I went without sleep for 7 to 10 days in basic training. I do not mean less sleep I mean NO SLEEP. I was on an article 15 extra duty. According to what I've found in the UCMJ that's the end of duty till 9 pm. I was kept up all night most nights till everyone else woke up. One time a DI just gave me a list of 4 privates to tell to report to the CQ. then he sent me to bed and woke me after the sun rose! the most bizarre image of a DI waking me up politely! and asking if I wanted breakfast in bed.
Up there with when I got a DI to stop in mid-rant and walk away after saying carry on Private. It was a freezing rain storm on a road march. We were on break and I was changing my socks for dry ones I had put in zip lock bags (a Special Forces friend of mine suggested I take ziplocks, a wire coat hanger, and black permanent marker to Basic). When he saw what I was doing he just stopped.
I developed a lot of mentors in my teen years. Old Sergent from the 60's and was a military historian when I knew him. An Active Duty SF Sergent who liked to run Merc2000 RPG games at the local university (google it if you don't know what that is), a Navy Seal who ran Cyberpunk 2013 games (the first RPG by talsorian), My father who might have been a Rhodesian Selous Scout and/or a poacher (his mom and he needed to eat)