# I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, your senior drill instructor. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 3, 2012, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648 "2012-02-03T14:11:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/21 "2012-02-03T17:19:20Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > No, sometimes I just hear Gunnery Sergeant Hartman yelling in my head from time to time. Maybe I should talk to someone about that… Jesus H. Christ! I think you’ve got a hard-on! ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/22 "2012-02-03T17:19:20Z")
> [@arnesw](#): > > - if it hadn’t been for R. Lee Ermeys performance, this movie would have been almost forgotten by now… I understand R. Lee was originally just an advisor for the movie, but they couldn’t find any actor to do a DI the way he did, because he once was one. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/23 "2012-02-03T17:38:45Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > Now, let me see your war face. :mad:AAAAAAGH !:mad:[SIZE=2] That’s a war face.[/SIZE] ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/24 "2012-02-03T17:41:06Z")
If you want to see R. Lee before **FMJ** , watch **The Boys In Company C**. Very impressive. \ ***SSgt. Loyce** : Move it up until the private in front of you smiles. \* ---
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/25 "2012-02-03T17:43:52Z")
This sounds a lot like what goes on in my classroom sometimes – edited version of course. I call it my Come-to-Jesus talk. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/26 "2012-02-03T17:46:57Z")
Is it worth a spin-off thread to investigate other DI’s that might compare with R. Lee? Can there be a more convincing one? [Gunny Hightower (Eastwood)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091187/) is the only one I can think of offhand who even comes close. ---
**Author:** ![Archeonomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7cd45c/32.png) [@Archeonomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archeonomist)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/27 "2012-02-03T17:47:18Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > :mad:AAAAAAGH !:mad:[SIZE=2] > That’s a war face.[/SIZE] Bullshit! You don’t scare me - work on it! ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/28 "2012-02-03T17:48:24Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > If you want to see R. Lee before **FMJ** , watch **The Boys In Company C**. Very impressive. > > \ ***SSgt. Loyce** : Move it up until the private in front of you smiles. \* Unfortunately, he gets all rational later on in the movie and ruins everything. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/29 "2012-02-03T17:56:42Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I know a [good therapist.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfmVBmDKLZI) He comes across as pretty mellow. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/30 "2012-02-03T18:11:17Z")
> [@dcndc](#): > > if you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon; you will be a minister of death, praying for war. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on earth. You are not even human fucking beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian _shit_! > > Because i am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard but i am fair. There is no racial bigotry here. I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are _all_ equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved corps. Do you maggots understand that? SIR! YES, SIR!! x ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/31 "2012-02-03T18:12:20Z")
Out-standing! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/32 "2012-02-03T18:20:21Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > \*What is your major malfunction, numbnuts? Didn’t Mommy and Daddy show you enough attention when you were a child? \* That’s how I’d wanted _Law & Order: Criminal Intent_ to end. R. Lee Ermey as a murder suspect, Vincent D’Onofrio gets him into interrogation, starts sounding off with his typical psychological claptrap including how the crime could have been motivated by parental alienation of affection, Ermey grabs a gun, shoots D’Onofrio, then himself. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/33 "2012-02-03T18:28:06Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I understand R. Lee was originally just an advisor for the movie, but they couldn’t find any actor to do a DI the way he did, because he once was one. From IMDB: > [@](#): > > According to director John Boorman, Stanley Kubrick wanted to cast Bill McKinney in the role of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman. However, Kubrick was so unsettled after viewing McKinney’s performance in Deliverance that he declined to meet with him, saying he was simply too frightened at the idea of being in McKinney’s presence. Kubrick then hired Tim Colceri to play Hartman. Colceri never got to play the role, as former US Marine Corps Drill Instructor R. Lee Ermey, consultant for the Marine Corps boot camp portion of the film, performed a demonstration on videotape in which he yelled obscene insults and abuse for 15 minutes without stopping, repeating himself or even flinching - despite being continuously pelted with tennis balls and oranges. Stanley Kubrick was so impressed that he cast Ermey as Hartman. Colceri was bitter but accepted Kubrick’s consolation prize of a small role as a helicopter door-gunner. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/34 "2012-02-03T18:32:33Z")
How was he not even nominated for [Best Supporting Actor in 1987-1988](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60th_Academy_Awards)?! It’s an absolutely iconic performance. One of the hilarious things about it, though probably apocryphal, is that it’s supposed to be an illustration of how dehumanizing and horrible the military can be. And yet from what I’ve read, after the movie came out, many USMC recruits wanted and expected their D.I.'s to act like Hartmann. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/35 "2012-02-03T18:59:20Z")
I’ve read that Don Adams was a DI in real life, too. That’s supposedly how he gained that clipped speech pattern of his that he used as Maxwell Smart. And Tennessee Tuxedo. Oh wow, I’m never going to think of that penguin again the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/36 "2012-02-03T19:00:30Z")
**Clothahump** , I would pay to see that video! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/37 "2012-02-03T19:00:34Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > One of the hilarious things about it, though probably apocryphal, is that it’s supposed to be an illustration of how dehumanizing and horrible the military can be. And yet from what I’ve read, after the movie came out, many USMC recruits wanted and expected their D.I.'s to act like Hartmann. That’s kind of understandable since to a recruit, Hartmann isn’t the bad guy - Gomer Pyle is. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/38 "2012-02-03T19:08:49Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > That’s kind of understandable since to a recruit, Hartmann isn’t the bad guy - Gomer Pyle is. And R. Lee turned those pieces of amphibian shit into ministers of death. Who wouldn’t to do that? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/39 "2012-02-03T19:11:11Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > That’s kind of understandable since to a recruit, Hartmann isn’t the bad guy - Gomer Pyle is. Right, Hartman is trying to save those men by preparing them. “…and then you will become dead Marines, and then you will be in a world of shit, because Marines are not allowed to die without permission.” ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/40 "2012-02-03T19:14:16Z")
You folks have not seen a drill sargeant until you’ve seen MY drill sargeant. Admittedly, she was not a Marine DI, she was U.S. Army. But the first time we met her Drill Sargeant Ogg(her real name!) scared the crap out of us! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648.md?page=3)