Re: Like everyone

[Guest guest]

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Actually , what you really said was people being fair and honest

is what is supposed to be valued in a society. What is seen in

military school isn't rewarded in common school. Your wourld sounded

far better. lying and hurting were the modes of behavior in common

school in NY anyway

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In a message dated 2/11/2007 10:46:57 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, mnmimi@... writes:

Actually , what you really said was people being fair and honest is what is supposed to be valued in a society. What is seen in military school isn't rewarded in common school. Your wourld sounded far better. lying and hurting were the modes of behavior in common school in NY anyway

There were problems there, of course. There were some bullies, teasing, cliches and all that. However, the worst excesses that you see in other schools were contained by the rules which were very clearly defined and enforced. Everyone had a rule book that included the penalty system. These were divided into three categories. Category one offenses were minor things like being out of uniform, littering things like that. Category two was more serious: talking back to an officer or NCO, failure to carry out an order and the like. Category three was the bad stuff like fighting, study hall violations, going AWOL and so on. We also had the Honor Court, which is common in colleges and such. The court heard cases like lying, cheating and such.

Penalties were usually demerits. The number varied with Category one being fairly light to Category threes being 10 or more plus things like loss of leave and confinement to campus. I think the largest demerit penalty I ever saw was 45, though I don't recall exactly what that was for. There could be other penalties like loss of rank. You could be busted for getting too many demerits, not doing a good job or just doing something really stupid, like the officer who jumped into the fountain on graduation evening (which could have killed him because of the light bulbs in there) and he graduated the next day a private.

Very simply we had a code of conduct that was clearly laid out and if we messed up you got punished. Something else that helped with this was that all offenses were published and posted on the bulletin boards in each company and classroom building. So, everyone knew who got in trouble for what. You could also be expelled for different things, mainly by getting more than about 120 demerits. We also had some people come back "under the influence" shall we say, and they too were expelled.

Still, we did have some barracks lawyers who studied the rules and knew just how far they could push things and what they could get away with. They were really irritating.

It was idyllic or a paradise, but where I went wasn't as bad as military school is made out to be.

I should also saw that most of the command and leadership of the cadet corps was BY the cadets. The staff wasn't always around (there was always a faculty officer on duty, at least one), so we mostly ran ourselves. Since we are talking 14 to 18 year olds, that was a lot of responsibility for us. Most officers and NCOs took their job seriously because no one wanted to get busted, that was really humiliating, though a few did turn in their rank or refuse to take it in the first place. Some cadets stayed privates or PFCs for four years, but I sought out promotion and position because I rather liked that kind of leadership role. It was pretty easy because everything was clearly defined, at least as far as the military hierarchy went. Still, I was rather timid then so some people got away with more than they should have, but I only rarely had problems like that.

I'll tell you one funny story that came to mind. We had drill for one hour a day twice per week. My senior year I was a battalion staff officer, and staff officers were assigned to a company each day to supervise how the company ran its drill. After Christmas break, the line companies were given their parade rifles. These were real rifles (mostly 1903 Springfields and few Garands) but they were no longer capable of firing, and were usually not in a condition you would want to fire them in anyway. The first drill days with rifles were always interesting. Companies in close ranks doing the rifle manuals sometimes led to trouble.

I was with Charlie company looking down the ranks of Second Platoon. The platoon leaders were working on Shoulder Arms, which was when the cadets put the rifle up on the shoulder in a carrying position, just like you see them marching in the moves. There was this one cadet who was a Sad Sack, or screw up who never did anything right and was sort of a troublemaker too, who was in the middle rank. He just couldn't get the positioning right. The platoon leader yelled at him to get the rifle up and the guy moved it a little. Another yell that that was the wrong way and Sad Sack gave it a hard correction the other way. Of course, he very nearly slammed the muzzle of his rifle into the mouth of this big, black football player who was standing behind him.

He said something like, "Yo man, watch what you're doing! You hit me I'll put my foot in your a...." At that point, he noticed I was looking down the ranks watching what was going on. He shut up and hung his head just like a little kid who got caught saying the "F" word. Everyone around him was on the edge of giggling over the whole thing and waiting to see what I would do. The fellow looked back up at me and I just smiled and shook my head in a bemused fashion and walked on.

Later in the barracks when the company had gone back in from drill, I ran into that fellow outside his room. He thanked me for not putting him on report and that he had been scared to death when he saw me watching him. I told him I thought it was an understandable statement to make and he didn't actually end up in a fight, so it was ok, but if it had gone beyond that, there would have been no choice but to come down hard on him. Besides, I told him, I wouldn't have felt right reporting him for doing exactly what I would have done. Most of the platoon was around and they all heard this exchange and laughed. After that, I never had any trouble with anyone from that platoon.