Anyway, thank God for the Marine Corp.
Humor aside, I do not think this is a good thing. Sometimes in boot a helping hand is required, but mean drill instructors force the boots to rely on each other as a team. It develops camraderie and teamwork and toughens people. Yeah it sucks, but it is over in a few months and then you can laugh about it.
The officers in this article strike me as the squishy PC types who are hoping to make rank. I'll publish more thoughts about it in my blog later.
After all, WAR is a pretty shocking place to find yourself in and anything that helps survival equals GOOD to me.
Yell, Scream, Wake-up, Dress Down...but love your soldiers...war is really hell...so, make the scrimmage tougher than the game!
A far cry from 1965.
Amen Brother.
Semper Fi!
With civilian and REMF America believing the lies we see in articles like the one posted over this thread, men who become infantry soldiers or combat engineers will be further insulted and cheated.
Young men, stay out until you see some honesty and respect. As for the rest of our morally bankrupt nation, go ahead. Send your girls. Maybe our government can scare the enemy away with more Hollywood-like productions about service/maintainance/supply companies.
Gees H
Now this is Bush's fault! It’s been 6 years now. More than enough time to de-clintonize the Military.
When I went through Army Basic at Fort Ord, in 1969 it was mostly old fashioned DIs yelling, threatening, etc.
By chance, my platoon DI was a Vietnam vet SFC who took a quiet approach. He was a Native American.
He said he would treat us like men, unless we screwed up. Well of course eventually we screwed up, so we got the punishment--a night of scrubbing and polishing the barracks.
But even then, he was low key and quiet. We did just as well as the other platoons with scores.
Most were headed to Vietnam, and took training pretty seriously. Most were draftees. I don't buy the idea that draftees won't be good soldiers; born out by WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
BTW, notice that the Wall Street Journal has also been pushing Al-Condi and Hitlery for the 2008 election. And see the split that it caused (FR poll). Even most Democrat men won't vote for chicks (including beat-up, old, mouthy chicks) in a presidential election.
Basic training is tough enough on the recruits. (I speak from experience, circa 1973, Aniston Alabama, WAC.) Many young people are away from home for the first time. It's an adjustment, so why not help as many recruits get through the process as possible? They all want to serve their country, and they've taken a big step by volunteering. Give 'em a break, I say.