When we move to slowly we hear "Oh?!? Good to go?!? You want to move slow?!?" and then the bizarre task comes. What constitutes a bizarre task? Here is a list of notables:
- get on line with two sheets and a blanket
- fix your racks now (after you just stripped it)
- get to the rear of the squad bay
- get to the front of the squad bay
- get to the port side
- get to the starboard side
- get on line with a footlocker
- dump out your footlocker
- put everything back in your footlocker
- dump out your footlockers in the center now
- put everything back in your footlocker (good luck getting your stuff back)
- get into your PT gear
- put your uniforms on
- form a school circle
- get out to the street
- get back to the squad bay
- get into the pit
There are a lot more of these. If you don't think that this sounds bad, you're right. You're right because listing them doesn't include a DI screaming at you. The games begin when the DI tells you to do this and then decides we aren't moving fast enough. Get on line becomes get on line with two sheets and a blanket, which then becomes make your racks now... "10, 9, 8, 3, 2, 1 You're done." Everything always started with "Good to go, you want to move slow?" Then the instruction. Then the countdown. No matter how fast we did it, we didn't do it fast enough.
The DIs have another set of games. These are punishments. We aren't allowed to say I. We have to refer to ourselves in the third person as "This Recruit." One recruit called himself I and got the following punishment; He had to stand at the POA and point at his eyeball and shout "Eye!" and then at his chest and shout "Recruit!" repeatedly for an hour. Another time a recruit fell asleep during a class, so the DI chewed him out asking how he'd feel if he fell asleep on guard duty and got the platoon killed? Then to emphasize the point he gave eight hours of fire watch and made him stand at the POA holding a pen in his finger tips with his arm straight out. If he lowered his arm or dropped the pen he had to report to the DI Hut and announce that he had killed the entire platoon. This kind of thing can happen at any time for any reason and I think I'm becoming paranoid.