Marine drill instructors not supposed to use profanity?

[elvis]

Surviving Marine Corps Basic Training

This was surprising to me....

 

[Oddball]

What is your major malfunction, jackwagon?

 

[Mr. H.]

Somehow, "you fornicating self-prostituting offspring of a female canine" just doesn't cut it.

 

[MikeK]

What DIs are supposed to do and what they do are two very different things.

The Marine recruit mindset is to endure. So the thought of complaining about rough treatment wouldn't occur to them because the bottom line purpose of Marine boot camp is to determine who can tolerate the extreme physical and psychological rigors of prolonged combat conditions and who can't.

 

[xotoxi]

Surviving Marine Corps Basic Training

This was surprising to me....

What I don't understand is why you have to say "sir" at the beginning and end of the sentence:

"Sir, this recruit does not understand the drill instructor's request, sir."

It would be like saying:

"Please may I have another slice of pie, please?"

 

[Mad Scientist]

Surviving Marine Corps Basic Training

This was surprising to me....

What I don't understand is why you have to say "sir" at the beginning and end of the sentence:

"Sir, this recruit does not understand the drill instructor's request, sir."

It would be like saying:

"Please may I have another slice of pie, please?"

Sounds good to me. Some kids never learned basic manners from their parents. I call that "Home Training". Plus, the military recruit needs to learn to follow orders and pay attention to detail all under stress. (Not like you didn't know that already!)

 

[Trajan]

Surviving Marine Corps Basic Training

This was surprising to me....

well, they are not supposed to and maybe they don't but heck, things have changed......they weren't suppose to use 'physical persuasion' when I was in either, but they did.


my shock in the article was the 15% fail rate. when I went though, the average was way higher, oh they try a lot harder to keep you and it is a lot more difficult than say in the army to actually drop out or get dropped out and sent home, but we started with like 60 guy's and graduated 40 or so I think. The others were recycled back to earlier training, they called it doing the sea bag drag to another platoon that was in an earlier phase of training etc.

 

[zzzz]

Avoiding the use of profanity in basic is another failure in the new age of silliness. Profanity has its uses and used sparingly can be effective. If every other word is a curse word it loses its impact, thats why some of the people's rants on here have no meaning. But a recruit should have to endure hardship going through basic from verbal to physical abuse. If a guy or gal can't cut it there you don't want them flaking out on the battlefield and quitting on you, leaving you all alone facing an enemy. Its all about team and being able to rely on your team members. Sure it may not be nice to endure but it hardens the individual and helps make them stronger, either that or they get out.

 

[Cain]

I hope they use profanity, or whatever they used before, from what my Uncles told me, of course their really old school but that's beside the point, they can't "lay a hand on you" but one of my uncles had a female instructor knock him on his butt with a simple "chest shove". I want to be put through Boot rough, so I know I made it through something rough. I am sure I am not the only one in that mind-set, but I am sure their are a lot of good things about a nicer Boot Camp, but I'd prefer the rougher type myself.

 

[asterism]

God, it was hard enough to keep a straight face even when they did cuss - now they expect these folks to tolerate "jackwagon" without busting a gut?

 

[xotoxi]

Surviving Marine Corps Basic Training

This was surprising to me....

What I don't understand is why you have to say "sir" at the beginning and end of the sentence:

"Sir, this recruit does not understand the drill instructor's request, sir."

It would be like saying:

"Please may I have another slice of pie, please?"

Sounds good to me. Some kids never learned basic manners from their parents. I call that "Home Training". Plus, the military recruit needs to learn to follow orders and pay attention to detail all under stress. (Not like you didn't know that already!)

But why do they need to say "Sir" at the beginning and end of the sentence? It seems redundant. Inefficient, in fact.

 

[xotoxi]

...one of my uncles had a female instructor knock him on his butt with a simple "chest shove".

She must have had a massive set of knockers!

 

[xotoxi]

Profanity has its uses and used sparingly can be effective.

You have a fucking point.

 

[MikeK]

But why do they need to say "Sir" at the beginning and end of the sentence? It seems redundant. Inefficient, in fact.

The simple answer to that is Marine boot camp is a textbook example of intensive Pavlovian conditioning and it is eminently effective. No one who manages to get through the 13 week cycle at Parris Island (or San Diego) is the same person who started.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

What I don't understand is why you have to say "sir" at the beginning and end of the sentence:

"Sir, this recruit does not understand the drill instructor's request, sir."

It would be like saying:

"Please may I have another slice of pie, please?"

Sounds good to me. Some kids never learned basic manners from their parents. I call that "Home Training". Plus, the military recruit needs to learn to follow orders and pay attention to detail all under stress. (Not like you didn't know that already!)

But why do they need to say "Sir" at the beginning and end of the sentence? It seems redundant. Inefficient, in fact.

It instills a mindset, and is part of the psych warfare.

 

[Paulie]

What I don't understand is why you have to say "sir" at the beginning and end of the sentence:

"Sir, this recruit does not understand the drill instructor's request, sir."

It would be like saying:

"Please may I have another slice of pie, please?"

Sounds good to me. Some kids never learned basic manners from their parents. I call that "Home Training". Plus, the military recruit needs to learn to follow orders and pay attention to detail all under stress. (Not like you didn't know that already!)

But why do they need to say "Sir" at the beginning and end of the sentence? It seems redundant. Inefficient, in fact.

In the Air Force we didn't use sir twice. It was only used once, to open a reporting statement.

Before you could address a DI, you had to say "Sir, trainee ______ reports" and then make your statement. If asked a question, you had to first respond with that, with the addition of "as ordered" before you could answer.

Any variation on the statement at all led to inevitable humiliation and embarrassment.

As far as the profanity, I don't remember a DI ever using any. At least not the big ones.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Sounds good to me. Some kids never learned basic manners from their parents. I call that "Home Training". Plus, the military recruit needs to learn to follow orders and pay attention to detail all under stress. (Not like you didn't know that already!)

But why do they need to say "Sir" at the beginning and end of the sentence? It seems redundant. Inefficient, in fact.

In the Air Force we didn't use sir twice. It was only used once, to open a reporting statement.

Before you could address a DI, you had to say "Sir, trainee ______ reports" and then make your statement. If asked a question, you had to first respond with that, with the addition of "as ordered" before you could answer.

Any variation on the statement at all led to inevitable humiliation and embarrassment.

As far as the profanity, I don't remember a DI ever using any. At least not the big ones.

It has been a long time since my boot camp days, but I cannot honestly say I remember any profanity either. I know I believe they used it, but I cannot definitely recall it.