Not in the military, but a similar experience. The guys and girls all seemed to know when it was joking and when it was hateful. If it ever got hateful, somebody's ass got checked for it. And everyone lived happily ever after.
Discussion
Would love to know where this checking police is. And don’t tell me we police ourselves, fell for that one before.
We ABSOLUTELY policed ourselves. It was great. Free and open communication. Nobody let some out of bounds comment slide. If it pissed them off, they said something. It usually resulted in a simple apology, or further discussion, but always some mutual resolution.
Now the actual manifestation of all that was usually loud and included most every swear word in existence, but always a positive result.
Literally the only time there was a problem was when somebody got butthurt on behalf of somebody else. White-knighting for a lesbian or black guy or whatever. Those people never lasted long because they were constantly trying to find some unrighted wrong instead of getting on the team and doing their fucking job.
Kinda like banks policing themselves, all is fun and games until someone goes bankrupt
A few of us policed the hell outta somebody tda. Laughed and pointed at him. It was fun.