Is it easier now?

"ArtKramr" wrote

Did military discipline become looser and more liberal since WWI?. Is
military life easier now than it was then?

Yes (enlisted wise, probably not officer-wise). No one in the U.S. Armed
Forces is less than a high school graduate. With that, comes an education
base that consists of much more self-discipline. I'd say that after 1975,
the imposed discipline went away.

For example, in the Army, we had monthly detail duty at the Brig. It was
almost always full. After about 1975 the Brig was mostly empty, except for
a few sad cases, like AWOL or Desertion by men with hardship problems
back home. I remember in 1968 I had the detail at Fort Ord, and we had
three murderers, one arsonist, about 20 drug addicts, and maybe a couple
of queers. In 1989 I was assigned to take a rapist to Lawton, Oklahoma
and that was the first time in 10 years I had the detail.

When I retired, all you had to do was post the detail roster, and assign your
men to whatever training or duty you thought they needed, and they did it.
Most just wanted to get promoted as fast as they could.