re: Is hazing in the military common?

I once had a neighbor who was Coast Guard. Somehow or another, we got onto the topic of hazing. He was a funny guy and told this hysterical story about "calibrating the radar" while dockside. I can't do it justice, but the basic gist was that they'd get a gullible newbie and wrap him with aluminum foil, including flags or paddles at the end of each arm. They'd put him on the pier and walk him back and forth, raising and lowering his arms as per instructions broadcast over the cutter's loud hailer. Needless to say, commands of "Back 50 paces!", "Both arms up... Now horizontal!", "Forward 25 paces!", etc would attract a crowd and the gag would continue until all productivity came to a halt and someone would finally put an end to it. The punchline was a noob who refused to "get back to work", because he WAS working - he was helping calibrate the radar!

My neighbor had about 30 people at a crawfish boil listening to his story for about ten minutes, all laughing their asses off the entire time. That was about 20 years ago, and I'm amused just thinking about it again!