Fall in !...Atten...hut !

[kentuck]

Anybody remember their military days and when the Sergeant hollered 'Fall in!' and you never wanted to be last because then he would chew your ass? Does that seem like all nonsense now? It was a part of discipline, I suppose? :) Drop and give me twenty, Private! :)

[ewagner]

1. I got into the most trouble

for laughing.....

the DI would put his "Smokey the Bear" hat right up against my face and scream....and I would break out laughing...soon, he would have to turn away because it cracked him up too!

[nytemare]

3. I was a grinner

They would always aske me why I was smiling. The obligatory "I'm just happy to be in the Army, Drill Sergeant!". Then they would say, "Don't thank me, thank your recruiter!"

Some people got seriously freaked out when the DS would yell at them.

[cynatnite]

7. ROFLMAO!

Kewl!

I didn't freak out...I just tried to do everything exactly how they said to do it. I hated pushups :(

[nytemare]

8. They would make me do pushups because I needed to do them

They would just look at me a second, and tell me to drop...LOL.

[cynatnite]

5. Too scared to laugh

I knew my eyes had to have been as big as saucers when he got in my face. :scared:

He was a good DI who knew what he was doing.

[crikkett]

16. bet you were cute enough to get away w/ it

(makes a diffc you know)

[napkinz]

2. "You Maggot" ...

:)

[Redleg]

15. LOFL!

That was good- the DI from Full Metal Jacket was the real thing.

[BOSSHOG]

4. I was in the Navy

and I guess I was just a tad smarter than the average recruit. I spent 24 years in uniform and my nine weeks in basic were the easiest. No decisions to make. You got up, marched, ate three meals a day, marched, laundered, wrote letters home, marched, PT'd, went to the gas chamber, marched, shipboard firefighting training, marched, did close order drill, went to bed and did everything in between by just doing what you were told.

Did I mention that we marched?

The concept of bootcamp is ideal. A military command structure cannot involve democracy.

[punpirate]

6. All nonsense...

... and you can stick your "atten... hut!" BS where it don't shine.

And, better revise that "private" shit right now. If you want to pull rank, I think I own you.

And, I'm a civilian now. I have rights. :P

[noamnety]

9. I was a naive moron in boot camp

If they ever gather a group of you together and start a sentence with "Who knows how to-"

keep your mouth shut. I learned that on day two. Wish I'd learned it on day one.

[Walt Starr]

10. I was late for a morning formation once

The sergeant told me, "I can give you an article 15 if I want to. I can fine you and confine you to quarters if I want to."

I told him, "I understand that sergeant and I feel I deserve an Article 15."

There was no further discussion because he saw I was willing to accept the consequences of my actions.

[napkinz]

11. a REAL war hero ...

(in his own mind)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. You weren't in the marine crotch.

"Maggot" was the least of the epithets screamed by the knuckledraggers.

If you were unlucky enough to be late, you were ordered to the the "Duty Hut" where at least one of the sadists would instantly knock you to the floor..er..deck. Then the infliction of torture by "exercise". The "Chinese Thinking Position" was favored by one DI. Hands behind neck, elbows and toes on ground, don't move. Or, resting ones back against a wall and assuming a sitting position, don't move. Or, hanging on a wall locker by your triceps, don't move. Or, balancing a 9.8lb M1 on the backs of your outstretched hands at shoulder level, knowing that dropping (inevitably) would result in another beating that you dare not resist.

Try them some time.

If they weren't too hung over, they would break out the rifles, and batter you with the butts.

All for the sake of "discipline" and "esprit de corps". AKA Reducing adolescents into mindless robots willing to obey any command, no matter how criminal, suicidal, or just plain stupid.


I'd still like to run across any of the three brain dead assholes who made us into "Men".

[crikkett]

17. now I rememeber that stuff...

...it made yoga very easy.

we did stuff like roll line around a stick (with a bucket of paint or something tied to the other end) with our arms straight out at shoulder length.

we did "duck walks" too: walk in a squat w/ fingers laced behind your head. destroys your knees.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. They had just outlawed "duck walks" in '61.

Didn't prevent the bastards from having us do pushups on the grinder in 100 degree weather. Poor sods in the front rank couldn't pull their cuffs over their hands. The DI's medicated the burned hands to prevent them going to sickbay.

Fun times...if you were a masochist.

[Redleg]

19. I was in the Army and although the Drill Sergeants didn't beat us,

they did devise some hellish physical punishments for us. I remember some recruits passing out from the intensity of the physical punishments given to us.

In the first week of BCT, one private was made to do "grass drills" in the platoon hallway. He had to vigorously run in place, then when told "front," he had to get on his front and do pushups and when told "back," had to flip onto his back and do situps. When told "up" he had to get back up and run in place. Thus he had to keep getting up, getting down, etc. Finally when the DS said "front," this guy fainted and fell over backwards, hitting his head on the floor. He looked like a dead fish. The DS dragged this poor bastard into the DS office and revived him.

There were other physical punishments- some kind of funny now that I reflect on them 20 years later. I sometimes wish I could use some of the milder ones on my college students to wake them the fuck up.

[Redleg]

13. On my first formation in basic training I fell in with the wrong platoon.

Boy did my drill sergeant smoke my sorry ass for that. The other drill sergeant said "This recruit doesn't want to be in your platoon, Staff Sergeant Jones." I did lots of pushups for that one.

Later on, after I earned my commission, I understood the point of the discipline.

[crikkett]

14. Don't remember much of those days

Could be that I don't want to, it could be that I didn't get enough sleep. The thing I remember most about the military is being tired and trying to stay awake. I fell asleep at the most awkward times!

Since I left the service i have a strict policy of never fighting sleep. Now that's discipline

:boring: