What made your Drill Sergeant awesome?

Their GREAT & intimidating sense of humor - sarcasm. You just instinctively knew not to F with them.

Staff Sergeant Tony 'Doc' Holliday yelled at me after the Graduation Ceremony at Ft Did in 1968. I thought I was in trouble AGAIN. I was a 24 year old draftee. I followed him to his quarters, wondering what he wanted. He hadn't treated me any differently than any other for the last six weeks. There was a half pint of whiskey on a small table with two chairs. He told me to sit. He began with, "I've never done this before and don't ask me why I'm doing it now, except you gotta live through this." Then for a half hour he explained to me what I was to expect in Vietnam. SOMEHOWT he knew exactly what I would face. He told me who to talk to, buddy up with and what NOT to do. He poured the last of the booze in our cups and stood saying that Id MAKE it if I just listened. I did!!!! Everything he'd said would happen....did. And I'm still here 53 years later. Oh yeah, I am a white guy and Sgt Holliday was black.

My drill sergeant was a mean dude, but at the same time he cared for his men. He would have died for them. He taught me discipline. I listened and obeyed. Towards the end of basic he nominated me for soldier of the month, and chose me to be in the honor guard. Why? because I always did what her ordered me to do without hesitating, or showing my dislike for what he was having me do. He even had me dig a hole, and put a cigarette in and then dig it back up again. He was testing me, and he liked what he saw. I respected him a lot for that approach.

Hey, that looks very abusive, where is the PC Police?

If he smoked us, he pushed with us... instilled history into us... And then the other one left early to attend ranger school (https://www.army.mil/article/138643/Drill_sergeant_graduates_Ranger_School_with_top_honors)

You and I were there at the same time, Co D, DI SFC Highsmith was mine. I'll never forget him.

SFC Wiles was tough but fair. SSG Crisp coined a phrase that I quote to this day: A Soldier Never looks down, but Always Forward to their Objective! These are what made my Drill Sergeants awesome!

Which DS? I had 2. One (AIT) was a racist. We were told by another NCO that "he didn't like White boys." The other was in Basic, and I can't say there was anything 'awesome' about him.

I had a Drill Instructor that joined our platoon before we went north to Camp Pendleton. We started off with around 85 recruits and 3 DIs. Before Pendleton, they increased our DIs to 7. The one that stood out was Sgt Rodriguez. He was the Junior Drill Instructor as all the others were Staff Sergeants and a Gunny. He knew one running cadence, and we never got tired of riding his C130 rolling down the strip. The thing that made him remarkable wasn't anything that would scream remarkable Marine, it was his leadership. Instead of yelling at you when you screwed up which I did several times as a recruit, the words that cut to the core were him saying "I'm disappointed in you."
I was fortunate to be in his squad for the Crucible. He got us through it with a simple idea we work together and we share our food. Getting back to our basecamp at the end of the day's obstacle courses, puzzles, and marches, we were in better shape than the other squads that had recruits begging us for any extra food we might have.

You referred to him as Drill Sergeant (Army)in one instance then mention DI (Marines) later on. Those terms are mutually exclusive but I see you mentioned FTLW and CIB so I'm guessing Army.