In the spring of 1968 my basic training company was on a 12-mile forced march. I was in the second platoon, and in those days the squad leaders and platoon guide were trainees. They were “one of us,” so to speak. Sometime during this arduous activity one of the men picked up a rock and bounced it off the steel pot of the platoon guide. The platoon guide, of course, did not see the perpetrator and demanded to know who threw a rock at his head. He did not receive an answer, although within a matter of minutes everyone in the platoon knew who did it. He then informed the drill sergeant that he had been assaulted.
At the end of the day’s training when the company had been dismissed, the second platoon was not.
“So you like to throw rocks,” the drill sergeant growled. He proceeded to line us up at one end of the quadrangle, had us remove the steel pot from the liner and hook the chin straps together. When we held them like picnic baskets, he had us assume a duck walk position and showed us the size of rocks we were to pick from the ground while yelling “quack, quack” and filling the steel pot with little rocks. When a helmet was full, we were to dump it and continue filling. When we reached the end of the quadrangle we were to turn around and head back, continuing to fill and dump. The quadrangle looked ridiculous with its little piles of rocks up and down its length and breadth.
Most certainly, it must have been a ridiculous sight: 50 men duck walking and the company area resounding with enthusiastic “quacks.” There were a number of gawkers from the other platoons who found a great deal of fun in laughing and jeering at us, but their entertainment was short-lived because they were immediately rounded up and made to join us.
The duck-walking, rock-picking project went on every day after training for the rest of the week (with no jeerers and gawkers, I might add). We were informed that as soon as the rock thrower was identified our misery would cease. No one came forward.
Strangely enough, we were surprised to find we had a new platoon guide at the beginning of the next week. The rock thrower discovered that, despite our solidarity in this incident, his popularity had dramatically decreased. But that was resolved at platoon level with no outside interference.
I am sure the Armed Forces have avidly studied human behavior for many years and have learned how to achieve desired results with all sorts of stimuli. Over the years I have sometimes wondered if this incident turned out the way the Army wanted, or if we, in our stubbornness, actually won.