What made your Drill Sergeant awesome?

SDS Theall, he was a quiet and Professional, but he made it clear he did what he did because he didn't want to see any of us get killed overseas. Once he made it clear that that was why we were doing this I listened to every word he said like it was the Bible

My drill sergeant looked EXACTLY like Sgt. Slaughter!!!! He was big dude and rocked his special forces tab. Best teacher of soldier skills that I have ever seen.

my sfc champagne at fort benning was a combat medic in vn. when i showed up i didnt even know they had their version of a cib. he was a big man, not a little athletic just older than college DS most of them were, he was six foot and over 200lbs, but he did ALL of the pt with us and then some. after i got out and looked back and thought about the fact that even after everything he had seen and been through that he went back and trained us idiot privates it all made sense that i knew he did it because he didnt want us to go in unprepared and all get killed because someone who didnt care had 'trained' us. at the time it did seem strange, the little things he said about how in southeast asia the enemy would use a discarded law tube against us so pick it up, or how much life wasnt cherished or respected in other parts of the world. i never saw him again, but i feel privileged to have been around someone so dedicated to freedom and reality.

Quite frankly, my (S)DS was amazing, simply because he was completely unapproachable. the man was absolutely untouchable. If you so much as looked at him the wrong way, you had a death sentence. He was a true-blue, bad mofo. This guy made me want to be a rock-hard, cold-blooded, hard-hearted Infantryman. He and my second DS were my biggest inspiration. They broke me, and rather than build me back up, they made me build myself back up, ripping me apart all the while. The word "merciless" has NEVER had a more true meaning to me. Hell, I'm still afraid to encounter those guys!

SFC McDaniels was older than dirt and looked like a dried up piece of jerky. His legs were so skinny they looked like they would snap if he kicked you in your ass, but he was hard as rock and could run all day and night. Treated us like crap for 8 weeks, but when all was said and done, he just wanted us to have I fighting chance should we find ourselves in VN.

I shared one story about SGT McDonald. The drill Sargent I had. This story is about his toughness. We had some, not so happy, dudes in our group. They were still drafting back then. They moaned and groaned on how they thought they shouldn't be there. We had a couple of blanket parties for them to try to get them to shut up.

One day when the SGT. woke us up and rattle our cages like he always did, one of the draftees defied him and wouldn't do what he said. As a matter of fact the draftee challenged the SGT. to a fight. Sgt McDonald wasn't a very big man. Maybe 5'7, and 150#. The draftee who was over 6' and weighed about 200# looked down at the Sargent. The Sargent invited him into his room at the end of the barracks.

There were crashing sounds. There was moaning going on. We were afraid our Sargent was getting pounded. A little time later the Sargent came out. He was bloody, but the draftee was unconscious on the floor of the Sargent's room.

The respect for our Sargent soured right then. We love him even more. The draftee even showed respect the rest of basic.

The man could make himself completely understood despite his vocabulary being limited to the 7 words George Carlin stated you cannot say on TV at decibel levels usually reserved for WW II air raid sirens.

Our TI was the first person obviously to make an impression on me in my military career and I won't ever forget his professionalism. He cared about us in the way that he wanted us to be the best. He was not going to send mediocre airmen into the real world. He was always stern and treated us like adults, never coddling us. When somebody got to the point of getting into their feelings because they had been yelled at or something small like that he would tell them to go away and return when they got over it. But it wasn't until one night when he sat down one of our peers for a one on one that he became a real role model to me. He took the kid aside and told him that he could see that something was wrong outside the norm of the basic training stress. The kid then in turn admitted that he was planning to commit suicide after he had gotten his next phone call to talk to his family. He could have possibly save that persons life and that's when I knew he was a true leader.

The moment I got off the bus for BCT the DSs were very impressive almost similar to Full metal jacket !!!

He was well versed in making you want to learn your skills.