Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. (September 14, 2024): The internet is flooded with videos of military drill instructors barking orders at frightened recruits and that has been damaging to recruiting. In this photo by Corporal Sarah Grawcock, Marine Sergeant Alberto Ochoa, a drill instructor with the 2nd Recruit Training Battalion, corrects a recruit during Basic Training… and a certain amount of yelling is involved. What is the purpose of this tactic and is it an essential part of infantry combat training?

Parents are reporting their kids are interested in joining the military but videos they have seen on YouTube leave them intimidated by the harsh rhetoric. Military officials argue the videos do not provide the proper context nor the functional reasons for why issuing orders at the top of your lungs saves lives in combat.

Take the first day of Basic, for example, where some two hundred confused and disoriented civilians pour off a bus who are totally unfamiliar with the military. Within five minutes of arrival, drill instructors teach this mob how to listen and learn, respond to orders, stand in formation, and move as a unit. Yelling orders may seem like chaos as drill sergeants pounce on recruits barking orders, but it is a carefully crafted performance. Every move an instructor makes is choreographed to shape raw recruits into the ways of military life. None of what a Drill Instructor does is arbitrary.

Some critics argue yelling at recruits is done to somehow humiliate them, but military officials contend the opposite is true. Recruits are being trained to carry out orders while under direct fire, something that defies human instinct. To accomplish this, instructors must forge recruits' identities to reprogram civilians into warriors. They break a recruit down, teach them how to speak, react, and follow orders. They learn the culture and heritage of their service branch and in the process develop a bond with their Drill Instructor that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

As basic training progresses, drill instructors do less yelling as the recruits gain experience and confidence. While anxiety about how things will go during basic training is perfectly normal, it should not dissuade a young person from enlisting. A motivated person willing to listen and give maximum effort will not fail basic training.