Drill Instructor
Drill Instructor
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I'm a DS and I see the hunger in a Soldiers eyes to be like his DS. What made your Drill Sergeant separate himself from the others?
Basic Training
Mentorship
Leadership
Drill Sergeant
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 175
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SSG (Join to see) Well it has been a long time ago since I was in Basic Training 1975 and the one I remember the most was SGT Briggs (Yes just a Buck Sergeant) with a CIB. He was the lowest ranking DI on the post I believe, but he was very good and tough. I had the chance to ask him why he was only a Buck Sergeant after BCT was over and he said that he had punched out an Officer on his last tour in Vietnam and it had followed him to this post (Fort Lost in the Woods, MO) and to this assignment. That's all I can remember, the rest was just a blur at the age of 17 and went very fast over a 13-week period!
This is a great question Lawrence. I hope you don't mind me sharing it with my RP Connections for their input?
1SG Franklin Burks Sgt Rusty Dillon SFC (Join to see) PVT Kimberly Anderson SGT (Join to see) SCPO (Join to see) PFC Carmen A Garcia SrA Kadie Stoller MSgt Mark Bucher Cpl Craig Marton SPC Ron Cre Cpl Brian Johnston PO3 (Join to see)
GySgt David Weihausen SGT Michael Peterson SSG James Willis PO2 Clayton Smith Sgt Larry Hayes SSgt Ginger Benzel-Dryden
This is a great question Lawrence. I hope you don't mind me sharing it with my RP Connections for their input?
1SG Franklin Burks Sgt Rusty Dillon SFC (Join to see) PVT Kimberly Anderson SGT (Join to see) SCPO (Join to see) PFC Carmen A Garcia SrA Kadie Stoller MSgt Mark Bucher Cpl Craig Marton SPC Ron Cre Cpl Brian Johnston PO3 (Join to see)
GySgt David Weihausen SGT Michael Peterson SSG James Willis PO2 Clayton Smith Sgt Larry Hayes SSgt Ginger Benzel-Dryden
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SP5 Geoffrey Vannerson
My favorite one was Drill SGT Moreing who was at Ft. "Blister" (Bliss) TX. He was the DI they sent when someone or the platoon needed to be "smoked." Man must have known a 1,000 cadences. Had a great sense of humor (when you got to see it.) End of Basic and AIT a few of us who he liked and who liked him went to the PX and bought him a 1/2 gal of his favorite alcohol (Old Grandad.) as a thank you. He use to tell us ("if you don't do what i'm telling you, this time next year, you gonna be a 1 year old baby ghost.") Another one of my favs was whenever an officer went by and said "carry on" very quietly, and only to us he would say "think we ain't." Very few HAPPY memories, but always a few GOOD ones to look back on. (Air Defense Artillery 1982)
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SGT (Join to see)
SGT Wallace, FT Lewis, WA, January, 1966. I was drafted and the Army was building up the 4th ID to go to Vietnam. On day one SGT Wallace said "You are in the 4th ID and you are going to Vietnam." He wasn't a regular DI. He was part of the cadre that was training us and was going to Vietnam with us. He made sure we worked hard and took our training seriously.
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SSG (Join to see), I may surprise you with this response. I went to BCT from 11NOV69 to 16JAN70. I was assigned to first platoon of D-3-1 at Fort Jackson (Tank Hill), SC.
The drill sergeant of 1st platoon was SFC Richard DesLauriers. He was a kind and comparatively quiet man, atypical of many BCT drill sergeants. Don't get me wrong. If he needed to drop the hammer, he dropped the hammer!
However, he was in the business of mentoring before the Army even formalized the process and was most worthy of emulation. Extraordinary NCO.
I've tried to find him many times through various media to no avail, in order that I might thank the man for being the extraordinary NCO that he was to me and the other basic trainees.
The drill sergeant of 1st platoon was SFC Richard DesLauriers. He was a kind and comparatively quiet man, atypical of many BCT drill sergeants. Don't get me wrong. If he needed to drop the hammer, he dropped the hammer!
However, he was in the business of mentoring before the Army even formalized the process and was most worthy of emulation. Extraordinary NCO.
I've tried to find him many times through various media to no avail, in order that I might thank the man for being the extraordinary NCO that he was to me and the other basic trainees.
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SGT Debra Jahnel
I too was onTank Hill - 1981. Had a run-in w/another platoon's drill that resulted in his publically apologizing to me. Great nephew graduated almost 20yrs later at Ft Jackson, so we went down. Ran into THAT DI in the PX. (He remembered me.)
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PO1 Kevin Dougherty
As a Coastie, we didn't have DIs, but we did have Company Commanders, usually a PO-1 or CPO. Back in the early 70s, each company had about 30 recruits, and had one CC. Ours in Papa 86 was Chief Ceda. Like your SFC, he was a quiet and soft spoken man, who did not smoke for smokng's sake. Of course when you earned it ....
Toward the end of Boot Camp, he would show up many evenings and share various sea stories and the kind of day to day real life practical information normally not learned in boot camp.
Toward the end of Boot Camp, he would show up many evenings and share various sea stories and the kind of day to day real life practical information normally not learned in boot camp.
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SPC (Join to see)
LTC Stephen Curlee, I was ten days behind you but three years ahead of you in beginning BCT: 21NOV1966. At the time, I didn't realize how WWII came to a close less than 21 years before my entrance into the U. S. Army.
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SGM Art Hudson
I was in D-5-1 Tank Hill, we had DS Smith Vietnam Vet straight forward, hardcore, but cared about our training.
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When I went through 12 BCT and AIT at Fort Leonard Wood beginning in November 1974, I had the misfortune to have the same last name as the junior platoon drill sergeant SSG (Join to see). SSG Ford made sure that Private Ford knew I was an insult to the family tree from time to time. All-in-all he was a even-keeled Drill Sergeant who trained us professionally and never called for mass corporal-punishment. In those days cut-aways [front leaning rest to parade rest over asphalt] and dying cockroach were two of the more memorable punishments. I still have scars on my chin from when I hit the asphalt and bounced of my chin. Some unfortunate trainees hit their faces and ended up with bloody noses.
When I was assigned to Fort Dix to serve as drill cadet for a training cycle, I remembered the good I learned from my drill sergeants and the special forces training NCOs who trained us at West Point each summer and treated the trainees fairly but firmly as I instructed them in 1978.
In 1985 and 1986 I commanded an infantry training company at Harmony Church, Fort Benning. I did my best to ensure the drill sergeants were professional and were treated as professionals as we worked to train each cycle with them doing the vast majority of the work.
Thanks for mentioning me COL Mikel J. Burroughs
LTC Stephen C. Capt Seid Waddell CW5 Charlie Poulton CW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT SFC William Farrell SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt Robert Marx TSgt Joe C. SGT (Join to see) SGT Robert Hawks SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SGT Forrest Stewart SP5 Mark Kuzinski SrA Christopher Wright SPC (Join to see)
When I was assigned to Fort Dix to serve as drill cadet for a training cycle, I remembered the good I learned from my drill sergeants and the special forces training NCOs who trained us at West Point each summer and treated the trainees fairly but firmly as I instructed them in 1978.
In 1985 and 1986 I commanded an infantry training company at Harmony Church, Fort Benning. I did my best to ensure the drill sergeants were professional and were treated as professionals as we worked to train each cycle with them doing the vast majority of the work.
Thanks for mentioning me COL Mikel J. Burroughs
LTC Stephen C. Capt Seid Waddell CW5 Charlie Poulton CW5 (Join to see) SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT SFC William Farrell SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt Robert Marx TSgt Joe C. SGT (Join to see) SGT Robert Hawks SGT Robert George SGT John " Mac " McConnell SGT Forrest Stewart SP5 Mark Kuzinski SrA Christopher Wright SPC (Join to see)
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SGM (Join to see)
I had two of the most memorable and remarkable (NCOs) as Drill Sergeants I ever met! And I met many of them through a four-year long project I ran for a "job", as a DoD civilian I had back in the late 90s. Long story, and a long time ago, but I met and interviewed probably 250 Drill Sergeants over that time and had copious amounts of beer with many of them!
Back to my BCT drill sergeants, back in 1972. DS Jackson (a SSG) was our assigned platoon drill sergeant and our senior drill sergeant, who also helped DS Jackson was Senior Drill Sergeant Babbs. They were tough as nails, but fair, and spent a lot of time with us just cleaning weapons and such. They were just special men who really molded us into men from the boys we were when we started. They could also rip you a new anal aperture whenever they thought it was warranted (and they were usually right)!
Back to my BCT drill sergeants, back in 1972. DS Jackson (a SSG) was our assigned platoon drill sergeant and our senior drill sergeant, who also helped DS Jackson was Senior Drill Sergeant Babbs. They were tough as nails, but fair, and spent a lot of time with us just cleaning weapons and such. They were just special men who really molded us into men from the boys we were when we started. They could also rip you a new anal aperture whenever they thought it was warranted (and they were usually right)!
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LTC Stephen F.
Thank you my friend SGM (Join to see) for letiing us know that you had "two of the most memorable and remarkable (NCOs) as Drill Sergeants [you] ever met!" Thanks for horing your BCT Drill Sergeant SSG Jackson and your Senior Drill Sergeant SFC Babbs.
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CSM John Cartwright
SFC Mike Penning,Fort Knox outstanding Drill Sergeant,motivater,Vietnam veteran,and later great friend.
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