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I'm so glad I enlisted after graduating from my University.

That little scene is like a piece of history as the Army's Basic Training Drill Sergeants, at Fort Sill at least, are no longer allowed to give shark attacks. Part of the Army's new basic training system... After hiring consultants from MTV to help the Army to develop a new system for training IET soldiers that worked better with today's new generation.

I was part of Fort Sill's first graduation class under the new Basic Training model, Alpha 1/79th, graduated March 31st. Before I got to Fort Sill, I was told that by soldiers who had gone through Basic that when the DS's find out I was OCS I would be on the brutal end of up close interactions with the Drill Sergeants, however all of the Drill Sergeants in my battery almost completely left me alone.

During reception the Drill Sergeants there told us our battery was to be the very first to train under the new model. And we weren't just a test group, the Army was to be instituting it for good. After observing them, I have a feeling the Drill Sergeants weren't too pleased with the whole thing and some tweaking to the model will be made over the next year to make it a bit more like the previous Basic Training system that the above picture shows.

Looking back, I'm glad I never went to one of he academies or a school like VMI. I've seen some very fine officers come out of them, but I've also see many officers who've been very much on the "weird" side. Somehow, those schools turned them into ill-adjusted adults. Fortunately, most of them are gone by the time they'd be up for major, but it sucks getting one of those "broken" academy officers. Maybe joining the military at 25 changed my perspective on things.

Andy, you're 100% right. Age changes perspective a lot.

Hazing may make sense for teenagers, but a grown man merely finds it annoying.

Adults HAVE discipline (it's part of the definition of adult). They merely need instruction.

Yep....that's it. It brings back many memories. Keep up the good work you two Rats.

Ben Bauman 79
Cdr, VFW Post 9949

As a graduate of the US Air Force Academy ('76), I have been on both sides of the situation. Discipline doesn't have anything to do with it. What you regard as hazing is a calculated measured exposure to stress, combined with the observation reaction to that stress. People who cannot function under the minor stress of getting yelled at are not good candidates for military service.

It is very PC, but you do no one any favors by taking it easy in training. It's better to identify those who are unsuitable in basic training. If you wait until they get into a combat situation, if you can't hack it you might get yourself killed and those around you.

All I can say is thank God for VMI then.

Hopefully the US military academies and also the basic training facilities will indeed institute a bit of that aforementioned tweaking to the process in the near future.

Also agree with the differences in adulthood vs teenagers wholeheartedly as one teenager whose life was completely brought together many moons ago by the 60s-70s era USAF basic training program.

I'll never forget the first time we laid timid young eyes on our new TI down at Lackland AFB, the guy looked like a cigarette machine with a head on it.

God bless him.

He turned untold hundreds of young boys into young men capable of doing almost anything taught to them.

"Zero Defects" was the slogan back then.

Kind of important when you are riding nukes at 50,000 on a daily basis.

As an older black American I constantly wish and pray that I could be allowed to put on the Smokey Bear hat and take it to the local high school here. Yessir. After three our four days of "screwin' 'em into the ground" on the parade field with a bit of drill and some applied practice at the fine art that used to be known as "lowering the altitude of the deck" those lads might just learn how to be proud of something for a change.

Esprit de corps.

I'd get up every morning and do it for free.

.

BTW bugz -- You marched to lunch and I was playing solo bugle in the old USAF Academy Drum and Bugle Corps while you marched.

We used to call it, "Noon Tune".

In '72 and '73 anyway. Then transferred out of bands and into -- SAC.

Was recently back in Colo Spgs the other month to attend the Christian Writer's Guild conference, man has that place grown, I couldn't recognize anything, last time I say Academy Blvd. ole Jess Masias' Mission Bell tavern was the only thing at the end of a two lane road before you got to the gate. It is now a six laner and the Mission Bell is gone to history. A shame, that was a great little drinkin' hole in its day. I used to pay my bar tab on payday and Jess would light the candles and turn the lights back on (grin).

Red Sunbeam Tiger, a 51 Hudson Hornet (restored, if you saw it likely it was primer gray then became brown and yella) and a green Honda 750K1, wish I had held onto the Hudson now.

Good duty.

.

Armchair commentators should realize that anecdotal, second and third hand information filtered through preconceived biases do not present an accurate picture of either the Republic's fine Academies (USMA, USAFA, USNA), the officers they produce or what life is like in them. As a West Point grad, I can safely say that I hated the monstrous place. I can also say that the education was world class, matching anything the Ivies have to offer. Furthermore, I can also say that it taught me and my friends the importance of duty, the essence of leadership and what it means to be a patriot. In the dark times we live in, it is useless and embarrassing to argue the merits of the Service Academies vs. military colleges, or West Point vs. Annapolis, etc. We all salute the same flag and we all have a common enemy. There are good officers from all the commissioning sources, just like there are bad officers from all the commissioning sources, what matters is the character of the individual.

Like I said, the academies have produced some fine officers but I don't see them, as a group, any better than ROTC officers or Mustangs - and I've worked for a lot of officers (mainly Air Force and Navy) in my career.

Rugby players spend a lot of time physical training Compared to other form of sports.I have read the
Rugby laws mentioned on this site. It's a gripping sport which targets the grip strength and the active mindedness of a player. American football and rugby league are also primarily collision sports, but their tackles tend to terminate much more quickly. For professional rugby, players are often chosen on the basis of their size and apparent strength and they develop the skill and power over the passage of time. In modern rugby considerable attention is given to fitness and aerobic conditioning as well as basic weight training.