Things I want you to consider .... compare being in the Army to being a civilian When you take orders in the Army, do you feel more like a prisoner or a worker? Note the precise directions. Do you believe that is to get you accustomed to being ordered? Give me some thoughts you have. If you were in the Military, was this how you got trained?
When I was in my first firefight in Iraq, my training took over. I didn't need to think about it. I simply reacted as my training told me. It saved my life.
In certain situations your hesitancy to follow an order could cause serious harm to you or others in your unit. Consider a well trained soldier as an element in a well oiled machine that's as flawless as possible.
Great flick. But I Commanded a Basic Training Company at Ft Leonard Wood long ago. Closest we came to the movies was when Cheryl Tiegs came to see her brother graduate. Of course, as the Commander, I escorted her.
I never was involved in combat. My era was the peaceful era, fortunately. I hoped by the time of Iraq that training was working for our troops. My impression when was both when I was in was training to fire weapons and training to hike fast or march in order. When in Germany in the field, it was more realistic. My first duty in Germany was to drive the CO. And he was busy with his duties as the Commander of HQ and HQ company. I was not in a line company where those guys were learning more. My second assignment was as the Company Clerk. Pretty much removing me from things others had in the Field. In my unit, the Company clerk, me, was not bunking with the other men. I had my own room and after duty during the day was left alone. In Basic and AIT I was assigned the job of platoon Sgt. though I was being trained myself. The only reason for that was the unit at Ft. Ord training us was severely short of training cadre.
When in High School I had 2 years of Army type training. In the Army I had pretty much 3 jobs. As a Basic and AIT Trainee I was over the two platoons. I also had leadership training at the Academy by Ft. Ord, CA. I drove the Company Commander as needed in his jeep for around 2 weeks then was assigned to the office as his clerk. Oh, I was at the end of my time working at the flight office at the airfield in Germany.
How did you get your commission? I was drafted and had the plan to go to OCS. I went to sign up for it when at Ft. Ord in CA, and found out because I already had orders to go to Ft. Benning Jump school I had to wait to be in a regular unit in the States. Frankly I wanted to go to Germany and bailed out of Jump School. At Jump School I tried again to go to OCS prior to bailing out of Jump School. Had they assigned me to OCS I definitely would have done the Jump School training.
Years after my Army Service, when on vacation in Missouri, I stopped at Ft. Leonard Wood and went through their museum. There I chatted for a few minutes with a Major. Ms. Tiegs was considered at the time hot.
Did you appoint trainees to have jobs in the platoons? I was appointed as a platoon Sgt. with a black arm band with three stripes on it.
Due to my job then as one of the platoon Sgts., as a trainee myself, my view no doubt is more like that of being cadre than being treated like the rest of the guys were. They had things then like KP and guard duty. I was one time in all of my training the Sgt. over the Guard just one time. I placed the men on Guard duty as I recall my job.
That is the excuse given for sure. I really have no complaints over my treatment in the Army. I detailed my jobs in an earlier sets of posts so I had it made in the Shade. Col. William E DePuy was the unit Commander of my unit prior to my getting to it. I was told he was awesome as the BG commander and trained the units under him very well. The Col over us when I was there in Germany as I recall did not have the same kind of reputation. If good combat training was firing various weapons and marching and hiking fast, well we got trained. My first training was when I was actually cadre.
I just now checked Ft. Benning and discovered they now do Airborne training at Harmony Church. It might be that I forgot but I recall Sand Hill as the training center for Airborne. But I admit that at that time I was not nearly as focused on the name of the place as what happened there. A man scared of Height must have crapped his pants upon seeing the Parachute towers used to get them used to height and using the parachute properly. I had spent years working as a piledriver and got used to heights due to working on those machines. I recall being in barracks like these are,
The D.I.s in the video you were kind enough to post are sweethearts compared to the D.I.s I remember from the late 1960s plus there were no women among the recruits. Fortunately, I was in pretty good shape when I went into Basic Training from being on the wrestling team in High School so that made it much easier. I saw a video recently on Jump School today and both the D.I.s and the training looked much "kinder and gentler" than I remember over 50 years ago. Thanks,
That's a contrast, not a comparison. You compare two (or more) things that are similar. You contrast two (or more) things that are dissimilar. Civilian work/life and military work/life are dissimilar. When your boss tells you to stock those shelves or shuffle those papers, and you balk and ask 50 Million questions why you have to do it, and then you take your sweet time about it, it doesn't cause death or serious injury to others, right? When I gave orders, it wasn't because I like to boss people around, it's to save people's lives. B-b-b-b-b-but it's the Motor Pool! Yeah, and we're gonna make sure our vehicles are in peak operating condition and all the weapons systems are functioning properly. You know, so our vehicles don't break down and we have to unass the vehicle and runaway before our Air Force bombs us. Or the Canadians bomb us. The mission of the US military is special and unique. That is not my opinion. That is the opinion of the US Supreme Court who has repeatedly said so in decisions over the last 7 decades. You don't have Freedom of Speech, or Press or Assembly and a lot of other things. The Supreme Court said that the "infringement" of certain of your rights is necessary to maintain good order and discipline to create the highest levels of morale to carry its unique mission, which just happens to be the defense of the US and its Territories and its allies. That is why adultery is a crime. It isn't because a bunch of Mustache Petes wanna control your sex life, it's so you don't get shot in the back during a fire-fight by some troop 'cause you're banging his wife. Well, maybe you do wanna get shot in the back. Then again, maybe you send that troop on a suicide mission knowing he'll die so you can get him out of the way and move in with his now-widowed wife. That begs the question, How can you trust that your officers and NCOs are doing things for the right reasons? See how that works? Because it is about trust. I trust my men, they trust me, and we all trust our superiors, and the brass, and hope the ass-clown politicians know what the hell they're doing. That's why soldiers blindly carry out orders from their officers and NCOs. Because they trust them. I'm not saying never question an order, but then everyone is fairly clear on whether an order is lawful or not. I get that the military is not for everyone and that's okay. You don't have to get your ass in the grass with the restivus, but just stay the hell out of the way.
Hey, I knew a SGT. that told me he was banging the Captains wife. She was hot as mustard too. She was movie star class. You seem to be under the impression I insulted somebody. I simply told the truth, as you told the truth. Too bad you did not work for the Captain I worked for at the Army Airfield. He was an alcoholic non productive officer. All he could hope for is they did not remove him ahead of his retirement. Oh and the Captain whose wife was banging the Sgt. was not the drunk Airfield commander either.
It is hard for me to say bad things about the DIs in my basic and AIT courses. They had to change guys who had quit working out as they had as kids and teach them to march. And to shoot. And to take orcers from them. I did not train with women either. I think that Army was more prepared for war than the army of today once our combat veterans are no longer serving. They of course had on the job training in war fighting. And no doubt are very able men to wage wars. Biden will not attract more men, he will discourage men. When I trained it was for some of our Korean vet officers and EM. Some of them had been in war. They will always have my respect.
T answer your questions.. I Enlisted, did Basic at Fort Knox, then went to USMAPS (US Military Academy Prepartaory School) then to West Point, graduating in 1975. I was Commissioned Field Artillery. My first assignment was a Basic Training Company XO, then Commander. Other assignments included Command of a firing Battery in Germany and lots of time at TRADOC. By the way, you mention COL DuPuy. He went on to four stars and Commander of TRADOC, creating the legendary "DuPuy Fox Hole" which allowed interlocking fires to cover every inch of the front while protecting soldiers from all enemy fire coming directly from their front. Someone mentioned Drill Sergeants in this thread. My Drills were the best. We were a family. Abunch of them contacted me recently. Great stuff. Thanks for the picture of the towers. Great memories. I saw the first in 1973 in Jump School. The last time I saw them was driving past them as a civilian, prepping for travel to Iraq as a contractor.
I didn't mean to say anything bad about the different D.I.s I had along the way. My first D.I. in Basic was extremely demanding and relentless but popular for being fair and committed to teaching what you needed to know to survive later. We appreciated SSgt. Barnett's hard work enough so that the guys in our Barracks pitched in and bought him a set of chrome wheels he'd been saving his money to buy, picked the lock on the trunk of his car and put the wheels in the trunk with a note of appreciation as a surprise for him to find after we had graduated and left.
