Yeah, I'm an old Salty Dog, having graduated from Canoe U. in '64, but sometimes stupidity prevails.

when my oldest did it, not only was there lard, but the dixie cup was glued on with CA. They had to tear it apart, leaving a ring of cloth stuck up there.

We're educating & training these people to be willing to fight & die for their country, & the first thing we do after their first year is introduce them to the "nanny state"? C'mon!

That's worse than sanitizing playgrounds so little kids can't possibly get slivers in their butts, or crack their skulls on hard surfaces. How in the world can kids learn to get out of the way of hard flying objects if everything they encounter is padded?

How in the world can officers develop the mental toughness to take a shipload of people & themselves into harms way if you won't even let them climb a greased pole? Sheesh!

Makes me wonder if I should turn in my retirement certificate from another service that thanks me, "for more than 42 years of faithful service." (Only 1/6 of it active duty, thank God.)

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:
We're educating & training these people to be willing to fight & die for their country, & the first thing we do after their first year is introduce them to the "nanny state"? C'mon!

Not to disagree, but I am reminded of Patton's observation, “No poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making other bastards die for their country.”

Not exactly Clausewitz or Sun Tzu, but pithy and to the point.

Patton's advice was blunt & to the point. I wasn't talking about doing it, I was talking about willingness to take the risk. Many lost the gamble, as evidenced by the casualty figures from all our wars.

You can't develop the bold fighting spirit needed to take that risk if you're prevented from climbing a greased pole because you might hurt yourself.

Totally agree.

The SEALS say, "Train Hard, Fight Easy."

That overstates the point, but rougher training does prepare better.

It's interesting to note that many of those protected plebes will go on to be SEAL officers. Their training is positively stunning. Even mini-Buds, the program they had for high school Sea Cadets, caused this old infantryman to shudder. My wife woulda Sh#@ to see that little kid showing off on the obstacle course. Have you ever seen the O course at Coronado? It makes Herndon, even the old one, seem like a Maypole dance.

The Army has stopped bayonet training, too.

Never had to use a bayonet, but the pugil stick matches and the bayonet course were pretty good training.

quote:

It's interesting to note that many of those protected plebes will go on to be SEAL officers.

Possibly not; when I graduated, USNA grads were forbidden from entry in UDT (SEAL ancestor). I never had an academy grad under my command who was a SEAL - all of the several came from other sources. Things may have changed (a lot has).

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:

quote:

It's interesting to note that many of those protected plebes will go on to be SEAL officers.

Possibly not; when I graduated, USNA grads were forbidden from entry in UDT (SEAL ancestor). I never had an academy grad under my command who was a SEAL - all of the several came from other sources. Things may have changed (a lot has).

I don't know when things changed, but my oldest went from USNA directly to BUD/S, and there were a number of senior officers there who were grads. A couple of his profs at NA were both SEALS and grads.

I would guess that things changed in the early sixties when JFK set up SEALS and Army Special forces and the Army went Helo. Spec war in general had a lot of changes then. Or perhaps grads going SEAL came right after that buildup.