text: is it true army basic traing has gotten easier? i have had a few people tell me bct for the army has gotten much easier.. ex: they can have cell phone and smoke now and the sergents cant run you to death and make you do alot of pushups crap.  i believe that it has gotten easier, but not that easy.    a cell phone????  perhaps during ait, and then only on weekends or during the evenings when you have down time.  smoking???? the army is death on smoking anyhow, so i don't see that happening.  push ups and running are part of the physical training program and endurance training.  you will do these things.