# Basic training and incurable screwups **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 1, 2014, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027 "2014-12-01T13:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/21 "2014-12-02T16:21:22Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > [Alvin York - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_C._York) Not at all the same situation but I did not elaborate. In a time of total mobilization including a draft there was a need to find a way to deal with those who have genuine religious objections and also weed out those who are trying to weasel out of the draft. It would be hard to maintain a draft if there were well known magic words to get out of it. Alvin York had a genuine crisis of faith but ultimately decided that service was not in conflict with his beliefs. In a volunteer army they are most likely to just boot you out of basic if the issue happens to come up in week 3. Currently with troop draw downs the standards are pretty high to join. They will not jump through hoops for some random private. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/22 "2014-12-02T16:41:13Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > … another picked up every scrap of paper he came across, only to discard it, saying, “That’s not it” That’s worked into a Basic Training marching cadence: “There’s no point in looking down, ain’t no discharge on the ground” But still, finding an undeserved section 8 is probably about as easy as avoiding a deserved one. Both situations just require a bit of awareness and consistency. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/23 "2014-12-02T17:05:42Z")
What did they do in WW2, when they needed every warm body who could possibly serve in combat? Not to mention that drill sargents back then more latitude to administer Special High Intensity Training. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/24 "2014-12-02T18:52:30Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > What did they do in WW2, when they needed every warm body who could possibly serve in combat? Not to mention that drill sargents back then more latitude to administer Special High Intensity Training. Getting a Section 8 during WWII? I bet someone could write a book about it. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/25 "2014-12-02T19:47:30Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > …another picked up every scrap of paper he came across, only to discard it, saying, “That’s not it”. > [@The Great Sun Jester](#): > > That’s worked into a Basic Training marching cadence: “There’s no point in looking down, ain’t no discharge on the ground” I learnt in an SDMB thread some months ago, that this kind of routine is known in the US Army as a “Jody Call”. Am not American, and had never before heard that splendid expression. SDMB is highly educational… ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/26 "2014-12-02T22:13:40Z")
I was in the US Army, and I never heard that term. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2014, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/27 "2014-12-02T22:39:28Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I was in the US Army, and I never heard that term. It is kind of outdated. Many cadences mentioned Jody was home schtuping the girl you left behind. > [@](#): > > Ain’t no use in callin’ home, > Jodie’s got your telephone > > Ain’t no use in goin’ home > Jodie’s got your girl and gone. > > Aint no use in lookin’ back, > Jodie’s got your Cadillac! > > And when I get that three-day pass, > I’m gonna kick old Jodie’s ass. Etc. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/28 "2014-12-03T21:54:17Z")
I was in Navy ROTC in college, which is administered by active duty Navy and Marine Corps personnel. Go figure, the Marines were in charge of drill and PT. Anyway, everywhere we ran, we sang cadences referred to as “Jodies.” So maybe it’s a Marine term? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/29 "2014-12-03T23:57:13Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > What’s the process in the US and other militaries for releasing incurable screwups in basic training? I was watching “Full Metal Jacket” over the weekend, and it was clear that no military would ever want Private Pyle. He was absolutely, positively going to get someone, maybe lots of people killed if he ever went into combat. … That may be your opinion, but in the fictional world of Kubrick, the Marines wanted him in. The immediate juxtaposition of Animal Mother, a close look-alike facially and physically, is clearly a Private Pyle who’s been in the field for a while; ie, Pyle was perfectly acceptable (he was accepted) if he hadn’t gone and shot himself. And remember, Animal Mother was a perfectly fine, brave Marine, especially as his portrayal progressed. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/30 "2014-12-04T04:35:22Z")
When I was in they told us straight out ‘we’re gonna fuck with you, we’re going to put pressure on you and you’re going to handle it, and if you can’t handle it we’re gonna find out now instead of when you’re on the line.’ We had one or two that didn’t handle it. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/31 "2014-12-04T04:46:56Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > That may be your opinion, but in the fictional world of Kubrick, the Marines wanted him in. The immediate juxtaposition of Animal Mother, a close look-alike facially and physically, is clearly a Private Pyle who’s been in the field for a while; ie, Pyle was perfectly acceptable (he was accepted) if he hadn’t gone and shot himself. And remember, Animal Mother was a perfectly fine, brave Marine, especially as his portrayal progressed. Stanley Kubrick and Gustav Hasford’s world, actually; the lusthog squad is from Hasford’s novel _The Short-Timers_. It could well have been Kubrick’s intention to portray Animal Mother as a Pyle who’s been in the field for a while, but that’s not how he was portrayed in the [novel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusthog_Squad): > [@](#): > > Animal Mother: A former platoon sergeant, Animal Mother was demoted to Private after he gave the finger to a colonel. Described as monstrous and giant, he wears an ammunition belt across his chest “like a big Mexican bandit.” He is a rapist and shows no mercy to anyone. Nonetheless, he remains loyal to all Marines and is willing to sacrifice himself for them. Animal Mother joined the Marines after he was arrested on an auto theft charge and offered the choice of enlistment or a prison sentence. He carries an M-60 machine gun with him at all times. In the jungle encounter with the sniper, Animal Mother nearly shoots Joker, with whom he shares bitter friction, but then obeys him after Cowboy gives him command of the squad. In The Phantom Blooper, Joker learns that Animal Mother was captured by the Viet Cong, but escaped from a POW camp and is back on active duty with the Marines. Definately an interesting character; in the movie for all of his constant racism (“thank God for the sickle-cell”, etc) he unhesitatingly refuses Cowboy’s order to leave Doc J and Eightball behind and charges the buildings the sniper is hiding in alone. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/32 "2014-12-04T05:45:32Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > My brother, a 'Nam vet, told me some (probably – certainly! – apocryphal) stores of guys angling for discharge from Basic training. One of them rode an imaginary motorcycle everywhere he went, and another picked up every scrap of paper he came across, only to discard it, saying, “That’s not it”. > > The punch line is that after receiving a Section 8 discharge, the first guy rode his motorcycle through the gates of the base, pulled over to the side of the road, dismounted, and walked off. > > The other guy received his discharge papers, looked at them, and said, “That’s it!”. My Dad said there was a similar guy who had a kind of slow, country, Gomer Pyle-like personality who did everything slow and just couldnt seem to do anything right. Yes was always respectful and likeable. But, when Dad saw him walking out the door he kind of quietly turned to him, winked, and said “fooled the son of bitches didnt I?”. ---
**Author:** ![Arthur\_See\_Clarity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@Arthur\_See\_Clarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arthur_See_Clarity)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/33 "2014-12-05T00:21:26Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > My brother, a 'Nam vet, told me some (probably – certainly! – apocryphal) stores of guys angling for discharge from Basic training. One of them rode an imaginary motorcycle everywhere he went, and another picked up every scrap of paper he came across, only to discard it, saying, “That’s not it”. > > The punch line is that after receiving a Section 8 discharge, the first guy rode his motorcycle through the gates of the base, pulled over to the side of the road, dismounted, and walked off. > > The other guy received his discharge papers, looked at them, and said, “That’s it!”. What branch was your brother in? ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/34 "2014-12-05T22:48:05Z")
For a long time new recruits could be discharged in Basic for having certain diseases: cancer, TB, and so on. No VA benefits. There were Congressionals about this and maybe a lawsuit, so it may be no longer in force. ---
**Author:** ![slowlearner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@slowlearner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slowlearner)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/35 "2014-12-06T00:48:51Z")
R. McNamara went to great effort to rehabilitate his reputation in his later years, but he will burn in Hell forever for what was called “Plan 100,000.” The middle class was getting upset at their boys getting hurt in the war so big Mac got the idea to quiet that particular political problem by easing requirements for kids drafted for combat. Forrest Gump and Bubba and Private Pyle and numerous sociopathic car thieves and drug addicts were inducted to the tune of 50,000 a year as cannon fodder because Mac felt these were people nobody cared about. It didn’t hurt Pvt. Pyle’s chances that he shot Expert. Plan 100,000 helped wreck the Army of that era, and The Army seems to have learned the lesson well, although in the last couple years of W’s big war I did start seeing a lot more short fat soldiers transiting through DFW. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/36 "2014-12-06T01:00:34Z")
I met a young man on his way home to Wyoming, Cheyenne I believe, happy as the proverbial feces covered porcine that he had been discharged as “Unable to adapt to military life”. I always wonder what what he did that he couldn’t adapt to the post Viet Nam army. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/37 "2014-12-06T01:23:32Z")
> [@Marion\_Wormer](#): > > For a long time new recruits could be discharged in Basic for having certain diseases: cancer, TB, and so on. No VA benefits. > > There were Congressionals about this and maybe a lawsuit, so it may be no longer in force. It’s still in force. You have to be on active service for 24 months, or discharged due to injury or illness incurred in the line of duty, before you’re eligible for benefits. Something preexisting such as cancer, TB, or pregnancy, do not qualify. ---
**Author:** ![Boomer\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f1d935/32.png) [@Boomer\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boomer_1)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/38 "2014-12-06T02:27:24Z")
Things may have changed, but there used to be a 6 month window where an enlistment could be terminated fairly easily with the military & the service member essentially shaking hands and saying that the enlistment was a bad idea (like an annulment). This may be due to health issues, attitude problems, personality disorders, undiagnosed Asperger’s, etc. It doesn’t absolutely preclude a later enlistment, but there may be a show-cause requirement as to why the military should consider someone who wasn’t suitable earlier. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/39 "2014-12-06T02:41:04Z")
> [@Arthur\_See\_Clarity](#): > > What branch was your brother in? Army. Draftee - made Spec 4 by the end of his hitch. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027/40 "2014-12-06T15:03:10Z")
I was in a basic training platoon of 60 women during peace time, so needless to say, all volunteers. There were two screw-ups trying to get out and go home almost from day one. There was a lot of whispering, gossiping and speculation about why the fricking hell they joined in the first place. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/basic-training-and-incurable-screwups/706027.md?page=3)