[Retra]

Why would you purposefully try to fail at a proficiency test? This is like wondering why a toddler doesn't continue to throw a fit when it doesn't get it's way. You don't do it it because it makes everyone around you think you're an incompetent fool, and they will actively get in your way at every step. It's social suicide.

[CamperBob2]

Why would you purposefully try to fail at a proficiency test?

E.g., you change your mind about joining the military. You can't resign or run away, so your best option might be to convince them that you're more trouble than you're worth.

In other words, if you actively want everyone around you to think you're an incompetent fool, then deliberately washing out of boot camp is the sort of thing you might try. I don't see why it wouldn't work. Refusing to accept the training would get you court-martialed, but you can't charge someone with just being a lousy shot, can you?

[greedo]

Basic is designed around two guiding principles; instilling fundamental military skills, and social coercion to instill compliance. I don't mean the latter in a derogatory way at all. Think about it; who in their right mind wants to expose themselves to small arms fire, etc etc? Basic training has a lot of experience dealing with people "who don't want to be there." Now it's become a lot softer compared to during the Cold War; we have to treat everyone as a special snowflake, and a lot of the old methodologies have become proscribed. But if the military let out everyone who decided (during basic) that signing on the dotted line was a mistake, the system wouldn't work.

[Retra]

It would work. But you're going to be treated like scum for months, and that's enough of a deterrent for most people.