>On a side note, I once melted the face off of a GI Joe with a magnifying glass, burying him in a shallow grave in the backyard in an attempt to conceal the crime. That GI Joe, I presume, is now rolling over in his grave.

Oh yeah? I used to destroy those cheap green "armymen" with firecrackers and sometimes gasoline.

With respect to military culture, its rigidity is all over the map, and mostly depends on the nature of the unit's mission.