Bullshit, Drill Sergeant!
Oct. 10th, 2006 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreArmy Tones Down Drill Sergeants
Absolute, complete rubbish. I went through Infantry OSUT (One Station Unit Training - Basic and Infantry School rolled into one) 13 weeks of exposure to Drill Sergeants Redding, Colom, and Rearden (not to mention Senior Drill Sergeant Rodney Swanson.) They were strict, got in our face daily, and came down on any error like a ton of sadistic bricks. They were demons in Smokey-the-Bear hats. The pushed us to our limits and then refused to stop until we found out that limits were entirely mental. I had dreams about finding their twisted bodies in car wrecks and pissing on their corpses.
So, when the time came to name the official models of battledress in GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces I naturally named them after my Drills. Because everything they did made me a better soldier and person. That's what initial training has to do - burn away the civilian attitudes and perceptions and replace them with the attitude of a soldier (or sailor, Marine, or even airman) Stress is a vital part of the process. An example:
One night at Alpha-7-1, we of 2nd platoon were told that we were going to be marched to the small PX where we would be allowed to purchase one (1) soda and/or food item to be consumed at the PX. We were then told that we would do this in PT gear (Physical Training. For us it was a maroon sweatshirt and gray sweatpants.) We had exactly five minutes to get upstairs, change, and be back in formation. An important note is that we were forbidden to wear boots inside the barracks.
So, we haul ass upstairs, and about half the guys decide that they can shave a minute off their time by not stopping on the landing and changing out of their boots. Others (mostly those who job it was to mop and wax the floors every morning) loudly objected. In the rush to get back downstairs, some troops failed to properly place their uniforms in their lockers.
All of us make it back down in time. We wait while DS Colom goes upstairs for a minute. He comes back down, and proceeds to smoke us for 45 minutes. Our crimes?
1. Wearing boots in the barracks.
2. Not listening to our platoon guides (trainee leaders) when ordered to remove the boots.
3. Failure to properly take care of issued equipment (our uniforms), and worst of all..
4. Doing all this, immediately losing all semblance of military discipline, because of the promise, of junk food.
The lesson was not lost. We got our priorities in gear.
There are places where a light touch and understanding are called for. Initial entry training is not it.
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.
"Part of it is changing the nature of how it treats people in basic training," David S. Chu, undersecretary for personnel and readiness, said Tuesday.
That means "less shouting at everyone, in essence, which some of you may remember from an earlier generation as being the modus operandi," he said.
The changes started about a year ago, as defense officials looked for ways to make drillmasters more effective, said Lt. Col. Mike Jones, head of Army National Guard recruiting.
He said the old way was to "talk loud, talk often, get their attention" — shock treatment to teach discipline and mold the newly recruited civilian into a soldier.
But trainers found today's generation responded better to instructors who took "a more counseling" type role, Jones said, using strong tactics when needed but keeping them the exception instead of the rule.
Absolute, complete rubbish. I went through Infantry OSUT (One Station Unit Training - Basic and Infantry School rolled into one) 13 weeks of exposure to Drill Sergeants Redding, Colom, and Rearden (not to mention Senior Drill Sergeant Rodney Swanson.) They were strict, got in our face daily, and came down on any error like a ton of sadistic bricks. They were demons in Smokey-the-Bear hats. The pushed us to our limits and then refused to stop until we found out that limits were entirely mental. I had dreams about finding their twisted bodies in car wrecks and pissing on their corpses.
So, when the time came to name the official models of battledress in GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces I naturally named them after my Drills. Because everything they did made me a better soldier and person. That's what initial training has to do - burn away the civilian attitudes and perceptions and replace them with the attitude of a soldier (or sailor, Marine, or even airman) Stress is a vital part of the process. An example:
One night at Alpha-7-1, we of 2nd platoon were told that we were going to be marched to the small PX where we would be allowed to purchase one (1) soda and/or food item to be consumed at the PX. We were then told that we would do this in PT gear (Physical Training. For us it was a maroon sweatshirt and gray sweatpants.) We had exactly five minutes to get upstairs, change, and be back in formation. An important note is that we were forbidden to wear boots inside the barracks.
So, we haul ass upstairs, and about half the guys decide that they can shave a minute off their time by not stopping on the landing and changing out of their boots. Others (mostly those who job it was to mop and wax the floors every morning) loudly objected. In the rush to get back downstairs, some troops failed to properly place their uniforms in their lockers.
All of us make it back down in time. We wait while DS Colom goes upstairs for a minute. He comes back down, and proceeds to smoke us for 45 minutes. Our crimes?
1. Wearing boots in the barracks.
2. Not listening to our platoon guides (trainee leaders) when ordered to remove the boots.
3. Failure to properly take care of issued equipment (our uniforms), and worst of all..
4. Doing all this, immediately losing all semblance of military discipline, because of the promise, of junk food.
The lesson was not lost. We got our priorities in gear.
There are places where a light touch and understanding are called for. Initial entry training is not it.
no subject
Date: 11 Oct 2006 09:53 (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 Oct 2006 02:42 (UTC)What studies have shown is that, whatever their reason for joining, soldiers fight for the other guys in their unit. To create that, it is necessary for the military to make the soldiers identify with each other and to assume responsibility for each other in an altruistic manner.
Giving them a "bogeyman" is one method, but it almost requires a continued element of outward antagonism to reinforce and maintain the group identity because that almost becomes the definition of the group's common factor.
I should think a better way to do the same thing is to reduce their individuality and then provide them with object lessons that require them to function only as a team based on the situation, both in situations with antagonists and without. Give positive and negative reinforcement as a group...
no subject
Date: 12 Oct 2006 02:59 (UTC)This was something that, once shown the ropes, we were responsbile for. Trainee Platoon Guides and Squad Leaders assigned tasks, and we busted our butts to make sure our areas were perfect.
My job? Our platoon was assigned the laundry room. My job, as the skiniest person in the group, was to worm under the big wash basins and polish the drain covers. There were 12 of them, and I made sure that you could see yourself in each one.