COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Service: General
'Core values' sessions teach recruits about making ethical choices
JIM LANDERS, The Dallas Morning News
February 15, 2007
PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. “ A Marine Corps boot camp may be hell on Earth run by drill instructors who are "almost Satans in camies," or camouflage, as Gunnery Sgt. Arthur Foster put it.ALICE KEENEY/AP
Capt. Gary Thorton, shown at a Marine boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., is among the chaplains who teach six hours of ethics classes for every recruit at boot camp. Recruits also get 26 hours of specialized training from senior drill instructors.
But it is also an experience in deep moral contemplation.
Recruits a few months away from the war in Iraq learn fundamentals of ethics and moral courage. Navy chaplains and senior Marine drill instructors try to equip them with the discipline to avoid“ and, if necessary, halt“ horrors like Abu Ghraib and Haditha.
"In the desert, when there's a vehicle speeding towards you at a checkpoint, and you need to make a decision“ what are you going to do?" chaplain Gary Thorton asked scores of recruits in his lecture hall.
"My hope is, prior to that time, you will have learned here the values to help you make the right decision. We want you to be able to make that decision with a good conscience."
Capt. Thorton has degrees from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in California. He grew up in Abilene wanting to be a fighter pilot and started college in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University before learning that asthma would keep him out of a military cockpit.
His recruit training classes start with a scene from the movie The Patriot. A British cavalry officer shoots a boy who tries to stop the arrest of his older brother.
Mel Gibson, who plays the boys' father, has to check his rage and anguish to protect the remaining members of his family while planning an ambush to free the surviving son.
"It's an opener about the moral dilemma faced by Mel Gibson's character," Capt. Thorton said.
Left unsaid is the contrast between the film clip and reports about what happened in Haditha, Iraq, on Nov. 19, 2005. After a Marine died in a bomb blast, fellow Marines shot and killed 24 unarmed civilians.
In December, the Marine Corps filed murder charges against four Marines who were at Haditha. Four officers, including a lieutenant colonel, were charged with dereliction of duty for not thoroughly investigating the killings.
Attorneys for the accused have said their actions were justified.
The Marines at Parris Island are under orders not to talk about what happened at Haditha. Soon after the killings were uncovered by Time magazine, the then-commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Michael Hagee, ordered refresher courses in "core values" for all Marines.
The order didn't apply to the recruits at Parris Island, because they already receive a broader education in core values during 12 weeks of boot camp.
Capt. Thorton and other Navy chaplains teach six hours of ethics classes for every recruit who passes through Parris Island and the Marines' other boot camp in San Diego. They lecture on group values, commitment, suicide awareness and moral courage.
Navy chaplain John Connolly opened his class on group values with a scene from the movie Gladiator, where Russell Crowe's character tells fellow gladiators in the arena: "Whatever comes out of these gates, we have a better chance of survival if we work together. Do you understand? We stay together, we survive."
"What keeps us alive?" Lt. Connolly asked the recruits. "Discipline. ... Teamwork. ... Love."
The recruits get 26 more hours of this training from senior drill instructors like Gunnery Sgt. Foster. The senior instructors hold "hats off" discussions with the recruits to talk about Marine Corps legends like Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who died after covering a grenade in Fallujah to protect his fellow Marines. Occasionally, the senior drill instructors talk about breakdowns that have left black marks on the U.S. military.
"In Iraq, you could find yourself shaking hands and handing chow to some freaking guy who was shooting at you this morning," Gunnery Sgt. Foster said. "I've had times I would like nothing more than to kill that guy standing in front of me. But that's a discipline that starts at boot camp."
Gunnery Sgt. Foster, 34, who is from Savannah, Ga., served in Iraq in 2004 and 2005. He said he stresses to recruits the need to keep emotions in check and stay professional. One way to get that across, he said, is to tell recruits to immediately put aside any resentment about punishment at boot camp so they can be fully involved in their next assignment.
It's a message he believes that officers and sergeants need to reinforce with their Marines.
"If an IED [improvised explosive device] killed three friends yesterday, you might want to kill them all right now," he said. "You have those thoughts. But leadership is the key to it."
In their classes with the chaplains, the recruits can relax slightly. Their platoon drill instructors leave the room. Lt. Connolly tells them there are only two rules: "Don't fall asleep, and if you can't remember rule number one, remember rule number two – stay awake."
It's not easy. Exhausted recruits prod one another as some drop their heads. In a winter camp, the chapel classroom is filled with the sound of coughing.
Capt. Thorton asked why ethics are important. Recruits jumped to attention to offer answers.
"Good afternoon, sir!" shouted one. "With a proper ethical understanding, we can all get along just a bit better, sir!"
Capt. Thorton agreed, and then called on a second recruit. "It helps us determine good and bad, just and unjust, sir!"
The captain nodded his approval.
"That really is the purpose of this training – to help you when you come up against difficult circumstances, so you can make the right decision, the moral decision," Capt. Thorton said.
The Marines' core values instruction teaches recruits to make decisions based on the acronym STAR: Stop, Think, Act and Review. Drill instructors say they hammer home the message again and again.
"It's tough for Marines in the trenches to control their emotions, but we are professional war fighters. The minute I see a kid lose discipline, I'm on him," said Gunnery Sgt. Kenneth Lovell, 32, of Manton, Mich.
The senior instructors and chaplains also stress with recruits that the Uniform Code of Military Justice binds them. Obedience is drilled into them from the night they arrive at boot camp. But if they are given an order that violates the code, other obligations kick in.
"If someone gives you an unlawful order, you are not obliged to follow it. You report it through the chain of command," Gunnery Sgt. Foster said. "If you are given an order that causes you to break the law, you are going to be responsible. "
He contrasted the Marine's decision-making with the deliberations of corporate America.
"These are young Marines with a vehicle speeding toward them at a checkpoint. They have to make a split-second decision," he said. "We have meetings in boardrooms in America that last for days that are less consequential than that."
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