I was a drill sergeant up until this past April. When you watch that movie again, notice the other drill sergeants in the background, especially when Gunny is introducing himself as the “senior” drill instructor. There are several drill sergeants in the unit. For the first few days, everyone stays there overnight. For the next week or so, one person from each platoon needs to stay until lights out, and then only one has to stay over night. After the first couple weeks, all but one drill sergeant can go home after the end of the day’s training, or about dinner time (whichever comes later). We take turns staying overnight, so we do get to go home and be with family and stuff.
It gets exhausting. It is not necessary to be or do any of that, though. Plenty of drill sergeants go all month without yelling, and are never mean or grouchy ever. Personally, I was never grouchy. I wouldn’t say that I was mean, but the privates would probably disagree. I would say that I was unwavering and relentless. Not mean, though. Okay, maybe sometimes.
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ETA: Many drill sergeants do not act any different as a drill sergeant than they do regularly and naturally. They are just as patient and understanding and nice as they are outside of work. That’s a technique, of course. And it is certainly less exhausting. Personally, I think that a certain type of personality is required to transform a civilian into a warrior. I choose to embody my idea of what that is. I think recruits are expecting a certain type of experience at basic training, and whether or not they admit it at the time, they want that experience. They feel a greater sense of pride and accomplishment when it is all over as well. Much more so than if all their drill sergeants acted like Scout Leaders for 14 weeks.
Somebody needs to start a “Ask the drill sergeant” thread.
I am quite sure that there would be lots of questions. I have some myself because I only have experience with Canadian training which I understand to be rather more polite.
Everyone remembers their Drill Sergeant for life. None of my Drills were mean or vindictive. That doesn’t mean they weren’t tough. Our main platoon drill was a very religious man. Never cursed. Hardly yelled. He was a bit of a father figure to all of us. But he was not someone to be trifled with either.
He also mispronounced my name every day during basic without any hint of humor or understanding. Until graduation day when he said it perfectly and smiled.
I have been reluctant to start such a thread because I know there is an “official” answer, and there is the “okay, but it happened like this more often than not” answer. Some candid and truthful answers could cause huge problems if read by the wrong (the right?) people.
So I considered doing a thread, but only giving the official Army doctrinal answer, such as:
Q: Did you guys use foul language? I heard drill sergeants can’t swear. Is that true?
A: “Extreme profanity” is considered trainee abuse and is a prohibited practice. All allegations of trainee abuse are required to be investigated by the commander and reported to TRADOC immediately, even if/when the allegation is determined to be unfounded.
But then I thought, if I do limit answers to only the policy, and not necessarily the reality, what is the point? What is there to be gained from the thread if peoples’ questions are all answered like a politician at a town hall meeting? That’s why I haven’t started one yet.
I might start later this week, though. In case there are a lot of other questions people would love to have answered, like “When do the Soldiers eat?” That question is okay. But “Can the Soldiers eat ice cream?” probably isn’t. lol
We train. We train constantly. Whether reviewing reports of IEDs or UXOs from the theater, or actually running drills for them at our Shop, we train constantly. This also includes formal, technical training we have to go TDY (business trips) for around the States (nuclear training, advanced tactics, infantry and mountaineering courses, etc.).
Also, we routinely get flightline calls for hung ordnance or jammed guns; we have Secret Service missions we augment; and we have range clearances/ICBM motor disposals (at certain bases, like my last one), and the occasional real world call.
A few of my best friends are instructors and although some of them go kind of hard-ass, most of the really succesful ones see it as their job to get the students successfully through the training (once the bad ones have washed out).
Some more: All movies with drill instructors start out with them looking at their recruits and going “What did I do to deserve this sorry group” or something like that. Are there times when truly you look at some new recruits and wonder where this bunch of misfits was found or wondered if someone purposefully gave you the worse? Or equally opposite, were their times when you walked in and saw a group of obviously top student athletes already capable of doing any and all PT and drills whom you knew would all pass with minimum help?
Back to Full Metal Jacket. The actor who played gunny once said that every insult he used was real. How could any man say some of the foul things in that movie like “You can come over and F### my sister.” Or "It looks to me like the best part of you ran down the crack of your momma’s ass and ended up as a brown stain on the mattress!”.
How can someone with intelligence talk that way? Now I fully understand pushing men to try harder and overcome, plus their has to be some breaking down, but this just seems like sadism. Finally whats to stop some new recruit from punching a DI who insults their family?
Back to topic, a coworker was in the Navy and a couple of times he was part of the group that would run supplies to the US station on the south pole in Antarctica.
Because that was the thinking of the time; intelligence had nothing to do with it. They degraded, humiliated and ground you down to where you had no real sense of individualism, or any will to resist being molded into a team that was loyal to the chain of command. They used to physically strike recruits back in the day, as well. After some boot camp/basic training deaths, they stopped doing that, and now don’t even curse at them (at least not that much).
When I joined the Navy in '67, there was zero physical contact between those who were training us and us. They could work you so hard you wanted to die, but could not lay hands on you. They could still make references to your girlfriend or family, however: “Don’t worry, men. When you get back home you’ll find your girlfriend just like you left her: freshly fucked” is one gem that has stayed with me.
A recruit who punched a DI would find himself in the brig, most likely, unless there was severe provocation. Back then, since cursing and phyical punishment was part of the course, hitting a DI would probably get you an ass-kicking first and then a trip to the brig.
My Dad, who went into the army in '59, had alot of problem with that even though he had always been worked pretty hard. Some kid from a farm with little contact with the big world just couldnt take getting yelled at that way or told to take his clothes off in public.
We flew nearly as much, if not more so, at home than we did deployed. We’d have training flights to keep our skills current. When not flying we’d have an additional duty in order to keep our squadron combat ready.
Certainly in my case being in the Army was like any professional job. Sometimes you worked 40-hour weeks, but when big stuff was going on you pulled extra hours.
What makes up the time in peacetime is training. Training, training, training. You learn, and learn, and learn more. Qualifications were a big deal.
Yet millions of recruits somehow passed through the system
How nice do you think it is living in a trench in WW1, getting a face full of mustard gas? A foxhole on Guadalcanal? Fording a swamp (with leeches!) in Vietnam? Eating cold chow out of a can, and not able to bathe for weeks… etc etc.
Getting yelled at in boot camp has a purpose. It’s not because the military likes being dicks. Boot camp is not all about the physical exercise, and it’s not supposed to be fun.
