Do Joes get smoked any more?

SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 03:19:28 -0500

In the Marines, we called it getting thrashed, or were told to get into the pit, the Army calls it getting smoked.

What do the USN, USCG, and USAF call it when you discipline the SM with exercise to muscle failure?

What is the PC term...for mandatory corrective PT?

Response by SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2015 3:21 AM

SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 03:21:55 -0500

I definitely got thrashed in my days, 90-97,...not much after that. Has the militaey gotten away from PT as discipline? Are we getting soft?

Response by SGT Michael Glenn made Jan 4 at 2015 12:21 PM

SGT Michael Glenn — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 12:21:16 -0500

I think they do to their standards...but not the way many of us did as too many laws have surfaced protecting the lil darlings from a really good old fashioned smoking !!!!!

Response by CSM Michael J. Uhlig made Jan 4 at 2015 12:26 PM

CSM Michael J. Uhlig — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 12:26:41 -0500

The Army does not smoke Soldiers. We do, however, conduct kit runs & conduct PRT (PT) which includes the push-up & sit-up drill....

Response by CMSgt James Nolan made Jan 4 at 2015 2:07 PM

CMSgt James Nolan — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 14:07:45 -0500

If, as a troop, I did something jacked up (not criminal), I would much rather get my butt handed to me than get it documented.

Show up late-get smoked.
Miss a formation-get smoked
Leave a rifle in a vehicle, that gets recovered by my Sgt-get smoked until he is tired, then get thrashed by his relief.

I would much rather take a lesson in pain than have a permanent paper trail that will affect my career. That is just me.

Just me.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2015 2:14 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 14:14:00 -0500

I've never been smoked... I have been CAPED. (Corrective Action throught Physical Education)

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2015 3:20 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 15:20:25 -0500

It may be just me but I hate doing v ups and sit-ups whenever i was late. guess what.....I stopped being late. Lets be real here, a lot of the young troops lack discipline at home as children where they later take that cocky behavior in the service. basic training was good at weeding most of them out but now BCT is so sissyfied that anyone makes it through. I get new troops in our unit straight out of AIT failing the apft and HW requirements.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2015 5:02 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 17:02:34 -0500

It happens, even in the Guard.
Had one NCO who loved to drop soldiers...constantly. All that pushing! He was pretty sadistic for a man who played Santa Claus at the unit Christmas party, in my opinion. Ten push-ups. TEN! Can you imagine?! It was awesome... for those of us watching, anyway.
Except for Basic and AIT, I was never "smoked" in AD.
Almost all of my physical punishment was borne in the Guard, which is why I'm Superwoman. They say that "pain is just weakness, leaving the body."
It's true.
I have found Kryptonite in pickle jars and heavy weights, though. And in my shoes, curiously,after running more than two miles.
And even in my kid's sheets, when attempting to change them on the top bunk.

So, even though you made me bear-crawl for a three hours, through the hallway, with dude's a** in my face for the duration...thank you, Sir. And that wasn't sweat and dejection falling on the floor. Those were drops of love.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2015 5:19 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 17:19:57 -0500

Air Force people do not put with that stuff. LOL

Response by CSM Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2015 6:10 PM

CSM Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 18:10:09 -0500

Yes and No but I think it depends more on the type of units.

I had Airborne and Ranger led units who tended to smoke on a fairly regular basis. The other units: MI, Signal, CS didn't.

The training, expectations and temperament of the individuals in the unit has a lot to do with it I think. You get a lot of hard charging Airborne and/or Rangers together and the expectations go up. Those guys expect to get smoked if they screw up.

Response by A1C Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2015 8:27 PM

A1C Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 20:27:35 -0500

IN the Air Force we call it getting out on your face or 20/20/20's and it lasts no more than 2 minutes or that MTI has some serious punishment headed their way for hazing and abuse of power. You do 20 seconds of push ups, 20 seconds of flutter kicks and 20 seconds of squat thrusts and if you were really bad you do it again.

Response by SPC(P) Jay Heenan made Jan 4 at 2015 8:28 PM

SPC(P) Jay Heenan — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 20:28:34 -0500

We are not allowed, it is just not a sensitive punishment. Instead, we have to sit down, hug, sing Kumbaya and hope they change their behavior. When I first came in, I was a young guy and extremely hard-headed. If you want to get someones attention, about an hour of grass drills will definitely do that. It certainly didn't humiliate, since normally all of us were there together. I will never forget one time, I was effing something up, so my Senior Drill made me stand in front of the formation and told me to take my right hand and place it on my right butt cheek and then take my left hand and place it on my left butt cheek. He then told me to start patting my butt to see if I could do that right. Some of the guys laughed and they wound up right next to me. 'Smoking' isn't about humiliating or 'hazing'...it is about changing a behavior. I left basic strong and have always used physical exertion as a stress reducer because of my time in basic and AIT.

Response by SSG Christopher Parrish made Jan 4 at 2015 10:27 PM

SSG Christopher Parrish — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:27:33 -0500

Ever see it rain indoors? I have, I was a knucklehead times 2.

Response by CSM Buddy S. made Jan 5 at 2015 1:47 PM

CSM Buddy S. — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 13:47:12 -0500

If I didn’t think the bunch of candy A$$ed won’t go crying about getting yelled at or their feelings hurt, there’d be so much smoking going on you’d think the forest was on fire….

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 7 at 2015 11:19 AM

PO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 11:19:13 -0500

This only ever happened in Boot Camp when I was in. We called it "mashing". As in "our CC mashed us for two hours today for getting gigged on the grinder for trick marching!"

Response by SMSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 7 at 2015 11:35 AM

SMSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 11:35:38 -0500

Although I don't agree with it, it is called hazing in the AF. I believe if we were able to thrash a few folks from time to time we wouldn't have as many PT failures as we do. It's only PT for crying out loud, it's not like we're actually putting hands on people and hurting them and you can't thrash people that are on profiles either. You just do push ups or whatever exercise until muscle failure. That is something you should be doing on your own anyways.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 7 at 2015 11:49 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 11:49:36 -0500

SM do get 'smoked', but it is not authorized to refer to it as such.

TRADOC regulation 350-6 chapter 2 covers corrective training and corrective action. Tradoc reg specifically covers the amount of repettions of particular exercies that trainees are allowed to do in their phase of initial training.

NCOs are to conduct corrective action applicable to the deficiency. Officers are only authorized to punish bad behavior (loss of pay, additional duty, etc).

Response by SPC Susan Brown made Jan 7 at 2015 11:59 AM

SPC Susan Brown — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 11:59:46 -0500

In the Navy you are not authorized to give any extra physical "training". Any corrective training has to be authorized by the highest level. It is considered hazing. This new military is a load of crap. My husband told me this and my jaw dropped.

Response by PO1 Aaron Baltosser made Jan 7 at 2015 12:36 PM

PO1 Aaron Baltosser — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 12:36:34 -0500

Getting trained to pay attention to detail Close Order Drill is great for detail infractions. Want to see someone freak out...tell them to post and direct their peers to from for PT. It is a simple set of commands, but not very many can do it correctly without making mistakes.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 7 at 2015 12:37 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 12:37:51 -0500

Of course a SM can still get scuffed up a bit when they screw up.

Its part of the learning curve. Which gets a 19 year old kids attention more?

Some low crawling thru a mud hole, along with some quality yelling by his fire team leader and 100 flutter kicks

or

a verbal counseling with some paperwork?

With some soldiers neither a verbal or written counseling work. Besides a written counseling is a just as much a pain in a NCO's behind as the SM being counseled. Not every screw-up requires it, heck have a Joe give me a 100 pushups for being late to formation. He gets it done, its quick and most the time the problem is solved.

Frankly one problem we as a military is we have taken tools away from our NCO's to maintain good order and discipline thru physical punishment.

I thank every NCO who ever put me in the front leaning rest! Helped make me a stronger man. Of course I'm a knuckle dragging gorilla too.

Response by LCpl Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 7 at 2015 12:45 PM

LCpl Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 12:45:01 -0500

I didn't get thrashed after boot camp, outside of a couple "MCMAP training exercises". I did get taken to the woodline a few times though. I learned quickly.

Response by PO2 Frances Smart made Jan 7 at 2015 1:47 PM

PO2 Frances Smart — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 13:47:39 -0500

We called it getting cycled. With us, it stopped in boot camp though. If someone tried to do that to you after boot camp, you filed a complaint with his ranking petty officer or officer, and it mysteriously went away.

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 7 at 2015 1:44 PM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 13:44:19 -0500

Personally as a lower enlisted, I'll take a smoke session for a screw up over a paper counseling every day of the week. Unfortunatly they lumped it into hazing and made that option I believe obsolete pushing more NCOs to put things on paper which I believe should be reserved for more serious offenses. Little things like a SM being late due to their own fault (at least at first) should result in a good dusting off then should a habit form start to put things on paper on the SM.

Response by PV2 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 7 at 2015 1:49 PM

PV2 Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 13:49:04 -0500

When I was in basic I got smoked a lot. At the beginning of basic I could barely do two pushups, I had no upper body stength. It pissed off my drill sgts who was all about meeting standards and getting stronger. My DSs smoked me every chance they got. Even the company CO smoked me. It got to the point where my CO didn't say a thing but she would just look at me and I was in front leaning rest position.

To this day, I can still remember and feel the sensations of the gravel digging into the palms of my hands as I did incline pushups on the "motivation rock". I never had a problem with pushups and always passed my PT tests and to this day I'm stronger because of it.

Response by PO2 Christopher Morehouse made Jan 7 at 2015 8:09 PM

PO2 Christopher Morehouse — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 20:09:22 -0500

I got dropped a few times in the Marines after Basic and I also got a few punitive details. I deserved it. However, I can't remember anything like that in the Navy after Basic. One was always given extra duty in some form or another. Send somebody down to work in the pulper for a week and they'll get on board with whatever you want.

Response by Capt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 8 at 2015 1:38 PM

Capt Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 13:38:45 -0500

At OTS we did "motivational training," but similar to BMT, there was a limit as to how many repetitions we could do and how long the training could go on for. There was also a daily limit as to how many times you could be "put on your face," a popular phrase when I was in BMT.

We never went to muscle failure, unless you were really weak/out of shape.

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 8 at 2015 1:46 PM

PO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 13:46:12 -0500

"getting choked"

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 8 at 2015 9:26 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 21:26:13 -0500

My favorite one is the 8 count push ups. 5x 8 count pushup very very slowly.

Response by John Russell made Jan 9 at 2015 12:54 AM

John Russell — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:54:24 -0500

Is it still justified if i do these corrective exercises with them while they puke and Im still going like the energizer bunny??

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 9 at 2015 1:07 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 01:07:46 -0500

On active duty I think I was dropped at least once a day most days. This was never considered abuse. It was just the way things were done. I had the experience with four different units, so it wasn't one abusive unit. I never thought of it as abuse and it worked very effectively to correct behavior.

Response by SR Javier Betancourt made Jan 9 at 2015 8:59 AM

SR Javier Betancourt — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 08:59:21 -0500

When i was in it was getting beaten. Lol thats not done any longer. That was better than pt lol

Response by SR Javier Betancourt made Jan 9 at 2015 9:03 AM

SR Javier Betancourt — Fri, 09 Jan 2015 09:03:15 -0500

Yes i agree thats how i ended up with a paper trail. I wish i would have waited to enlist i went in at 17 graduated bootcamp at 18 and was too stupid to appreciate what i had. Greatest experience and lesson of my life