Word: drills
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...decided the best way to handle such a public relations nightmare was to be up front about it--before the seamy details surfaced in the press or congressional-hearing room. The Army now appears to be responding forcefully, giving rape-prevention classes to new trainees and putting the remaining drill sergeants through additional sexual harassment training. But questions remain about why it took so long for the allegations to come to the public's attention. Army officials say they wanted to complete their investigations before publicity jeopardized the case. They also moved cautiously, an officer working on the case told...
...also hints of trouble at Aberdeen long before Simpson was locked up. Lieut. Colonel Martin Utzig, commander of the 143rd, formally scolded him in January for jabbing a female recruit (superiors are not allowed to touch subordinates in training) and transferred him from Bravo to Alpha Company. And another drill sergeant with the 143rd was booted from the service earlier in Utzig's tenure for inappropriately touching a female student. This may have led Utzig and others to believe the problems were being properly handled, but it could also have masked a more serious breakdown in the chain of command...
...whispered, not broadcast widely," says Private Xanett Salgador-Hill, 18, a mechanic from Savannah, Georgia. "It's the same as in the civilian world, but people expect more from the military." Private Bashir Gray, 18, has heard the rumors too. "People were saying some of the drill sergeants were flirting with some of the privates, but I just couldn't believe it," he says...
...Fort Leonard Wood, too, a 63,000-acre base in the Ozarks, there have been reports that fraternization between drill sergeants and recruits was common knowledge. Angelia Shirley, 19, one of the soldiers to testify against Sergeant Loren Taylor, who was found guilty last week of having consensual sex with three women in 1995, told reporters that her "battle buddy" knew she was involved with Taylor, and she is "pretty sure other drill sergeants knew. Drill sergeants talk, just like girls talk. It's part of life...
That may be so, but many soldiers at Aberdeen expressed profound shame at the scandal swirling around them. Phillip Cook, 31, a drill sergeant with the 143rd's Bravo Company, says he saw fear in the eyes of his newest class of trainees, who arrived at Aberdeen on Nov. 9, just after the allegations made headlines around the country. "It took a lot of the power base away from my hat," he says, referring to the distinctive Smokey the Bear hat worn by training sergeants. "It used to be when they saw this hat, they knew that...