our stomachs look like plump watermelons. Honestly, you could thump your stomach and hear it slush the water. Now they have us pair up on the floor for situps. Basically locking your legs into your partners legs and doing situps towards each other so that each time you came up...you were face to face with your partners...nose to nose.
We did this until it forced most of the rest of the remaining holdouts to vomit directly into the face of one another.
It was an awesome scene that I kinda wished there was video of...just an amazing orchestra of absurdity and disgust. I threaten my partner that if he throws up on me...I'll punch him dead in his face. He threatens the same. This goes on until maybe 8 guys have not thrown up. They finally stand us up and it's time to clean this deck. We push our racks to one side of the room and pour mop water on the floor. They make us put our scrub brushes on the floor at our feet...bend down and place two hands on it and then run from one side of the room to the other...pushing this pile of filth and slop into a larger pile. We use our hands to pick up the slop and throw it into the empty mop buckets. Some recruits empty the buckets while we now run our scrub brushes back the other way across the room. We do this until the chunks are gone and its mostly sudsy mop water. Now we stand on line and take our towels off and lay them at our feet. Same deal as the scrub brushes...we run those towels from one side of the room to the other...soaking up the remnants...wringing them out in the buckets and continuing back the other way until that floor is clean.
Senior now returns and all of a sudden...senior orders this hazing to stop. We get new towels...shower up...do hygiene inspection and then hit the racks...exhausted...completely worn out mentally and physically. We recite knowledge aloud for a while and then lights out.
I don't tell you this story to frighten or worry you...when you think about it...it was nothing really. Drink water till you puke and exercise till you drop...but you practiced teamwork and learned that no matter what...you're all in it together. Most important thing I can suggest for your son is to not take anything personal. It's a process. It's a weeding out. Do not stand out...do not be a special case. Do not hesitate to do what you're told and do not...for the love of God...do NOT eyeball them or the surrounding area...and do not speak unless spoken to...
I broke into the scribe's footlocker and saw the schedule for training for each day. They had actual time slots for bending us. Which further drove the point home to me that it was all just a game. It didn't matter that Recruit Jones turned the wrong way on an "about face" manuever...we all had to pay and he was just the patsy for that time slot.
Oh...and the water thing also had another purpose. When you get to a new clime...you need to acclimate. We were all coming from different parts of the East Coast to South Carolina...the best way to acclimate quickly to is to pound water. Get as much water as you can and your body will adjust easier.
I know it sounds counterintuitive but just tell him to keep his head down, mouth shut, dont stand out, do what he's told (quickly) and he'll be fine. There will be time to shine...after boot camp. They're not looking for leaders and you won't advance up the ranks quickly if you're a boot camp stud. They want teamwork, cooperation and something they can mold into future leaders.
So awesome. 
