History Headscratchers / FullMetalJacket

*** When I was in Boot Camp my Senior Drill Instructor was a Gunny (E-7). It's not common but it does happen.

*** It's possible the D.I's were simply dropping extra rounds out of their pockets, in case the trainees needed some help to make their targets, so that the DIs would meet their own graduation targets. Pyle happened to be good enough at shooting that the extra rounds were wasted, or he was able to trade jelly donuts (or his sister) to other privates enough to fill up a magazine.

** Ammo is highly tracked in training; the military knows training is stressful and keeping rounds accessible to recruits dealing with that stress is asking for a lot of trouble. Weapons are tracked carefully, bullets even more so, down to the individual round. When training requires shooting, the recruit is given a set number of rounds. They are expected to shoot the amount they are given, and instructors are there to make sure. There isn't any squirreling away possible; if you're given 20 rounds, you shoot 20 rounds. Otherwise there's gonna be trouble from DIs and MPs because a round or several are missing.

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In peacetime, at any point in your first 12 months, you can request a "failure to adapt to military lifestyle", which counts as a General Discharge (neither honorable nor dishonorable), not an Honorable Discharge.

*** It worked the opposite way. Draftees had no choice about being there, so there wasn't as high a standard as the volunteers had to clear. He snapped because, well, it does happen. The military actively recognizes that it happens and takes steps to protect themselves and the Service Members [which is actually a good point made several times below, about Pyle managing to get ammunition and a magazine, and Joker's unwillingness to do anything about it.]

*** It's not explained in the film, so who knows how he ended up there. It's also possible that he volunteered to avoid being drafted. Some people would do that, vounteering for a guaranteed MOS (such as supply or food service) to avoid the possibility of being drafted into the infantry.

* So the government invests lots of time and money into training Joker to be a ruthless and efficient US Marines killer. And at the end of it - they send him to Vietnam as a journalist. What, as the kidz would say, is all _that_ about?

** PT technically means physical training but not the typical amount they are used to doing. The way he means it "torturous exercise for a longer than normal time used as punishment." In other words, their usual exercise routine cranked UpToEleven.

** Guess that explained why he decided to immediately eat his rifle.

** The thing I don't get is why nobody ever gives Joker any shit for how he behaves. He just kind of stands there and watches as Pyle loads individual bullets into a clip and then loads the clip and cocks the rifle and starts going through drills... I understand that he was panicked or whatever, but really, just screaming and running away would have been a better response. Maybe Hartman would have still stormed in and started berating Pyle, but then again maybe not; Hartman does seem genuinely surprised when Joker tells him that Pyle's weapon is loaded. If Joker had just immediately gotten out of there and warned everyone, maybe the [=MP=]s (or whatever, sorry, military noob here) would have been able to take Pyle out before he hurt anyone...
*** Hartman asks something along the lines of why isn't Pvt. Joker stomping Pvt. Pyle's guts out for that. Joker handled it horribly. The job of the watch is to be alert this very kind of stuff at night, especially in boot camp, and while unarmed, the watch is the first line of defense in boot camp. So as soon as he seen Pyle in there he should've disarmed him and reported him to Hartman. His window was small but not that small. Or he could've just ran and got help. But to do nothing costed both Marines lives and possibly proves that its Joker who isn't fit to be a Marine. I personally witnessed a boot camp wig-out, To a far less dangerous degree but equally loud. And it was the guy on watch while we were asleep. Talk about [[NightmareFuel something potential scary]] [[FridgeHorror when you think of how bad it could've been with 50 sleeping recruits while an insane individual is supposedly watching you sleep]]. Lucky for us it was around 5 am and not closer to lights out. The watch commander(a recruit) was the first person to try calming him down and getting loud back did work better than being calm, and much much better than doing nothing.