Hate Torture? Consider Boot Camp

The Los Angeles Times ^ | December 14, 2005 | Max Boot

[wyattearp]

Hmmmm,interesting attitude.I joined (Army) in '69 when the attitude wasn't so "progressive".

Ah. That would explain it. There was still a draft in '69.

[Riley]

Maybe the Navy still does the stress cards, but the Marines don't and as far as I know the Army and AF don't either.

In the Marine Corps- if a prive is 'stressed out' or 'overwhelmed', he gets a nice, relaxing 'pit call', or he goes to a wonderful vacation spot called 'The Classroom'.

[Gay State Conservative]

Ah. That would explain it.There was still a draft in '69.

Not only was there a draft,but there were plenty of "vacancies" in a land far away for the 11 Bravo (Army grunt).

[xsmommy]

OMG how adorable was it when they were discussing his iPod? xsgirls and i were just enthralled with that whole thing. he is such a sweetheart! Dan McLean's American Pie... : )

[martin_fierro]

Dubya is anything but a slick speaker -- which is a breath of fresh air after the 1990s.

[xsmommy]

i wish he and laura could come over for dinner. they are so genuine. i bawled when he was talking about his faith.

[R. Scott]

The stress cards didn't last long.

[gogogodzilla]

Hey, he evaded capture; fair and square!

Just like if a downed pilot in WWII had gone and stolen a German citizen's clothing and papers, instead of hiding in the woods.

Some of the best hiding places are in plain sight.

[pabianice]

Just brings me back to the Tailhook uproar. Female pilots, who demanded that be treated as equals of men, broke into tears and went running to Congress when some mean male pilots made lewd remarks and a few actually touched them at the convention. The Navy is still saddled with PC bullshit because of that.

[gogogodzilla]

What the heck are you smoking? SERE school is in the Pacific Northeast, for chrissakes!

Maine woods! Bahahahaha!

[Hoplite]

It amazes me that no one ever asks why NOT ONE of these cards has ever appeared.

Well, there was this one time, at mixed gender boot camp, when two of the trainees took the CO's HMMWV up onto a hill, and they were making out in the cab, when there was a noise outside, and the dude went out to check, and he didn't come back for, like, 5 minutes, and then a dripping noise started on the roof of the hummer, which was like totally freaking the chick out, so she got out and looked, and there was her late boyfriend hung upside down headless from a tree branch over the car.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

So she pulled out her stress card.

Hey, if it weren't true, there wouldn't be so many stories about it, would there?

= )

[RedQuill]

One in the west, one in the east. East in feb SUX.

[TankerKC]

(if he can find one)

He won't. I don't need to ask anybody.

[chudogg]

Your arguing with many people who've been through Basic Training and even a Drill Sergreant who worked in BCT was on board who have never heard of a 'stress card'.

Not to say I'm discounting you, just that calling a recruiter isn't exactly my cup of tea.

[TankerKC]

His recruiter just told us that he was under the impression that stress cards were still used at the "co-ed bootcamps" but not at all of them.

A word of advice: Don't believe everything your recruiter tells you. ;)

[tfecw]

Looks like i got an old story mixed up with an urban legend. These things happen. Talked with him about it and he said that never happened with him (verified by your link), but thinks i got it confused with the Core Values card to go on the dog tags. I guess he's no a fan of that program.

As for the faulty memory, it happens. In the future i know where to go to find information.

[chudogg]

I'm thinking the whole stress card rumor is actually purposely put out by the recruiters.

[claudiustg]

---Don't believe me? Call your local Army Recruiter and ask. Phone book, under "Recruiter".---

I was an Army Recruiter and if asked, i would probably reply that you'll have to ask your Drill Sergeant what the local policy is on that when you get to basic. Then I would ask my station commander, what the hell is a "stress card". :^)

[Valin]

If you're not stressed....they're not doing their job.

[Terabitten]

Your arguing with many people who've been through Basic Training and even a Drill Sergreant who worked in BCT was on board who have never heard of a 'stress card'.

Just in the interest of clarity, I wasn't a Drill Sergeant. I was a company XO (previously known as Company Training Officer). After all the mess at Aberdeen, there was a big push to fill all the company-level XO slots as it was thought that having two officers in a company would make both officers more accountable.

One of the first things I did when I got there was to ask about the "stress card." I heard a different version of the story then, but even back then, no one had ever actually seen one -- but everyone "knew" someone who had.

It's kinda like the story about the guy who tries to kill himself by tying the floor buffer cord around his neck and throwing it off the 2nd floor balcony - only to find it has a 30 foot cord. After the buffer breaks, the kid ends up paying a statement of charges for the buffer.