THE TRAINING OF A

NITED STATES MARINE

|

| proud

By ALAN WINNINGTON

we our thousand recruits enter
t at €rican Marine Corps
Pery 8 camp at Paris Island
fish Month. About 1,000 never
the eight-week course.
meg Commit suicide, they go
ligky pital to get patched up if
towne. die of “kidney break-
be .. 2d suchlike if they can’t
Strap patted. They. are taken in
Yme @ckets to madhouses,

aay Tisk everything and run
beoay Some are sent home
Se they are illiterate.

ay Other 3,000 are the good
day —2€y get over 16 hours a
thock 4 unremitting military
Nutaien ee aPY: state-encouraged

Ity, patriotic sadism and

=

he GOBical perversion, until
fear Ve NO other emotion than

e ag the sergeants and no oth-
’ction than obedience.

(Ses
bro eh weeks they emerge,
ie in, but, having stayed the
of ee of being members
Tica’s elite, dehumanized

ss

SEARCH AND DESTR

Fee
nation

‘We can be

of our

end products . -.

one of the

s elite

Leathernecks, mindless killers,
legalized Skinheads. -

_ “In Vietnam, they would soon-

er kill one too many than one
too few,” write Rolf Winter and
Thomas Hoepker, reporting in
West Germany’s biggest illus-
trated magazine, Stern. ~

Stern does not say how these
two journalists got into the Paris
Island camp and out again with
such magnificent photographs of
the brutalizing of young Ameri-
cans.

Probably in the dim-lit skulls
of the Marine officers there it
must have seemed that they were
sure to be friends. After all, if
the Inspector of the Army in
Bonn, Gen. Albert Schnez, was
a former nazi it was enough. No
softness’ about the nazis, hey?
We can trust the West Germans.

The two reporters described
the induction of recruit Ted Beal
(17). At the time, with the oth-

ers in his platoon, he had been
48 hours on Paris Island — 48
hours without sleep.

They had been registered, their
heads had been shaved. They had
been issued uniform and equip-
ment, insulted, screamed at all
night and all next day, harried,
hurried and driven about until

OY: ‘In Vietnam they would rather kill one too many than one too few...’

ee Se

Sahat

they were ordered to carry their
70 lb. duffle bags at the double
to their barracks.

Some broke down and fell. One
lay, eyes staring as though dead.
Sergeants flocked to him like
vultures, yelling, jeering, . kick-
ing, until he stood, eyes out of
focus, finally picked up his bag
and reeled after the others.

Ted Beal vomited. White as a
sheet he stood and retched while
his trainers converged on him
like hungry rats.

“What does this animal imag-
ine?’ bellowed one.

“Homo, sure,” sneered anoth-
er. (Editor — What is the Ami
slang for-a homo?)

“Communist, huh?”

“You mothering bastard,” one
sergeant said, quietly menacing.
He took his cigarette from his
mouth. “You animal. Now you'll
scrape up’ that spew with your
hands and put it in a bucket.
Got that?”

Ted Beal did not answer. He
stood swaying, sweat, tears and
vomit mingling on his chin.

“Do you get that?” screamed
the sergeant.

“Yes, sir,” the recruit whisp-
ered.

“I can’t hear,’ the sergeant
sneered.

Yes. sire’
“Louder!”

“Yes, sir!” the recruit shouted.
“Louder!”

“Yes, sir!’ bellowed the sick
recruit.

They got to the barracks
where groups of earlier recruits
were marching and drilling to
never-ending. yells. and. curses
from red-faced sergeants or. be-
ing made to do press-ups, 28 per
minute, till they collapsed, writh-
ing in the dust.

The recruit’s individuality is
destroyed. He has no name. His
number is painted big in ink on
the back of his hand. In the can-
teen he must hold his tray in
front of- his face while he lines
up. He must address his superi-
ors in the third person: “The re-
cruit requests . ...”

Deeper hells than the normal
Training Branch, are for the
seeming recalcitrants, for those
who commit such crimes as
“dumb insolence.”

In full equipment, the recruit
must march at the. crack of
dawn, 15 miles to the memorial
to dead Marines where he must
stand as part of his patriotic
education, but must not look at
the flag. “You are unworthy to
look at the flag for which Ma-
rines have died.” He is marched
back and must then go on drill-
ing.

The “Infiltration Drill” is a eu-
phemism for making recruits
plunge through stinking water,

“under barbed wire, crawl over

bogs and always shouting at top
pitch: ‘Marine Corps! Marine
Corps! Marine Corps!” °

Maj. - Gen. Oscar Peatross
proudly explained: ‘We Marines
see ourselves as the school of
the nation.” He is commander of
the Paris Island military jail.

“We can be proud of our end
products, who demonstrate each
day in Vietnam what it means
to be a Marine, a Leatherneck,
one of the nation’s elite.”

Watching the soaking wet raw
material going through the “In-
filtration Course,” the Stern re-

porter asked Major Murphy,
Chief of the Special Training
Branch, whether he felt sympa-
thy for their miserable state.

“Of course not. We have no
place for sympathy.”

“No sympathy for a recruit
who breaks down because. he
comes to the end after giving all
he can?’” :

“If a recruit’s training doesn’t
hurt, it is no good.” Evidently
piqued, the major added: “I
thought the Germans knew that.
They had one of the finest ar-
mies in the world. And why?
Toughness! Toughness! - Tough-
ness!”

There must not be one mo-
ment without torment. That is
the system. Sgt. Vallaire, small
and described as ‘malicious,”
said: ‘“‘We have to brainwash
them, you understand. Really
wash them.”

He went on: “They are weak-
lings who must not become con-
scious till they are men. Here,
you get the feeling you are doing
something for your country. It
makes me sick what these Lefts
want to turn the country into.”

He turned back to bayonet
drill.

“OK recruits. .With this weap-
on, you'll cut.a goddam pretty
tattoo on the enemy. Clear?”

“Yes, sir!” yell the recruits.

“You'll. slit him-up and _ stuff.

his goddam guts in his goddam
mouth. Clear?”

“Yes, sir!”

“And if he’s down and still
moves, you’ll tread on his skull
as hard as you can. But have a
care. Sometimes a goddam skull
rolls and then you fall on your
own goddam mug. Clear?”

“Yessir!”

“Recruits. You'll kill! Kill!
Kill! Kill! In Vietnam, in Czecho-
slovakia, in Germany or any god-
dam country where you’re sent:
Clear?”

“Yes, sir!’

“Here you
get the
feeling

you are
doing
something ©
for your

country”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY 22;1970=Page-7