Posted on 02/15/2006 9:35:13 AM PST by jjm2111
New recruits used to be welcomed to boot camp here with the "shark attack." For decades, drill sergeants in wide-brim hats would swarm around the fresh-off-the-bus privates, shouting orders. Some rattled recruits would make mistakes. A few would cry.
Today, the Army is opting for a quieter approach. "I told my drill sergeants to stop the nonsense," says Col. Edward Daly, whose basic-training brigade graduates about 11,000 soldiers a year. Last fall, Col. Daly began meeting with all new recruits shortly after they arrive at boot camp to thank them. "We sincerely appreciate the fact that you swore an oath and got on a bus and did it in a time of war," he recently told an incoming class. "That's a big, big deal." He usually is accompanied by two male and two female soldiers, who can answer questions the recruits may have.
"The idea is to get rid of the anxiety and worry," Col. Daly says.
The new welcome is a window on the big changes sweeping boot camp, the Army's nine-week basic training. For most of its existence, boot camp was a place where drill sergeants would weed out the weak and turn psychologically soft civilians into hardened soldiers. But the Army, fighting through one of its biggest recruiting droughts, now is shifting tactics. Boot camp -- that iconic American experience -- may never be the same.
Once-feared drill sergeants have been ordered to yell less and mentor more. "Before, our drill sergeants' attitude was 'you better meet my standard or else.' Now it's 'I am going to do all I can to assist you in meeting the Army standard,' " says Command Sgt. Maj. William McDaniel, the senior enlisted soldier here.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Breaking down recruits is essential to building them back up again. The boot camp experience--at least in the United States--has probably existed for three quarters of a century or more. The trials and experiences my father went through in boot camp, were the same things I went through. It wasn't until I was out of boot camp, that I realized what those drill instructors were yelling about.
My only question is, if you take this experience away from boot camp, what will replace it? What will be the substitute for teaching soldiers how to follow orders under stress? What will teach them that their minds can endure more than their bodies--that if they have a strong mind, they can endure severe torture, should they ever be captured as a prisoner of war? And most importantly, what will convince them that they're now part of a team, a fighting unit, one that is more capable than they are as individuals?
We get so little discipline in our society, it's a crime to let them get away with continuing that in basic. And no way to run an army. Good way to ruin one though. Maybe our Army IS broken.
Yeah, but keep in mind that there are different kinds of jobs in the army and some jobs take more IQ than fighting spirit in our high-tech army. We don't want to scare away the few nerdy small-town kids who could be great at communications and computer systems but are never going to be great warriors. We need to take a flexible approach to training and start molding recruits to take on different roles in the army. Get the smart but less agressive kids onto a different track for support roles. Sure, everybody has to learn to shoot rifles and defend themselves and their unit, but we can have some flexibility in the way we train people. Just my 2 cents thrown into the debate.
But from the stories I've heard, some of what goes on is just stupidity and seems, at least from my civilian perspective, unprofessional. (And no, I don't remember specifics.) Then I read stories about soldiers being disciplined for female mud-wrestling, humiliating prisoners, and it seems not unreasonable to think there might be a connection.
A kick in the ass is warranted know and then as is a good ass ripping. I never said that doesn't play a role. Plenty of ways to inspire leadership and performance without screaming all the time either.
"If you lower the standards needed to get through boot camp, you'll get a softer army."
Who is lowering standards?
There just getting rid of the B.S. that was necessary when you have a conscripted Army or losers that "volunteered" because they could not get a job.
The kids who join now join to fight.
Having some DI play the same arbitrary, tired games just pisses self-motivated people off. It doesn't help them survive torture under Al Quada.
YOU SEE WHAT "DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL" GETS YOU!
After a generation of limp-wristed training shows itself to be a failure, hopefully the Army will sign Marine DI's to get them back into a real fighting force.
"We get so little discipline in our society, it's a crime to let them get away with continuing that in basic. And no way to run an army. Good way to ruin one though. Maybe our Army IS broken."
Well said. Basic is not simply to pass all the recruits thru. Some of them wash out early, because they are literally unfit for military duty, either they are disciplinary problems or too childish to stay with it and succeed by passing basic. I can't imagine them passing all these recruits like Kerry wanted to do with American high school kids "just let them all graduate, who cares?".
I agree with you completely. During my 4 years at Gonzaga, we had a 4 day spring camp during Easter Break. For the underclassmen, it was 4 days of pure harassment with a bit of training mixed in.
As I progressed from a freshman to a senior, I looked forward to our day in the sun, so to speak. However, a month before our final spring camp, that attitude changed. My classmates and I wanted to leave our mark by running the most professional "Spring Camp" ever. Discipline and training, yes! Harassment, no!
I'm proud of my class for taking that training to a higher level. Our cadet Battalion Cdr, Jason Kamiya, is now a two-star, commanding the Army forces in Afghanistan. Several other classmates made full-bird.
A few years after I graduated, I visited my senior class advisor. On his desk was a picture we took for him at Fort Lewis. The picture consisted of me and three other classmates morosely perched under our "scalps". Haircut standards for ROTC were relaxed in those days, but once we got to Fort Lewis, the Major laid down the law. We took our clippings and put them on large strips of tape, then attached the "scalps" to a poster. It meant a lot to me that this picture was more prominently displayed than his numerous awards.
Me? I finished in the middle of the class, and did 8 years in ADA.
I'm hoping to see most of them at our reunion in June.
Don't ask........don't tell.........
It's always been that the commander played good cop to the DI/DS bad cop. Still, I remember Drill Sergent Bacchus, but can't remember the Captain's name.
I always thought that the "introduction to the DI" was meant to solidify who was in charge and that the new recruit better shed their civilian lackadaisical ways and pay attention. It never hurt anyone.
I'm with you to a point. I spent three years in the Army trying to find my DI to kick his ass. His IQ was around room temp and while they turned me into a good soldier, much of what came out of his mouth was pure BS. Several times I had to bite the inside of my mouth to keep from laughing in his face.
Sounds French.
The idea that it "tore me down" is just silly. It made me a bit stronger because I did about a million push-ups for being unable to suppress my chuckles at the whole thing, but that's all it did for me. For the most part having to stand there and be yelled at just wasted my time and his. We could have both been more productively involved in my training.
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