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The Army : The Socialization Process Of The Army

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The socialization process for the Army usually occurs when soldiers are sent off to basic training for weeks to be broken down as human beings and then rebuilt the way the Army wants them. In the same way as sociologists view socialization, the purpose of Basic or a Cadet Leader's Course is for the members to develop a sense of their self as a soldier and learn the ways of the society in which they will be serving. The socialization process is different for cadets who are in college. They are not sent off to basic but instead have training during school all year and then summer training that is similar to basic. First cadets are sent to a Cadet Leader's Course and then the next year they are sent to Officer Candidate School (OCS). However, cadets begin training the first week of school, so the socialization process is already started long before the summer of next year. Soldiers are socialized into the group by first learning how to wear uniforms. The first day I wore a headband that was against Army uniform standards and was told by my captain to lose the headband. Cadets were then assigned identity groups or companies known as Alpha and Bravo. My group was Alpha and then we were given a subgroup within that group known as Two Alpha. During every PT we stood in lines of four based on rank from front to back with squad team leaders always on the far right. Then as a group, cadets would perform PT together and we always finished with the company motto with the company

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