Posted on 10/11/2006 8:11:46 PM PDT by OnRightOnLeftCoast
Hollywood may have to tone down its portrayal of the military's screaming, in-your-face boot camp drill sergeant. In today's Army, shouting is out and a calmer approach to molding young minds is in, says the head of Pentagon personnel. The Army says it has reduced by nearly 7 percent the number of recruits who wash out in the first six to 12 months of military life.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Geeez! What next? So lets be sensitive and treat our warrior wannabes with soft gloves so they won't wash out of boot camp. It sounds like a recipe for disaster. Or is recruiting getting so desparate to get warm bodies they'll do anything? You think if one is captured, the enemy is going to give a rip about 'calmness?' When is that reality going to be instilled in the recruit?
The feminization of our culture, the male, and the military is alive and well. Jessica Lynch comes to mind. Our fighters in Iraq are required to undergo 'sesitivity' training, they are chastized if too rough.
Standards are lowered for females to make the grade. As one soldier once said, the base newsletter heaped praise on some 'accomplishment' made by a female trainee. I recall, if correct, reading an article in the past about the honor badge earning a black beret was. No longer. They are passed out to the women like candy. Self-esteem and equality ya know.
I agree with you 100%. We don't need "sensitive" warriors who have been "pussified."
Isn't the point of washing out the weak to not only save their life but the lives of those who must rely upon them? Merde.
I think Fort Benning, especially for those going infantry, is still hard core as it should be. I know this has been an issue for a while now.
In days gone by, the Drill Sgt was the guy who had the task of uniting the trainees against a common enemy......that quality is called cohesion, and the common enemy was the Drill Sgt.......this dynamic worked exactly the same as the physical and nutritional regimen during basic training, specifically.....first tear down, then build up better than before.....it is uniquely the Drill Sgt who plants the seeds and rudiments of cohesion, and it it takes, it usually lasts a lifetime.
But then.....I was fortunate to have caught the very last of the "brown-shoe" Army.
Basic training is just indoctrination. You learn the very basics (basic rifle marksmanship, land navigation, etc) and a whole bunch of stuff that you will never use (way too much drill and ceremonies). The more worthwhile training occurs at the Soldier's eventual duty station, when he is assigned to a team/section/etc and trains with the men that he will fight next to.
The whole "permission to touch" thing is ridiculous. They can make life hell for them, but they can't smack them, not even lightly.
Not sure how that came about. Maybe some instructors overdid it?
Ironically, not having tough drill sergeants and drill instructors is regarded as one of the big disappointments of trainee soldiers and Marines. The Marines are still haunted by the expectation of Jack Webb in the movie "The D.I." That is what the trainees want, not demerits in their check book.
This is not the same thing as foul-mouthed or inconsiderate, which some have been in the past. More, it is the attraction to hard, unyielding standards; to be pushed physically, emotionally and mentally. To *earn* unit espirit and individual respect.
The rationale is not a naive one. Even trainees grasp that combat is extraordinarily hard. Training therefore must be realistically stressful and difficult to give you the skills and confidence you need in the real thing.
Group therapy and Kumbaya sing-alongs do not prepare you to be a warrior, no matter how much ivory tower sociologists might think so.
I believe it came about after SMA McKinney (or whatever his name was) got bagged for sexual harrassment or rape or whatever the charge was.
Is there such a thing?
Hey, it takes warm bodies to man the outposts of the empire. You either wash out a few less that you actually get to sign the papers, or you find some other way to get them in uniform.
Wow! that was a mega rant!
And here I had only read Kims articles on firearms previously. By the way I only own one firearm with a warning on the slide, know any one that wants to buy a sig/mauser M2? I hate that POS
Have they started issuing OD colored panties yet?
When I went through Knox in 90, one of the DS in one of the other platoons pitched a recruit down a flight of stairs. It was a pity, really, because he was the only DS who could call cadence worth a damn, and they relieved him for the rest of that cycle. I in no way condone what he did, and any punishment he got, he deserved. I only regret that we were deprived of some really good, traditional cadences on the many marches we did (would have been nice to have some distraction while trudging halfway across base to yet another classroom, the next class always seemed to be at the opposite end of the compound from the last one).
Yikes. The act aside, it can't inspire confidence to see such rule-breaking by superiors.
If there's a bad rule, then they should change it, not break it.
My drill sergeant had bad knees from too many jumps and he couldn't march in sync with the platoon. Still he called cadence pretty well. I remember we also had this reserve drill sergeant for a few weeks. He was a black guy that stood about 6'9" and weighed maybe 220 lbs. He also marched out of sync, but when he called cadence it was out of sync as well.
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