In basic training . . .

SleepySweeper

Active member
Back in the eighties when I was a recruit in basic training we had this instructor trying to teach us how to "walk". Being fresh recruits our will was obviously much stronger than our ability to march in formation, much to our DI's frustration.
Clearly dissatisfied with our performance he calls out: Look straight ahead, :cen: , just like me

The next thing we hear is a loud metallic "bang" - as I said, we were fresh recruits so by instinct all of us turn our head to see what caused the noise.

The DI was flat out on the ground next to a lamp-post. When yelling at us, he was also looking at us, so he didn't see the obstruction in his path.

Obviously we had a hard time keeping the formation for a while.

Fortunately the only casualty of the collision was the DI's pride ;)
 
Happened to me at JROTC boot camp. The DC was leading a march to an exercise, and tripped over a cleat on the dock we were on, fell into a Zodiac, and snapped the rope. Oops.
 
yeah, as recruits.. you look at DI and think that everything they do is perfect.
Its hard not to laugh when they mess up.. They are only human after all :lol:
 
Something similar happened for me at Basic. Six years ago, when I was just a trainee at Fort Jackson, my Drill was marching us to the PX. Now, since we were all recruits and fresh in the Army, none of us could be trusted to go on our own. Our purchases even had to be inspected for contraband. Well, to make things worse, the entire platoon was on the sh** list that day for something or other (as usual). Our Drill (who by the way was serving his very first cycle as a Drill Sergeant) was screaming and hollering at us as he marched us down the road. At one point, while calling cadence, he turned and began to march backwards. Unbeknownst to him, whoever was responsible for cutting the grass on the side of the road felt that the huge pit needed to have grass in it that was flush with the rest of the ground. The Drill, marching backwards as he was, did not see it. He walked right into it and fell in. To his credit he recovered quite quickly and rolled to his feet, his brown round never once moving. He gets up, marching in step (of course as the platoon guide he was always in step so we were all out of step, which he promptly reminded us of) and says, "That's the funniest thing you guys never saw!"
 
Something like that happened while I was on a leadership course a few summers back. We were in the bush and the sgt still had us doing drill, but everyone was looking down to avoid roots and other things along the way. He looked over to yell at us, whacked his head into a huge treebranch, and fell flat on the ground. He never did hear the end of that.
 
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