Who was your Drill Sergeant/Drill Instructor in Basic Training?

My drill sergeants were Marks, Snow, and Gailiard from Fort McClellan

I remember faces, and only one name. One who was in charge of us, he was like a football coach, but really cool laid back and country like. He knew that we were suffering (August in Anniston, AL). Another screamed 'KILL A COMMIE FOR MOMMY' all day long. There were 2 females. One got her hat stomped in the mud by another Drill Sergeant and started crying. She also had bad rhythm and would screw up cadences and we'd all start messing up our marching. The other female was short and like an angry bulldog calling us 'hero' and 'Rambo'. She was actually pretty mean and we disliked her until halfway through basic we were all fighting who was going to marry her. She was really cool the last week and called us by our first names on the last day and told our parents that she highly respected us. Then there was Drill Sgt. Anderson. One of the biggest a-holes and a misuse of power (very young, going from E6 to E7 and had a huge chip on his shoulder and ego). Even the other drills hated him, it was obvious. He used to wake us up in the middle of the night and talk how he killed and buried privates. Or have NBC training randomly at 2 in the morning. Or take us to the pit at 11 at night cause he wouldn't be there the next day. All sorts of inappropriate crap. Taught me not to be like him, so there's that. The other drills let him belittle us and wreck our morale by pitting us against one another, they just didn't even want to be around him.

We did get a drill who look like Clint Eastwood and sounded like him from Heartbreak Ridge, so we all called him Clint behind his back. He replaced the football coach drill sergeant and when I had a meeting with him he noticed that I was from Daytona Beach, Florida. He asked me about the bikers, and I told him that the police need to get rid of the bikers, but I was just joking. This came after a biker got murdered by a cop ('88, I was in basic around the time it happened). He then told me he rode a Harley Davidson and then smoked me every single day until I left that place.

Yay, Ft. McClellan.....

TSgt. Nielson!

SFC McGill, SSG Grissett & SSG Talamoa

Drill Sgt. Sirois. Absolutely the toughest man I have ever met. 5'7" maybe. Smoked the shit out of us. Absolutely led me through bayonet course in the fucking rain. Birth control glasses in the rain do not equal a successful bayonet course. Staff SGT Sirois motivated the shit out of me and quite frankly, terrified me at the same time.
That was 25 years ago and I still hear that fucker in my ears everyday.

SFC Banks and SFC Mullins.
I pulled few more crappy details then other trainees during first few weeks of my boot camp, and I complained about it by saying "It is not fair" to SGT Mullins.
SGT Mullins thought me the hard personal lesson about meaning of "Life is not fair", and I have never complain about fairness during my service (and after).

"Third Herd"

DSs Clark, Little, Aycock, and Swett! They allowed me to enjoy the heck outta BCT! Even while getting smoked! There are one or two things I'd change about BCT, but my drill sergeants ARE NOT one of them! They were awesome!

Johnson, Swindler, Haygod and Ford
D 6/10 Ft. Leonardwood 1990

This goes back a long long time. Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Nov 1, 1972. They were SSGT Jackson, SGT Hall and SGT Miller. I enlisted at the age of 24 (I believe I was older than Sgt Miller) and I could not believe how dumb these younger recruits (most of them 17 - 18) were. They just kept doing stupid things. This was getting close to the end of what I call the 'Real Era' of Recruit training. Not sure how the training is accomplished now, but at that time if you screwed up, you got your ass beat. I was never slapped, hit with a rifle stock in the back of the head, ran up and down extra stairs, picked up rifle parts off the Parade Deck, or any of the other corrective training methods. I think the worse that happened to me was that I learned some new names as in Sancho and Jody but they never materialized. But make no mistake, those three Sergeants trained me, and shaped my entire life. After the first two weeks of basic, I didn't think I wanted any of those other recruits to fight alongside me, but at graduation, there wasn't one I didn't want alongside me. I love ALL my Brothers and Sisters! I will forever remember all three of my Drill Instructors.

SSgt Anthony Paterson
USAF BMT Nov-Dec 1999
331st TRS….if you’re on here sir drop me a line