Our boot platoon was being punished for some failure on our part by doing countless exercises in the "sand pit." Countless commands of "get up," "get down" and many others had driven us to exhaustion and had pushed us too far. Some recruits started to cuss and say things they were going to do to our drill instructor, which was unheard of in such an environment.
But the drill instructor brought us right back under control with two commands.
"On the count of one, you will jump up into the air. On count of two you come back down," he said. "One!"
When we all came back down due to gravity, he yelled, "Get back up in the air, maggots!"
We all started giggling at the absurdity of it all, but that drill instructor had us back in his power.
You can never outsmart a Marine drill instructor. Never.

Richard Skeate, Platoon 334, March 1964-1968