Now this is the kind of story that makes you sit up and go, “Whoa — the old Army might actually be making a comeback.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — yes, the Fox News guy turned Pentagon boss — is shaking up military training, and if you thought basic training had gone soft, you might just like where this is headed.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) August 5, 2025
According to defense sources, Hegseth has reversed a ban on “bay tossing” — the practice where drill sergeants flip mattresses, dump lockers, and generally turn barracks into a chaotic mess for recruits to clean up — and he’s even looking at bringing back the infamous “shark attacks.”
If you’ve been through basic training, you know exactly what a shark attack is — that chaotic first-day swarm where a dozen drill sergeants are in your face, yelling, breaking you down, and seeing how you handle pressure. It’s been mostly gone since 2020 when the Army replaced it with a more “team-oriented” first day called “The First 100 Yards.” But Hegseth? He’s not having it.
“Bottom line: Make BASIC Great Again,” a Pentagon official told Just the News. And that’s really the whole point here. Hegseth’s been clear — even in his 2024 book, The War on Warriors — that he thinks the military has gotten too focused on feelings and not focused enough on building tough, combat-ready troops.
“If a soldier falls apart because they are called by the wrong pronoun, then they are not mentally strong enough to endure the rigors of combat,” he wrote.
And this just dropped for one of the Sandhill BDEs. In this current climate, your Drill would have been investigated, and list his hat and badge. This is not how you make disciplined Infantrymen. @PeteHegseth @SecDef pic.twitter.com/LVpuYg9lEX
— Sexual Tyranosaurus (@SadInfantryman) August 2, 2025
This shake-up comes after a bizarre back-and-forth at Fort Benning, where Col. C.J. Hallows initially banned bay tossing in late July, citing Army regulations against trainee abuse.
But just days later — after Hegseth’s intervention — the memo was rescinded. And the message from the top? Drill sergeants are getting their teeth back.
Of course, this move will spark debate. Critics of shark attacks say they undermine trust between soldiers and leaders. Supporters say they forge toughness, discipline, and unit cohesion — qualities you need when bullets are flying. But one thing’s for sure: under Hegseth, basic training isn’t going to look like a corporate retreat.