Has a recruit who’s in boot camp, say for his/her third week or so, ever snapped and tried to deck a drill sergeant? (I pity the fool if he does).
Can a third week recruit even get a dishonorable discharge? Or tossed into the brig?
I ask this with all due respect to Marines everywhere…
Although I have no cite and never saw it myself, throughout the entirety of USMC boot camp history I’m sure it has happened. And yes, I pity the idiot who does (did) it. It likely has in the other services as well. People have different breaking points, and to generalize and extrapolate to all of our service branches, boot camp entails pushing individuals beyond their own perceived limits to realize that those limits are self-imposed and not really limits at all. They can be stretched and redefined.
I am not a Drill Instructor but did go through boot camp (1980, MCRD San Diego so it’s been a few years - Platoon 1016!). In the days leading up to going, I was expecting the toughest challenge to be the physical demands, but it turned out for me and for most in my platoon and series to be the mental challenge of “getting with the program”, taking one’s entire life experiences up to the point and having that molded differently into the Marine Corps way.
As for being tossed into the brig, IANAL but if a recruit breaks a law then it depends on what law is broken. I can see it happening, 3rd week, or first day, or last day.
One of my dad’s favorite stories to tell (over and over and over and over…) when I was a kid was the time in USMC boot camp when he punched his DI in the nose. His DI was a decorated (7 Purple Hearts, IIRC) WW2/Korean War veteran who then proceeded to beat the living crap out of my dad. He never mentioned any other punishment. This would have been 1963
Once a person has enlisted into the Armed Forces, he is subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the particular code of United States law that applies specifically to the members of the Armed Forces. If the person, while in initial training, does commit an offense punishable under the UCMJ, then he may be tried by court-martial. Depending on the offense and how it is tried, one possible outcome is a Dishonorable Discharge.
I’d think that a more likely outcome than a person snapping, decking the Drill Instructor, and going to trial, would be the person requesting, before he reaches that point, Entry Level Separation. That is simply a discharge and there won’t be any legal ramifications (i.e., confinement or dishonorable discharge).
If the DI, or any other person for that matter, were to over-react and “beat the living daylights” out of someone, that DI or other person would certainly face legal action.
Maybe now (I’m not sure), but not always.
I’ve had two veteran relatives (WWII-era and Vietnam) tell me stories of similar incidents. In one, the DI just got up and immediately hit the recruit back, and then proceeded to fight him, and pretty clearly beat him. In the other case, the DI asked him “do you want to take this the legal route, or do you want’a meet me behind the barracks tonight and settle this?” And then that eveing when they met, the DI ended up ‘beating the crap out of him’, with most of the unit there watching. And in neither case was there anything else ever done about the incident afterward.
These were Army, not Marines, if that makes any difference.
Today, it doesn’t make any difference. Perhaps you’ve seen the news about some of the recent scandals involving training personnel in the military? Oh, by today, I’ll definitely include all the way back to when I enlisted in 1979.
I was in the Army briefly, long enough to see some people crack in Basic. Never saw a drill sergeant get assaulted, but did see a recruit or three simply stop functioning, be completely unwilling to take orders anymore. That resulted in a discharge, but a long and painful version that involved trying to “motivate” recruits along with offers of small privileges if they returned to training(such as no fireguard duty for a week). Most recruits had no intention of going back, so they spent a few weeks doing hard PT before being transferred to the discharge battalion, which meant another couple of weeks of labor while waiting to be discharged. I’d imagine if someone actually attacked a drill sergeant they’d get a trial and a dishonorable discharge.
Me, I washed out the old fashioned way, failed to meet fitness standards and had trouble with teamwork. No discipline problems, but the drill sergeants were like, “This is not working.” I was told that I could recycle if I really wanted it bad, but by then I just didn’t so off to the discharge battalion I went for a couple of weeks of KP.
If someone had tried to strike a sergeant during my basic training, the sergeant wouldn’t have struck back; he would have simply had the whole platoon do dashes and push-ups for an hour or two, and then let us deal with him ourselves later that night.
Blanket party from hell, IOW.
Hey, collective responsibility is one of the most important things trainees have to learn.
“Entry Level Separation.” That’s what I was looking for. I didn’t know there was such a thing in basic. And, of course, they never told us! 
Thanks, all, for the replies.