Obviously, punishment if they make a mistake is a common way. Let’s take a look at how the Vietnamese commander punishes their soldiers.
- Got caught smoking? No problem. You would be smoked as many as you want but at a higher level.
2. Don’t forget to heal the relationship after fighting with your comrade.
3. One of the roommates gets up late, the rest will be taking care of his sleep under the sun.
4. One man defecates into the vegetable garden, the whole squad has to pass each other the dung into the toilet.
5. One man got caught stealing a mango; he had to stay in front of and say sorry to the mango tree 1000 times: “Sorry comrade mango”.
6. Four men got caught playing cards. The commander gives them four shovels then orders them to dig a real grave, 500m away from the base. Then order them to bring each of the cards (each man each corner of the card) to the grave, walking, crying at the same time. There are 52 cards -- could you calculate the length of the road that they have done?
7. There was a guy who has stinking feet. His feet stink out to the room so the whole squad rushed to hit him. The squad was punished by smelling his shoes in one hour at 12 A.M.
8. One man gathers late because of buying a bottle of water on the way heading to the training ground. He was punished by bringing along the bottle, crawling to the store where he bought the bottle, and go back 20 times.
9. Four men got caught playing cards; the commander brought them to the football court. They played cards with four men standing at four corners of the court. Each turn, the player must run to the center of court then put the card there and run back.
10. (This is my personal experience) One time, my neighbor squad didn’t want to sleep. They were chatting and laughing after sleep time. The commander ordered them to come in front of the rubbish dump and smile to the trash bin. “You will be forgiven when the trash bin smiles back at you”, The commander said.
There are countless other funny punishments in the Vietnam military environment. All the newbie will catch one of that stuff. Those punishments really work, most people step out from the military environment become disciplined and polite.
