Posted on 06/28/2005 6:03:43 AM PDT by cll
FORT KNOX, Ky. (AP) - The recruits of Echo Company stumbled off the bus for basic training at Fort Knox to the screams of red-faced drill instructors. That much was expected. But it got worse from there.
Echo Company's top drill instructor seized a recruit by the back of the neck and threw him to the ground. Other soldiers were poked, grabbed or cursed.
Once inside the barracks, Pvt. Jason Steenberger says, he was struck in the chest by the top D.I. and kicked ``like a football.'' Andrew Soper, who has since left the Army, says he was slapped and punched in the chest by another drill instructor. Pvt. Adam Roster says he was hit in the back and slammed into a wall locker.
Eventually, four Army drill instructors and the company commander would be brought up on charges. Four have been convicted so far.
The tough-as-nails D.I. who berates and intimidates recruits with remarkably creative profanity is a familiar figure to generations of men who went through the Army or the Marines, and a stock character in the movies - ``Full Metal Jacket'' and ``An Officer and a Gentleman,'' among them. The idea is to break the recruit down, instill discipline and make him a well-trained part of a cohesive fighting unit.
But Army regulations in effect since 1985 say superiors cannot lay a hand on their recruits to discipline them. The Army's Training and Doctrine Command regulations also disallow any physical or verbal hazing, which includes ``cruel or abusive tricks.'' Vulgar or sexually explicit language is also prohibited.
The guidelines reflect some of the lessons of the Vietnam era and the changing culture of the Army, which became an all-volunteer force with the end of the draft and began accepting women.
The Army gets complaints of abuse by drill sergeants ``all the time, but we often find that they are not founded,'' said Connie Shaffery, a Fort Knox apokeswoman.
The Fort Knox case, involving a unit of the 1st Battalion, 81st Armor Regiment, was unusual, too, in that a company commander was convicted.
The abuse took place in early February. An Army investigation began the next week, as the company's leaders were removed and the 25 recruits were sent to another command. Six of the trainees have since left the Army, including two who went AWOL.
``It was just chaos - constant commotion, constant yelling,'' Sgt. 1st Class Paul Holley said. Holley said he had come over from another company that day to help out, but was quickly turned off by what he perceived to be abuse, and left.
``In my eyes, it wasn't the way I would conduct an initial pickup,'' he said.
Staff Sgt. Jason J. Harris, a drill instructor who has not been charged in the scandal, testified at one court-martial that it was the worst treatment of recruits he had ever seen.
Staff Sgt. David H. Price, Echo Company's head drill sergeant, said on the witness stand at his own court martial in April that he was ``burned out'' from being a D.I. for too long. He also said that he felt that the guidelines on abuse limited his ability to turn recruits into tough soldiers.
The evidence in the scandal included a 25-minute video - taken by a sergeant as the recruits stepped off the bus - that showed the recruits being poked, grabbed and berated. Recruits are often videotaped on arrival, and the footage is shown during their training graduation or at family days to show how far they have come.
Capt. William C. Fulton, 35, the company's commander, was convicted last week of false swearing and dereliction of duty for not halting the abuse. He was sentenced to six months' confinement.
Earlier this year, Price was convicted of maltreatment and demoted, as was Staff Sgt. Ricky L. Stauffer. Staff Sgt. Michael G. Rhoades was found guilty of maltreatment and impeding an investigation, and received a bad-conduct discharge. Staff Sgt. Bryan G. Duncan is awaiting a court-martial.
Harvey Perrit, a spokesman for the Army Training and Doctrine Command in Fort Monroe, Va., said there 120 allegations of abuse against Army drill sergeants in fiscal year 2004, and as a result 16 drill sergeants were relieved of duty.
So far in fiscal year 2005, there have been 42 complaints of abuse, and six sergeants have been relieved of duty, Perrit said.
Shaffery, the Fort Knox spokesman, said reforms put in place before the incident helped reveal the abuse. ``We are holding to the policies and systems we have in place now, which discovered this situation within six days,'' she said.
This is the begining of phase II of the liberals agenda to reinstitute the draft. They need to in order to create extremely negative opinion agaist the administration and an "impeachable offense" scenario against President Bush.
The scenario goes like this:
Bush lied to get us involved. He is a crook.
Rumsfeld lied about the progress
Chaney profited from Halliburton. He has millions in unpaid taxes from a phantom fund.
Condi Rice helped make up the lies by being the puppet master.
The Republican congress is not doing any checks and balances.
Vote Demoncrat in 2006 to get a majority in the senate.
Let the RINOS jump through the media hoops as they cannibalize their fellow Republicans
Frist, a relative do nothing ala Gerald Ford is constitutionally in line for the presidency.
The Hildabeast comes in to restore the executive branch.
If that looks familiar that is almost a mirror image of how we got Jimmy Carter.
Viewing all the comments on this forum, I still say we have now reached a point where are totally dependent on our technology. If we ever have to fight a real enemy hand-to-hand, we're doomed.
It's an urban legend. From snopes.com:
Origins: This is one of those tales that has the smallest kernel of truth to it, but that truth is almost unrecognizable in the form the scuttlebutt has since taken. For a few years during the 1990s, the US Navy did issue "stress cards" to new recruits, but they weren't the "Get out of jail free" coupons military lore has since turned them into. Rather, these cards listed names and phone numbers of resources the newcomers could contact "if things pile[d] up." The cards were strictly for informational purposes: they informed recruits of available support services. Navy trainers began reporting that some of the recruits had taken to raising their cards while being disciplined, as a way of signalling for time out. It's unclear whether any of those enduring basic training really thought that was the purpose of the cards or whether this was just standard armed forces jackassing, but the Navy took no chances and got rid of the cards. This short-lived experiment with providing recruits with clear information about whom to contact when things went bump in the night has morphed into an unflattering and unsettling illustration of today's soldier as a creampuff. Notice how the story has mutated into one where the drill instructors are portrayed as honor bound to obey the cards when they are displayed to them, an aspect that wasn't part of things during the real cards' short life. The story has also widened its net; what was a Navy hand-out has, in the world of rumor, become a card issued to Army and Marine recruits, making this an Armed Forces-wide phenomenon.
Why am I not surprised?! These days there's always a video!
I look at the results.
We train in the manner you describe.
Our enemies train their soldiers in the way described in this article, and the way some loudmouth FReepers want.
But when we go to war...we kick our enemies' a$$es all over the place.
I think I'll take our way.
"Viewing all the comments on this forum, I still say we have now reached a point where are totally dependent on our technology. If we ever have to fight a real enemy hand-to-hand, we're doomed."
Then why don't you volunteer for Iraq and show us how a real he-man fights a war?
Sneakers and shorts?
I guess, steel pots, canteen and belt, and jump boots would be considered cruel and unusual.
I learned that you really had to start worrying when the DI stopped yelling. Usually a creative group punishment -- err motivation -- followed (1977).
Treated more like the enemy
The Army is better off without those DIs and this type of publicity reinforces the stereotypes that hinder its ability to fulfill its mission.
You can fight in a war when you've seen what the enemy does to your neighbors.
Hey USAF 68-72.....
I have to poke fun at the USAF.....
My daughter is a cadet at the AF Academy in Colorado Springs.....A proud member of the Chair Force....
NeverGore :^)
When is the AP going to change their name to TR?
(Tokyo Rose)
Well maybe but then again...oh wait, that's right. af stands for Air Force, no? I rest my case.
Now seriously. After BT/AIT or BCT or whatever it's called these days, and the newly minted patriot-private is sent straight to the lines, gets put on point on a patrol to draw enemy fire, and the enemy actually starts firing, and the patriot-private hesitates and the squad leader starts yelling "Keep moving!" and the patriot-private goes to prone and refuses to move and the young Sgt. grabs him by his LBE and yells into his face "Get the %#@* off the the ground and keep moving!" and the patriot-private finally sees the seriousness of the business and gets to his feet and keeps moving into enemy fire so that the team behind him can finally locate the enemy and destroy it...only then he would understand and appreciate what he went through in BCT.
You're right. And thank you for your service in these difficult times. Before there's a draft they should allow us "old timers" back in. I'm sure there's a bunch of guys in their 40's and 50's that could still kick some butt.
If we could go back to the carpet-bombing days we would finish this one up in a jiffy...
Thank you for your service.
As in WWII, the world would know we are serious.
Thank you for your service.
It was both my privilege and pleasure to serve.
Lets say the DI gives a recruit a shot to the head. What happens if the recruit give the DI one back?
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