By Maj. General Joe Arbuckle, US Army ret
STARRS Vice Chairman
May 1969, a commercial bus full of sleepy recruits stopped during darkness at Ft Ord, CA. Two drill instructors (DIs) jumped on the bus and started screaming, “get off my bus you dirt bags and line up outside”.
A Diverse assortment of now wide awake young men lined up in four rows and then shuffled/marched to sterile appearing billets with a platoon of 50 recruits in each open bay, gray double decker bunks with sheets and a wool blanket on both sides of an isle running down the middle of the bay. They were awake until 0200 hours scrubbing the billet floors and latrine; up at 0530 hours the next day.
The next day they marched with DI’s yelling commands, to the long quartermaster warehouse to be issued clothing and gear. But, first a stop at the barber building with a line of barbers ready to buzz hair off which they did quickly leaving about 1/4 inch on the top and almost none elsewhere.
Inside the QM building there was a long counter top with mostly civilians on the opposite side manning issue stations; the recruits moved from one station to the other getting standard OD issue clothes and combat gear which they stuffed into duffle bags.
Sizes for fatigues, socks, t-shirts, boots, etc. were based on the calibrated eyeball estimate of the QM guy behind the counter. The heavy duffle bags were carried back to the billets where the contents were arranged in foot and wall lockers, dress right dress, according to the SOP, inspected and enforced by the DIs.
All of this was done to erase the “back on the block” civilian mentality and quickly replace it with “you’re in the Army now” and don’t forget it mindset.
No more personal identities, no more it’s about me, it is now about the “Green Machine, your ass is mine” and your personal identity as a civilian does not matter; it no longer exists—you are now part of the machine.
What was done in basic training was all about Assimilation and Inclusion into the military; a trainee’s “Diversity” did not matter.
What mattered was giving up their past identity and becoming a part of the team—the Green Machine.
Everyone was a “Included” regardless of race or ethnicity. Assimilation into the team grew with shared hardships, further motivated by group punishment imposed by DIs; when a trainee screwed up, normally everyone paid a price. Everyone dropped for 25, everyone ran extra distance, everyone was up until midnight cleaning the latrine—Assimilation.
After a few weeks, real bonding developed to the point when a trainee started to fall out of a run, others would automatically drop back and pull him along to the finish.
The DIs objective was to break down trainees by suppressing their past identities and mold them into soldiers, believing in a common set of values, mission, and purpose.
It was about removing the focus on “self” and putting the focus on selfless service with loyalty to each other and the mission; that was done by sharing challenging physical and mental hardships in infantry basic training.
This was reinforced by the reality that the DIs emphasized by saying within a year, 90% of you would be fighting in Vietnam; the point driven home by the DIs further saying “you had better pay attention to this or you’ll get your ass shot off, or worse yet your buddies”.
That model of Assimilation had been battle tested for decades and proven to work when civilians from Diverse backgrounds are successfully Assimilated into a homogeneous fighting force.
Contrary to the DEI slogan that “Diversity is Our Strength”, the historical truth and reality is: “ASSIMILATION and UNITY is Our Strength”.
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Maj. General Joe Arbuckle, USA (Ret.) graduated from college in 1968, and entered the Army in 1969 as a private. Following training as a combat engineer, he was later commissioned upon graduating from Engineer Officer Candidate School in 1970. Having volunteered for duty as an Infantry Officer, he served a year in Vietnam on Advisory Team 22, embedded with the South Vietnamese Army. He has commanded at every rank from Lieutenant to Major General, specializing in the missile field.
Also published in:
Which Makes Better Soldiers: DEI or Assimilation? (American Thinker)
Three US Army films from the era:
US Army Basic Training – The First Eight Weeks | Documentary | 1969
Comment on the video:
“Went to basic at fort lewis January to march 1970. Our senior drill sergeant was a black E7 that had been in the battle of I drang. He later served in long range recon. His uniform was always perfect. He could run all day and always participated in our rigorous pt sessions. He was really hard on us. We were all in awe of this man. The day of graduation we had a company formation. He addressed the company explaining that he constantly kicked our asses. We all believed we saw a tear in his eye as he stated that the reason he was so tuff on us that none of us would return to their mama from Vietnam in a box because he failed to do his job. We all loved this man for constantly kicking our asses.”
US Army Basic Combat Training (1967)
Drill Sergeant (1971)
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