Are you brainwashed during USMC training?

Email Me When A New Comment Is Made
Show Only Poster Name and Title Newest to Oldest

Pages: PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NEXT

Kammak Just the opposite 8/4/2007 6:55:09 PM

I think brainwashed is going a little over the top but they are told over and over again that they are the best,even though we know this ain't true.

I know this is now old, but this one just caught my eye. Obviously this poster was not ever a Marine. I would say the exact reverse. From the minute you step off the bus at an MCRD you are told you are worthless, scum of the earth, lazy, etc...

No one goes around stroking your ego in the Marines. The point is to constantly beat you down so that your *inner* strength is forced to stand up. Your internal cheerleader is about the only thing rooting for you - your instructors and your DIs are constantly trashing your manhood, strength, character, and abilities. Its up to the individual to realize they are wrong, and prove them wrong, through actions.

This doesn't end with Boot Camp - all through training the deeds and exploits of past Marines are held up as examples to aspire to - to set the bar for what current Marines must achieve to honor that legacy. If anything, there is an ever-present fear of *not* being as good as past Marines that motivates current Marines to train harder, work harder, and excel.

Perhaps you are confusing recruiting BS with what goes on in the Fleet. Don't. Recruitors are salesmen, and salesmen will "embellish", ego stroke, whatever it takes to close a deal.

As with every organization, at the individual level there are blowhard bores and quiet professionals. Marine training does not, however, tell individuals they are the best thing since sliced bread. Quite the opposite.

Quote Reply

GetRythym 10/24/2007 8:22:40 PM

Brainwashing is defined as any action taken to reeducate an individual(s) in thought and action, even when it conflicts with thier own personal morals and ethics... etc. The USMC's mission is to "MAKE MARINES" and "WIN WARS", all of which cannot be done without moldable, young Recruits to work with. Recruits do not join the Marines to learn how to Swab the deck and iron cammies. They want the chance to to get to kill someone, and not be held accountable for it by law, what a great way to serve your country. OF COURSE RECRUITERS LIE, they have to make mission or theyll get the heat from the bosses above them, just like any other job. The one thing they do not mention is that if you go against the grain once your in the big green machine, they have a special little camp for you to 'reeducate and remotivate'. A place that consists of young Marines in shackles breaking rocks with sledgehammers, while an NCO stands nearby with a 9mm to encourage them. If you think Im making this up, your wrong. Dead wrong. Who was it that said "Work will make You free?" Many join the Corps to serve thier Country, only they dont have a fucking clue what serving your countrys all about until the ' moment of truth' comes. Just how bad doya wanna serve? By the way, the government only requires an hour of sleep per 24 hour day, and they dont have to give you that hour all at once. 5 minutes here, 3 minutes there, etc. America needs it Marines, and hey, if they stop making Marines, consider that the end of this Nation as we have always known it.

Quote Reply

GetRythym 10/24/2007 8:46:51 PM

Something I left and should mention.

alot of people have a conflicting idea of what a Marine is and what the Corps is all about. True, there are the guidelines for Marines, and the traditions, etc.

Being a Marine to me means "Never giving up", and if the off chance I have given up on something, including myself, to get back on my feet and Attack again. My Marine Corps experience was a horrible one, and it took me many years to fully understand it. I was the smarass private that if you asked "Are you calling me a Liar?", I would tell you "Yes". I had my reasons, I wanted out. I didnt care anymore about anyone, including myself. But, because of things that my Senior DI instilled in us, there are many situations that I experienced later in life that I was able to respond with the right action, or to remain composed in other certain situations when I normally wouldnt have. I owe my Senior still, I respect him more than my own Dad. Its a shitty thing to see these Marines in Iraq fighting for us and losing thier own sanity, blood, limbs, and friends, while the shitbirds here @ home squawk about how evil this whole thing is. True, war is a horrible human invention, but better some religious zealot in the desert lose his life ( and who wants to die anyway) rather than my Mother or Father when they decide to fly on a plane to NY.

Quote Reply

SOP919F3 Brainwashing vs. Discipline 10/25/2007 3:27:54 PM

Since most people today are brought up with the lack of discipline (an ingredient to success), the military uses psychological and supportive methods that, to the uninformed, seem like brainwashing. But the ?volunteers? cannot be forced against their will like traditional brainwashing. It?s just like being a professional in any career ? you have to WANT to change your thinking and behavior to make yourself useful. Otherwise you?ll have to settle for unrewarding jobs set aside for the underachievers.

Definitions:

BRAINWASHING n.

Intensive, forcible indoctrination, usually political or religious, aimed at destroying a person's basic convictions and attitudes and replacing them with an alternative set of fixed beliefs.
The application of a concentrated means of persuasion, such as an advertising campaign or repeated suggestion, in order to develop a specific belief or motivation. (Sounds like our news media and certain political groups)

DISCIPLINE

-NOUN

1. training to act in accordance with rules; drill: military discipline.
2. activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training: A daily stint at the typewriter is excellent discipline for a writer.
3. punishment inflicted by way of correction and training
4. the rigor or training effect of experience, adversity, etc.: the harsh discipline of poverty.
5. behavior in accord with rules of conduct; behavior and order maintained by training and control: good discipline in an army.
6. a set or system of rules and regulations
7. to punish or penalize in order to train and control; correct; chastise

?VERB (used with object)

1. to train by instruction and exercise; drill
2. to bring to a state of order and obedience by training and control

Quote Reply

SOP919F3 10/25/2007 3:32:34 PM

Looks like my quotation marks became question marks. Hmmm, need to retrain my keyboard!

Quote Reply

JFKY 10/25/2007 3:33:32 PM

Short answer, "Yes"....look at SCCOMarine, I believe, in his/her universe that the United States Marine Corps is the centre of all the known Metaverse and the source of all good. I believe they used the first firearms in US history, the first rifle, and each and EVERY Marine is a Army Ranger. If that ain't brain-washing, what is?

OTOH, esprit de corps is a very good thing.

Quote Reply

SCCOMarine JFKY 10/28/2007 4:39:32 AM

OTOH, esprit de corps is a very good thing.

Very clever metaphors...Marines trained the 300 Spartans...Marines taught Napolean Tatics...Marines created the Earth in 7days.

Oh so clever, but I've backed everything with solid information.

You have such a smart mouth, name one Unit w/ a comparable combat record?

With a longer or more diverse list of mission sets?

Or more innovations?

Close Air Support & Airborne Cas Evac--Banana Wars 1920's-Present
Modern Combat Divers/Hydro-Graphic Recon & Sabotage-- Harbor Reconnassaince unit 1932 (Vieques, P.R.)
Stealth Insertion by Submarine-- Raiders1942
Wrote the first manual on Counter-Insurgency--Small Wars Manual 1940
Helicopter Vertical Assault--3rd Recon Korea War, Further Developed by the MEU in the 1950's
Submarine Lock Out--Amphibious Recon Company-1950's
HALO--Amph Recon Co 1950?s
Wrote the first manual on Close Quarter Battle--Commander 1st Force Recon, Col Bruce Myer 1956
Developed Long Range Reconnaissance and Long Range Communications--1st Force Recon- Early ?60s
Developed the Tactics of using small deep Covert teams to shadow & destroy Enemy Forces w/CAS-- Force Recon, Stingray Missions N. Viet. ?65-?68<

Quote Reply

SCCOMarine JFKY 10/28/2007 5:19:42 AM

OTOH, esprit de corps is a very good thing.

Excerpt fr/ "General Malaise" and article written by Navy SEAL LtCmr Divine about Infantry Marines he fought w/ in Iraq.

"The Special Operations soldiers are not alone in their successes here in Iraq. The US Marine Corps has, once again, proven itself to be the best fighting force in the history of mankind. The warrior ethic of the Marines is paralleled only by Special Operations Forces, and they manage to embed that spirit into 175,000 troops. A Herculean feat by all measures. The Fallujah Marines got it on with the insurgents inside Fallujah without hesitation, and could have eradicated the cancer from Fallujah once and for all. Alas, as the insurgents cheer "victory" in the streets because they "caused" the Marines to pull-out, the Marines display the professionalism of career warriors and resolutely carry out the wishes of the civilian leadership to prevent more bloodshed in the city - even while to a man they prayed they would be allowed to finish the job.

· Referring to the 1st Marine assault in April '04 that was pulled out by the CPA when they had a little know figure, at the time, named Al- Zarqawi cornered b/c Al Jazzera was showing the same footage of some kids injured in the assault 24hrs a day.

If you ask the Marines what they fight for ? they will say they fight for the Corps first, then their fellow Marine. They will do nothing to dishonor the Corps. They will die trying to save a fellow Marine, and they will fight to the last man standing when pressed to the wall."

I guess him and I are both Brain Washed by the Marine Corps huh JFKY? Would you write the same bull shit about him?

He has his own web-site, I'm sure he'd love to embarrass you.

Quote Reply

SOP919F3 10/28/2007 10:08:51 PM

Short answer, "Yes"

I simply disagree with the question as asked, whether it is though ignorance or dishonesty, since the term "brainwashing" is normally used as a negative psychological conditioning normally forced on weak minds relating to religion and politics. It tells me that the author and others have no understanding about the nature of military training. The correct answer therefore is NO, the USMC as all other branches gives the recruits a tool called discipline. Once the individual has this, he or she is then trained to the extent needed for it's mission.

Quote Reply

JFKY 10/29/2007 12:54:42 PM

Dude it was something of a joke, but if you want to know, you're constant braying of the USMC Is the Best, at ANYTHING line gets old...so short answer again, "Yes, apparently they DO brain wash you in Marine Boot Camp." I believe Horsesoldier has done a nice job of taking down your long screeds of Common Skill Tasks, that some how make your organization the FINEST fighting force since the Spartans or the Legions of Caesar.

So:

1) Lighten up, dude, and learn to take some ribbing; or

2) Let me tell you I'd laugh at you and the guy in your link, because both of you sound like the Marine Corps version of Mike Sparks, and that's not a compliment.

Quote Reply

PREV 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 NEXT