March Ask A Drill Sergeant Thread

I just finished. Graduation ceremony is Wednesday.

The other answers aren't wrong. Some things that have changed since the others went:

  • Rote memorization is still there, but we drew all our MOIs at the beginning. That's right, hate away.

  • A lot more embedments. They replaced the student led APFT from being on each other to running an actual APFT for BCT trainees and ROTC cadets. We spent as much time actually on the trail watching the real thing as they could manage. We went to the range with trainees,we picked them up, we led their PT, we marched them, we did the BTLF with them, and we crawled through the NIC with them, yelling at them to crawl faster. That was the most valuable part, getting to see the real thing.

  • Lots of PowerPoint, marching everywhere, getting yelled at for no good reason (I literally got yelled at for not dressing my platoon to the left in a company formation. I have no words.)

  • Matching and D&C is heavily emphasized. March everywhere, call cadence as loud as possible, and do everything exactly according to 3-21.5, Which the real Army fudges on all the time, so you unlearn some bad habits.

Essentially, you lose all authority as an NCO, get treated like a private, get yelled at for everything, get some classes on teaching and regs half-heartedly taught by burned out DSs, teach some classes on basic Army skills to a bunch of NCOs that probably know the subject better than you, get a minimum of 70s on your APFT while they grade at a ridiculous standard (chest not touching the ground? Doesn't count,) do all the BCT requirements at a higher level, get RBIs passed out like tic tacs, clean everything while on fireguard, and slowly grow to hate Fort Jackson, the DSA, and all your classmates. But you get released after dinner, and the rooms aren't bad.

It's basically an 8 week hazing process where we get treated like shit because A. that's what they had done to them, and B. How else are they supposed to make ourselves superior to a bunch of experienced E-6s and E-7s who are essentially their peers? We were literally not allowed to go through the front door of the academy because we hadn't "earned it" yet. It's intense and difficult, but more for the environment than the content. Swallow your pride and play the game, and it's over eventually.

/r/army Thread