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February, 1999

LISTEN UP, TROOPS! . .The Old Drill Sgt. here.

I have been getting questions lately from people who have read my column, and asked if I was really a Drill Sgt. One guy even asked if I was one of the feared and hated Drill Sgts.he had read about. For all of you out there I will clear this up once and for all. Yes, I was a Drill Sgt., stationed at Ft. Campbell, Ky. from May 1968 to June 1969, after my tour in Nam with the 101st Airborne Division (See "Happy Tet, G.I."). Now about this "Feared and Hated" thing, I'm a bit confused. There seems to be this notion that we Drill Sgts. were inhuman, sadistic, and downright mean and nasty people, that the Army kept us around to annoy, confuse and generally terrorize the new recurits. Nothing could be farther from the truth; I loved my trainees. That is why I would come in every morning at 0500 (5:00AM) and wake them to a new and wonderful day of enlightening training. That when I called a formation, they ran so quickly to get there, then stood proud in formation and hung on every word I said. Or at P.T. (Physical Training - push ups, sit ups, etc), when I would say,"What do you want!". The trainees would reply, joyously in unison and with a song in their hearts, "More P.T. Drill Sgt.". Now if that is not love, then I don't know what is. If you don't believe me then, you got it, go ask a Vet. They will tell you what they thought of their Drill Sgts. and the memories they have of basic training. That goes for the Marines too. I bet every Marine to this day remembers his/her D.I. with a warm spot in their hearts. Just go ask them, I'm sure they will tell you more then you want to hear.

Now if you have not figured it out yet, this column will be about the Drill Sgt. That's why I entiltled it "Drill Sgt. 101" I will be covering what a Drill Sgt. really is, from a historical perspective, and throw The Marine D.I. in for balance. But first a little historical background. Since the dawn of human stupidity, armies have marched the land. Every group of people that have carved out empires have used organized armies to secure the lands and people they wanted to control. Babylonians, Egyptians, Mongols, Chinese, Romans, Indians (the country), all brought a new twist to warfare. Egypt gave us the chariot, Babylon the bronze sword, Mongols, mounted cavalry, with the invention of the stirrup. If you did not know it, the stirrup is considered one of the major advancements of human invention. The stirrup allowed the rider to stay in control of the horse, stay in the saddle, and have both hands free for sword and shield, or lance control during close combat. Ain't humans crafty little critters!

The Romans brought to the playing field three up-grades: the phalanx, standardization of equipment, and drill. The concept of drill is to train over and over till a task is second nature and everyone knows how the whole formation moves at any given time. Standardization allowed the Roman soldiers the ability to lock their shields together and form a moving wall of swords and spears. Drill allowed the soliders to move in unison forming a moving battle formation. For its day the Roman phalanx were the king of the highway, and Rome went on to conquor a major portion of the world. Now its not to say that this always worked; the Romans ran into some real problems when they ran into the Picts in what is now Scotland. Seems the Picts had one simple game plan. First paint yourself blue. Second, let the Roman legions walk up the valley floor, while you (the Picts) are lying on the steep sides of the hills around the valley. Third, stand up and run down the side of the hill screaming at the top of your lungs and jump on the Romans and stomp them into the soft Scottish soil. Roman drill and discipline did not last long in these situations. The Picts scared the Romans so badly that they (Romans) built a wall across what is now Northern England to keep the Picts on the other side. I guess there is something to be said for the "Lets go berserk and kill the other guy" concept of warfare.

After the Roman empire fell apart, western Europe went back to everybody for themselves and seeing how we ain't got nothing to do, "Let's sack Rome". The Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, crusades (now that's a whole other story) and finally the Renaissance. Around the 1600's the Dutch started forming armies based on standardization and drill. Now today in this modern age every army on the planet, and we sure have a bunch of them, uses some form of standard equipment and drill in the form of training. In all the aformentioned time periods there have been trainers who would be what the Drill Sgt. is today. Kind and lovable people, with tender hearts, even tempers and calm dispositions.

I went by to see if Mr. Peabody was into taking a little trip back in time. I knocked on the front door, and when it opened there was Mr. Peabody. He took one look at me and got this strange look in his eyes. His eyes narrowed, his brow furrowed, and from deep in his gut he said,"Where to now, Drill Sgt.!" I started to answer and was cut off, "How about the battle of Agincourt or Waterloo or the Somme?' he mumbled, "Seeing how each of these battles were in the same place over a 500 year period and were disasters for one side or the other. Maybe you want to ride with Custer, hang out with the Britsh at the battle of Isandhlwana in 1879 where 20,000 Zulu warriors rearranged the Britsh attitude that they were tough guys." He turned and started walking down the hall, mumbling places like, the Charge of the Light Brigade, the Australians at Gallipoli, the Athenian expedtion to Syracuse in 413 BC, how about Dien Bien Phu, he said, kicking the wall with his left foot, and who could forget the Bay of Pigs, he retorted as he slammed the bedroom door behind him and threw himself on the bed sobbing. What's with him? I asked his, boy Sherman." He's been like that ever since you wanted to go back to the Tet '68", Sherman replied. "Just walks around whispering dates and places, kicking the walls, gripes about Drill Sgts. and uses language I don't want to repeat."

Sherman, I said, just go in and tell him I only want to go back to the early 1960s, here in the U.S. and check out the Drill Sgt. concept in the U.S.Army. No bombs, no bullets, no military disasters. Sherman said OK, and went into Mr. Peabody's room. He came out a little later and said, Mr. Peabody says he will go, but if you screw up or cause him a headache, he will send you so far back in time that the Big Bang has not even been planned yet. No problem, what could go wrong, I said. That's when Sherman got a weird look in his eye.

In the early 1960s the U.S.Army was looking at a new way of training their recruits. Basic was still two (2) months, but the training was done by regular army personnel. Not like the Marines, that had their Drill Instructors who did the basic combat training for new recruits, or boots. as they fondly called them. The Army trainers were personnel that were assigned to basic training posts: NCOs (non-commissioned officers) E-5 and up. These personnel were competent (which is a relative term) NCO's drawn from the various parts of the Army. They knew what the Army wanted, having been through Basic themselves. But they had no formal training in giving classes or as the Army wanted, in moving the new recruit from civilian to soldier. With this in mind the Drill Sgt. concept was formed. Take NCO's after screening for leadership qualities, and train them in the specific task of training recruits in basic for two months. Various Posts around the country were chosen as Drill Sgt. training sites. The Army also adopted the campaign hat, like the Marines, and a special patch to be worn on the right breast pocket of their fatigues. Only the Drill Sgt. could wear the "Hat" and patch. This set the Drill Sgt. apart from all the rest of the Army personnel and instilled immediate fear in the hearts on the new trainees.

I went through the Drill Sgt. school at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. The plan was simple: form the chosen NCO's in classes, assign them to barracks, and teach them how to give classes in what the Army wanted the new recruits to know that would allow them to move up the Army system. What we did was go back to basic, were assigned bunks in a barracks, that we would have to keep in the fashion that the trainees would have to maintain while in basic training. At the same time the Drill Sgt. trainees would be given classes in leadership, how to conduct classes, inspection, drill and ceremony (marching), how to move the trainee through the stages of basic, and how to control a platoon of 40 people (or as the Army calls it, "The motivation factor", which I will talk about later.)

There was one other thing: how to psychologically manipulate the trainee to understand that the Drill Sgt. was in charge and they (trainee) were not. We were taught to keep the trainees off balance psychologically speaking. Never let the trainee get his feet planted as to what you were doing. If you (the Drill Sgt.) saw a trainee getting a grasp, as to what was going on, then the Drill Sgt. would change tacts.This was all implied, not written on paper. Now I went through Drill Sgt. school 3 years after the school was formed and the gruff in-your-face attitude still was in effect. The tactics have changed in 30 years, but the effect is still the same. Take Johnny, every mother's son, take the civilian out of him and make him a soldier. Why? Simple... the Army wages war, that's their job, and civilians don't do well in war.

Here's a little trick we learned to get Johnny with the program. In most classrooms there would be small fans in the corners of the room. This would keep the air moving somewhat. You have 200+ trainees listening to a period of instruction on a particular task. Now any Vet knows that any period of instruction given in the Army will immediately put the student to sleep. Couple this with the trainees running everywhere, only getting 5 to 6 hours sleep at night and this guy with the Hat yelling all the time and you get people sleeping in class. We were taught that when you saw someone starting to doze off, you the drill Sgt. from your point on the platform, would walk over to the fan and stick your hand in the fan, stopping the blades. Not a big thing, it is a small fan and if you catch the blades just right you just redden the tips of your fingers as they stop moving. To the young trainee sitting in the middle of the room, this has a completely different effect. He sees the drill Sgt. stick his hand in the fan and is convinced, that yes these people are crazy. Now you have him and he gets with the program. Here's another to show how imaginative we were. A Drill Sgt. is standing in front of his platoon formation, talking about one thing or another. While he is talking he pulls out a small can of cat food, opens it and starts eating it with a fork he has taken out of his other pocket. Now the trainees are sure this guy is off his nut and wish they were somewhere else. Guess what, it was tuna. The drill Sgt. just changed the labels. And who says Drill Sgts. are dumb?

We had to memorize Army manuals on things like how to teach someone who has not got a clue what a right- or left-face movement means. How to form up in a platoon or company formation, how to move with 40 to 250 other people in a marching formation without trampling half of your troops to death while moving. Now if you think this is easy, just try moving 250 people at a double time (running) on a P.T. field, everyone clapping as their left foot hits the ground and all in unison, singing cadence as you go. The cadence was used as a training aid. Calling cadences was used to get everyone in step and moving as one.Cadence also instilled confidence in the trainee to work with others, pride in their unit and lastly team work, team work, team work. Case in point, a Drill Sgt. was moving a company of trainees across Ft. Campbell one day, from one class to another at a double time. For some reason he did not put road guards out to stop traffic at an intersection, and ran the whole company into the intersection with cars coming from both sides. Why did the trainees not stop when they saw the cars coming? Because they are trainees and do what they are told. The Drill Sgt. was singing cadence, running backwards, and just kind of lost touch with what he was doing. Oh, did I forget to say that the human factor was also involved, and when you add the human factor that's a good mix for big trouble.

That was the big thing in the Army, get people to work as a team, get them to think as a team, fight as a team. Why is this? Americans are raised to be individuals, it is ingrained in us from birth, think for yourself, strive and get ahead, work hard for you. Well guess what, there are no individuals in the military. You work as a team or you die in bunches.

OK Troops, take a break, smoke if you got em, bum one if you don't. This is a long column so it will be in two parts. When you are done. go to Drill Sgt. 101, Part Two, for more fascinating aspects of the world of the Drill Sgt.

See you around the Base Camp..... Drill Sgt.Hassna....... OUT!

copyright Steve Hassna, 1999

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