Oy. The story is as follows: female recruit can’t handle bayonet training, gets cussed out by the instructor, bursts into tears — and the instructor is now facing a court-martial because feewings.
I’d put in a little excerpt from the article, except that it would cause all veterans’ blood pressure to soar and the howls of outrage would upset all the other people in the cubicle farm*.
And the Brits expect their army to go to war… it is, as they say, to laugh.
*I know that most of you read this website at work. Don’t bother lying to me.
Monty Python’s “British Army” sketches were not supposed to be instruction manuals:-(. I’m sure the Muslim hordes will respect this woman’s feelings.
While I agree that the filming and sharing of the incident was somewhat unprofessional, I doubt that there would be comparable outrage had the pretend-soldier been male. The unnamed corporal has done the British people a good service by showing the depths to which the military has sunk.
When I read the news story I thought this was some sort of over the top “Full Metal Jacket” DI scream fest, the watching the video it appeared to be a normal basic training day. Pushing trainees to their limits is the way to make soldiers and toughen them up, 52 years ago in the US of A good green Army I don’t remember any crying, tears perhaps of pain and frustration but no crying.
Of course the DI might be in need of punishment for going public with this bit of training which is not a spectator sport and if done properly the end result of pushing to the limit of any soldier should result in confidence and a successful public graduation exercise or a quiet wash-out. Lots of people don’t want to see sausage being made.
So the soldierette was expected to be able to ram a bayonet (and I LOVE how the new report had to tell the readers the definition of a bayonet!) into someone, but is reduced to tears by being yelled at.
I think I see part of the problem (at least as it involves the US, don’t know if the UK does things similarly). For a while the military was viewed by many as a scholarship program, a way to “make money for college”. Case in point, a few years back when Paul Tibbets does, someone I’m acquainted with said “Imagine joining the military to make money for college and being forced to do something like that?” Part of the issue is that’s how the military was advertised for a long time (although I’ve no doubt the recruits were taught better once they got to boot camp). When you change the military from an organization whose function is to kill our enemies and break their stuff to one where people try to suck the government teat and perform social experiments their capability as war fighters goes out the window.
Well, I think the last seventeen years have boiled THAT attitude out of the American military, at the least.
My daughter was going out with a boy in college, who, on his father’s advice, joined the ANG to take advantage of the tuition program they were providing for certain students with a very high grade average. A year later he he told his father that some of his friends in the program were being called up to active service overseas and his excuse was that he didn’t want to take the time from his studies.
His father, a judge, managed to extricate his son from the program.
I’m not certain that the father appreciates the great service he performed for our country.
Golly, guys, we surely wouldn’t want to have a soldier that thought that killing one’s enemy was an ‘icky’ thing! Come on now, have some feelings for the poor li’l girl soldier, she’s just letting her feelings out.
Perhaps she should be offered a safe space to meditate in both before and after the trauma of doing her duty.
One thing is for certain, (formerly) Great Britain’s enemies hope and pray that she is the model soldier in GB’s military.
A DI does what he has to do – but videoing and posting the incident was definitely out of line.
To quote Major Reisman from The Dirty Dozen: “You only made one mistake. You let someone see you do it”
I’m a bit confused. Is the DI in trouble because he recorded this interaction and posted it or is he in trouble because of the way he acted towards the recruit? All three?
“We are not accepting comments on this article.”
Hopefully that means too many (from the Daily Fail’s point of view) people said stuff like “can you imagine Princess in the trenches?”
Now the big question is who’s going to be the next rulers of England?
I’ve got my money on Islamic Caliphate.
Nah. I’m betting on Kim organizing us into an invasion force. Probably with help from British gun owners.
Kim goes to England: http://martianmagazine.com/comic/dans-vacation/
I’ll sign up for some vintage Jaguars (nothing newer than a mid 60s E-type), a few bottles of very old single malt, and a supply of good beer. And maybe a date with Helen Mirren – despite her Commie politics she’s still a pretty hot number for an old lady. In my old age I enjoy being around people who remember some of the basic skills in life like how to use a rotary dial phone, tell time with an analog watch, write a real letter in cursive script, and drive a stick shift. I’ll bet that she even wears real stockings with garters on occasion. That’s the way we old men knew where the “naughty bits” started back in the day. When you hit bare skin on the way up you were just about home free.
Any discussions on Kim’s blog eventually get into caliber wars or sex. The guys writing in the killing Commies thread had rifle calibers pretty well covered so I thought that I’d drag this one down with my fantasies about the elegant Ms Mirren.
Some years back I learned about the US Military’s “stress” or “time out” cards. If trainees felt that they were being bullied or abused they could pull the card and their DI had to leave them alone and sing Kum ba yah. I hope and pray that the practice has been discontinued.
I can just imagine the guys who charged ashore at Normandy waving their stress cards at SS troopers, or the marines doing the same at Guadalcanal. If a Ghurka or SAS trooper had a stress card it was only to use as a last resort substitute for toilet paper.
I guess that I’m 45 years out of date but in this old man’s remembrance wars are won by people who aren’t afraid to kick ass.
What the hell is wrong with that woman? All that cry’n and whimper’n you would think she just lost the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Have her read “The Rape on Nanking” and ask her if she’s ready to uphold the part of the oath that says “enemies both foreign and domestic”. She’ll endanger someone’s life if they put her through.
Armies around the world see this and laugh. U.S. military prospects see this and go to vocational school.
She’d probably get fragged before that would happen.