tshea PM'ed me and reminded me of the school I went to - of which I beleive he taught at for a while a few years before I attended.
Courthouse Bay, NC USMC Engineer School
10 hours a day after PT (That's running in a formation for 4-7 miles or so at 6AM) Homework every night....
6 days a week, with occasional additional guard duty thrown in, uniform and barracks inspections for 6 months...
If you fell asleep in class you got a trash can of water dumped over your head, and had to do push ups until someone else was tired - while you learned....
After intensive theory, math, schematics reading, trouble-shooting labs, diesel mechanics, and theory of operation on all kinds of equipment from air conditioners to reverse osmosis machines, and pole climbing in combat gear. All of which you had to pass! You were then ready for the big day... Standing unaided except for a schematic - to describe
every detail of the operation of a 60kw generator. Miss one detail - start over.... From the battery to start and run modes of the engine, through all of the voltage regulation, stator to main windings, to the final output. Fail this final test or the remedial later that afternoon,
and odds were you became a COOK! (Not kidding!)
Also if you thought that in this day and age that you could not dig a hole, (By hand) and then plant a 40' pole, (BY HAND!) gaff up it, auger a hole (by hand) and place a cross-bar on it - also by hand - I know some people who will tell you that you are wrong...* :grin:
*It is this background that made me want to tear a new one in a guy I had working under me that whined that he couldn't do any work because his screw gun's battery died....