What made your Drill Sergeant awesome?

DS Crastor. The guy was amazing. Had a great name, was super intimidating but also very real and understanding. Something about him made you respect and fear him even though you just met him. Would have run through a wall for him in BCT and I might still now.

I remember CPL Hershey, Ft Dix, 64, back then they did things a little different. First Day, handing out the Temp Stripes, "Who wants to be a Squad Leader' raise your hands", a bunch of hands went up. He started pointing out pairs and told them to fight it out, stopping them when he saw best man. Each time less hands went up, then when he had all the Squad Leaders, he asked who wanted to be Platoon Sgt and That was it. He was a Cool man, fun and Sharp, got me Strac. But in them days it was scary, but fun to look back on, the Jump School TAC's were really sharp, loved to Drop Us. We had "Jody Calls" back then when Double Time, that would get you Stockade Time if you used them now in this new ARMY. They Always had a Question that no matter what, got you Dropped for 10 or 20. One TAC had a zinger, "Would you have sex with my Old Lady", of course the answer was always "No SGT", " Whats amatter with my Old Lady, Drop and give 20". Well one day he asked me after a long nasty run, Standing in Formation, Dusty, Sweaty and breathing pretty heavy. He got in my face about 6", Roared the question, I puffed out my chest and yelled out, "I will if you want me too, SGT". I was scared but could see I got him, he had a hard time hiding his grin, dropping me for 20.
We had fun, SFC Cloud and SSG Campos always told us we were going to Nam and to do a good Job so they wouldn't have to go. Nam had not really started yet, only Green Berets, Advisers, then. I Graduated and got Orders for 173rd ABN BDE, Sept, Okinawa, when I got there they had already left, May 5, 1965, for TDY Status, I Joined 1st Bn May 11 at Vung Tau. SFC Cloud and SSG Campos joined us a few months later, SSG Campos became a good friend. After 90 days a C 130 landed and paid us our TDY Pay, lol.

Ft Lost n da woods. DS Kimble from Ms. Told us we could do what we wanted. It's gonna cost tho. The little lessons are still in my head

I was in my mid thirties when i entered into the service, and one of my DI's was going to be soft on me because of my age, when I messed up he would only give me about 10 pushups, I would do about 20. He was totally impressed with my strength and the fact that I would push myself so far. When he asked me why I told him that I did not want special treatment because of my age. He decided after that to make me a squad leader and pushed me so hard that it made me a better person than I could ever have been. He listened and that is why I enjoyed his command.

12c 1983 ft lost in the woods. Alpha,1,2. Sfc Robinson. Vietnam veteran senior drill sgt. Guy was a walking killing machine. Look that would make the biggest guy in the company cry, actually did. Give you 2 day head start if you go AWOL, after you dead meat. Biggest bad ass I ever met. Respected 100 percent. Never forget him.

They were WWII and Korea Vets.. My Plt Sgt was about 5' 5" and he knew he had a Plt. of mostly draftees that were "College Frat Boys" as he put it. He loved to make fun of us but he never harassed us. Nam was approaching, but we were drafted to protect Berlin and the economy. Only one Platoon Drill Sgt. was the harassing type of the 4 platoons. It was a quiet transformation back in 62'. OCS became what I though basic was going to like.

Drill Ssgt Miles. E-5C-1 *Disneyland*. Awesome DS. He led by example and scared the dogshit outta me at 17. Would love to shake his hand again over a beer and let him know how his mentorship affected my outcome some 35yrs+ later. His example was the driving force for me to have DSschool added into my 2n enlistment.

I went through Basic Combat Training (BCT) JUN-AUG 1986 Ft. Bliss, Tx. Drill Sergeant's SFC Davidson, SFC Clarke, and SGT Wiliams I remember with admiration. They were highly professional, tough, fair, and I believe they wanted to see you succeed as a soldier. I remember running into SSG Williams in sight and sound on Leighton Barracks, Wurzburg Germany. A voice said, "Hey don't I know you/" A shock went up my spine and I turned around to see SSG Williams. I was a PFC at the time this occurred. He said "Picklesimer you were one of the good ones" I replied "Wow, and all this time I thought you didn't like me" We laughed and caught up a little then parted ways.

When I went through Army Basic, I was prior service and only back from Nam for a bit over a year. I was Navy then and served as a Corpsman (medic) with the USMC infantry. Myself and another prior service, after the first formation & meeting with DS Dread, "D-R-E-A-D, and you will rue the day we met!" were told to stand-by when the formation was dismissed. The other prior service did Nam with the "Big Red 1."
We were asked where we lived ... this was at Ft. Dix, NC. Both of us were from PA. We replied and were promptly told, "Go home! Call me a week from this Sunday!" We'd call him at 1800 and 1815 each Sunday and he'd tell us to be at Dix on a cretain day and time. We only had to return for the PT Test, M-16 qualification/hand grenade throw, puggle stick fight and graduation. LOL
I was relieved, but only because my concern was that we would have otherwise been put in recruit leadership positions which, in Basic would've sucked while being fun. Oh, we had to go to the graduation but along with the Company XO, we had to sit in the stands. WHY? LOL Because we all had combat ribbons and the CO (CPT) only had the NDSM. The XO (1LT) was a Mustang and had three Silver Stars, BSM's with V and a couple of Purple Hearts ... he had five rows of ribbons - RARE back then! Yet, he was being RIF'd out of the Army with all his experience. I don't even recall the CO's name, but the XO was 1LT Stitt ... a soldier's soldier!
Navy Basic was a lot different. Our "DS" known as a "Company Commander," was a TP1 (Torpedoman 1st Class Petty Officer - E6) and hid name was Burke. Typical submariner .... skinny as a rail and all sinew and muscle. His uniform was somehow, always PERFECT no matter how hot, rain or shine! His big deal was PT ... especially before we went from dungarees to whites. Run, run, run and run, EVERYWHERE and do the PT obstacle course at LEAST once a day. (No wonder he was in such great shape!)

Drill Sergeant Garcia in D Co. 2/58 2013. He was SF I believe. No blue disc but was training infantrymen. He would take off his round and brown and throw on his patrol cap and slide into formation with us and start talking mad trash on himself and other DS’s to see who would join in and then smoke the hell out of all of us. Good times, good times. Another time I was on CQ for the night and had just completed my walkthrough of the bay and sat back down at the desk when he just appeared behind me and said “Everything good here?” And as soon as I went to turn to him and respond he was gone. He was always fair and when he smoked you he did it with a smile and in a humorous way that you couldn’t help but like the guy. He would also tell jokes while smoking us and add extra reps for every laugh. He was a thinner more slender build but he ran like a damn Gazelle lol.