Too late. Already been done. Having recruits sing nursery rhymes to build cohesion is now a career-ending offense. Sailor will never promote again and will either be denied re-enlistment or be forced out at his high year tenure.
Never mind that the purpose of singing the nursery rhymes is to get them all sick and tired of singing stupid kid's songs and learn the military cadences. The point being until you put in the time and effort to learn the cadences you can sing nursery rhymes instead.
http://www.navytimes.com/article/20130925/NEWS/309250020
The recruit division commander who forced his recruits to recite nursery rhymes abused his power and deserved to be punished, the head of Naval Service Training Command told Navy Times.
“The idea is to teach humility and selfless-service without sacrificing self-worth, and if we find that someone is attempting to instill militarization using techniques that don’t conform to those principals, then it’s out of line,” said Rear Adm. Dee Mewbourne in a Sept. 19 interview.
Based on the admissions of the unnamed sailor — a machinist’s mate first class with eight years of service — nursery rhymes were his preferred form of punishment while training recruits at Great Lakes, Ill.
A Navy report states the MM1 admitted to:
■ Ordering a recruit to sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” while performing what the Navy described as a “Soldier Boy” dance.
■ Ordering two recruits to stand on one foot and wave an arm while reciting “I’m a Little Teapot.”
■ Ordering two recruits to recite “Jack and Jill.”
He also admitted to non-nursery rhyme tactics: He reportedly propped a ruler on a recruit’s ball cap and instructed the recruit not to let it fall. He also woke up two sleeping recruits, one by brushing dog tags across the recruit’s face and another by removing the recruit’s pillow.
wow...
I was in the Navy so this strikes a nerve. Stuff like that is stuff that we would laugh about. That stuff is so freaking tame it's absolutely ridiculous. We "made it rain" while in boot camp. It's where all the windows in the room were closed and we are then forced to do 8 count body builders repeatedly till there is so much humidity and sweat in the air it starts dripping from places. You start sliding in your own sweat while doing pushups. You're fatigued beyond anything you can ever remember and you damn well will make sure you never ever do what caused you to have that punishment. We also were forced to drink two entire canteen full of water (which was freaking gross because your canteens are cleaned out with a bleach solution so your water always has the hint of that in the background) and hold it upside down over your head to verify you drank it. Then we started the 45 minute long march to the galley for chow. It was one of the hardest damn marches we had to do and when we got there we spent our time waiting in line to pee it out and not getting to eat.
Singing a little nursery rhyme is nothing and I wouldve gladly of rather of had that punishment other than what we had to go through. Now I am not criticizing the punishments I did have, it made us stronger people for going through it. This whole freaking world is going soft, and I am not saying this as a grizzled old man, I am 34.
I have two sons right now and it seems like I have to spend an extraordinary amount of effort in trying to raise them to not be entitled spoiled brats. From participation ribbons to all, to anti bullying campaigns which teach people nothing in how to actually deal with a problem to over the top efforts in trying to effectively turn kids into bubble kids as everything seems to be harmful for them according to some people, it's just overhwhelming.
