# DP1 treatment



## Kaniff (30 Mar 2021)

Almost finished my BMQ and will be going right into my DP1. Just wondering if the treatment is the same, as in the instructors treat you like a piece of shit that doesn't do anything right...Not complaining about it, I know its part of the process but just curious if DP1 is any different.


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## dangerboy (31 Mar 2021)

Kaniff said:


> Almost finished my BMQ and will be going right into my DP1. Just wondering if the treatment is the same, as in the instructors treat you like a piece of shit that doesn't do anything right...Not complaining about it, I know its part of the process but just curious if DP1 is any different.


What trade is your DP1 as for example a DP1 Infantry course will be treated differently from a DP1 HRA course. That being said neither should be treating you like a piece of shit (same with the BMQ) they should be treating you like you don't know information and need to be taught it.


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## LittleBlackDevil (31 Mar 2021)

dangerboy said:


> What trade is your DP1 as for example a DP1 Infantry course will be treated differently from a DP1 HRA course. That being said neither should be treating you like a piece of shit (same with the BMQ) they should be treating you like you don't know information and need to be taught it.



Interesting. I was just thinking about this recently, having gotten a bit hooked on watching Lads Army and Bad Lads Army and observing 1950s style training. Seems like there was a lot more beasting back then, but there was also (at least in the TV series) some "positive feedback" where the instructors would congratulate the trainees when they showed grit and determination.

It's been many years since my own training, but the BOTC and BIOC I did in Gagetown, I don't recall a lot of beasting, but also don't recall any positive feedback of any kind, and just having the impression from start to finish that the instructors thought we were all bags of shit who they simply had to tolerate until the course was done. Personally I would have preferred more beasting to correct things done wrong, but also some positive comments to affirm what is done right. 

For example, I suspect that the reason I was failed off my phase III course was because some of the instructors thought I was a malingerer for going to the MIR for suspected heat stroke at the encouragement of another instructor. If I'd been yelled at about being a malingerer rather than encouraged to go to the MIR I feel that I probably would have sucked it up and not gone to the MIR and maybe would have passed the course.


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## Kaniff (31 Mar 2021)

dangerboy said:


> What trade is your DP1 as for example a DP1 Infantry course will be treated differently from a DP1 HRA course. That being said neither should be treating you like a piece of shit (same with the BMQ) they should be treating you like you don't know information and need to be taught it.


Infantry.....Ok maybe a "piece of shit" was an exaggeration, but I think you know what I mean. There is just a lot of "motivating".


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## blacktriangle (31 Mar 2021)

LittleBlackDevil said:


> Personally I would have preferred more beasting to correct things done wrong, but also some positive comments to affirm what is done right.


I get what you're saying, but reality is often ambiguous. Being able to function in the absence of positive (or any) feedback is as important as being able to accept criticism.


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## Jarnhamar (31 Mar 2021)

Kaniff said:


> Almost finished my BMQ and will be going right into my DP1. Just wondering if the treatment is the same, as in the instructors treat you like a piece of shit that doesn't do anything right...Not complaining about it, I know its part of the process but just curious if DP1 is any different.


Infantry? I'd expect it to get worse.


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## brihard (31 Mar 2021)

Kaniff said:


> Almost finished my BMQ and will be going right into my DP1. Just wondering if the treatment is the same, as in the instructors treat you like a piece of shit that doesn't do anything right...Not complaining about it, I know its part of the process but just curious if DP1 is any different.


It largely depends on whether one is in fact still a piece of shit that doesn’t do anything right.

The point of the DP1 phase, of which BMQ is a part, is that by the end, you aren’t and you do. Within the combat arms, there is also the necessity of physically, mentally, and emotionally toughening people in preparation for the demands of being a participant in or witness to the absolute savagery that is humans doing their best to destroy each other. The goal is not to strip your humanity, but to put it into perspective and to thicken your hide a bit.


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## NavyShooter (1 Apr 2021)

Speaking as a CSM of a Training Company for a Reserve Infantry unit, one of the things I do before we send our recruits off to their BMQ or DP1 training is have an open and frank discussion about expectations.

BMQ, in the end, will qualify a soldier to wear a uniform, march, dress a wound, survive a CBRN attack, and operate a rifle.  

The basic military task is to take a rifle and stand a post.

The implicated task with that is that you will be equipped and capable of delivering deadly force within your rules of engagement, and also expected to do so.

Simply put - you can kill.

You also become a valid target/combatant from the enemy's perspective.  Bearing in mind that this enemy could be in a crowd watching a parade downtown at a Cenotaph, or in a trench on the other side of the battlefield.

I want my troops to be mentally prepared for that - or at least to have considered the implication before they start the course.  

From the perspective of a trained member of the CAF, many of the things that recruits do IS actually wrong.  If you do the same thing wrong more than once, then you should expect your staff to be hard on you.  Failing to learn from your mistakes is not a good thing.

The norms of society are "thou shalt not kill" - as an infantry soldier, your primary role is the delivery of potentially deadly force in the face of an armed enemy under direction of your chain of command following the guidance of our civilian leadership.  Breaking that norm in a controlled fashion is a delicate art.  

NS


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## daftandbarmy (1 Apr 2021)

NavyShooter said:


> Speaking as a CSM of a Training Company for a Reserve Infantry unit, one of the things I do before we send our recruits off to their BMQ or DP1 training is have an open and frank discussion about expectations.
> 
> BMQ, in the end, will qualify a soldier to wear a uniform, march, dress a wound, survive a CBRN attack, and operate a rifle.
> 
> ...



Having said all that, in the past I have charged NCO's under my command - in a recruit training establishment - for treating their soldiers like 'a piece of shit'. 

Where responsible leadership is absent, respect soon follows.


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## NavyShooter (1 Apr 2021)

I did a UDI last fall for exactly that - no charges recommended - and that was concurred with by AJAG, but yes, much more supervision has resulted.  My OC and I spent a lot of time watching over the unit run DP1 course last summer to reduce the likelihood of such shenanigans.


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