MovieChat Forums > No Time for Sergeants (1958) Discussion > This movie kept me from enlisting.

This movie kept me from enlisting.

posted 17 years ago by Bilwick1
3 replies | jump to latest

I've often said (only half-jokingly) that I could never be a soldier, not so much because I'm scared of getting hurt, as I am of going to the bathroom in front of other people. And this movie, which I saw when I was a kid, helped instill that fear in me. I can still remember the row of toilets without even the flimsiest of partitions betwen them. Are Army latrines really like this? Jeez, the idea of taking a dump right out in the open, with or without other guys sitting next to me, gives me the creeps just thinking about it. And I don't even want to think about "post-defecation sanitation."

[–] RobBase086-1 15 years ago

Well the ARMY might be like that but the Navy was not at all though. The only thing that they would do is tape off which urnals you could not use at all and some bathroom stalls as well were not allowed to be used. It was a way of seeing if you could pay attention to detail or not.

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[–] caraeas 11 years ago

Heck ,that was how my restroom in grade school was set up. Come to think of it I managed never to take a dump in that situation. Don't think my eyes were brown before I started school though.

[–] dannieboy20906 9 years ago

Yes, back in the day the latrines were just as shown in the movie. In fact, overseas, especially in the field, the privies were often long benches.

By the time I enlisted, urinals were lined up in the open, but commodes had stalls. The shower was one big cubicle. It was just like my high school after PE class.

The military will either teach you to relax your need for privacy, or teach you to squeeze your butt cheeks together for a long time.

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