Instructors incorporate these principles into every aspect of training, giving each airman a core value rating each week. TIs, once notorious for their colorful language, lead students by example. Consequently, the school does not tolerate profanity, name-calling or racial slurs by the instructors or trainees. Also part of boot camp history are instructors who poked recruits in the chest to punctuate a point or bounced their hat brims off of airmen's foreheads to get their attention. We want our instructors molding airmen into professionals, and they do that by showing, not just talking.
Instructors do, however, make corrections and are free to raise their voice if necessary.
While TIs have learned to temper their tongue, students have begun to pipe up. Nowhere else is this more evident than on the confidence course. Over the din of simulated machine-gun fire, trainees shout encouragement to their flight mates as they negotiate obstacles. They clap, trade high-fives, and motivate each other throughout the course. Two decades ago, airmen took a vow of silence before running the mile-long course with its 15 obstacles.