I think that the biggest issue with Basic Training ( It shall be known as that, to avoid confusion) is that by cutting it down in both length and continuity, we are instilling in recruits(and most new recruits are not cbt arms) the attitude that they are not *really* soldiers, and that their little 3 day yomp in the woods is just some minor unpleasantness which must be tolerated in order to move on to lucrative and subsidized trades training. To bring up a tired old cliche amongst us, the USMC basic training instills the idea that every Marine is a rifleman first. The point of this is not that every Marine is technically proficient in the use of the rifle, that's just a PO check, but that every Marine KNOWS, deep down, that they are soldiers first and tradesmen second. I recently (well, not that recently) had the pleasure of working with a soldier who had just gotten back into the army(with the same rank) after getting out of the CAR 10+ years ago. Our weapons, the C7 Rifle and the C6/C9, were completely new to him, but all it took was a half hour refresher on the weapons drills and he was kicking *** and taking names like any of the old Commandos. With this attitude in place, problems like poor physical fitness amongst the CSS troops would disappear. No self-respecting combat soldier would allow his PT standards to laps like some of the troops we make fun of, even if he never touches a rifle for 10 years. I've never seen a 031 go down that path even if they remuster into a CSS/Air force trade.
Basic training today imparts all the technical knowledge needed to operate a rifle and whatnot, but without instilling any zan-shin it's just a bunch of disjointed tests that any monkey with opposable thumbs could pass. Our Infantry Battle Schools are still doing a fine job for new infantrymen (and presumably the other cbt arms are too), but the CSS trades need to get this right off the bat, during basic training, maintain it, and again during leadership training, because the day-to-day activities and extensive technical education of the CSS trades do not allow for it to be developed over time. This intangible attitude, I feel, is more important than making all the clerks and sig ops do PWT3s on all the weapons every year. It would be nice, but there's no point untill the soldier attitude is there.
I imagine my points have been brought up before in other Basic training related threads, but hey I'm feeling talkative tonight.....