Best Drill Instructor/Drill Sergeant stories

During AOCS one of our first encounters with our Marine Drill Instructors.
We had just had our heads shaved and it was the first morning, the drill instruction had put us up against the wall to begin "the Fun". After several attempts to get us in sync the drill instructor began to PT the whole barracks.
This went on for a few minutes(that seem like hours).

Well the drill instructor was obviously becoming irate that we could not execute situps and push-ups properly (Go Figure!). More yellng, more PT.

Here is the funny part...after doing that several times, the drill instructor started barking that we are incompetant and that he could get anyone to pis in a toilet properly (or something like that)...Drama building. He got in the face of several of us...panic building...Al of a sudden he threw up his hands said he give up and that we are hlepless... her runs to the end of the barracks ( mind you we are on an upper floor) then he jumps straight out of the window.

Of course everyone was to scared to move because that was his last command.... Several minutes wen buy and a few had guts to lean off and look out the window....

No Drill instructor. Time passes, No Drill Instructor. I know it was probably less than 5 minutes but it seemed like eternity. We were all deal exhausted from the PT, sweating our you know what off and now, no drill instructor.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing???

Finally, someone came off the wall and said, Do you think we need to check if he is injured or dead?

From clearly out of no where, the drill instructor popped up on our deck from the main stair case.

We all slammed ourselves back against the wall, almost as though we would have knocked the wall down we hit so hard with one loud clap.

The Drill Instructor starts on his tiraid, like he had never left.

We nicknamed him the Anti-Christ because it had to have been the devil that kept him alive and he was mean as piss and fire.

SGT Hancock (I hope he doesn't mind me naming him here. I definitely am to old to be PT like that again), as we came to know, by the end of camp was an excellent Marine. His passion and clear concern to create young officer that will be molded to take care of their troops and mission success was unparralleled. I have (hard to believe) fond memories of my experience at AOCS and was appreciative (albeit after the fact) of the Drill Instructors who gave thier time to us.

My Chest, I think still has the bruises lol. I hope the remainder of your career was meet with honor and respect. You certainly garnished it from me.

Batt I June 1987 time frame! "youz jus a bunch o gerlz" best I could do to mimic his famous coment to us.

Yes, to answer your first question when your grilled me straight in the eyes on our first encounter
"I would much rather have had you give me the keys to my own Tomcat!" lol

Oorah! Semper Fi

While in jump school in 1963, I failed to field strip a cigarette properly. The drill Sargeant made me bury it in about 4 feet deep. After a half-day of digging when I told him I was finished, he said Pvt Okie I don't believe you go dig it up and bring it to me.

TI. What are you doing boy, looking for a place to sh_t ?
Am. No sir
TI. Salute with a 45 degree angle
Am yes sir

Jump school black hat tried to push me out the tower,I grabbed him your going with me. He never said another word to me. A mother time on the ground hooked up to the 250 ft. Tower and female LT. Yelling it hurts. I said to her you got nothing down there to hurt . Another black hat heard it made me get down and beat my boots.

In Boot, I had CQ one night. The Drill Sergeant dropped in and I guess he wanted to make small talk. One of the things he asked me was: "You really hate me don't you"?? I replied: "No, Sergeant, you are just doing your job".... I had never seen him so pissed!! His face turned beet red, and he went storming out of the office!!!!

One of my funniest times in Basic Training was when I got my first pass. We all got dressed in our Class A’s and went before Drill Sergeant Singley,a short and on the heavy side Staff Sergeant. When I made it up to his desk he said in his husky voice,” Huh,Huh,Huh Huuuuuh!! Private Spearel, Mister 21 Questions!! I’ve been waiting for you!” I knew then he was going to play with me and start asking me a bunch of questions to which he did. He would ask me questions until I missed, and then sent me back to the end of the line. He did this until I answered 21 questions right before giving my pass.Later that night when we returned at our prescribed time to be back to the barracks, all the lights were off in the building to our puzzlement. It was pitch black around the Drills office and as we all assembled we heard coming from the window upstairs a command “ Attentions!!” All we could see in the window was Drill Sergeant Singley’s pearly white teeth in the dark in the middle just like in a cartoon. Everything he said, all you could see was his teeth up there moving along with the words. We all were trying not to laugh, but it was too funny not to and had to try to hold it in as best as we could until dismissed. I don’t think Drill Sergeant Singley knew what we were chuckling about down below until he asked someone what was so funny at formation.when told, he let out a belly laugh and said he’d laugh too.

When I was in BCT in 1970 one of the company drill sergeants was a bayonet instructor from the Deep South they called "The Rock". He was a fearsome creature, leathery and menacing, never raised his voice but spoke louder than anyone else, and was a great but very tough, demanding teacher.
One day a few of us got chosen for duty at Battalion HQ and he was in charge of the detail, and since we were alone, we asked him about Vietnam (of course). And he--with two tours there--told us "I hope you kids don't have to go there. I can't see we're doin' nothin' there but gettin' our kids killed. Don't see any damn reason for it." It was a shock, the first time any of us had ever heard such a thing from a man who embodied the image of a soldier and a patriot, and I've never forgotten that; to me it has always informed my behavior as a citizen.

My boot camp was during the Vietnam war. I was guaranteed to be a Hospital Corpsman after finishing boot camp.
One day the company went to the gun range to become familiarized with a .45 pistol. We also shot at targets and the ten best shots, including me, were able to come back that night to earn marksmanship awards.
My company commander called me to his office afterwards. He told me not to go shoot. He said since I was going to be a corpsman, if I qualified in marksmanship I would be sent to the Marines and probably to Nam.
The instructor probably saved my life. Especially since I had years of riflery training and could definitely have earned a badge.

as a boot in parris island 1950,we were lined up outside supply hut, while one squad went in for their uniforms. the rest were given right face ,left face,etc. the DI.said when i say attention you don't move a muscel. we were in our civies. i was at attention when a sandflea lit in my ear. i picked it out and snaped-to. the DI,saw this and took his cap off and beat me on the head and shoulders.now he wasn't hurting me,and i starting laughing the more i laughed the more he hit me. then the rest of the company started laughing." he said that bug has been on this island longer than you, you had your chow now let that bug have his". needless this to say was the funnyest thing that i can remember.

I took Basic at Ft Leonard Wood in 1967. One exercise was to go into the tear gas chamber and remove your gas mask. You had to tell the DI at the exit your service number to get out. By the time I got to the exit I was choking and panicked. I couldn’t remember my service number, but I quickly realized he didn’t know my number either. So I rattled off the correct number of digits and out I went. What a relief.