6 ways your combat instructors were worse than your DIs

Every Marine alive will talk about their drill instructors from boot camp because they're they're the ones who turned them into Marines. But you'll rarely ever hear about their combat instructors, which is strange considering that the School of Infantry is much more difficult than boot camp.

You meet your combat instructors when you report to Camp Lejeune or Pendleton. The Marines bound for the infantry go to the Infantry Training Battalion and the POGs go to Marine Combat Training. Infantry Marines will, without exception, look back on this training as the worst they've experienced — and part of that is because of the instructors.

These are reasons why combat instructors are actually tougher than your drill instructors.

You may want to listen up to what they're trying to tell you.

(U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Lance Cpl. Zachery B. Martin)

They're all combat veterans

Not all drill instructors are combat veterans. In fact, for some, the only Iraq or Afghanistan they saw was in pictures.

This is absolutely not the case with combat instructors. Alpha Company at the west coast SOI in 2013 had an instructor cadre with in which every single one had done multiple deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan.

They'll break you off but the key is to not quit.

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Ashley D. Gomez)

They don't care about numbers

Drill instructors in boot camp will talk all day about how you can't quit, but the truth is that you can — and plenty of people do. The fact is, drill instructors are out to keep as many recruits as they can.

Your combat instructors, on the other hand, will actively do everything they can to make your life a living hell to weed out the weaklings. Some slip through the cracks, but not many.

The look in their eyes will tell you everything you need to know.

(U.S. Marine Corps Photo by Lance Cpl. Zachery B. Martin)

They were all infantry Marines

To teach the next generation of grunts, you have to be one yourself. This makes them a lot scarier than a drill instructor who spent their entire career sitting behind a desk, eating hot meals three times a day. Infantry Marines live a life that revolves around the elimination of the enemy and breaking their things. They spend most of their day at least thinking about how to do this to the best of their ability.

If you keep your mouth shut, you'll probably make it through training.

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Lukas Kalinauskas)

They aren't afraid to haze you

This never officially happens, but if you f*ck up at SOI, your combat instructor will make sure you pay for it accordingly. They're training the next generation of hardened war fighters, so they have to know you can handle a few push-ups with a big rock on your back.

You'll just feel like you disappointed your dad who didn't really like you to begin with.

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Carlin Warren)

They never had to use a frog voice

Combat Instructors rarely yell at people and that's terrifying in its own right. But, when they do, they don't change their voice to sound more intimidating — they know you're already afraid of them, so they take advantage of that. They'll yell at you at a lower volume and dismantle the fiber of your being.

You laughed at it, don't lie.

(U.S. Marine Corps)

They encourage others to join in on the berating

If a drill instructor is tearing someone apart and the platoon laughs at something they say, everyone might get punished. A combat instructor will use it to add to what they're telling you. They practically encourage others to join in on the insulting.

At the end of the day, though, they're trying to make sure you have what it takes to be an infantry Marine. This means you have to prove your physical and mental fortitude.