A friend (another old sea dog) who lives down the road a ways told me a few years ago that his boy was going through recruit training at Great Lakes, and he was shocked to learn that recruits no longer wore leggings, were not issued rifles, didn't go through small arms training, and were told that boots were entitled to a grievance process if their company commander was mean to them.
The last time I checked, though, the Coast Guard recruit training station at Cape May was still a pretty tough program.