Recruit Abuse and the Company Officer's Role in Resolving It

摘要

Staff Sergeant (SSgt) Hardcorps has just graduated from Drill Instructor School and is looking forward to training young civilians to become United States Marines. He had dreamt about being a drill instructor since he graduated from bootcamp six years earlier. He was always a stellar Marine. In Iraq, SSgt Hardcorps was awarded the Navy Cross for heroism. As he works his first platoon of recruits, SSgt Hardcorps notices that his fellow drill instructors are pushing, poking, and hitting their recruits. He recognizes this as a blatant violation of the Recruit Training Order (RTO). SSgt Hardcorps talks to his Senior Drill Instructor (SDI) about his observations. His SDI tells him that those drill instructors were training those recruits to become tough and that is how 'real' drill instructors train their recruits. He also tells SSgt Hardcorps that his performance has been weak and that he needs to become more aggressive and demanding of his recruits; just like the drill instructors he observed hitting and pushing recruits. SSgt Hardcorps follows the example established by his SDI and peers, and before his first platoon graduates, SSgt Hardcorps is subjected to a court martial and is voided of his drill instructor military occupational specialty (MOS) for abusing recruits.