‘Drill Sergeants Are Back’: Hegseth Reinstates Practices To ‘Make BASIC Great Again’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed on Tuesday that he had overturned a recent order banning traditional tactics used by drill sergeants to train new recruits, a move he says will ensure soldiers are equipped for battle.

On July 30, Col. Christopher J. Hallows, Commander of the 197th Infantry at Fort Benning, Georgia, issued a memo banning “bay tossing,” according to Just the News. The practice involves drill sergeants entering trainees’ bunk rooms — called  “bays” — unannounced, inspecting wall lockers and bunks, and then flipping over mattresses and lockers that don’t pass muster, and loudly ordering trainees to quickly clean up the mess.

Hallows said bay tossing violated Army values and amounted to “abuse” of the trainees.

“Abuse of Trainees undermines the trust of the American public by violating Army Values, disrupting military order and discipline, and destroying a positive training environment,” his memo stated. “Our mission is to provide competent, capable, well-trained Soldiers of good character, ready to fight and win our nation’s wars … there is no greater obstacle to the effectiveness of the IMT [initial military training] environment than the improper treatment of Trainees.”

Hegseth disagreed, however, and reversed Hallows’ order.

“Bottom Line: Make BASIC Great Again,” a Pentagon source told Just the News. “Tossing bunks is back. Drill sergeants are back. Getting cursed at is back.”

A Pentagon source told Just The News that Hegseth’s decision was rooted in a desire to ensure that “the people we want to recruit want to be challenged, and the tougher the training the more cohesive the units are … We don’t want to have training that is designed to breed undisciplined people and recruit those that gravitate to wanting to be wimps.”

Hegseth also signaled openness to reviving “shark attacks,” where drill sergeants greet recruits upon arrival at training camps and order them to do push-ups and other tasks before they’ve even set their bags down. The exercise is meant to gauge how recruits handle pressure and chaos.

The practice was largely ended in 2020 and replaced with an exercise referred to as “The First 100 Yards,” a slightly more organized and structured training exercise designed to build camaraderie and encourage teamwork under stress.

“‘The First 100 Yards’ is a U.S. Army Trainees first exposure to their Basic Training (BCT), Drill Sergeants, and their first opportunity to begin their transformation as members of the world’s most potent and lethal fighting force,” the U.S. Army Center for Initial Military Training posted on Facebook. “‘The First 100 Yards,’ a homage to their lineage of closing the last 100 yards of the fight, incorporates teamwork into a competition that features mental and physical challenges on the day they arrive to their basic training company.”

According to Jennifer S. Gunn, the director of public affairs at the Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning, the initial bay-tossing ban stemmed from a specific incident in which a trainee’s personal property was damaged — and Hallows had initially endeavored to prevent that from happening again.

“I can confirm the memos are authentic and were the result of a recent review by the brigade command team,” she explained. “During a recent training cycle, an instance of corrective action violated regulation and resulted in damage to both government and trainee personal property.”

From Day Zero, Infantry Soldiers are thrown into the #USArmy world.

Our Drill Sergeants teach new recruits how to work as a team, move as members of a platoon and react to stressful situations.

This is The First 100 Yards.

🎥 ➡️ Payton King pic.twitter.com/KjRAzSz0VA

— U.S. Army (@USArmy) November 29, 2021