Marine drill instructor gets 10 years for abusing recruits

Yep!

This DI got ten years, busted to Pvt and a DD. Bergdahl - what did he get for something I'd consider worse? My observation has always been that Marine Corps courts-martial have always handed out stricter sentences. Anyway, the DI knew what the rules were when he put on his hat and he chose to disregard them - so he got hammered and justly so. The bad part about it is that his family (wife and four daughters) will now pay the price with him, and they don't deserve it. When I was a DI (77-79), almost all the DIs had been brought up in the old, "hands-on" version of boot camp. All that changed in 1976 after the McClure Incident at San Diego. Suddenly, DIs couldn't lay hands on recruits (except to adjust their position at drill) and couldn't call them anything except recruit, private or their last name. And the system ensured that the recruits knew the new rules even before we, the DIs, picked them up at receiving barracks. So a lot changed, and a lot of DIs had trouble handling it because of the way they'd been brought up in the system. There were a lot of games still being played - violations of the SOP - most of them petty - and some guys got in trouble over it - some went to jail. That's probably still the case. I suppose that the same stuff goes on today. Back in the day, there were perverse, sadistic DIs that made it past the psych evals but never should have been entrusted with recruits, and that is still true today, evidently, from what I've read about this convicted DI.

My island was no the place for this turd to filter his personal emotions onto would be Marines. Ten years is light if this was his systemic routine. I guess he was not listening to his creed when he spoke it.

Drill Instructor Creed
"These recruits are entrusted to my care. I will train them to the best of my ability. I will develop them into smartly disciplined, physically fit, basically trained Marines, thoroughly indoctrinated in love of the Corps and country. I will demand of them and demonstrate by my own example, the highest standards of personal conduct, morality, and professional skill."

He made his bed, I hope he likes it.