JIM “PAPPY” MOORE: Boot Camp Experience
By Jim “Pappy” Moore
Every guy who has gone to boot camp and made it through without getting discharged for being unworthy shares something with every other guy who has completed that regimen successfully. There is a camaraderie which exists among veterans of all stripes, and it begins with the Boot Camp Experience.
Among the films which have done a good job of addressing the Boot Camp Experience, the one which stands out as most accurate is Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, about Marines during the Vietnam War making their transition from civilians to Marines. The first forty minutes or so are devoted to that time and process. Although there are differences among the services for boot camp, there were many aspects of that film presentation which cut across the lines of the various services.
The barracks looked like boot camp barracks, right down to the shiny dull reddish tile floors and the bunks of that era. That one big screw-up everyone had in their group rang true as well. There’s always one guy who can’t get it done right, and he gets extra punishments placed on the group for his inability or his refusal to “get with the program.” This leads to the time-honored practice of a “blanket party” for the recalcitrant troop after lights out.
The blanket party may sound harsh to those who have not been through such a training camp, but it is part of forming the group devotion to requiring all troops to do as they are required or face the consequences. After lights out, two service members take a green issue military blanket and throw it over the sleeping target, thereby holding him down. Other troops then administer the punishment by taking their towel and wrapping their personal bar of soap, and using that as a weapon to hit (only once by each troop) the target in the chest and stomach areas. It is very painful, and the target’s mouth is covered by another troop, so his yells are not heard.
This is the group’s way of assuring the victim will work harder to get his “stuff” together. We had one in my group in 1968. Always getting others in trouble. Never doing what he was supposed to do. A spoiled brat who still thought like a civilian. His name was Fraser. He got the treatment, and he got his stuff together after that.
In this century, the Boot Camp Experience has become something anathema to old time military like me and my generation. SOFT. That would be the official term for it. The recruits of the 21st century have been changed by the new military the United States has trotted out for the boot camp process. If a troop feels he or she is being yelled at too much by a drill instructor, they have cards they can pull out and let the drill instructors know they are feeling threatened. As young folks sometimes say “I can’t even.”
What we know is that all that yelling, all that knocking you off your civilian mindset, all that verbal and physical abuse is designed to transform you from a useless civilian into a useful soldier for the United States military. You have to learn to understand and obey orders. You have to get it together and do your part or it all falls apart.
In our times now it has become a touchy-feely process which has gone overboard gently treating recruits and restraining drill instructors. We need to get back to the ways that have served the United States well. We need a return to Duty, Honor and Country for our military. We need to get our stuff together.
Copyright 2024, Jim “Pappy” Moore. All rights reserved.
