He was a weird, skinny kid in high school, got targeted in the hall by a bully. "Be behind the gym, after school, I am going to kick your ass." Larry calmly whipped his locker door open, directly into the guy's face, dropped him right there. Walked off without comment. He was still a skinny kid in teh navy when he hit his first ship, but he spent a ton of time in the weight room. A guy tried to shove him out of line during mail call. Larry calmly lifted the guy up by his shirt and thrust him up against the wall, feet off the ground. "Don't. do. that." and set the guy down.

The word was "Don't fuck with Clayton, he's crazy." Actually, Larry is calm and kind, he doesn't believe in getting in fights. He just doesn't have enemies. At least, not for long.

<I'm sorry they have gotten away from the "traditions" as I think it helped with camaraderie and pride. In my unit in the Air Force we didnt have any such traditions.>

I dunno. Of course, I'm a girl, but hazing shades into "deadly harassment" so easily. Within one year, when I lived in Chico, there were two alcohol related deaths, and one parilisation. And of course the flip side of "group cohesion" is osticization and harassement of the outsider. Queer, black, nerdy...whatever. And then, a couple years ago some kid in Chico died of drinking too much water in a fraternity hazing.

Oh the other hand, I'm pretty confident that it is pretty much a human universal.