Tough times
Our drill sergeants at Ft. Knox in 1985 were mean and abusive, but they didn't hit any of us. They did cause pain and misery in the way they punished us with "remedial" physical training when we pissed them off. I remember one recruit passing out from having to vigorously run in place and then drop to his back to do sit-ups and then get back up to run in place and then drop again to do pushups over and over again for a good ten minutes. He finally keeled over and the drill sergeants dragged him into their office and shut the door. When the recruit emerged 20 minutes later his eyes had the look of a dead fish's eyes.
The drill sergeants certainly had creative ways to physically punish us and while I can chuckle at it now, at the time it was pretty intense.