Brutality in Basic Training

[m1ashooter]

Oh the horror of it all. Once at Officers Basic at Vandenberg AFB the bus we were riding in broke down and we had a walk a bit.

[Nick Riviezzo]

I went to FT. Dix,NJ for Basic in 1963. I remember a NY "tough guy" Had everybody snowed that he was a Golden Gloves Champ until a smaller,by 25-30 pounds,street smart black kid closed the door to their squad bay and showed mister "golden gloves" where the bear went in the buckwheat! Same idiot had a heavy beard but persisted in shaving at night. Needless to say the TAC NCOs were on him constantly about shaving.While on bivouac for range quals,mister smart a$$ was braced by the Field 1st. Sgt. about not shaving in the morning. About 4 words out of smart a$$es mouth and the meeting adjourned to behind a nearby bush where after "falling down" several times the miscreant was observed "shaving" with a rock!After several hours of rubbing his face with the rock he was thoroughly convinced that a morning shave with a blade was MUCH better! Was that brutality? I don't think so. I think it was the Military establishment re-establishing the "pecking order".I wonder if Mr.Ravis [not his REAL name] still has his shaving rock? Nick

[Griff Murphey]

I don't remember any brutality at all in going through Army ROTC advanced Camp at Fort Sill, 1970. I remember being very hot and thirsty and no water, and when we had water, it was often so over-chlorinated it burned when it went down. Loved that red Kool Aide made with that hyper chlorinated water. Burned so good!

We did almost have a big fight with the company one street over, Delta. They did not like some of our guys peeing in the alley between the two companies. E tools were unfolded and matters came to near boiling point. Strangely the Cadre was uninvolved no MP's either.

We got away with murder avoiding PT. Cadre didn't bother to watch us after the first few sessions. We'd double time around the corner and go to route step as soon as we were out of sight. Once that got going that was that.

I wish I could go back at age 21 and do it again... It would be a vacation... Fire those 105's, the 90 and 106 reckless, M-79, M-60, M-14, '16, .45... Toss Mike 26 hand frags....John Wayne around blazing away with blanks! I was too stressed back then to enjoy it; I thought it was all real important... Back then.

[Trap4570]

We were issued M-16's in basic and they were brand new. I was glad because there was no drills other than present arms and shoulder arms. We were told that if any weapon was found to have a scratch on it that the sh_t head that scratched it would buy it. This one guy figured if he had to buy it he could take it home. He scratched the finish all over with a coin. The DI's went ballistic and yelled at him until they tired out then formed a huddle with the Lt. and a few other DI's. We thought they had the brig in mind but they surprised everyone when they took his weapon away and gave him a rubber 'gun'. It was quite funny watching him try to qualify with two DI's standing over him while he pointed his rubber gun at the targets yelling Bang-Bang. In the end the poor fellow was cycled back through basic for another try. I wonder if he made it on the second try.

[Cecil]

I don't think this is brutality, don't think they could get by with it today. i still laugh when i think about it. we where at Edson range in july 68 and we still had PT after snapping in, went on runs in the hills close by. the senior DI would yell "snake guards out" and all the black recruits had to drop out and run in the sagebrush along side of the platoon. i will never forget the eyes of some of those guys the fisrt time we did it. never did see a snake in bootcamp, did see them later in ITR at San Onofre......Semper Fi

There was an LHA pad over at "White Beach" next to I-5. Go there May-July and you will see all the snakes you want to see for a lifetime. That thing comes alive when you step on it. I was in formation and found 6" rattlesnake sticking out from under my boot.

[amber]

Be glad it was a little guy. Did he snap at you?

[mike24d20]

Basic, Ft. Ord. Spent a lot of time on guard duty patroling the wall in Feb. Had a lil di@k head E-5 DI who thought he was god. Broke his leg in a traffic acct. 1st week of basic. Was replaced with a E-6 Dickenson who was set too retire.A real good D.I. We did a lot of duck walking an low crawling with our noses in the ground. The most brutal thing that I can remember was the rain an looking off toward the bay an seeing sail boats an sun. One time on the fireing range a kid had his bells rung when he fired out of turn an the DI's used a 2x4. Also spent my share of time on kp, an we would tell our buddies no too eat the scrambled eggs for breakfast that day=heeheehee.

[John Sukey]

The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.

[noslack327]

Ah those piney woods rooters, I remember them well. We were on the bivouac part of basic and I had guard duty one night when a whole herd of them came through the bivouac area around midnight. Mostly they just checked things out and left, all except one that poked his snout into the tent of an old boy named Roberson who smacked him on the snout with an intrenching tool.

I was there from June - August 1966. It was brutally hot. I was used to it having grown up spending a lot of time in the outdoors both in southeast Texas and Louisiana but it even got to me once though I never went down. Those boys from the midwest had a lot of problems. An ambulance followed every column on the march and periodically they would have to load one of those cooler climate boys in when they dropped from the heat.

By the way, you know how to tell when a piney woods rooter is ready for harvest? It's when you pick him up by the ears and his head is balanced by the rest of his body.

Wonderful place B/4/2 Jan 1966.

[Michael Tompkins]

Are you sure you aren't talking about me here? Got to Ft McCellan, MP OSUT 12 May 1980, weighed almost exactly 240 pounds. And I am 6'4" tall.

First breakfast I went down the line, had a black coffee on my tray, a slice of dry toast with peanut butter on it, and a banana. SSG Brumfield made me put the banana back. This was my breakfast for the next six weeks of basic.

At the end of OSUT (Echo Co, 10th TNG Bn)

Hey Hal, I was with Alpha-11 at McClellan. Sep 78 to Jan 81. Headed to W. Germany after that. Mike