LogDog75 (920 posts)
Wed Oct 15, 2025, 10:42 PM
Hegseth want to mistreat military basic trainees
Macho man Hegseth wants to go "Old School" on military trainees in basic training. I think he's seen too many old movies and read too many Beetle Bailey cartoons about Sgt. Snorkle.
“We’re empowering drill sergeants to instill healthy fear in new recruits, ensuring that future warfighters are forged,” he said. “They can toss bunks, they can swear, and yes, they can put their hands on recruits. This does not mean they can be reckless or violate the law, but they can use tried and true methods to motivate new recruits, to make them the warriors they need to be.”
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/hegseth-wants-basic-to-go-old-school-what-policies-must-change-first/
The old idea of tossing bunks, swearing, and putting their hands on recruits is one way to persuade young men and women not to enlist in the military. If this is allowed in basic training then once the trainees graduate they'll expect that to the standard when they arrive at technical school and their subsequent assignments. Once they become supervisors/leaders, they'll treat their troops the way their basic training instructors treated them during basic. Why would anyone want to make the military a career knowing they'll be treated like second class citizens.
I enlisted in the AF on January31, 1975 and attend basic training at Lackland AFB. Not once during my basic training did the instructor swear, toss bunks, put their hands on anyone, or intimidate any of his recruits. He was a professional with the way he treated us and with the exception of maybe two people who washed out he molded us into Airmen. He was firm but fair with us and he did what a leader does; make us want to work as a team and accomplish our objective whether it was on the firing range, marching, or learning about the Air Force and what it is about.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220723990flying rabbit (4,898 posts)
1. The Russian military uses hazing, intimidation, rape and beatings.
Hows that working out for them?
Apart from your drug-addled imagination, who said anything about rapes and beatings?
yorkster (3,434 posts)
2. What a repulsive, dangerous fool.
patphil (8,353 posts)
3. Health fear?
Reply to LogDog75 (Original post)
Wed Oct 15, 2025, 10:55 PM
There's no such thing.
This isn't going to result in recruits respecting their leaders. It's essentially creates a culture of violence. The resulting soldiers aren't warriors, they're thugs.
Discipline doesn't come from fear, it comes from respect, and respect comes from acknowledgement of true leadership.
True leaders earn the respect of those who follow them.
I went through basic training in the summer of 1969, and know of what I speak.
Our first night in the squad bay after reception, the Drill Sergeant had us sitting around him in a horseshow as he explained how things were going to work. He told this one trainee to get him some paper towels from the latrine. The kid got up and sauntered off. The DS went silence as his eyes locked on the kid. That silence and that stare made the rest of us turn around to look.
As the kid came back, paper towels in hand, the DS bolted from our midst. He must have covered 20 feet in 3 strides. He grabbed the kid by the lapels of his uniform and hoisted him off the ground, slamming him - loudly - into the wall lockers. Holding the kid off the ground, the DS growled - and I swear this has stuck with me, lo these many decades - "You wanna pimp walk in front of me? Pimps sell women! My mother is a woman! My wife is a woman! My daughter is a woman! Do you want to sell them?"
"N-no, drill sergeant."
"Then, don't ever let me catch you walking like a pimp in front of me."
The DS dropped the kid back to the ground and returned to the center of the horseshow to resume his talk.
At graduation, we all remarked how ramrod straight that kid still stood. I myself often received comments on my posture from civilians. I never pimp-walked and I never got hoisted, but the lesson sunk in to me as well.
