What made your Drill Sergeant awesome?

He kept me alive!

He was hard, but fair. That's why he was respected.

He didn't try and kill us

Standards changed a lot both during my 22 years of service and after my retirement in 1982. The Drill Sergeants I encountered in 1960 Fort Ord, California were not among the Army's Cream of the Crop. The majority came across as a bunch of uneducated bullies that, at times, reverted to physical methods to get their point across. I encountered Drill Sergeants again around 1972 in Fort Polk, Lousiana. I was assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group in Fort Devens, MA whan I received orders for Ft Polk and DI School. I was "selected" for the first "Involuntary Drill Sergeant Program"! I reported into Polk and was assigned to a Basic Training Company while waiting for my class to start. The Drill Sergeants I worked with were generally pretty good soldiers. However, there were a few that fit the same mold as those I encountered in 1960. Due to the fact that I was not a volunteer for the program and did not want to be in it, my primary goal was to get back to Special Forces before I became trapped for the rest of my career in a Basic Training unit... I quickly visited the Reinlistment Office before I could be assigned a class date and reinlisted for Okinawa. Only assignment available in Okinawa was the 1st Special Forces Group. I was quickly back in Special Forces and assigned to an "A" Team! 21 years after my encounter with Drill Sergeants in Fort Ord, I was once again back in a Basic Training unit. This time as a Company First Sergeant in Fort Knox, Kentucky. Quality of DI had changed a lot by then and I had a very professional team of DIs working for me. An SF Combat Patch on an Armored Base was not favorable - a year later, I retired!

Drill Sergeant Tucker was awesome because he was tough but fair unlike Drill Sergeant Compton. Both were Veitnam Vets but I think Compton had lost touch with reality.

Drill Sergeants consistently presented the very, very best in military discipline & esprit de corps. They were a constant, awesome example of greatness in serving our nation.

SGT Silky, from OK; he was hardly awesome, but his best feature was making us all go from hating and fearing him to a level of respect (and even friendship) in 90 days, back in '69. Ours was one of the first year after the 'grad school' deferment was ended, and half our platoon were Bachelor level, or even Master's degree holders: after the first week on being denied 'Platoon of the Week' privileges at Ft. Lewis we figured out where our best interests lay and won ALL of the subsequent awards until 'graduated' -- again. He was our age, and human enough to ask a few of us for help studying for his ACT and entrance exams and we discovered his sense of humor and humane qualities. One of our other DS, also a Vietnam veteran, was a sadistic PTSD'd nut, and his platoon never let him have one Sunday PM off, which was poetic justice. Silky was honest about 'Nam (Where my best hometown pal and platoon buddy, Dean W. was killed four months later) and didn't pretend to be 'SGT Rock' or a doctrinaire 'hero'. Gave us some realistic attitudes about combat which I hope served some of us well later. Plus pride and confidence in the heavy old M-14; some disdain for the 'Mattel' M-16.
Also, he took delivery of a new Camaro during our cycle; some ride! [Sounds stupid, but he also looked like Audie Murphy!] Like me, he'd be 78 now.

Fort Lost in the Woods! Funny!
I did Basic there in winter 1954-55 & never wanted to see Missouri again.

I joined the Army in December 1974, t the age of 17 and was still growing. My DS instilled in me a lot of traits that taught us not only about military, but for me some life skills. He taught me the correct way to handle my weapon (never touched one prior to joining the service. How to take care of ourselves. A lot of things I learned during my BASIC and AIT training. I had the same DS for both BASIC and AIT. Did not have to start over with another DS. Went a lot smoother. I still remember all of the training. I thank them for all they did for all of us way back then.

My Basic Training was at Fort Ord, CA in the summer of 1956. All the non-coms were CIB wearers from Korea with the Platoon Sergeant, SFC Dye, also a CIB star from World War II. These career men, had just returned from Occupation duty In Germany. With the division draftees gone (5th Inf. Div.), they were dedicated to teaching us how to stay alive in combat and perform our mission. Almost no chicken-shit whatever.