The Army billed the BCT center at Fort Dix the Home of the Ultimate Weapon. Although I'd have called it something else, the Army did attempt to provide the framework of an educational atmosphere while its drill instructors harangued recruits with personal insults and disparaging remarks about their ancestry in a technique they sincerely believed would emotionally degrade boys into soldiers. When BCT was over they laughed and said just fooling. Each of us received a class book so we wouldn't forget the WONDERFUL experience.
Upon graduating from BCT a certificate of training was issued for each student, ah, recruit certifying that the recipient was, indeed, an ultimate weapon and dangerous to America's enemies. The psychology of their training doctrine was almost humorous. It was like attending a high school extension course in guns, explosives, and knives: a public education in the deadly art of killing and survival, all furnished - without tuition - by our friends and neighbors and Uncle Sam.
