Snake oil came first. By a likely ~ +50k years

Strange , all Marine candidates are in the Navy ROTC  and they all do the same thing at all drills at college . Usually they split up in summer of 2nd year for month at sea or Marine base .Often , the Officer Commanding will just mark the most aggressive cadets
for Marines .

I once knew the Admiral in charge of Naval Aviation quite well as he was related to my wife.I asked him why they recruited so much at the Big Ten Universities Engineering Schools which I knew to be the case .He replied: " They are smart enough to learn whatever we throw at them but lack the imagination to picture themselves smashing into the back of the deck during night-ops ."I know he was telling the truth because he was 3 sheets to the wind at the time .

geoffkait , It could have been worse , imagine how many demerits you would of got if you were in a military ROTC unit .

As a freshman I had a very important Econ prof and his 101 class came
right after my Logic 101 class .After about a month I was in total confusion as everything I learned in Logic class was the opposite of what we were getting in Econ .I went to Econ Prof's office hour and told him exactly that .He looked at me and a sly smile spread over his face as he said:
"Yes it is a bunch of lies BUT they are agreed upon lies"  .