A recruitment error however, landed him in the experimental Cohesion Operational Readiness Training (COHORT) unit. The COHORT program kept soldiers together from Basic Training throughout their entire three-year enlistment cycle, with the goal of unit cohesion, esprit de corps, advanced group training and commitment to the unit’s mission. While military theorists proposed the idea that COHORT Units would lessen “soldier turbulence” as well “high levels of psychological breakdown in battle,” previous attempts to form such units had led to higher rates of AWOL’s and suicides.
