# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/101 "2012-02-07T02:30:03Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Truth be told… I find the second half kind of boring, especially since the Vietnamese whore saying `Me so horny, love you long time`has become such a cliché. I think the second half is worth it just for Adam Baldwin. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/102 "2012-02-07T02:32:51Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Ah. > Er, what is that? Final capstone experience exercise at the end of Basic Training, with practical application of the entire training course. Concept since adapted by the other branches. [http://www.mcrdpi.usmc.mil/training/crucible/index.asp](http://www.mcrdpi.usmc.mil/training/crucible/index.asp) [http://www.defense.gov/specials/basic/](http://www.defense.gov/specials/basic/) ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/103 "2012-02-07T15:41:19Z")
“Nothing can get between a motivated marine and his rifle”… He came to Sandy Springs Ga as part of Glock promotion… my asshole buddy who I TRAINED tells me two days later… I would’ve waited in parking lot to shake that man’s hand!! ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/104 "2012-02-07T16:02:12Z")
Because of this thread, Mrs. Cad is upset with me. We’re watching The Voice and everytime someone gets chosen the judges start out with, “What’s your name?” and now I unconciously repeat it as, “What’s your name, fatbody?” I may have to sleep on the couch if I start telling the contestants on TV, “That name sounds like royalty. Are you royalty?” ---
**Author:** ![JBDivmstr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@JBDivmstr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JBDivmstr)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/105 "2012-02-12T11:47:38Z")
Bullshit! It looks to me like the best part of you ran down the crack of your mommas ass and ended up as a brown stain on the mattress! I think you’ve been cheated! Where in the hell are you from anyway, Private?! Sir, Texas sir! Holy dogshit, Texas! Only steers and queers come from Texas, Private Cowboy, and you don’t much look like a steer to me so that kind of narrows it down! 😃 Outstanding! ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/106 "2012-02-12T15:43:44Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Someone’s been digging through their Kubrick collection, I see. Well only a small portion of it, to be precise. Unless that bit of Barry Lyndon I slept through took a really unexpected turn. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/107 "2012-02-12T22:14:40Z")
He basically plays Gunny Hartman in the _Toy Story_ movies as the sarge of the squad of little plastic soldiers, too. > [@aldiboronti](#): > > …The guy in the 50s who had the reputation of having the loudest bark in the British Army was [Regimental Sergeant Major Britten](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0110094/). He made a number of movies in which he put that bark to good effect. Was he like this?: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhrDrE4-mI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhrDrE4-mI) Or more like this?: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0dWo31hwpI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0dWo31hwpI) ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/108 "2012-02-12T22:28:02Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#): > > Unless that bit of Barry Lyndon I slept through took a really unexpected turn. It’s a shame that the Prussian army basic training montage was cut from that movie, as Ermey’s performance was supposedly amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/109 "2012-07-09T00:43:53Z")
Just saw a 2007 _SpongeBob SquarePants_ episode my kids were watching. Ermey does the voice (in true Gy Sgt Hartman style) of the warden of a prison to which SpongeBob and Patrick are mistakenly sent. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/110 "2012-07-09T01:03:21Z")
Question: what happened to you if you were a non-hacker who did not pack the gear to serve in his beloved Corps? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/111 "2012-07-09T01:32:42Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Question: what happened to you if you were a non-hacker who did not pack the gear to serve in his beloved Corps? I rather imagine that he would rip your liver out and eat it while you watched. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/112 "2012-07-09T12:52:02Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Matthew Modine hosted on November 5th, 1988. The pre-credit sketch was called “Drill Sergeant” which as I recall had Phil Hartman (no relation, I assume) as the title character, ripping into a bunch of recruits in parody of Ermey’s Hartmann, with the joke being that he wasn’t very good or imaginative at it. > > Drill Sergeant: From now on, your name is… [looks recruit up and down]… Mister Feet-Attached-To-Legs! It’s wasn’t that the DI wasn’t good at training but that he was restrained by the limitations on abusive language, which was news at the time as they rules were either being toughened or reinforced. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/113 "2012-07-09T12:59:17Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > It’s wasn’t that the DI wasn’t good at training but that he was restrained by the limitations on abusive language, which was news at the time as they rules were either being toughened or reinforced. > **[Hulu + Live TV: Stream TV Channels, Shows, News & Sports](https://www.hulu.com/live-tv)** > > Switch from cable. Get Hulu (With Ads) + Live TV, now with Disney+ (With Ads) and ESPN+ (With Ads). Stream Live TV channels, shows, news & sports online. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2012, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/114 "2012-07-09T13:50:14Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Was he like this?: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhrDrE4-mI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhrDrE4-mI) > > Or more like this?: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0dWo31hwpI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0dWo31hwpI) I always rather liked this: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT1sG9Nmz3w](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT1sG9Nmz3w) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/115 "2012-08-07T00:51:53Z")
Here’s Matthew Modine’s photojournal from the set, incl. several pics of Ermey: [http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/06/a-photographic-diary-of-full-metal-jacket/?hpt=hp\_c2](http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/06/a-photographic-diary-of-full-metal-jacket/?hpt=hp_c2) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/116 "2012-08-07T02:14:48Z")
> [@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… Shoot him. ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/117 "2012-08-07T18:10:12Z")
On a tangent, the author of _The Short-Timers_ - the book on which the film was based - has the whole thing hosted [here](http://www.gustavhasford.com/ST.htm). I read the book long before I saw the film, and I was struck by how much of the book’s dialogue R Lee Ermey delivered in the film. Urban legend has it that his performance was entirely improvised, but a lot of it _is_ from the book. E.g. _Gunnery Sergeant Gerheim laughs, too. The senior drill instructor is an obscene little ogre in immaculate khaki. He aims his index finger between my eyes and says, “You. Yeah–you. Private Joker. I like you. You can come over to my house and fuck my sister.” He grins. Then his face goes hard. “You little scumbag. I got your name. I got your ass. You will not laugh. You will not cry. You will learn by the numbers. I will teach you.”_ Obviously they decided that Hartman was a better name than Gerheim. “_Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn._” It even has “sound off like you got a pair”, and the song about the rifle and the gun (this one’s for killing, this one’s for fun). Overall the book makes training look even less pleasant than in the film. There’s more of an emphasis on physical beatings from the staff - from what I remember, in the film Hartman only hits Joker, and from then on his harassment is entirely verbal, although it’s still disconcerting. One of the recruits attempts suicide, several others leave, another bayonets Gerheim in the thigh(!). In the film I only had the impression that Private Pyle was having trouble, the other recruits seemed quite chipper. To be honest, although Ermey’s performance is striking, I never had a sense that climbing obstacles and being sworn at was enough to turn a man into a dehumanised _killing machine_, which I think was the thrust of the film. Kids are _already_ remorseless killing machines - I used to kill ants by the hundred and I loved it. Wouldn’t have been a massive step up to kill people. People are very much like ants. There are lots of them, and they are the same. Six legs. The book mentions _The DI_, from up the thread: _Beatings, we learn, are a routine element of life on Parris Island. And not that I’m-only-rough-on-'um-because-I-love-'um crap civilians have seen in Jack Webb’s Hollywood movie The D.I. and in Mr. John Wayne’s The Sands of Iwo Jima._ It also mentions “the Ribbon Creek Massacre, where six recruits drowned during a disciplinary night march in 1956”, which is on page two of this thread, I think. The drill instructor responsible was court-martialed, got a relatively light punishment, but it destroyed his military career. [He died in 2003.](http://www.popasmoke.com/notam2/showthread.php?4011-Matthew-C-McKeon-the-man-court-martialed-for-the-Ribbon-Creek-drowning-died) The book doesn’t have the confusing bit at the end where the soldiers assault a bunch of ruined warehouses in the London docklands. I always wondered why a film ostensibly about Vietnam should end up in East London. And why all those Vietnamese people on their scooters were just going round in a circle during the scene with the prostitute. Some good lines: _As is my custom, I salute Animal Mother so that any snipers in the area will assume that he is an officer and shoot him instead of me. I have become a little paranoid since I painted a red bull’s-eye on the top of my helmet. Animal Mother returns my salute, then spits, then grins. “You sure are funny, you son-of-a-bitch. You’re a real comedian.” “Sorry 'bout that,” I say._ I briefly worked for the MOD as a civilian, on an army base, and I can remember the WO1 and his swagger stick (I think). He made me nervous, I can’t imagine what effect he had on the enemy. I dreaded the day he would ask me why I hadn’t joined the army, but fortunately he never asked. “_You’re all a bunch of piss-head squaddies_” probably wouldn’t have gone down too well. But what’s so bad about drinking, anyway? “Because when I left school the two options were (a) walking slowly through Belfast, being shot at or (b) walking slowly through Kosovo, being shot at” would have been more honest. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/118 "2012-08-07T18:19:22Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Question: what happened to you if you were a non-hacker who did not pack the gear to serve in his beloved Corps? **DCnDC** has dishonored himself and dishonored the thread. I have tried to help him. But I have failed. I have failed because YOU have not helped me. YOU people have not given **DCnDC** the proper motivation! So, from now on, whenever \*\*DCnDC \*\*fucks up, I will not punish him! I will punish all of YOU! And the way I see it ladies, you owe me for ONE DUMB QUESTION! NOW GET ON YOUR FACES!!! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/119 "2012-08-07T18:21:59Z")
:: drops to the deck :: ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648/120 "2012-08-07T18:24:39Z")
Actually Full Metal Jacket wasn’t even his first military role. R Lee Ermey played a sergeant in The Boys in Company C, one of the “Loach” pilots in Appocalypse Now (which I knew already) and he was a gunny in some movie called Purple Hearts in 1984. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-gunnery-sergeant-hartman-your-senior-drill-instructor/611648.md?page=7)