realism of movie Jarhead

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Originally posted by: thepd7
Anyone noticing the common theme of these stories? "A guy I used to work with", "One of my best friends from grade school." None of these stories are first hand. While I recognize people die in training, I call shens on all of these stories.

Wanna hear about the two suicides my brother saw in Marine basic?

Not questioning suicide, calling shens that someone died and there was only a slight pause.

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: thepd7
Anyone noticing the common theme of these stories? "A guy I used to work with", "One of my best friends from grade school." None of these stories are first hand. While I recognize people die in training, I call shens on all of these stories.

Hmm, you must have skipped mine

Again, not questioning that deaths happen in training, but in your story you acyually prove my point (that I didn't communicate clearly), which is that it's not taken as lightly as people are saying they "heard from a buddy." In your case the whole range was shut down, that sounds about right to me.

My brother is in Iraq and a couple in his unit died during an accident while still in Kuwait while training with the Bradleys (got pinned or something, don't know the details) and I know that it wasn't as insensitive as the stories earlier in the thread. That's the only thing I was calling shens on.

 

[alkemyst]

Deaths in the military are common. It's not a special event esp in basic. It would do no good to stop all the exercises to greive over a fallen soldier. They don't want soldiers 'thinking' they want them reacting and following orders. If there was some kind of glitch I am sure they'd stop to repair it, but Soldier Stu Pidaso that pops up on the live ammo crawl found out the hard way life sucks at times.

My brother did Sat/Comm and one of the riskiest things was working on vehicles with ejection seats and canopies. You really are not trained on each vehicle. You are taught what the equipment needs to operate as well as how to test for that.

The problem was accidentally trigging basically a bomb in the cockpit.

I am not sure what the exercise is called where you have a simulated plane crash in the water or the one where you have to stay down for a long time..but people have drown on those.

My brother said that basic training was the worst hell imaginable mentally.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: Heinrich
Ok so in the beginning a marine is killed in a training mission with live bullets. Shot to the head. Slight pause for a bitching out from the seargent and movie continues.

Immediately the movie has lost it for me. I really doubt that recruits are killed in basic training and then live goes on as normal for everyone after a 20 second pause.

But my dad told me once in the 50s in Kansas he saw a man's head get blown off when they were training with canons in the National guard. So part of me wonders, is the marine event plausible?

F

can't spell, (life not live)

and who expects MOVIES to be in REAL TIME? OMFG.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

The point of basic training really is in effect brainwashing. You wear the person down both physically and mentally while reinforcing your way of thinking. Because of what is required of people in the military and the stresses involved, it's generally accepted as necessary.

In the case of deaths, it's very plausible that from the soldier's point of view, yes, it would be a brief pause. From the Sargent's point of view, there would most likely be some type of investigation and paperwork involved. But the recruits/trainees wouldn't be part of that nor privy to it since it would disrupt their training.

"The military is the closest thing you'll get to communism in the US." --a friend that was in the Air Force.

 

[RagingBITCH]

FMJ for the win.

I don't know about the recruit death, but my ex-roomie was Army (fresh out of high school, went to the desert about a year into his Army stint), said the description/visuals in the movie were dead-on as to some of the things he saw.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I was told by an Army MP friend of mine who has been in service for around 14 years who has been to Iraq that this movie is as close to how the millitary is as it gets. He claimed it was VERY accurate

 

[Kaspian]

Its a movie. Not a documentary.

 

[wheresmybacon]

Originally posted by: Fmr12B

Grenades are not like the movies, if one explodes anywhere close to you, YOU DIE!

you mean you don't do a front flip and a half twist and get up, mildly shaken and dirty?

i thought the A-Team was real!

 

[oddyager]

Never served in the military but have a few friends that have. Half of them said the movie was somewhat close to the life of a Marine and the other half said the movie was way off base. I've read the book by Swofford and I can't tell you if all of it was true. I'm sure of his experiences were true but a lot of folks have called his stuff into question (particularly his training, his time in the Middle East, etc). But that's another topic.

 

[eits]

from what i heard, they used to use live rounds during drills like that. they use blanks now.

 

[purbeast0]

my friend who's a marine said that movie is not like how it really is at all and he did not like it because of that.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: thepd7
Anyone noticing the common theme of these stories? "A guy I used to work with", "One of my best friends from grade school." None of these stories are first hand. While I recognize people die in training, I call shens on all of these stories.

I know of of four deaths that happened to members of my BCT group, other people at the location at the same time, or were witnessed by members of my group:

1) A DS dies from heat exhaustion (can't find a link, happened summer 2005)
2) A recruit was hit in the head with a kevlar helmet, permanent brain damage (little more than a vegetable now). Incidently, the guy who attacked him was not punished.
3) Accidental OD at night in the barracks. It happened to the guy in the bunk next to the "fire watch" desk. He drown in his own vomit. To make matters worse, nobody was allowed to leave the barracks for about 2.5 hours after he died, so they all got to sit there with the body until the coroner finally removed him.
4) A guy in my group either accidently OD'd or committed suicide after the Army basically refused to let him leave. (read this site if you want and if you have any questions, PM me).

There are also a few well known lethal accidents at ft sill



So yeah, it is not all hearsay

 

[pyonir]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
my friend who's a marine said that movie is not like how it really is at all and he did not like it because of that.

Was he in sniper training? In basic in the late 80's early 90's? Things can change in 15+ years.

As stated above though, it's a movie, not a documentary.

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: Kaspian
Its a movie. Not a documentary.

So are Bowling for Columbine and Farenheit 911 but people still believe like the good sheep they are that they're documentaries.

I bet if you ask 100 people off the street what the difference is between a documentary and a movie, the vast majority couldn't tell you.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: n7

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy
A guy I used to work with had a story about his basic training. (Army not Marines) They were out in the field and one of the recruits just dropped, put his rifle to his chin and pulled the trigger.

The Seargent gathered the entire platoon around the kid's body and said (paraphrasing) "Do you see this?! Remember it! This is what happens when you are weak! When you are weak, you die! Now back to the excercise!"

And then they went back to what they were doing.

:Q
Harsh...then again, life is indeed harsh.

So is war and that's what basic training is for...teaching you how to deal with the harsh realities of war.

 

[sponge008]

To add to the extreme long chains, my friend's dad was serving in the Korean army, he was in basic training IIRC, when some idiot in the nade pit dropped the grenade he was supposed to throw (it was live). The drill sergeant jumped on it.

Also, I heard a similar story from the Russian Army about a case like this, only the sergeant somehow survived with horrific injuries. Sounds improbably to me, but I'm not the best person to ask.

 

[alkemyst]

Also many soldiers don't realize how different 'basic' training can be between branches and intentions. Hell even the freaking drill instruction can change plans.