Cheat Sheet

Hazing is bad and should be ended, but the liberals will use these tragic events as an excuse for yet another feminist jihad against the entire male-dominated military.

I have heard of hazing rituals for "new guys" in the military, but nothing nearly this bad.

One story I heard from the army was that they would hang a 'new guy" out the window by his heels and make him shout over and over again "We're a team. We're a team. We're a team". Of course, basic training is one long hazing ritual in many ways.

On our first day of basic training, they made us run up and down the stairs carrying all our clothes and gear and stand at attention, then some drill sergeant would blow a whistle and make us do it again. Then they would teach you to stand at attention and parade rest, and that a sergeant was not an officer. "Don't call me 'sir', I work for a living!") Mostly, it was stuff like that--a lot of mind games, too--but there was always a purpose.

I never saw any physical abuse in basic training, except the time when a white guy yelled at his black squad leader "I ain't takin' no orders from a nigger!", and then hit him with a rifle butt. Immediately, a drill sergeant ran over and stopped it, and this guy was a giant cracker from Louisiana who bragged about knowing more than we did even though he hadn't graduated from the second grade. Anyway, he laid the white guy out cold with one punch, saying "You don't hit my squad leaders." Probably a good thing that he did, or it might have led to a race riot.

Those are just some of the things I saw in the army, but never anything like what is being described in this article.

Hazing should not be called hazing. It should be called what it is: bullying, assaults, criminal acts.

If the great "they" think it is so fun, let them put on high heels and skimpy underware and make a movie of themselves, Let them do all the other things they think up to do to others.

Those in groups who are afraid to stand up and say stop this and go tell are just as guilty and should be charged as well.

Whether in junior high gang initaitations, or college frats, or sororities where I have heard they DO make young women perform oral sex on homeless and others they find in the streets, on tape, or in the military, it is a crime and needs to have a zero tolerance and be stopped.

If the commander was promoted where is the accountability in the military? Deployed or not shouldn't he be brought up for court martial? Sadly, this is probably not the only military dictatorship unit in our forces and the leadership is promoted from within the ranks and protects its own. His second in command commits suicide and he is promoted, that sends a clear message to whose back was being protected by the chain of command. President Obama as commander-in-chief you need to get Defense Secretary Gates on all the military officers to discipline any such activity and court martial any personnel found to be forcing this action on soldiers who decide to protect and defend our country. They are part of our country and should be protected and defended also.

When is this bullshit going to stop, what happened to just joining and be left alone to be the best you can be, Whats happen to our military.My brother when he joined the marine corp he told me they gave him a blanket party in basic training because he had alittle stutter, and his DI was putting pressure on the unit because of him,so they at nite while he was asleep wrapped him in his blanket and each one in his unit put a bar of soap in a sock or with a fist and hit him in the gut and when he told this story he cried. He died from cancer just recently.Something is wrong at the top of the command and something needs to be done or heads need to "roll"....

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The commander shouldn't be demoted, he should be kicked out. What happened to these service people is not a lone incident & should not be tolerated by the Sec. of Defense or the President. There have been times when I have questioned the honesty of citizens of countries, where we are at war, when they report being abused by members of the military. I no longer question their honesty. If they do it to their own, they sure as hell do it to civilians who fear them.

What is it about Navy dog handling units that requires such treatment? Are they some kind of super-elite commando force that requires mental and physical toughness?
Of course not - like jst4horses said this isn't hazing. It's abuse, pure and simple. Heads will roll for this, as well they should. Reminds me of Schofield's Definition of Discipline, which plebes at West Point memorize: http://www.west-point.org/family/bicent/plebe.html

What I see that goes on around a small town military town, I think there is an element that is part of the culture.

I think part of it though is it not supposed to be taken literally, you are supposed to think it is a joke, but not everyone takes it like a joke.

And that is where the fine line comes in. Just like the line there is no atheist in a foxhole. That line doesn't mean what it says literally, it means people in a situation, or preparing for a situation, where you could die, or get mutilated, then that kind of "play" in a sick way, makes sense. It is like letting of being civilized, so it doesn't matter in more. I am guessing.

The worst thing I ever saw in training happened in AIT, but it was not hazing so much as a hate crime--at least, that's what it would be called today.

Three KKK guys beat up a black guy and threw him down the stairs when they found out he was gay. The captain moved him out of the barracks after that, to a room on the first floor near the company office. Soon after this, the guy slashed his wrists and drank a bottle of turpentine. I don't know if he lived or died; the last I saw of him was when he was being taken away in an ambulance.

I knew who did it. Many people did, but no one turned them in. Had I been older and more sure of myself, I would have, but I was 19. Even then, I can remember walking by the base Judge Advocate's office and thinking maybe I should turn in these three KKK guys, but I was scared of what would happen to me--and I wasn't sure that the army really wanted to do anything about it. This was many years ago, and I didn't think anyone was really going to go out on a limb to help a black guy who was also gay, especially if that meant arresting three white men and court martialing them.

Anyway, I did nothing. No one did anything.

I have never been able to get this incident out of my mind, though. It still makes me wonder why any gay person would even want to be in the military or fight for this society at all.

I just read a story about a sorority that beat and starved pledges. Years ago, 60 Minutes exposed a hazing ritual that involved painting shoe polish on the genitals of marines graduating boot camp causing them to burn. And a rugby team hazes newbies by urinating on them. At an exclusive girls school, upperclassmen rubbed dog feces in freshman students' faces. One of the hazers admitted her mother helped her collect the doggie materiel. Several years ago, a young man and his cronies raped two boys with broom sticks at a high school football camp as part of a hazing "tradition" that seriously injured one victim. In each of these cases, those who complained of the treatment were ostracized. These, including Mr Rocha's experience in Bahrain, are not just offensive and degrading hazing rituals. The master minds who inflict these abuses suffer from megalomania, sadism and prurience. I'm not sure how exactly Mr Rocha's sexuality comes into play here since he states that ALL personnel regardless of gender and gender preference were equally abused. And there seems to have been no method to the madness. Had Master Sergeant Toussaint, the leader of Mr Rocha's unit, treated the canines in the same manner he treated his troops, the outcry would have created a tsunami of outrage. What an irony.

It never fails to amaze me how brutally homophobic men can perpetrate gay s&m hazing rituals. In my town the same hockey players who drove around looking for "faggots" to beat up had hazing rituals that involved forcing new recruits to eat crackers that were lodged in another player's butt, and tied a bag around their genitals which they would try to throw hockey pucks into. I really believe that most of those who are violently homophobic are suppressing a gay streak of their own.

I was hazed as part of a USN Chief's initiation and spent a few days in the hospital. The men responsible got a "slap on the wrist" for trying to drown me (one female against three men). The Navy, from the command Master Chief up to Chief of Staff "covered-up" the entire "incident". To this day I suffer with PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Plus, the JAG report NEVER made it past the command or to NICIS. This happened in Orlando, FL at the Naval Reserve Center. EMCM Todd Grantier was the command Master Chief.