Posted on 11/14/2017 8:09:48 PM PST by PROCON
It's true, I can't believe I've held this incredible pain inside me for so long but I have to tell somebody how cruelly and unfairly I was treated, Oh so long ago.
I was new to the Army, heading to Basic Training in 1969, wanting to make a difference and serve my country and America but what I encountered shook me to my very core.
Me, a wide-eyed recruit, got off the bus at Fort Lewis Washington and was immediately yelled at and verbally abused by this looming, big, (and mean), Staff Sergeant named SSG Gritman.
He singled me out immediately because he hated me and made me fall into a position I would come to know and hate, the FRONT LEANING REST Position, (*SOB*), to do push-ups I didn't deserve to do because I was nice person!!
This monster of a man continued to demean and harass me throughout the entire 8 weeks of training, always singling me out as if I were his pet DOG, never relenting, never cutting me slack, never saying he was sorry!
Well, here it is, the reason I confessed my pain and suffering from so long ago; I want to find former Drill Sergeant Gritman, and have Congress indict him on charges of having been mean to me those many years ago.
“There’s pieces of guys like you in my stool”.
That has always been a favorite of mine.
That was me and I remember you.......I've just been paroled after 35 years in prison for multiple murders......Lets have a beer together.
Lol.
My Dad’s advice was,
“Make your bunk so tight that a silver dollar will bounce up off it.”
I told him that was the old Army. The new Army probably didn’t do stuff like that.
On our first big inspection, the Captain walked in flipping a silver dollar.
Oh, Daddy.....you were so right.
I didn’t know bunk beds could fly so far.
Col. (Ret) USAF
What flames? Richard Gere was abused in that manner in 1982. (Extra points if you guess the reference correctly, y’all.)
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Did your parents have any children that lived?
Private Gomer Pyle: Sir, yes, sir.
Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: I’ll bet they regret that. You’re so ugly you could be a modern art masterpiece.
What’s really funny is that drill sergeants can be some of the kindest, most decent people you’ll ever meet, unless you’re a new recruit.
You must have bouts of despair from your physical fitness and tight discipline.
You’re welcome. It’s one of my favorites. I’m 70. My mother loved Glenn Miller, and I guess I inherited her love of Big Bang Swing music. And thank you for your service.
Mark in Davao Del Sur.
"Put your toes on the edge of that chalk line! I said, put your toes on the edge of that chalk line, ya' slimy worms! Where have ya' been all your lives? Listnen to Mick Jagger music and badmouthing your country, I bet."
ping
I am at this very moment wearing a T-shirt with a fleur-de-lys, with Legion Logo with the DBLE inscription. I had a real cheesy one earlier; I spent a couple of months in Djibouti at the Embassy. I spent a couple of months in N’Djamena, Chad, the following year, 1983. There were no Marines at either post then. We told Marines at other African posts that we worked at that they sent us civilians out to those posts to make sure that it was safe enough to deploy Marine Security Guards. My photos of Djibouti look like the far side of the moon.
I will never forget the Drill Instructor the platoon had on PI... Sgt C Barnett. We were afraid and scared of this Mairine from day one until the last day of recruit training. He was a top notch Marine and performed his duties flawlessly.
Marine Field Artillery trainees were located in the building next to us and I remember their DI just hounding them from dusk til dawn, and this was advance training.
One thing I noticed from living next door to the Marines, you guys sure can march and drill, best marching formations I've ever seen.
Hey you, don’t be blue, my recruiter screwed me too.
As told to me by a buddy that was a squid.
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