Why did he hate the main guys platoon specifically? They never did anything to warrant him being out to have them repeat basic, if anything he almost killed them when he wounded their Sgt... Just seemed very contrived to me.
Light travels faster than sound,
that's why people seem bright,
until you hear them.
Stillman was one of those "blame everyone else for your failures" kinda people. Although I don't know a great deal about the UCMJ, he did things that would probably mean a charge of "conduct unbecoming an officer".
He probably despised Sgt. Hulka, believing him to be a "lowly enlisted peon". Which means that Stillman most likely thought even LESS of Hulka's men. He was too hasty in forcing one of Sgt. Crocker's men to fire that mortar, which lead to Sgt. Hulka being injured. Then Stillman tried to put the blame on Crocker, and intimidated Hulka's men into silence regarding the truth of the incident.
An ironic thing was that Stillman was a real "ladies' man", yet he threatened Hulka's men with a repeat of basic training because they had gone to a bar where there were naked women mud-wrestling. Hmmmmmmm.
Then when the platoon went to Italy to test out the EM-50, Stillman refused to heed Hulka's advice and warnings about retrieving the assault vehicle (after Winger and Ziskey had taken off with it), which led to most of the platoon being captured. After they were rescued and returned home, Stillman still got sent to the Arctic Circle (as Col. Glass had threatened earlier on), for botching the EM-50 project.
So Stillman's disdain for Sgt. Hulka and the platoon backfired on him.
The only thing I can think of that would put Hulka's platoon in a bad light would be when he watched them screw up on the obstacle course.
But that's hardly a good reason to hate them that much. And certainly not worthy of threatening to repeat basic.
Furthermore they could have just blackmailed him, threatening to report his negligence, it would have been in his best interest to keep them happy, not antagonize them...Well, he was a complete moron so it shouldn't be surprising.
Light travels faster than sound,
that's why people seem bright,
until you hear them.
How did Winger know that what Stillman said about Crocker being responsible for not controlling his men wasn't true? I wish we would've gotten to see how he found out.
share