<p>As far as people “failing” at TBS:
There are a few events that you must pass in order to graduate. A few that come to mind include the endurance course run (a jaunt through the woods in combat gear), the weapons disassembly and assembly drills (in a fixed time frame), and the land navigation test. If you fail such an event (after AMPLE opportunities to retake), you are rolled back to the next TBS class. </p>
<p>As far as rolling people back who just kind of suck (which I think is what Zaphod was getting at), we were always threatened with such a penalty, but I never really believed it would happen to anyone . . . until a so-called “dirtbag” (who had something like 9 years of enlisted time as a Tanker in the USMC) was rolled back for a lack of leadership with 2 weeks to go in TBS. I saw him in the FMF several years later, so apparently being a “leadership failure” isn’t enough to keep you out of the fleet . . . so long as you perform better the second time around . . . or at least get along better with the leadership!</p>
<p>DeepThroat</p>