I watched my recruiter send a totally within-standards applicant to the Army recruiters for answering personal questions the "wrong" way (it was to assess his personality and he answered truthfully/honestly, which had the recruiter move him as he picked personality traits not in-line with the Marine Corps). The guy protested but the recruiter was firm. When he came back, I said: "Isn't your job to recruit? I thought recruiters did everything to sign people up."      "This is the Marine Corps. We don't need you. You need us, that's why you enlist. We arw not hurting for recruits. I am not just looking for recruits, I am looking for potential Marines." In other words, the Marine Corps won't whip your ass into shape...you need to whip your own ass first, then they take you from there to make you into a Marine if you can handle it (I don't know the typical numbers, but our platoon had dropped half of the recruits by the time we graduated). That, and stricter body fat standards, is why the Marine Corps has fewer fat bodies...though they do exist and many are processed out because of it. They even updated the rules to put you on the body composition program if you are within standards but just look like a chubby fuck in your uniform.  I can't speak the same for the other branches of service, but I will say the government is not in the business of throwing money away on service members. I wager they would rather give bigger bonuses (something Marines don't get unless you are EOD) or more benefits for those that do complete X years of service before accepting obeasts.