NCOs are good at smoking and Soldiers are good at PT. A match made in heaven! OK, just kidding. I'm an prior service officer and was smoked many times as a young Soldier. I deserved every single one.

I will echo the sentiments of others on this thread by saying getting smoked is better than losing pay, doing extra duty or even getting it on paper. That is pretty indisputable.

As a LT, there was only one instance where I had to stop an NCO from a smoke session. It wasn't because it was harsh or anything of that nature, but his timing was terrible. The BDE CDR was giving my BN a "Pep talk" prior to our deployment and this NCO decided that his Soldier nodding off needed some motivation to stay awake. I simply asked him not to interrupt the BDE CDR and wait until he left.

For every 99 NCOs that are mature and competent and would never abuse this type of corrective punishment, there is one who will. That's life. I wouldn't advocate eliminating smoke sessions, because of that.

In regards to COIN, I don't buy the theory that if we smoke our Soldiers, they would in turn treat the HN civs cruely. It comes back to leadership. Soldiers behave and perform primarily based on the conditions established by their leadership, from TL to BN CDR. I saw many Soldiers smoked in OIF for various things go out on missions treat Iraqis with dignity and respect. They were mature enough to make the separation. But then again, our unit had good leaders who fostered and promoted that environment.