Robert L. Bryant

Hazing. One might shiver when this word is uttered. This word is now synonymous with the military, and what is considered brutal acts of initiation. For the past couple of years this has become a topic of not just governmental attention, but household discussion as well. Many people of the general public feel that things of this nature are not necessary, and have dismissed it as nonsense. Others think it’s fine, or have no opinion. Never-the-less, the government has a no tolerance policy on this, due to a video that was found. It’s a mistake to make things called “hazing” illegal in the military, and I’ll tell you why.

Crybabies. Simply put, any thing that is done to any one in the military has been labeled as hazing. When superiors try to punish a soldier for something they have done wrong in the eyes of the military, what’s the first word uttered out of that persons mouth? You guessed it. Hazing.

Let’s set a scenario, shall we? An infantry platoon is outside in some sort of formation, cleaning their rifles. A young, new soldier is doing fine cleaning his rifle, when he drops the bolt extractor on the ground. A loud *ting* rings out from the contact on the concrete, and everyone looks over at him. The sergeant in charge of the platoon tells him to get down and give him xx amount of push-ups. The new, untrained soldier does it, but you can tell he is dissatisfied with the decision of his superior. The next thing you know, the soldier is going up the ranks, jumping his chain-of-command to complain about having to do push-ups in front of everyone, and eventually, the sergeant gets in a bit of trouble because of this. I’ve seen it happen.

What were the grounds of the push-ups instilled by the sergeant, you might ask? The troop dropped his bolt extractor. This is a VERY important part of the M-16A2 rifle that is used by the military, and in combat. Have you ever heard of the term, “you play how you practice?” Let’s say that platoon was in the middle of the jungle in a combat situation, and that soldier did the same thing. Not only is there no concrete, but there is dirt and mud. The bolt would need cleaned heavily. Unfortunately, time isn’t what is had on a battlefield. Anything could happen in any given moment, and trying to get dirt or mud out of those are a pain. The sergeant made a good call, and there is no doubt about that. The trouble he got into wasn’t horrible, but was put on his record. Some unity in the ranks, huh?

About the chain-of-command. Like in all jobs, you have immediate superiors and on up. A lot of military members with the higher ranks such as lieutenants, captains, etc., have an open door policy. Now, this “open door policy” is meant to be used AFTER you go up the chain and are dissatisfied with the results you got from the people that you went through already. Sounds logical, right? Well, the problem with them stating they have an open door policy leads people to believe they can just go and talk to the higher-ups, jumping the chain-of-command. When the soldier gets in the office and speaks to the officer, what’s the first thing that upper-staff man is going to do? He wants to put a lid on it, and keep it as low down the ranks as possible. If he were to let the troop continue up the ranks, it would look like he’s not doing his job properly, and look bad to his superiors. So to keep it quiet, action is taken at the lowest possible level. The sergeant gets reprimanded, and the troop is looked at like garbage by his peers. Why should he care though? He got his revenge for doing push-ups that HE felt was unjust.

Now wait a second. Why do his peers look at him in this respect now? You have to be able to trust each other in a combat situation. You’re depending on the person to your left and to your right to help you out, just as you would help them. How would someone be able to help in a proper fashion, if the jungle scenario presented above actually happened? Is this person going to wimper in combat about how his sergeant yelled at him? Does this person know any sort of platoon unity or integrity? It would seem not, and that’s why he is regarded in this fashion now. All that time and energy was spent on what he thought was wrong, when that time would be better spent doing something more constructive.

Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound like what I saw on the video! In case you don’t remember, or SOMEHOW managed to not hear about it at all, there was a video that made it to the media. As everything else the media gets their grubby hands on, it was hyped up. It had a group of soldiers who just got their jump wings, and were having them pinned on them. The reason for the hype? They were being pinned to their chest. It was a ritual that had taken place for some time, and had never gotten any attention. This is more closely related to the definition of hazing than those push-ups, isn’t it?

The reason those troops were pinning those on their chest is because they just received those wings, and it’s a tough status to get. Mind you, I don’t condone it, but I’ve had similar experiences with the pinning of my rank into my shoulder. It’s more of a way of a platoon being tight with each other and having recognition within the lower ranks. If the person doesn’t want to do it, then that’s their prerogative now.

So where is the line between hazing and reprimand? No one really knows. The definition of hazing has been misconstrued and twisted into something it’s not to keep the media away from the smallest details in the military. Moreover, the military has turned into a circus of crybaby types who want to skate on by with no punishment when it’s due to them, and bring nothing but a lack of unity to the unit. Until the “issue” of hazing is resolved, it will continue to be that way. Unfortunately, I don’t see rationale taking the place of political correction any time soon.