Refutation of Kinder, Gentler Military by Stephanie Gutmann

One of the first glaring mistakes that Mrs. Gutmann makes involves the relaying of a conversation between a recruit and a drill sergeant. On pages 33 and 34, she reports that the recruit addressed the drill sergeant numerous times as “sir”. As anyone who has ever been through Army Basic Training can most certainly tell you, a drill sergeant is addressed only as “drill sergeant”. There are those that address them as sir on the first day of training, but that is the last day they will ever do it. Such a form of address is met immediately with corrective statements and physical measures. By the second day, no one would dare address them

On page 37 Mrs. Gutmann addresses the issue of recruits being referred to as soldier rather than recruit or private. Mrs. Gutmann insinuates that the reason for this is to make recruits feel special. Here is an example of the author taking something completely out of context. The reason they are not called private is that many of them are not privates. In BCT (basic training) I was a Private First Class and my training class had numerous Specialists in it. When speaking to an individual, the DS (drill sergeant) will use that soldier’s rank or last name. This is the only appropriate form of address by Army tradition. When speaking to the group or of the group, it would therefore be inappropriate to say “privates” when some may not be. Another reason is to instill in new soldiers their very reason for being there. While some may have signed up to be cooks or mechanics, they are all soldiers first. Addressing them as such is the first step in creating this mentality is to address them as such. The reason they are not called recruits is because the army does not have recruits. The Marine Corps has recruits, and they are still referred to as such.

The author also speaks on many occasions about the military falling into pressure to make the basic training process less stressful. She relates a somewhat infamous story about the Navy’s use of “stress cards” that a sailor may use to get out of drill for a short time. This is a flat out lie. The navy never issued such a stress card. The card that the author is speaking of was issued as a means for recruits to use to seek help if necessary. It was simply a card with base phone numbers for a psychologist or mental health specialists on it. It was never use as a means for escaping training or as a means of relief from instructors. The author also states on numerous occasions that physical punishment is extremely limited because it causes too much stress. This is

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