Brutality in Basic Training

[Golddollar]

I love to hear "Thank you for your service". But, not because I want or even deserve any thanks. I like it because it shows me America learned something very good. That gives me a warm fuzzy. I will admit I do like the parking spot at Home Depot.

Things have changed since the early 70s when you often heard some pretty hurtfully things

No matter your feelings on the Iraq and Afghanistan "conflicts" there has been a huge change in the public view, treatment of those who serve or served since the Vietnam "conflict" Even those who opposed those wars don't blame and vilify the troops. "Thank you for your service" is a long way from "Baby Killer"

Think about it in those days, with the draft, a huge share of the troops had little choice. Yet, terrible things were screamed at them all they and they were despised by a large segment of our society. Now its all volunteer and nobody is blaming the troops. They are treated with respect by the vast majority.

I much prefer the "Thank you for your service" attitude.

America has problems, It always has had. But, we learn and its not all bad folks.

I frequently thank those who served in the Armed Forces. I had an experience that really floored me back around 2010. I was doing collection work and I had to interview a gentleman about his income and assets. He was wearing a hat that I believe said "USS Danang" and he looked to be the right age for Vietnam service. So I asked him if he served on that ship. He said that he had. So I said to him that I belonged to the Sons of the American Legion and wanted to thank him for his service. What he said to me I'll never forget. He said to me, "You're the first person who ever said that to me." I'm just trying to help make sure that no veteran has to wait 40 years to hear thanks for what they did.

 

[ancient-one]

This has nothing to do with basic or boot camp training but it is a instance of cruelty that I personally saw. I was sent to Camp Elliot CA. as a stop for a few days on my way to overseas. I ended up staying there for about six weeks and then was sent to North Island NAS, San Diego.
The people running Camp Elliot were in my opinion, the forerunners of the Mafia. We unloaded rail car after rail car of food, sides of beef, veggies and other good stuff. We never saw it in the mess hall. Their main meat was salami, fried at noon and in a cold sandwich at supper. I think that the good stuff was being sold to eating places in LA and San Diego. I was not over weight and I lost about 12-13 lbs. while there.
The Commanding Officer was a Commodore, one of the few in the Navy as they were doing away with that rank. The Chief Master At Arms ran several profit making schemes, one being raids on the barracks confiscating money from poker games. His henchmen were guys fresh out of boot camp, with a band put around their arm and given authority to carry out his orders. They were new and did not question orders.
My experience with the brutality came because I was in the barracks watching a poker game and had loaned a friend some change. He won and was handing my money back just as we were raided. They took us to the CMAA office and we were given the choice of claiming our money or being turned loose. No one was stupid enough to claim their money.
Now, for the brutality part. We were waiting in the hall outside of his office before we were given the above choice. I could see in his office and this I will never forget. They had a EM1C in a chair with his henchmen holding both arms. The CMAA was screaming at him and evidently not getting the answers that he wanted and he hit this guy in the face with a rifle butt. I couldn't hear the EM1C very good but his answers had been in a calm voice. I always thought that the EM1C had objected to some of the stuff that they were pulling and that was why he was brought in.
I still remember what the CMAA looked like and I always hoped, in my younger days to meet him on the street. The fine would have been worth it. I was at two other bases and you never saw any of that kind of stuff.
I will never forget, I got to North Island about noon and they ran us through the chow line before processing the paper work. Two foods stuck in my mind, smothered steak in really good brown gravy and mashed potatoes. So much better than salami.
I was not to hard to please on food, I loved the two mornings that we got baked beans for breakfast. I did however, hate the morning that we got the watery mush and sweetened water for syrup.

 

[pantannojack]

What I cherish most from my experiences is the determined Safe Rifle Handling discipline. The violations I see today even at "controlled" ranges makes me sick and infuriated.

 

[Engineer1911]

AF Basic Training 1970

I entered Lackland AFB on May 26, 1970. Basic was 30 days long counting only Monday to Friday, except national holidays. That meant that Memorial day and July 4 (both week days) did not count. Tuesday after Memorial Day, I had been in the AF 5 days and only 1 day counted. Arrival day didn't count either. The training was not severe, other than the 1-1/8 mile runs. There were about 6 of us old (21+ ) guys that just went with the flow and followed instructions. We shared a common opinion among ourselves about "standards, folding clothes, and dust specs" but never said anything. The New York city boys had eye opening experiences about respecting authority and meeting dress / cleanliness standards. I don't remember any physical abuse of any recruit, but there were loud verbal insults for performance failure.

At the tender age of 22, it was not fun running with the high school jocks. We wore the heavy cotton olive drab fatigues in the bright Texas sun for the next 6 weeks. I have never been so miserable for so long in my life. Wisconsin became a fantasy paradise.

My previous income had been $160 per week after taxes as a union sheet metal apprentice. My new pay was $115 per month, but I wasn't in the army. I recognized basic as an opportunity to follow directions silently and avoid notice.

On my last day after graduation, my E-6 DI asked what I did before the AF. I told him, and his reply was, "You will have a great AF career. Enjoy the 20 years, I have." I replied, "Thank you." He was a 'fatherly' instructor. He had a job to do for 4 years with no SE Asia tour of duty after a 3 year tour in Korea. He expected us to do our jobs as new recruits.

At the end of this glorious training, my only thought was get out of Texas -- WRONG!!! I and a busload of my closest new friends are going from San Antonio to Wichita Falls for 12 weeks of aircraft mechanic school. Good news, we can wear short sleeve OD green shirts with extra heavy starch. when this was over in October, my assignment was Plattsburgh AFB, NY. The Texas heat is over, and I never wore another starched set of fatigues again. As a mechanic, my favorite brand of boot polish was flat black paint. Spill engine or hydraulic oil on leather, and it will never shine again.

In hindsight, my drill instructor was correct about a great AF career. I had remarkable success in 4 years and 3 months. In Tech School my wife back in Wisconsin paid more in Federal income monthly than I earned. After making E-5 and over 2 years of service, I still wasn't at my previous pay scale. I was discharged from the air force on Saturday, and by Thursday I was back in college working on my mechanical engineering degree. There was 2 long months of culture shock adjusting from AF and Thailand to college and living at home with my parents. In the intervening 47 years I have not regretted for 1 second my decision to get out after coming back from 10 months in Thailand.

Life has had many blessings.

 

[Donn]

We had a special platoon where the overweight recruits went to . Don't know what happened there and didn't want to find out . Their training didn't start until they lost the weight and joined a platoon , so no telling how long they were there .

At Ft. Knox in '69, this was known as the rehab platoon. Restricted diet, PT test every other day till the trainee passed, then he was assigned to a basic training company. There were guys in the rehab platoon when I got to Ft. Knox that were still there when I finished basic 8-9 weeks later. The thing was, after beating them up all week, the Army would turn these guys loose on weekends. They'd spend the weekends trashing down, undoing any progress that might've been made thru the week. Don't know for sure, but I imagine the Army would throw up their hands at some point, give these guys a general discharge.

 

[steelslaver]

In those years Marine boots never even got to see the gate let alone go through it. Saturday was just another day and Sunday meant shine your gear nd go to your faith service. Same mess hall, same chances of being PTed in the pits. No phone calls. If you were in the "Physical conditioning" platoon you were going to loose weight. We picked up a couple of them during training. Both were in good shape when the got to us. Both reported very restricted diet and constant PT.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

The Marine Corps received a lot of very negative publicity following the Ribbon Creek Incident in 1956, the Jack Webb movie "The DI" was an attempt to rehabilitate its image. Earlier Chesty Puller got in trouble for saying the Marines had gotten too soft-"give 'em beer instead of ice cream!"
Army Basic-like so many other things Army-was characterized by inconsistency and endless experimenting.
The head games went both ways, that old Army issued cold could be blamed for everything from failure to qualify to boloing the PT test.