question for marines and SOME army personnel; do blanket parties, thru YOUR expereince,...................?

Question

show improvement on the recruit who was blanket partied? does it serve a purpose of making the recruit perform better? did it make the screwup straighten out OR did it only punished him with NO increase in performance? im in the process of being a witness of a drill instructor encouraging recruits to do blankt parties and to be honest, my testimony will put him in the brig for a LONG time. just want to hear "advice" before i testify

Answer 1

I can spout the party line about hazing being wrong, blah blah blah. The stuff that you hear about (jump wings pounded onto the chest with no backs on the pins, being raped with foreign objects, etc. etc.) is sick and sadistic.

Yes, while I was at Parris Island, there was a blanket party. No, it was not encouraged by the drill instructors, as far as I am aware, they had no knowledge of it, on the other hand, they know everything that goes on in their platoon. Afterwards, only the Senior Drill instructor was upset about it, because it happened to 'his boy' (very long story, but we were told at the beginning that this individual would be the honor recruit because of who his father was, and he was given a lot more chances than everyone else because of this fact). It was one of our last nights there, and it was retribution for being 'daddy's boy'. I did not participate, more from a lack of oppurtunity than anything else. I was on firewatch around zero dark thirty, and was taking out the trash. Had I been there, I probably would have taken part, because I was thoroughly pissed with him as well.

But for every one of these that you hear about, how many 'hazings' and initiations do you not hear about because nothing happened? The Marine that earned his jump wings and was "pinned" (the beating of his wings with no backs on the points, suffered a punctured lung and basically drowned overnight), well, when I was promoted to Sergeant, I was pinned as well. In the tradition and spirit in which it was meant to be done. My executive officer and my wife stepped forward, pulled the corporal stripes off my collar points, put the Sergeant stripes on. The XO stepped back, shook my hand with one, and patted me on the collar with the other....firmly. No blood was drawn, but it stung a little.

Hazing (in the very malicious sense of the word) is not as wide spread as everyone would like to believe. Initiations like pinning are supposed to be a right of passage upon accomplishing something, but there are always those who take it too far.

At times, however, there are those leaders that cannot or will not do what is necessary for good order and discipline, and while I do not condone extreme violence, sometimes a good *** kicking is what is needed.

After all the work my Senior did for the honor recruit, he got locked up for cocaine use one week before he was supposed to ship out for Officer Candidate School.

Answer 2

There are 2 questions here.

Do blanket parties improve someone's performance? Based on the experience of working with two recipients of the procedure, no. They were worthless bums before and they continued to be worthless bums, but afterwards they were bums with a grudge.

Advice on testimony? The 1st Shirt is correct. State what you observed first hand and only that.

Answer 3

no. this is only a punishment. i am so SORRY however for you to have a reply from a Female Veteran of the U.S. Army however & and not a hardened marine... at any rate, blanket parties are absurd and does not teach the soldier where he/she needs to take corrective action nor is it in any way relative towards the "crime". punishment must fit the crime for the soldier, whatever the soldier did the corrective action should teach him/her what to do in an overly exaggerated fashion if need be.

Answer 4

Since you have mentioned that you are to be a witness, you need to testify to what you have first-hand knowledge of. No more and no less.

You are NOT entitled to any advice other than that.

Conspiracy to commit assault and abuse of position are a serious crimminal matters.

Answer 5

i don't understand what blanket parties have to do with military affairs. The "hazing" as seen in the movies maybe relates to that question. Good luck "testifying"