No More SCREAMING!

It might surprise you to learn that among a whole bunch of other stuff, I, The Chuckmeister, was an Army drill sergeant.

Yep, for a time I had a major additional duty (that's what they called it) of being an Army Company Drill Sergeant.

That means when we were all commanded to hit the batalion drill field, company by company, there were guys like me along side each company to call cadence.  To force 50+ soldiers to move as one.  "Hup, hup hup!"  Here's an example of one cadence:

     "Ain't no use of lookin' down.  Ain't no discharge on the ground.  Ain't no use of lookin' back, Jody's got your Cadillac.  Sound off.  Sound off!  Sound off one two three four, one two!"

I liked doing it.  I enjoyed maneuvering a company of men like an orchestra conductor.  With exactitude.  On the beat.  I guess I liked to hear myself yell.  And I liked to show off my ability to do this job, like every other job, very well. 

Which brings us to today's humble posting.  I just read that "military.com" put up an opinion that the Army's drill sergeants should no longer yell at their newbies.  Their raw recruits.  Who know squat about the military and need a daddy figure to whip them into shape.  Who hate being yelled at, but being yelled and screamed at is sometimes the only way to get through.  That was the case with me several decades ago.  And it was the case with tens of thousands of other basic training recruits.  

Remember the movie "Full Metal Jacket?"  Sergeant R. Lee Ermey's harangue of his troops was exactly as I remember it.  Loud and obnoxious and unnecessary.  Now you know.

(BTW, Ermey was an actual retired drill sergeant)    

But times have changed.  Unfortunately.  Apparently our GenZ recruits are too lily-livered to be set straight harshly.  They apparently need to be "managed."  "...more like a football coach."  Wha...?  We're training men to potentially go into battle, and maybe die, but we're not permitted to yell at them to effect change?  

Are you shi*ing me?

I personlly hated basic.  It's 8 weeks of Hell.  On purpose.  The Army takes away your identity and gives you a number.  They then mold you into a warrior.  And they only have so much time to do it.  And worrying about hurting somebody's feelings is #385 on a drill sergeant's list.  

The toughest, hardest, meanest, nastiest, most obnoxious and ill-tempered bastards on the planet are basic training company drill sergeants.  Not by accident, on purpose.  They're that way to teach folks how to break things and kill people.  As a unit.  And they're that way to make sure our Nation stays Free.

I don't know who's running "military.com," but I'm betting they're all ex-Biden Administration staffers.  All soft and fluffy and pussified.    

You'd have to be that way to wish for such ignorant and foolish and dangerous changes, to a system that's worked for more than two centuries.