In Basic, one of our drill sergeants was insane. I don't mean "drill sergeant pretending to be insane", I mean "Relieved by CID for being insane". Being a bunch of morons who thought basic was supposed to be Full Metal Jacket, we assumed being chased with a bayonet was normal means of motivation to run faster. Same with being left for an entire night in the front leaning rest. Or being handed an extra mag, and being told to mag dump into the crazy private if he went nutter at the BRM, and that my rifle qual would depend on how many rounds I put center of mass if not in the pit or his helmet if in the pit. After all of our drill sergeants were relieved or transferred, we were so auto-private that we creeped out the drill sergeants they brought in as replacements.
Crazy DS showed up for the end of Basic ruck march. After being relieved. Dude just walked out of the bush in gear, and gave us orders. I'm vaguely sure that one is not supposed to ruck march troops through a brush fire. Boots partially melted. I'm about 90% certain he technically kidnapped us.
So, yep. We were firmly told one water, one generic powerade thingie. No refills. You could not drink them on the way to sitting down, because that was forbidden. But you could sneak draining them on the way to dumping everything. Food time was dictated by performance. Between one and four minutes. Once we were rewarded with one glass of orange juice. Milk was a threat, not a treat. Even looking at chocolate milk was a bad idea. Very bad idea. "Low crawling in chow line, WHILE reading smart book, for everyone" bad idea.
