This just pisses me off (told you I would come back angry):
The recruits of Echo Company stumbled off the bus for basic training at Fort Knox to the screams of red-faced drill instructors. That much was expected. But it got worse from there.
Echo Company’s top drill instructor seized a recruit by the back of the neck and threw him to the ground. Other soldiers were poked, grabbed or cursed.
Once inside the barracks, Pvt. Jason Steenberger says, he was struck in the chest by the top D.I. and kicked “like a football.” Andrew Soper, who has since left the Army, says he was slapped and punched in the chest by another drill instructor. Pvt. Adam Roster says he was hit in the back and slammed into a wall locker.
Eventually, four Army drill instructors and the company commander would be brought up on charges. Four have been convicted so far.
This happened a 1-81 Armor, which was right near my own Bravo 2-13 at Disney Barracks, Ft. Knox. The first thing to remember is this is not the dominant military culture, against regs, and the people involved are being punished.
Still a damned shame, though.
Stormy70
I don’t like stories like this either, and I am glad they brought these turdburglers up on charges. Pathetic.
O/T Did you finally see Batman Begins?
Rick
Guess they would’ve preferred that loud Aguillera music, or whatever.
Callous..I mean, Cordially…
Alexandra
Why do I feel sure that sometime real soon someone is going to post some bull about how the cadets are whiners who need to toughen up and face the music. Well, I’m sorry, but I think this is just destructive. There’s the kind of toughening that builds teams and is fundamentally respectful of the growth of the cadets. Then there’s the kind of abuse that went on here. These young people are risking their lives for our country. They deserve better.
Jim Rhoads (vnjagvet)
39 years ago, I commanded a basic training company at Fort Knox. I then served three years in the JAG Corps, including one in Vietnam.
Nothing ever happened like this during the year I was at Fort Knox, and I did not have to deal with any such incidents while I was in the Army, although rumors abounded from time to time in other units.
I agree with Alexandra. IMO, the Company Commander of this unit got off light with six months confinement.
James Emerson
I’m not really too upset by this. Sure, the DIs need to be disciplined for their excesses. Maybe they could do another tour in Iraq, where the screaming and the punching can be useful tools in saving American lives and in ensuring unit discipline, and where combat status means the abuse goes largely unreported. These same behaviours arose during the Vietnam War in both Army and Marine boot camps as well as in the fire zones. Abuse can serve a higher purpose if properly used…
War increases pressure on the DIs. Each and every DI wants to produce the best possible result by utilizing any method that is seen to work. By now, most DIs are Iraq veterans who have been in combat, and know what pitfalls to expect, and they have lost friends. This DI background experience when improperly channelled doesn’t raise the bar as much as it might raise the hysteria. But calculated abuse creates fear where kind words don’t, and fear is a useful commodity in combat…
cfw
Does this sort of thing look much rougher that one sees at football practices with high school kids? (The similarity at least in my part of SoCal suggested to me that football practices with psycho coaches were not places where I would send my son.)
Second: Not hugely different from what I saw on occasion at Ft. Benning in jump school (’77). Some pushing and yelling may help one learn to react quickly and correctly in high stress situations. Still, any actual rough touching should be kept to a bare minimum – like abuse in Gtmo. A DI’s job is not as easy as it might seem, and there is a long military tradition of hazing that we are still over-coming (recall All Quiet on the Western Front).
I doubt we have the whole story from the quote above, if a Captain got 6 months confinement and there were other courts martial.
p.lukasiak
The first thing to remember is this is not the dominant military culture, against regs…
gee, I guess that this level of violence against recruits just sprang up suddenly from out of nowhere, huh? Nobody knew nothing before it happened, nobody complained before this particular incident was reported….
why do I find that difficult to believe?
Uncle Kvetch
gee, I guess that this level of violence against recruits just sprang up suddenly from out of nowhere, huh? Nobody knew nothing before it happened, nobody complained before this particular incident was reported….
Well of course! A few bad apples and so forth. Besides, when they weren’t being kicked around like footballs, they were eating lemon chicken and rice pilaf! So just take your faux-outrage elsewhere, Mister.
MunDane
I can’t believe this, I was in Charlie 2-13 for Basic/OSUT.
Small world, ain’t it.
The funny thing is, this is the way military justice is supposed to work. The perps and thei commander get brought up on charges. The thing is, I wonder where the CSM and the other brass were. When I went from the reception battalion to the training companies, I remember seeing the CSM and the 13th Brigade XO looking like gods of war on the loading dock.
Wonder why they stopped showing up for this…maybe it went higher than the captain who got caught.