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

SFC Scales. E 2-2 Ft. Leonard Wood Mo. summer of 1973.

Yes, although it was August 1964 - about what - 6 or 7 weeks ago? His name was SSG FORD - a rather large, black, DI in Fort Ord, CA - I was a very young 17-year-old white person from a small town in Washington State - 98 pounds - soaking wet! I survived - if only out of sheer fear of failure - SSG FORD seemed like he would bite your head off if you even came close to failing. Let's see I'm 75 now and 17 then that's - goodness - a very long time to still remember someone. He's the only one I remember from Basic.

I remember my TI very well. Her name was SSgt Vardell (I hope I spelled it correctly). I will never forget her - NEVER! One of the most memorable moments was when she took me out of the formation while marching back to the dorm and she told me to put two fingers in my nose and march through a female Flight that was marching towards my Flight. It was so embarrassing.

I remember my TI very well. Her name was SSgt Vardell (I hope I spelled it correctly). I will never forget her - NEVER! One of the most memorable moments was when she took me out of the formation while marching back to the dorm and she told me to put two fingers in my nose and march through a female Flight that was marching towards my Flight. It was so embarrassing.

Drill Instructors Sgt Catledge, Sgt Eigenbroge, Sgt Pieseneschi, SDI SSgt Hermon. Sgt Black (SgtMaj of the Marine corps)

Ssgt Byrnes. Can’t forget her. Maybe 5’4” with Smokey Bear hat. If you can envision her saying the following statement with a Boston accent “Don’t f*ck with me or I’ll f*ck you like you’ve never been f*cked before. Don’t f*ck with me!” This statement stayed with me from there forward. Helped mold my own motto to keep doing my best as a female in the military and in civilian sector after

CPO Neely, May 1969, NTC Orlando, Fl

Drill sergeant Jordan,
Drill sergeant, Wilson
Drill sergeant , Armstrong
Drill sergeant Ellis- female, she was the nicest of all the D.s’s in the snake pit!

The drill sergeant that stands out to me the most was Drill sergeant Jordan who stood about 6’5 and at zero far hours would throw the metal trash can by the fire guard station down the hall and scream out “ SQUARE AWAY MY EMPIREEEEEE!” My first encounter with him was when we were outside taking inventory of our civilian belongings we could have during basic and he said if you had any questions just hold up the item in the air and ask if it was ok to have at the time I had some Nike waffle racers with a yellow neon stripe and held it high and asked him if they were ok to keep and he yelled out to me who are you addressing and I said you. He ran over to me with a quickness and said “ you? A ewe if a female , I ain’t no female sheep! Front leaning rest position!!!! Knock ‘em out!!! After I knocked out about 30 he asked me who are you doing theses push-ups for and I didn’t know what to say because of the whole you thing, then I heard one of my ranger buddies yell out “say drill sergeant after every count! By that time I was reaching total muscle failure and collapsed!
Drill sergeant Jordan- Alpha 3/26 Ft. DIX
JUNE 1989

Oh I so remember my Drill Sergeant, he was Drill Sergeant Spivey he would get us up at 0300 for PT runs of about 3 miles, it later came out that Drill Sergeant would do this primarily when he was having issues at home with his wife and to handle the stress he would come in and take it out on us..I look back now and salute him for the early runs because now I run in marathons of about 26 miles yearly