“If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human fucking beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian shit! Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. There is no racial bigotry here. I do not look down on ոiggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps. Do you maggots understand that?”

– R. Lee Ermey as Senior Drill Instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, “Full Metal Jacket” (1987)

(Full Metal Jacket Intro Monologue)

Reports like this always tickle me. Did you ever meet anyone who bragged about having an EASY time in boot camp? Nooooo…instead they’ll tell you all kinds of lurid stories about how awful it was. So you’ll think they’re a hero for surviving it, naturally. They’ll tell you how their DI was a nine-foot tall demon with muscles in his shit who made six guys do push-ups ‘till they died. But they weren’t that guy. I had occasion to watch the movies “Full Metal Jacket” and “The Boys in Company C” in the company of Marines and former Marines. They all told me the movies were unrealistic because the drill instructors were too nice. LOL!

The perennial selling point of the U.S. Marine Corps is that if you join the Marines and pass basic training you’ll have a life-time membership in the tough guy club. Even if later in life you look like Drew Carrey (yeah, he was a Marine) you’ll still be able to claim to be a tough guy on account of your past experience. So this "scandal” is actually GOOD publicity for the Marine Corps. The Few, The Proud…