The Rumor Doctor looks for “stress cards”
Our buddy, Jeff Schogol, known as the “Rumor Doctor” at Stars & Stripes went looking for “stress cards’ in the halls of mythological beasts;
More than a few of you have asked The Rumor Doctor to look into the longstanding rumor that the Army once issued “stress cards” for recruits who could not endure the rigors of basic training. Allegedly, these cards provide a reprieve to recruits too tired to exercise or stressed out from being yelled at by a drill sergeant.
This rumor usually comes up when certain folks claim that basic training has become “soft” because today’s recruits are “weak.” Although the stress cards rumor has been disputed several times over the years, it lives on.
I don’t know about stress cards, but I used to hand my troops “tough shit cards” when they complained. It had little boxes they could get hole-punched by the chaplain. I don’t think any actually went to the chaplain to get their tough shit cards punched, and it probably didn’t do anything for their morale, but it made me feel better, and that’s all that’s really important.
Category: Military issues
Blog-Factcheck: I remember Jonn’s “tough shit cards” but I also remember his platoon leader giving out cookies after counseling sessions. It was some kind of bi-polar mommy-daddy leadership model. Odd but effective.
That required a spew alert because I know you aren’t lying and I, asap am going to make some for my son. Yeah, baby. Adversity builds character!!
I’m pretty sure that whole rumor started with the Navy in the 90’s…
I don’t know about you guys but I’m still looking for that fucking can of squelch…..
Country–it was a BS rumor then, too, although I will say that in certain communities the training pipeline has become more of a pump than a filter when it comes to weeding out those who shouldn’t be doing certain jobs in the fleet.
In the words of Judge Smails, “Well, the world needs ditch diggers too!” Or deck chippers, in this case.
Having seen one here at Sill in 2000, they existed then.
I could have sworn Stephanie Gutmann in her book “The Kinder Gentler Military” discusses it. It was written in the late 90s, have it in a box somewhere.
I saw a bunch come out of Ft. Lee in the early to mid-90’s.
I was at Ft. Eustis in 1995 and I knocked one out of the hand of the private who told me I was too hard on him. The punk didn’t know how to police up his butts, so I made him drop and give me 30 burpees. I proceeded to yell at him until he was finished. When he stood up, he pulled out his stress card and told me I had to calm down and give him 2 minutes calm down, too. Whenever I saw him after that, he would dart off in another direction.
If the ‘stress card’ was a joke, I didn’t get it and he had some crappy timing…
I was at a pre-command course in Benning, 1997. Made the mistake of asking the ITB CSM if Benning used stress cards. Man I hit a nerve! He jumped to his feet and yelled “We don’t that at Benning Sir!”
He was right and the standards had not been relaxed one bit.
Wish I had thought up the “tough shit” cards.
We had a PA at the battalion aid station used to personally check everyone he thought was goldbricking, looking for a profile. He would act all concerned, then fill out a profile saying the Soldier needed PT twice a day and send them trotting off to their First Sergeant with a sly smile. Lots of fun seeing everyone else leave, and some dumb schmoe dressed out for a run at 1700.
I think the ever classic is the “hurt feelings report”
http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/legalfiles/gates_letter_sept09/attach_1.pdf
The “Stress Card” was often the joke, and the deep shaming of anyone stupid enough to admit they went to Basic at Jackson. Anyone who furthermore admitted it was “hard” would be laughed out of whatever NCOs Office he/she had been in.
I went to Jump school in 95 and was an NCO at the time. During ground week a black hat had taken a private off to the side for a “private counseling session”. At one point during the tirade the private slowly held up something (this was happening about 30 feet from were a group of us students stood). The black hat grabbed it away from the private and looked like he was going to have a conniption. We later found out that the private had come to Benning from Ft. Jackson basic and they were using the stress cards there. The kid was never told that the rest of the Army (especially the Jump school) didn’t exactly buy into the concept. A couple of other NCO students later took the private aside and gently explained life to him.
We broke out a pack of 3×5 cards while at Camp Bullis during OBC back in ’99. The cadre thought it was funny, especially during the resulting pushups.
Just wanted to let you all know I did a follow-up to the stress cards story in which I talked about the “stress control cards” the Army once issued. Those were the ones that utilized mood ring technology:
http://goo.gl/0FvEj
Jeff Schogol