Remoak have you ever instructed anyone?
As for traininng recruits, I am aware of the US Marine efforts and their reasoning.
In Australia we do it differently and in my view produce a better product. Neither I nor my staff ever screamed at recruits let alone laid a finger on them,
When one member of a platoon failed to arrive on parade wearing his issue windproof jacket as ordered on a freezing Puckapunyal morning, I simply commented on this to my Sergeant in the hearing of recruits. My sergeant simply then ordered everyone else to take off their jackets. Message understood. It's amazing how fast collective responsibility will instill a desire to help your fellow sufferer, and one doesnt have to even raise your voice to do it.
In first appointment and officer training we went to some length to weed out the screamers, bullies and panic merchants. We gave them "leadership " exercises where they were tasked with doing something with a squad or platoon - without knowing that the platoon had been briefed to foul up and misinterpret every command and totally frustrate the candidate to see what would happen.
We sent them on long marches with the promise of a truck with food and a ride back at the end of it. The truck never arrives and we watch what happens.
They sat in ambushes all night with leeches crawling over them waiting for an "enemy" who was never going to appear.
We did, and still do, all sorts of things to instill the message of the need for obedience, shared responsibility for safety and your mates. We tested the limits of their intergrity, self control, endurance and intelligence and we didn't need to do it by screaming, threatening and bullying. We didn't want any of our students to become screamers and bullies either, partly for their own preservation.
In my own case I narrowly avoided killing someone after conducting a range practice because I stupidly allowed a defective weapon to be taken off the range without checking it. Well it didn't fire - until it did. And I will carry the memory of the CO's disproving look to my grave.
You see Remoak, most people are their own worst critics, and they don't need some idiot rapping their knuckles or shouting at them in the cockpit to understand.
Last edited by Sunfish; 5th Jan 2013 at 20:29.