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.
"Its just Basic Training and the author of this crap would be kicked out the first day!"
..crying for his momma.
"Definitively not my dad's nor my Army."
Agreed. I enlisted in 1978, and was in the first co-ed Training Platoon in the nation at Ft. Jackson, SC, so all eyes were upon us...to watch the women fail, of course. *Rolleyes*
The drills were as nasty to us as they were to the guys, if not moreso. We started off pretty even, but we lost more guys than gals along the way.
As Tom Hanks would say, "There's no crying in Basic Training!" LOL! (Man, I actually MISS those days!)
They run in sneakers because they decided the number of injuried recruits (shin splints and the like) was no worth a minor amount of toughening. Training is good, damaging the goods is just stupid.
Why would anyone join if they knew they were going to be treated this way?
Agree. But it so happens that my head Drill Sgt. made E-6 in the USMC as a DI and instead of re-upping in the Corps went to the Army for reasons unknown, and insisted we called him DI and that's where I get it. He was the only Drill Sargeant in Ft. Dix allowed to wear the gold belt buckle on his field belt. I'm trying to recall his name...yes, SSG Manzanares. Not only did he yell at us a lot but also at the straight-Army DS's under him.
Dunno 'bout anybody else, but I was a volunteer - I WANTED to do things right... DI didn't have curse, hit, or anything else. Nobody wanted to fail - success, good scores, etc., were very important to the entire platoon.
This sounds like what I went through in FT. Leonard Wood. So, this is the way it is. DEAL WITH IT!!!!
Exactly, not at all the same as breaking the will of a bunch of draftees.
"My son is contemplating joining the Army or Marines. I would not want him subjected to this kind of treatment by superiors."
With all due respect, he should consider the Air Force or the Coast Guard instead.
He also stood us at attention for two hours after getting our series of shots, this hobbled our company for 3 days....
But what really stands out is one guy who truly never got the concept of marching (left column, he's go right etc...). We were losing competitions against other companies as a result.
The Company Commander lined us up at attention, walked up to the young man and brought his heel down on the bridge of his foot breaking it.....The guy processed out that week and we started winning competitions.....
Here's another perspective on that. I went through Great Lakes a few years ago. I'm a terrible marcher. If you ask me to look right or left, I'll always take a second to think. I had a great deal of difficulty staying in step. I tried. I practiced at home for hours before I left for Great Lakes. I worked hard there, but by graduation, my marching was still mediocre at best.
The drill instructors gave me a hard time, but I graduated anyway.
Last month, I did my annual two weeks of service. I helped out some active duty folks for two weeks. After the end of that, they were giving me the highest marks for my ability to organize their data and do technical writing. They were asking if I could come back for more this year. Now if my drill instructors had behaved like your drill instructors, I would have never gotten the chance to help the Navy in ways that I could. On the other hand, my boot camp unit would have looked much more polished if I hadn't been there. It's a cost either way.
One question is whether the military wants to take all types of personalities and sort them to where they are most productive, or if they want to seek out those who most fit the military model and let the others wash out. I'm still not sure of the answer. I don't think the military is sure either.
AP is trying to help with recruiting.....doncha get it?
For all you old farts, kind words from Lee Ermey can be found here:
http://www.wavsource.com/movies/full_metal_jacket.htm
BINGO!!!!!
c,
Mine was in 1989. S'funny...mebbe you just got some friendlier folk.
I finally landed at D company, 4-39. That was in August. Miserable heat and oppresive humidity made the air like syrup. The concrete walls in our barracks were sweating, with moisture running down every surface.
There was standing water outside from previous rain, which we did PT in with our loaded duffle bags, as a welcome from our new drill instructors. IIRC, that first day at the training company was also my introduction to "stair PT".
Hmmm...come to think of it, I think I was abused. I demand to see Ramsey Clark immediately!
Maybe we're going to have battle sneakers and combat shorts too?
BTC at Ft. Ord for me in Oct '74 was about like you say. I didn't think it was so tough, none of the cadre had to touch trainees, but the language was atrocious. If there was someone who couldn't take that, I surely didn't want him in the same Army as me.
My son goes to Ft. Jackson on the 12th of July for BCT and yes, we're aware it's sexually integrated. What next?
I agree that there's discipline/leadership and that there is abuse of power. But consider this. What's next in the "abuse" list:
Forced marches with a 50+ pound ruck sack. You don't know how far you have to go but you're being clocked against an unknown time. Is it 5, 8, 10, 12 miles? And then when you think you're done they tell you you're not.
Tear gas chamber on NBC training.
Sleep deprivation on a 10-day field exercise.
SERE/POW training. Food deprivation.
Jumping from perfectly flying airplanes at night in a mass tactical jump and hitting the ground with the force of jumping from a second story.
Learning how to handle firearms, bayonets and other hardware while yelling "Kill!".
The horror, where does it ends!
That to which you refer is the "voice" (passive or active), not the tense. Actually, to save space, newspaper headlines routinely leave out the "to be" part of the passive voice.
You guys get it.
You don't create loyal people with initiative by beating them into submission. Tough discipline can be achieved without the master/slave relationship.
My Dad was a DI at Parris Island in 1941, and acted like it at home when I was growing up. I was well behaved, but on the inside I was seething with resentment. He got the behavior he wanted, but not the loyalty.
This is what the Russian army has. Their troops have been known to sell their weapons to Chechens for vodka.
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