As you can imagine this is one of the toughest parts about joining the service.  Some call it boot camp, some call it basic training and some call it hell.  During this time, they are testing you mentally, emotionally and physically.  No matter what branch of service they need to make sure before they hand you a gun or work on a multi-million dollar piece of equipment or put others in harms way the military needs to know that you won't loose your crap when shit gets real.

How long is Basic Military Training?

This is a tough one to answer since it changes all the time.  Currently its as follows (on average):

• Air Force: 8.5 weeks
• Army: 10 weeks
• Marines: 12 weeks
• Navy: 7-9 weeks
• Coast Guard: 8 weeks