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I’ve noticed that after leaving basic and AIT no one really gets smoked as a punishment. I understand there are regulations that limit smokings i suppose, but why is it available in basic training and not in FORSCOM.
Posted in these groups: 
Basic Training
NCOs
Basic Training NCOs
Posted 5 y ago
Responses: 14
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Because years ago, over zealous NCOs took things a bit too far, a few too many times and hurt subordinates. Here's a few examples:
Back when I was in 75th, a CPL took a guy into the laundry room, turned on all the dryers and smoked him till he had a heat stroke and had to be med boarded.
1SG pinned on E5 rank by womping him in the chest with a wooden mallet. Guy dropped dead from his heart stopping.
Marine Drill Instructor harrasses Muslim recruit and smokes him repeatedly until the recruit runs and jumps off a balcony in the middle of the smoke session, killing himself.
Back in the 90s a video of newbies in the 82nd getting their blood wings, showed NCOs pounding those wings in so hard the guys were crying.
Now as a commander and as a leader, when something like this happens and comes to public in the light of day, you have to take a stance on it. You have to declare if you are for or against this kind of action. We on the ground know that a good bit of sweat, blood and tears make stronger Soldiers. But, that mom who is considering letting her baby join the military doesn't understand that. So, in order to survive as an organization that is representative of the nation we are formed from, we have to adapt to the highest values of that nation. If we blow off that mom, all the mothers will stop letting their kids join and the military will dwindle and die. Sure, there will be a few really tough people, but it would be a very small and ineffective military. So, we adapt. The leadership publicly declares that hazing is bad and anything that ostracizes a member of the group is bad, because that's not what the best values of America are about.
Back when I was in 75th, a CPL took a guy into the laundry room, turned on all the dryers and smoked him till he had a heat stroke and had to be med boarded.
1SG pinned on E5 rank by womping him in the chest with a wooden mallet. Guy dropped dead from his heart stopping.
Marine Drill Instructor harrasses Muslim recruit and smokes him repeatedly until the recruit runs and jumps off a balcony in the middle of the smoke session, killing himself.
Back in the 90s a video of newbies in the 82nd getting their blood wings, showed NCOs pounding those wings in so hard the guys were crying.
Now as a commander and as a leader, when something like this happens and comes to public in the light of day, you have to take a stance on it. You have to declare if you are for or against this kind of action. We on the ground know that a good bit of sweat, blood and tears make stronger Soldiers. But, that mom who is considering letting her baby join the military doesn't understand that. So, in order to survive as an organization that is representative of the nation we are formed from, we have to adapt to the highest values of that nation. If we blow off that mom, all the mothers will stop letting their kids join and the military will dwindle and die. Sure, there will be a few really tough people, but it would be a very small and ineffective military. So, we adapt. The leadership publicly declares that hazing is bad and anything that ostracizes a member of the group is bad, because that's not what the best values of America are about.
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PO1 Kevin Dougherty
In the USCG we wore crows (rate/grade insignia) on our left arm just below the shoulder. After getting it tacked on your shoulder was black and blue for a week. Of course units were relatively small, so by the time I made E-6 there were only about 2 people who could tack my crow on. There was also a tradition that new crows needed to be baptized.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
Agree that there is a fine line between a "smoke session" and hazing and harassment. I don't have too much of an issue with "remedial PT" as a method of reinforcing an object lesson, but there is always someone that takes it too far. I don't even mind some of the traditional hazing rituals, like the Navy Line Crossing ceremony, as long as it is kept within reason and no one can get physically injured. Beyond that, I don't see the purpose.
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SFC (Join to see)
CPT Lawrence Cable I think it's great. My experience in Ranger Regiment wouldn't have been the same without some of those legendary smokings when I screwed up. I wouldn't have been motivated to go to Ranger School and get my tab if my team leader hadn't constantly smoked me for no reason. Plus, nothing really brings a new team together faster than shared suffering, and let's be honest, a lot of headstrong 19 year old kids just don't give a damn about that piece of paper you're counseling them on. They don't see this as a career, it's still a summer camp for somezl, a short prison sentence for others. You need to make some people sweat to get their attention. Others, you have to make them throw up.
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CPT Daniel Cox
My first Blood Stripes were a week into Basic Training in 1974. I was made a Squad Leader and had these cute orange painted Sergeant Stripes slammed into my collar by the Drill Sergeant. He chipped my collar bone but I didn't show him how much it hurt.
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Smoking Troops is an immediate corrective action. At that stage they are still in a ‘learning’ mode.
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PO3 Al Fan
I don't remember being "smoked". I believed that we I was being trained to be a military man who would follow my team leader, defend my team and fulfil our mission in the most expedient and safest way so that we would return alive.
Learning to to do things in Basic as a unit is the best way to survive. Building a military man/woman is what anyone who enlisted in the military should have expected.
Don't join the real men/women if you can't follow the rules...our lives depend on each other!
Learning to to do things in Basic as a unit is the best way to survive. Building a military man/woman is what anyone who enlisted in the military should have expected.
Don't join the real men/women if you can't follow the rules...our lives depend on each other!
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The biggest reason we used to smoke our Soldiers as Drill Sergeants was to give them extra PT so they could pass the PT test at the end of BCT. If we just used the daily PT and adhered to all of the handcuffs in TRADOC REG 350-6 the majority of new recruits would not pass the PT Test. We tried this one cycle, where we would not "smoke" any Soldier or our PLT as a whole the entire cycle and only did the scheduled PT. We had a 70% PT failure at the end of the cycle. Our leadership lost their mind. We showed them that we needed to provide the extra PT in order for the Soldiers to pass the PT Test. We were never questioned after that again. The next cycle the "smoke" sessions resumed and we had a 90% pass rate. You just cant get civilians into shape without the extra PT provided by your loving Drill Sergeants.
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