went through coast guard boot in the early 70s and it was 16 weeks long. After 4 years I switched over to the navy and had to go through prior service boot which was mostly learning the traditions and just having to pass a physical test. But I had a chance to see the differences. Hands down the cg boot was tougher then the navy. In the early 70s (don't know what there like now) it was kind of common knowledge that the only boot tougher then the cg was the marines and it was 8 weeks instead of 16. Army had a very similar physical program to the cg but it too only lasted 8 weeks. So the agony lasted longer for the cg recruits. Probably 5 times the water survival training, drown proofing, swimming ect. Some of it was fun though. We had a week of defensive driving that was training for the chance you would be the driver for a diplomat ect. We also had a week of small boat handling. Those were vacation weeks compared to the rest.
