Drill Sergeant
Adapting to a military lifestyle/ culture is quite an experience. The military culture itself differs greatly from the culture that most of us know as the norm. Those who teach us the new way of life are very influential, even if it don’t feel like it during training. Drill Sergeants are the foundation of the Army, they are the select few, the top 10% in their MOS, who have been chosen to breakdown, build up, form, and train the new Army soldiers. Drill Sergeants have a tendency to be misconstrued, and have a bad impression in most people’s opinions. Before beginning basic combat training, for the most part, I had the same misconception about them too. While at basic combat training, I had one Drill Sergeant that left a huge
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While moving our bags to our new “home” for the next nine weeks, there was not as much yelling as expected from our Drill Sergeants, especially since our platoon could not even put on jerseys in numerical order while we stood in alphabetical order, the jerseys were even already in order, but people could not just grab the top one. While all the other platoons were just getting screamed at, which I found rather entertaining. Back at the battery (the building where we stayed at and lived), we were introduced to all of the Drill Sergeants and some of their backgrounds in the military. Drill Sergeant Hank had showed us all how to conduct the Physical Training (PT) exercises, step by step, truly making sure that we understood how to correctly do an exercise, to get the best stretch possible. Drill Sergeant Hank and the other Drill Sergeants were not what I was expecting, but rather a more patient, and very insightful …show more content…
He said that the Army’s Physical Fitness Test (APFT) doesn’t really judge a person’s fitness, just certain parts of fitness. He is hoping that the Army does away with its testing, and adapts some form of CrossFit as it is an all-encompassing measure of fitness. He personally helped me when I was struggling at passing my APFT 2-mile run. He told me that running is not very hard, but requires constant effort and just takes practice and practice to pass if you are not a runner in the first place. It was little conversations like this that I would have with Drill Sergeant Hank that made him different than the other Drill Sergeants. He would talk to me not as a private, but as a friend who would lend a helping hand and be a person who would listen to you and give the best advice from his personal experience or go find out somehow. He was a person who is very relatable person to us, which was a bit odd since he was almost twice our age. For another example, we would get weekends off during basic combat training, and on those Sundays he would come in while we were cleaning, and he would make announcements on how the sports teams were doing whether it be at the college or professional levels. This is the one time of the week that all the soldiers looked forward too, as well as cleaning the latrine every
When I went on mobilization to Fort Lewis, Washington and left my son in the care of my parents, I thought my parental duties would be set aside until I returned home. Unfortunately, the soldiers of 351st Ordnance Company would prove me wrong with their excessive alcohol consumption, commonly term “binge drinking,” and destructive behaviors. I would then spend the next year sharing the responsibility with four other junior noncommission officers in the task of taking care of soldiers. Despite the efforts of myself and the others we were not fully prepared to handle some of the outrageous events and lack of engagement from the leadership that would challenge us during the tour. My abilities as a junior noncommission officer and the understanding of leadership were redefined and I learned exactly what it meant to ensure soldiers have proper guidance, leadership, positive morale, and well-being.
This essay addresses operational challenges and ways for improving functional training skills for progressive changes for all Soldiers of the California Army National Guard (CAARNG). By improving the current operational practices and providing continuous training that uses standardized approaches and practices for CAARNG NCO’s will assist in the development of inexperienced NCO’s and the retention of highly experienced NCO’s.
For employees of the U.S Military including the air force, army, navy, marine and coastal guards, one can get tax advice and help from the free tax services provided by the Armed Forces Tax Council. These services are provided at different levels. If you are in the military or you are a veteran, you can find out more about these free services by enquiring from your local administrative office. Below is the structure of this free military tax service:
Three qualities important in life, but even more so in being a successful USMA cadet and Army officer are honor, responsibility, and determination. These traits will allow a person to be a powerful leader, follower, and soldier in general.
Although the training First Year Orientation Progam (FYOP) officer cadets receive is not exactly the same as that conducted at the now defunct Cornwallis training base, the principles remain the same. The biggest challenge observed in the early days of training was to get a group of people to act as one team. Each person arrived as an individual with their own set of values, behaviours and regional characteristics. These individuals were then subdivided into platoons, squads, or sections. During this integration process the instructors ensured stress levels remained consistently high through the use of yelling, inspections that found minute faults that were exacerbated through the dismantling of our bunk space, and decreased sleep. I now realize that these simulated or over exaggerated stresses are required to provide an indication of future tolerance for this in operations.
I felt sorry for the basics because they were woken up the unpleasant sounds of whistles and metal trash cans. Within five minutes the entire encampment was ready for PT. The PT was easy. It consisted of push-ups, sit-ups, flutter kicks and not so challenging developmental calisthenics. It lasted for about forty-five minutes. After PT was done we were ordered to be at the chow hall at exactly 8:00am. One of the best things about being in the ATF was that we got to take our showers before any other cadets in our barracks did, so it left us with about three minutes every day to inspect and correct our uniforms. We met up with the females in front of the chow hall at 8:00 am and had our breakfast. After having our meal of delicious eggs, bacon, and milk we were taken to the combat simulators. As usual we were the first flight to do the simulators. The first simulator we attended was the convoy simulator. My convoy was with Birthday who was the radio operator and Hermes who was the driver and I got to be the gunner. Unfortunately for me the machine gun broke, so I did not do much and Hermes crashed the Humvee. Next we went to the firearms simulator and shot targets on a projector screen. I was using an M-4 A1 assault rifle, and then I saw the light machine gun which Dancer was using. After five minutes I convinced Dancer to trade firearms with me. Out of all the excitement combined with random adrenaline rush, I
Boot camp is the starting point of any Enlisted persons career when they join the military. It makes most people nervous, and it should because you are heading in to the unknown. The experience can either make or break the recruit, and will give them the tools they need going forward in there career. Your first night in boot camp will be a roller coaster of emotions, and reactions to everything going on around you.
We were told to get in rows and stand at the positon of attention, this was frightening. We were told to run to the bus from here, this is where I was split up with everyone I came with. The base was three hours away from the airport. On the bus ride over there I called and texted everyone I knew for three hours. I called Jed first, he could not talk long because he had a meeting, although I knew if I called my mom or Ayden they would both cry and that would make things harder on me. After I talked to Jed and he convinced me everything was ok after 20 minutes of me crying to him as if he could come pick me up and take me home. After this I texted Boone to be sure he made it on a shuttle, he did. Boone was on the Shuttle behind me. That was the last time I talked to him until the day after graduation. We made it to the reception building at nearly 11 o’clock and briefed until about one. We finally got to bed at 2, and we were woken up at 4:30 the following morning. During reception they checked our dental, blood type, eye sight, etc. this is where we received our uniforms, and most importantly where we met our first Drill Sergeants. In receptions Drill Sergeants are almost done with their contracts, they cannot make you preform corrective action, or give you RBIs, all they can do is get really close to you and scream as loud as they could. I was here for seven days, and then after those seven days were
According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook members of the U.S military, service maintains the U.S. national defense. The military is made up of enlisted and officer careers. They work with hi-tech machinery to help in the field. People in the military wear uniforms that show their ranks by badges. This job is so important because without the military people would be in danger and lives might not be saved.
Leadership is a personal skill that has to be developed and improved upon daily, just like an athlete works on his craft. We all come from different walks of life and that is often a factor in the way our leadership styles are shaped. Our differences of race, gender, religion, home environment, and lifestyle all have an effect on the way we are led growing up. It is a skill that is mastered over time, while never being perfected. Like anything else in life, leadership skills are often developed from who we are, where we come from and the people in our life who have taught us their knowledge.
The overall message in this poem is a drill sergeant educating young soldiers and preparing them for the harsh reality of war. He is not playing ‘Mr. nice guy’, he is being tough and strict to give the soldiers no easy way out.
What this means to me reading up on this is that i need to stop worrying so much about performing physically and expecting it to carry me through my military career and start becoming proficient in all areas and applying myself in areas that might not mean so much to me, or that i don't understand. Also i think i've learned that i need to stop relying on my own knowledge and start becoming a sponge to those who have been in longer than i, and when i am told to do something take it or not to do something to take it to heart and not do it again because it not only comes with punishment but also loss of credibility of those who are in charge of me. Credibility and trust are essential when working with a team of men like we do everyday, so i am going to try my best to be the best and most professional soldier i can be even when no one is looking.
In 1973, the Army (and the noncommissioned officer corps) was in turmoil. Of the post-Vietnam developments in American military policy, the most influential in shaping the Army was the advent of the Modern Volunteer Army. With the inception of the Noncommissioned Officer Candidate Course, many young sergeants were not the skilled trainers of the past and were only trained to perform a specific job; squad leaders in
I need help myself. I know that we have soldiers that cannot learn by reading a book, we need hands on training. We need to get maps out of the supply cage, dust them off, conduct some map reading and map recon etc. Teach them on how to disassemble all weapon system that a Scout uses: 25mm, 249, 240c, and 9mm to mention some. Conducting some route recon here on camp not everyone knows the type of formation or hand signals of movement and how to cover and conceal ourselves. Sgt’s time is not enough time for a soldier to retain what he learned that day if we not touch it again until when ever. Non Commissioned Officers need to make sure that we keep our Joes in shape and within weight standards. If it means to perform physical training twice a day unit the soldiers creates a habit and he can do it on his own.
I have wanted to go into the military since i was very young. Most children say that they want to be a firefighter or a doctor, but i said that i wanted to be in the military. I remeber looking at pictures and learning about military officers and i felt called to be one of those men. My decision and dreams never changed, as most childrens do when they realize the work required. But for reasons beyond my comprehension, my desire of a miltary life never wavered. Both of my parents' fathers served in the military, one n the Air Force and one in the Army. They told me stories of their days in the military, bragging of their different branhes and I took what they said and choose a school that woud lead to a career in neither of their branches.