Pandemic Is Changing the Military, From Boot Camp to Office Work

U.S. Navy recruits who arrive at the service’s only boot camp outside of Chicago are now given iPads to learn basic training as they languish for two weeks in quarantine isolation.

The Marine Corps, a service that prides itself for doing more with less equipment, is experimenting with distance and computer learning as well as simulators to avoid training in groups.

“What we’d like to be able to do is have large-scale exercises with people plugging into an exercise either virtually or live from multiple locations,” Major Gen. William Mullen, the head of Marine Corps Training and Education Command, said ...