Pete Hegseth to Lift Ban on Powerful Basic
Training Tactic

Any Marine reading this has to be chuckling. "He's gonna try to make them Marines!"

I did BCT at Ft. Knox, KY in 1966. I was in reasonably good physical condition when I enlisted. Basic was easier than I thought it would be.

In the years immediately after WW2, when memories of war and the importance of training had not been forgotten, the army brought the best, meanest, and toughest drill Sargents to West Point. One of those drill instructors was my father. Boot camp was nothing new to me.

A fighting force that is wussified because some pansies think that soldiers are too rough, is doomed to fail in battle, which defeats the whole purpose of soldiering. Our fighting forces need to be prepared to defeat vicious enemies who have no such compunctions.

He could do the Marine Corps a real favor by getting rid of co-ed drill instructors.

I have a clip I saved of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) chewing out recruits at the start of basic. Great movie. Ermey was a former marine brought on set to train the actor playing his role. He saw that the actor wasn't much good and said, "Hell, I can do better than that ". He showed them, got the job, and made Full Metal Jacket a classic war film. RIP, Gunny.

I went to Marine Corps boot camp in 1967. There was no need for three drill instructors to yell at an individual recruit to straighten him out. One was enough.

When I was in Basic Training we had a young guy that was obviously not all there. I later found out he was drafted, no mother or father living when he went in to the Army and from my interactions with him he was Autistic. One of our Drill Sergeants, Field First Sergeant Laney. He was screaming at the kid and brought him to tears and on the ground. Laney started kicking him. Then several other drill sergeants ran over and stopped him even though Laney outranked them. They had to drag him away, he was totally out of control. When our Company Commander got involved. Laney was busted to E5 from E7 and forced to retire, he had just over 20 years. I would have prosecuted him for his attacks on the kid.

My bunk mate in basic (I had the top bunk) had been in the army and gotten out so had to go back through basic training. One day the DI did the shark attack on him. Afterward he calmly said,"Drill Sgt, I don't mean any disrespect but if you spit in my face one more time, I'm gonna have to kill you". The DI got all red faced and started stammering, y-y-you better get your Sh$t together trainee" as he backed away. It was classic.

Trust me, they don’t select recruits at random for this treatment, it’s very much targeted toward the one who makes snarky comments or little facial expressions, in an attempt to appear smarter than everyone else. The Drill Sergeants will pound the arrogant self-centeredness out of them, or they will wash them out, marking them forever to society as losers and employment risks. We need “Universal Military Training,” like so many other developed countries have.

That kind of training is useful and builds character even though it might have seemed unpleasant or even sadistic at the time. Years later when you realize why your training was rough you will want to go back and thank a good man.

Its easy to talk like a tough guy and a warrior now that I am old and will never go through basic training again. At the time it was a very different matter. The instructors were angry, sadistic SOBs who took out their failings in life on us skinhead invisible recruits. The one thing that made it tolerable was the knowledge that it would be over in a matter of weeks. But they didnt make me better, they made me bitter.

With respect #10: If you spend 20 minutes on YouTube watching feral yutes in action, the days of being able to shape behavior and instill discipline in boot camp are long gone. The three kids in Dallas a couple of days ago, wearing pajamas and bathrobes while robbing a CVS, cursing and threatening the staff...all three appear to be under 12 years old. The only result of forcing them into military service would be that every training officer would quit, rather than risk being arrested for trying to force civilized behavior into someone who cannot be taught.

My Marine first husband, now deceased, told me all about being a Marine, including the toughness of boot camp and how important that was. The Marine Corps took young men and turned them into Marines. The DIs were tough. Some say sadistic. But no worse than the enemies they would be facing. Such as the Japanese in WWII and in his case, he North Koreans. He was wounded while,evacuating Army personnel - live, wounded, dead (unlike thee Army, the Marines leave no one behind - alive or dead)- after the Marines went north to get the Army out of the Chosin Reservoir, His truck was ambushed by NKs and Chinese , machine-gunned down the driver side. Seriously wounded, he was one of the first brought home from Korea for treatment. December 1950. He loved the Marine Corps and all it stood for . And he believed the tough training was essential.

After 4 years wasted in college, US Army infantry basic, then AI, then OCS then active infantry, I discovered a confidence I never suspected. That was in late 1960s, and has continued into my Eighties. Hopeful that past methods will return.

Re: #14 - I suspect that from your Marine husband, you've heard about Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller, commander of the 1st Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division in Korea, who earned his fifth Navy Cross, second only in combat significance to the MoH, at Chosin in Korea. It was at Chosin, Chesty famously remarked, "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." he wasn't kidding. His Marines were surrounded by 22 enemy divisions, over 350,000 enemy troops, including fresh Chinese divisions that had come across the Yalu River from China to reinforce the N. Korean communist troops. Chesty's division, around 12,500 marines, destroyed 7 communist divisions of over 115,000 men, inflicting the highest casualty ratio on an enemy in U.S. history. Later during the Korean War, after being promoted to Brigadier General, then Major General, commanding the 1st Marine Division, Chesty was on a battalion inspection tour, and as he reviewed assembled spit-and-polish Marines in their formations, he remarked, “Take me to the Brig, I want to see the “real Marines”. During Reagan's first term, after training and service with Marines as a Fleet Marine Force Navy Corpsman, then working my way through college for six years to qualify, I went to the Navy's Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola, FL, and was actually comforted to learn that our company's senior drill instructor was a decorated Marine Gunnery Sergeant. I knew he'd be harsh but fair, which he was. Regardless of a candidate's demonstrated athletic and/or academic prowess, he could find an exploitable weakness in anyone, when he'd bellow, "Do you think I'm ever going to allow a dumb s*** college boy like you to fly my Marines into combat?" It was a reminder that you wouldn't graduate, receive your commission, and assignment to flight school unless or until he signed off on your military readiness.

My brother went into the Marine Corp and thought he was pretty fit also. He said after his Basic Training that he was more afraid of his Drill Sergeant than he was of the enemy. But, that "torture" kept him alive and is grateful for it having done 3 tours in Vietnam.

Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Uniforms should not come in xxxtra large.

Re #16, yes. Chesty Puller was his hero and the hero of many Marines who ended up in "the Korean conflict".