Army Drill Sergeant Rates 11 Boot Camps In Movies And TV | How Real Is It? | Insider

Whenever Pvt. Pyle f---s up, I will not punish him! I will punish all of you! Yep, there we go. The DI and the drill sergeant is going to definitely dole out punishment as a mass punishment. I'm Command Sgt. Maj., retired, Lamont Christian. I served about 11 years as a drill sergeant, and then as a senior leader in organizations that conducted basic combat training. Today we're going to be looking at boot-camp scenes and seeing how realistic they are. Forrest: And always answer every question wi

th, "Yes, drill sergeant." Drill sergeant: Is that clear?! Yes, drill sergeant! The standard for responding to a drill sergeant is, "Yes, drill sergeant," "No, drill sergeant," and if it has to have an affirmative response, then the whole platoon will sound just like that. Done, drill sergeant! Jesus H. Christ! This is a new company record. The drill sergeant was so impressed because, you know, in the early part of training, it's a challenge for somebody who perhaps has not handled a weapon befo

re, what we would call weapons training, to be able to take that weapon apart, put it back together, and do what you saw Forrest do there, which was that functions check. What your hope is as a DI or drill sergeant is that everybody in there can do it like Forrest. Shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger. What's funny is when they're in there with them with toothbrushes, that's something of the past. There was times where, you know, you'd give a recruit scissors and say, "Go cut the grass." They're f

ostering this environment of working together as a team, which you saw with the weapons training, which is what I call mindless repetition. Just do it over and over and over again until you get it right. That has the same training effect that this used to have. The approach that the drill sergeant had in here was very, very common for that time period, during the Vietnam War. So that's about a nine. Pick it up! Move it! Move it! I want to see some fire here! When you look at obstacle courses, us

ually in boot camp, you'll go through them twice. Obstacle courses are really designed to find your upper-body strength and also determine your endurance, and so it may even test your fear of heights, fear of darkness, and then you get to actually experience the teamwork, helping each other. You saw that a couple of times in there. And definitely that screaming and yelling. Often we call it simulating battlefield conditions. Drill sergeant: Create a loop. This is the rabbit hole. The rabbit come

s out of his hole. What is interesting is ropes and knot tying is no longer taught in basic training. It is in Ranger School, though. You're actually tested in the mountain phase. As things change over time, there's certain requirements that the leaders think that people need upon finishing basic training. This is to be your lover, your mistress, your concubine, perhaps the only thing in life you'll ever truly love. That's one of those things, again, that you get from TV in Hollywood where we pl

ace all of this level of intimacy with our weapon. Now, granted, it is an intimate relationship because you really want to be confident with that weapon. So taking it apart, putting it together almost to the point where you can do it blindfolded, right? Talk about it in a way that might be sexual, that's kind of a Hollywood thing that happens. Oh, I'm sorry, sergeant. I can't touch a gun. For that time period, being World War II, being a conscientious objector was going to definitely be a challe

nge for the leadership here. This guy particularly is Desmond Doss. He was actually a Medal of Honor recipient, and he didn't have to carry a weapon to do it. I would definitely say this was a nine on realism. Drill instructor: Can't think when I'm giving you a few love taps? How the f--- are you going to fire your rifle when grenades are going off in your face? Unfortunately, what we wind up running into a lot of times is drill sergeants or DIs like this one that will touch and grab by the thro

at. That was familiar in other DI movies. Touching recruits in training is unacceptable. Always has been. Sir, I got lost on the way to college, sir! That's exactly why, right there. The open door that I could do even more, and it turns to him slamming the kid's head into a wall, and that's why it's unacceptable. Because where do you draw the line? Them paintball bullets, they hurt? Oh, s---! Paintball is something, as you notice there, it was pretty painful. That guy is going to learn a valuabl

e lesson not to put himself in a window if he's going to engage. And so that's why paintball Simunitions, is kind of what we call it, is very, very useful in the training environment. Drill sergeant: The sounds that you are hearing are live rounds. You will get the fear out of you. Keep moving! Keep your head down! Yeah, that's a trainer, a sergeant, a leader's worst nightmare, is to have somebody in training lose their life. Shooting the rounds over their head, we actually do that, and we also

do it at night, but the conditions are totally different. The guns are raised up a whole lot higher, and it's what we call a safe surface zone. So even if you stood up or jumped up and down, it's almost 20 feet above the heads of the individuals. And, again, this tragedy right here, as unfortunate as it is, it does happen when those things are not adhered to. For a boot-camp movie, it's probably about a five. Rusty bayonet, Liebgott. Now, thanks to these men and their infractions, every man in t

he company who had a weekend pass has lost it. This is pretty neat, because I actually served as the command sergeant major for this unit. For the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment out of the 101st Airborne. This right here is Easy Company and their preparation for World War II. During that time period in our military, not many people were married, right? And everybody was always looking for a two-day or a three-day pass. The stuff that they're being inspected on, like this parade

-level stuff, and they're out there in combat gear, I could see where he's going with trying to instill discipline. Just, I'm sure morale is not going to be too high much longer. Platoon: Stand alone! Stand alone! Sobel: Do not help that man! Do not help that man! We ran this mountain a couple of times. Currahee Mountain. Yeah, it's no joke. What I noticed here though, you know, he was telling them to leave that guy. Not leaving a fallen comrade, that was part of the warrior ethos. And never qui

tting. So when you tie that together in today's modern military, leaving somebody behind would be something that we wouldn't do. That would be a 10 for running up that hill. And for World War II, it'd probably be about a eight in realism. Drill sergeant: "Yes, drill sergeant, and "No, drill sergeant." Do I make myself clear? Recruits: Yes, drill sergeant! You get them in the barber chair, spin them around, they had no hair. Like, that's even part of a military cadence sometimes. The males, anywa

y, are getting their hair cut where they cut it all the way down. Female recruits are not required. And believe it or not, it's a health and hygiene issue, right? Because you get people that come from all walks of life, and so you don't know necessarily if they have, like, head lice or any other type of issues underneath all the hair. Cherry: Next we got about 100 f---ing shots. You just get shots until you get all the way to the end and you're completely inoculated against every disease known t

o man, right? Execute. Drill sergeant: Move, goddamn it! Move! Let's go, move! The difference that I could see so far in this scene is they have them all taking their clothes off in an open room or an open bay. It wouldn't be done that way at what they call a military entrance processing station, or the MEPS. All military members go through there, and there's no drill sergeants there. It's just a staff of military personnel, administrators, doctors, counselors, because what they're doing is they

're determining whether or not you're fit to train. Cherry: They had us strip down to our underwear and duckwalk the circuit of a big room. Oh, yeah, duckwalking. I remember the first time I did that. I was like, "What in the world?" They have you walk from one side of the room to the other, and the doctor is looking for your bone structure, your musculoskeletal development, if you're flat-footed, also just your mobility and agility. But yeah, you definitely wouldn't be in a room like that full

of other people. Be hard to assess. I would have to say it's about a four, right? Because that's not necessarily how that whole indoctrination process would happen with the drill sergeants. If you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war. So far this is looking pretty good. Because in the DIs in the Marine Corps, they actually have a script. They say, "You'll sit up straight and look at me!" So while the difference in the titles, the drill i

nstructor was tied into the Marine Corps. Drill sergeants came into play for the Army. And the interaction in the first part of boot camp is always going to be what we call total control. Everywhere you look, there's going to be some DI or drill sergeant ensuring that the training that has been given is being reinforced. And so when you see R. Lee Ermey walking around in the bay, he's doing exactly what a DI would do. He actually was a drill sergeant, as a matter of fact. He served several years

during the Vietnam War as a DI. You maggots understand that? Sir, yes, sir! Bulls---! Can't hear you! Sir, yes, sir! If you notice, the DI is constantly yelling, and it's not because they like yelling at individuals, it's just so they don't have to repeat the same commands over and over. So if you have a recruit on one end of the bay, he or she is going to hear the instructions all the way on the other end of the bay. 5-foot-9, I didn't know they stacked s--- that high. You trying to squeeze an

inch in on me somewhere? Huh? Another thing that you often see in these movies and TV shows is the DI or the drill sergeant doing a lot of cursing and swearing. Cursing and swearing is not something that is acceptable, but it does happen. For that Vietnam era, that's pretty realistic. Now you have people who are deciding to serve their country, and it's a different view. I was part of the committee that created the change, what we called shock and awe, commonly called a shark attack, as opposed

to this fallacy, which was we have to break them down in order to build them up, and focus more on the teamwork. And so that's what The 100 Yards was designed to do. Day one, here's a challenge. Pop that blister! Lamont: Mm-hmm. Part of that indoctrination when the DI comes in is the wellness of the trainees or the recruits, and so they have to inspect the feet, inspect the hands, and make sure that there's no open sores. What the f--- is that? What is that, Pvt. Pyle? Sir, a jelly doughnut, si

r! We've gone away from footlockers and modularized most of the equipment in the bay. So you wouldn't necessarily have a footlocker in the bay, and he definitely wouldn't be standing on the equipment like that. They have this term in the Army they call "toe the line," and that's where they actually stand next to the line so that they can do that inspection. From now on, whenever Pvt. Pyle f---s up, I will not punish him. I will punish all of you! Yep, there we go. Especially in the beginning pha

ses of boot camp, the DI and the drill sergeant is going to definitely dole out punishment as a mass punishment, even though one person may mess up. This opportunity for somebody to have looked and held Pyle accountable for that doughnut was missed, and that's what the DI is reinforcing. We'll hold each other accountable. I would have to say it was probably about a nine for that era. If we're talking in today's terms, it'd probably be about a seven in realism. We are going to win this war becaus

e we have the best men. When they were standing in formation and the leader stopped and kind of looked at this guy and he looks like a middle-school kid, there was actually a guy named Flaherty. This guy was 4 feet 9 inches, and they called him The Giant Killer because of all the different exploits that he did during Vietnam. And he was smaller than Rogers was, right? Nobody's got that flag in 17 years! Yo, the smallest guy in the formation wound up coming up with the plan of success. In the bas

ic-training environment, you probably wouldn't have that type of situation placed on a trainee or a recruit. That's some special-missions-type unit stuff that's going on there where an assessment is being done, right? Because they want to know if you have a special skill set. What they were actually doing in the training would not necessarily be something that you would see in recruit training. So I'm going to give it a five. Left! Face! Yeah, that's the campaign hat or the famous drill sergeant

hat. I just happen to have mine with me, and, you know, there's distinct headgear that is worn by the male drill sergeants in the Army, but then also by the male and female DIs in the Marines. What's unique is, while all the branches except the Navy have some form of a campaign hat, the Army still has a separate hat for the female drill sergeant. It's called a bush hat. A-left, a-left, right, left. ♪ There she was just walking down the street ♪ ♪ Singing do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do ♪ That p

art where the one character starts singing that diddy bop, it's interesting that most cadences, that's actually where they come from, right? Popular tunes, R&B music, I mean, even nursery rhymes. Even my own voice has been tapped into a cadence in the Gatorade commercial singing the hard work cadence. ♪ Work, work ♪ ♪ Hard work ♪ So these guys, they're just, you know, jumping in on a bandwagon, throwing in the diddy bop in there at the same time. Razzle dazzle! Hut, two, three, four! Hut, two, t

hree, four! Yeah, that ain't happening. However, in the Army, in what we call the advanced individual training, which, those periods of training go from six weeks to six months, maybe even a year, drill and ceremony competitions are usually used to continue to motivate those individuals that have the longer periods of training. But not as likely in a basic combat training because we're focusing on shooting, moving, communicating, and treating yourself and others on the battlefield. I'd have to s

ay a four. Locate a wounded soldier, represented by a dummy. You must then transport him to the emergency field hospital. There's a lot going on there so far. When it started out, it definitely was something that you would see in recruit training. You know, a lot of female leaders now are in positions of senior leadership, something that hadn't occurred over many years, until the military had started really opening up the ranks of the infantry to our female leaders. An aggressor team will be try

ing to stop you. They are all awaiting ranger training and can't wait to capture you. Based on what the information and the instructions they were given, it's actually an advanced individual training. You know, medical training. They're not going to be as complex with a mission that would go that deep, and that was evident when I saw them in the river there, because the risk for, you know, perhaps somebody drowning or something else with all that equipment on, then not too many people are going

to want to put a recruit in that type of environment. Again, the risk factors wouldn't be something that you'd see in recruit training, but definitely something very similar challenging-wise as far as the military's concerned. You know, Marines have a Crucible, and the Army has this thing called The Forge. Very similar, in the final test of all of the training that they receive during the recruit training. And there are medical lanes where they might have to treat a casualty or transport a casua

lty, like you saw here, to really see if all of the training has actually reached the point where they are confident that these individuals can leave and go to their next assignment. I have to give that a five as far as realism. ♪ Casey Jones was a son of a b---- ♪ ♪ Casey Jones was a son of a b---- ♪ Hazing is something that, again, has never been accepted, but it happens. This is depicting an environment where there's still initial entry training or initial military training, but it's Officer

Candidate School. Typically, officer candidates are a little bit more mature, have either been in the military for quite some time and reached enlisted ranks. There's levels of hazing that may be more acceptable in that environment versus in the recruit training. So there was a mandate that provided leadership across all of the branches to come up with progressive ways, if you would, in order to attack and get in front of hazing. And so whether it was reporting, such as in the Army, you know, No

t in My Squad, to place accountability not just on leadership, but on each other. No, sir! Drill sergeant: DOR! I ain't gonna quit! Right, then you can forget it! You're out! Don't you do it! There's about two or three layers of checks and balances so that you don't have that rogue DI or rogue drill sergeant who might take something personal like it looks like in this clip. Because of the flexibility and the things that take place in the Officer Candidate School versus what happens in recruit tr

aining for initial entry training, I would say that it's probably about a seven. All right, Shirley, you can drop them now. Weight training has always been something that's important in the military to be able to carry your body weight. And in some cases, you might have to lift or carry or drag somebody else. The sand buckets and them using them for weights, a lot less expensive than buying weights for every Marine. But then they get the same physical exercise out of it. Drill instructor: See th

e jab? Outside? Right into the body once again. Working with the blade. They were doing combatives, right, with the pugils, and then the drill instructor was showing them with the knife close-quarter combat, because every Marine, every soldier, every person that joins the military is a fighter first, right? And so pugil stick training is one of those ways that that confidence is instilled in the individual and their ability to stand their ground. And it's also fun to look at. I would say it's ab

out a seven. My favorite drill instructor was Jack Webb in the movie "The D.I." It actually shows both sides of the drill instructor's life. What does he do in the evenings after he's away from the bay squad? If you enjoyed this video, why not click on this video above?