Do you think foul language helps build warriors?

No proof that it does and it is not intended to build warriors

You kind of get desensitized with all the foul language. I would get an a$$ chewing and then move on. Then I got a chewing from a staff Sargent, he did not say on foul language. That was the worst chew out I had gotten and will never forget it.

Sometimes it is all that they understand. There was a building I worked in for a while that hosted classes sometimes. One particular day one of the doors wasn't working correctly so the civilian placed a sign on it simply stating "use other door" .I watched as Marines used the busted door completely ignoring the sign. The civilian lady was upset. I told her that you need to be more expressive with her sign. I took a pen and simply wrote in " use the other FUC**NG door" I shit you not, it worked. Less Marines went through the broken door.

I will begin this by saying I try to watch my language and try not to offend people as there are other ways of expression to get one's point across. Also as a DS, I never felt I needed to cuss out a Private to get my point across. My university degree comes from the World University, majoring in the School of hard knocks" With this being said:
What are words? Mostly ways of colourful expression. The video got me to thinking, who voted the word "fuck" a bad word? Watching the video clearly showed the sexual meaning is in the minority of meaning, other meaning are so different. I guess the fact it can be used in anger to humiliate, belittle , demeaner a person to a great degree gives the word its power. Also it takes the loving part of a relationship and can turn it into a violent act of assaulting a person. Words are probably one of the most powerful tools man has ever used. By their usage, you can with the same words either break down a person or build that person up.
So I guess in conclusion, its not always the words we use, but how we use them and the situations we use them in. But hey what do I know, I shoe horses and bang steel.

The intent of basic is to build a trainable soldier. Training will encompass stressful situations and standards. The insertion of vulgar language lends to creating a stressful environment. It is not ment to do anything other than burden the emotional limits of the soldier. The fact that a soldier will melt at the sound of a vulgar word is evidence the tactic is working. If a swear word distracts a soldier from initial basic training it could be assumed that soldier is not focused on the task at hand. Does the army need a soldier that is so easily distracted to be responsible for maintaining critical information and communication systems in real world situations? Is this soldier so easily rattled that they become a liability to the mission? The sound of incoming, automatic fire, IEDs, demand for results by leadership are powerful distractions when you are trying to simply program your comms. equipment or plot counter fire. Soldiers are not allowed to bring their parents to basic so they should leave their thin skin at home also and focus on their mission which is to become a trainable soldier.

No. You can use strong words without swearing and get the message understood

Nope. But it doesn't hurt, either. The specific words are not important; the intent is.

*Foul language warning*

A SGT who simply cusses wiithout even realizing it: "It's too goddamn early for this fucked up shit; I need some mother fucking coffee," is FAR less problematic, in my book, than a Squad Leader who never cussed, but is a general dickhead: " Let's go, you worthless scum. Those are the most pathetic push-ups I have every seen. Those push-ups are so gay, I swear you must anally ream each other every night and blow each other right after."

First one had 4 curse words out of 14 (counting mother fucker as a single compound curse word). Second one had not a single cuss in 36 words. Which is more detrimental to morale and cohesion? And even less professional?

In my personal experience, the best use of curse words is rare, for emphasis. If your troops know you cuss, but only rarely, and they elicit one of those F bombs, they know shit just got real.

It can also, as you might be able to tell here, lend a certain colloquial feeling to the written word.

"Stuff just got real" just isn't the same as "shit just got real."


Oh, and for all those "cutuesy" cussers with their "darns" and their "shoots" and their "fudges": You're not fooling anyone. A cuss is a cuss. It is the intent that is unprofessional, not the word.

Where certain types of language might help build Espirit de Corps, foul language creates a bad image of soldiers in general.
Where I may be guilty of the crime myself, there are those who tend to over-compensate.
Certain types of language are not appropriate in certain environments.

Being an infantryman. who transferred to a medical MOS, I had to seriously focus on my language, considering the more public environment I was in. Yes, every once in a while I would slip, and even got wrote up once. At the same time, I was surrounded by many soldiers who freely dropped foul language left and right (mostly females).
While in the training environment I also would occasionally slip, and would apologize to those trainees I had been addressing. They would often tell me, it was OK. "We all use that kind of language...", but then I would remind them of how such language effects public image in the real world, and also I have kids, and did not want to be responsible for them picking up my bad habits.
Civilian World.
Eventually we all transition to the civilian market. Foul language creates a huge negative image. Not only are people far to easily offended, but it also puts your intelligence and professionalism into question.
Bad language is habit forming. I, at one point, would put on the uniform and the swear words would instantly start flowing. It would often take weeks to clean up my language. It doesn't matter what environment you are in, eventually you will be moving on to greener pastures. The less aware you are of how you say things, the harder it will be to fix those problems later on.

No. I was one of the old school fools as a First Sergeant and before that of course. It never occurred to me that this was a problem until three of my direct reports came to see me privately, and told me how much my language bothered them. They then put a cuss jar on my desk. I immediately put $20 in it. They laughed, but I listened to them. It's a harder thing to drop than most of us admit to ourselves. With hindsight, I see it as a fatal flaw in my character and one that haunts me even today. A lot of the the time, it was a verbal sound track that I played to cover up having nothing of merit or help to say. Now I accept that rather than being colorful, I was acting like some ignorant buffoon.

No, it's just an excuse to condone piss-poor Leadership and breeds un-professionalism.