Every time I see those scenes, I just think I would never have put up with that. I probably would have gone AWOL in the first place, but there's no way I would be spoken to like that, particularly as at the end of it you just have to go to some really hostile place and probably get killed, and definitely kill other people for no good reason. If I'd have been drafted it would be AWOL or prison, Vietnam wouldn't even be an option.

I sat watching Roots thinking "Go on, tell him to get fucked Kunta!"

All that said, that scene does probably have the most concentrated stream of quality abuse to be found in any script imo.

I don't have any respect at all for the scum-bags who went to Canada to avoid the draft or to avoid doing their fair share. It's my firm conviction that when Uncle Sam calls, by God we go, and we do the best that we can.

The funny thing is that the guy who plays the drill instructor is a former marine and is completely pro-military. I read an interview with him and he is completely unrepentant about Vietnam. You can read the interview here:
www.space-2063.de/finfo24.htm
But if you don't want to read the whole thing, he said the following:

When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yup I recall him doing a raft of interviews around the period the film was released.
He's the real deal, dyed in the wool, patriot fucknut robot.

ST: Do you ever have any second thoughts about the bomb?

PT: Second thoughts? No. Studs, look. Number one, I got into the air corps to defend the United States to the best of my ability. That's what I believe in and that's what I work for.

ST: What about the bomb? Einstein said the world has changed since the atom was split.

PT: That's right. It has changed.

ST: And Oppenheimer knew that.

PT: Oppenheimer is dead. He did something for the world and people don't understand. And it is a free world.

ST: One last thing, when you hear people say, "Let's nuke 'em," "Let's nuke these people," what do you think?

PT: Oh, I wouldn't hesitate if I had the choice. I'd wipe 'em out. You're gonna kill innocent people at the same time, but we've never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn't kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: "You've killed so many civilians." That's their tough luck for being there.