Off the top of my head, i thought of four D.I.'s depicted in movies and TV.
SGT Carter - USKC, Gomer Pyle
SGT Hartman - USMC Full Metal Jacket
SGT Toomey - USA Biloxi Blues
SGT Hulka - USA Stripes
In all the above, each D.I. had quarters in or next to the recruits they were training. This makes sense to me, since the x-number of weeks the recruits are in training, the D.I. is probably the single most important person in their military lives and their training. Being on base, whether in a room off of the main sleeping area, or in another barracks next to the recruit quarters, seems to be appropriae, and all of the examples listed had one of the two living arrangements.
Carter was in the next barracks, Hartman and Toomey were in rooms off of the main recruit barracks, and I cant remember Hulka, except that he was definitely on base.
My question.
Is this standard practice, and if so, what kind of family life does this permit for thr average D.I.?
Do they get weekends off to live with their family off the base?
Do family have quarters on the base, to be closer to the D.I.
Is it just a bad job to have if you want to raise a family?
Also, can someome tell me if, in basic training, do the recruits get the weekends off, or is it a straight through training, where any breaks are given when they are earned, not by what the calendar says?
We had a team of D.I.'s. They rotated shifts. Most went home at night, whether on or off base, I don’t know. (D.I.'s don’t talk about their personal lives.) There was always someone sleeping in the quarters at the end of the barracks.
After the first few weeks, we got Sundays off.
Bear Nenno .could give you the best picture of how they do it currently.
There were (IME) 4 drill instructors assigned to each platoon; A Senior DI and 3 Juinor DIs. You saw the other DIs briefly in FMJ, I think, but they didn’t get much screen time.
The 4 DIs rotate daily as ‘duty’. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the other 3 get the day off. The ‘duty’ is there from reveille on his day to reveille on the next day, and probably then some. On most days, the other 3 DIs are there as well, and most of the time they show up sometime between reveille and breakfast…sorry, I mean morning chow. DIs do get a day off here and there, of course, so some days you’d notice that one was missing.
The ‘duty’ sleeps in a room attached to the barracks, similar to what you see in FMJ. It has a desk or two, a couple bunks (in case another DI just decides to crash) and a head…sorry, I mean a shitter and a shower.
Even on the days that they work not ‘duty’, though, they have looong days. A day at work for a DI, even if they’re not ‘duty’, could involve being there form 0600 to 2000.
It is a crappy, crappy job to have if you have a family. They don’t necessarily get weekends off, though they may get lucky and get a weekend day off here and there.
Recruits don’t get weekends off. The weekend training schedule is a little bit dialed down, but it is by no means ‘off’. The only exception is 3 hours or so on Sunday morning for whatever service you choose to attend.
No breaks until the last couple weeks, and in fact only 3 phone calls until the last week or so as well.
One thing I always like to point out…people always picture Marines as huge athletic muscular types. Scroll about halfway down the page on that link and look at the picture of the Marines lined up in their shorts and t-shirts. This is much closer to reality…though it doesn’t take away from their ability at all
I have to ask, and i mean no disrespect to any D.I.s that might be reading this, but why in the world would you want to be one?
Is there extra pay? Or is there something else i’m missing? Because other than getting to scream at other human beings for 10+ hours a day, I dont see an upside.
I’ve heard the D.I.s are considered the cream of the crop of their services, but it sounds like a way to sucker these poor guys into a really crappy job, with no external life.
I dont mean to sound insulting, because im not trying to be. If these guys dont do their job well, the recruits will not be properly prepared to fight, or whatever they are being trained for. So i’m glad they are there. But God, the job sounds like it sucks in a big way.
Why a D.I? Can’t say for sure, but considering the amount of respect I have for these guys, pride must play a part. For career Marines, a couple years as a D. I. is good for career advancement.
As professed by many over the years, for guys you start out disliking, how you view them in hindsight sure changes.
You gotta figure that at least fictionally Hartman et al were doing it to try to keep a bunch of kids from dying in the damned jungle and what thanks did they get?
I think I should have watched Full Metal Jacket as a teenager, because watching it as an adult gave me a perspective I think unshared by Kubrick. (Seriously, Hartman was, what, a Korea guy? And he’s busting his ass to maybe, maybe save one of these poor bastards from screaming their guts out in some rice paddy, and look what he gets for his trouble?)
Just going from my experience in Coast Guard boot camp in winter of the late 1970s in Cape May, New Jersey.
There was one Drill Instructor, although the USCG terminology is Company Commander (CC). No assistants. We did have a sister company (ie, started the same week). Something like 25-30 recruits in each company (maybe four were women, Cape May handled all females as the West Coast boot camp, Petuluma didn’t.). They trained with you but there barracks (squad bay) was on a different floor. My CC was probably a typical…he was an SKC (Chief Store Keeper) with 19 years in and like many in that position, he just wanted to finish his 20 years and retire on half pay at age 40 or whatever he was. CC’s lived in the housing that Cape May had, which I have no idea. Depending on what station, USCG housing for married people is generally a small house. He went home every night. probably after evening chow (1630, or 4:30 PM in the real world). Actually there sometimes some evenings with military drill (the stuff with people put M1 rifles (plugged)
in various positions. I can’t remember when you went to sleep or woke up but it was real early.
Maybe one night a week, a CC would have to stay in the barracks on “duty” overnight, be the responsible adult in case of a fire or something.
I know a CC got some time off once a company graduated, not sure how long. The real nasty part of the nine week boot camp was the fifth week when each company would run the mess hall. Long hours, hard work, no peeling of potatoes though…machinery did that. Actually I lucked out because somehow I was assigned to work in the officers club…light workload, easy going regular USCG guys, an SSCS (Senior Chief Subsistence Specialist-cook) Filipino who made the greatast sweet and sour pork ever.
After five weeks the Coast Guard allowed you to have weekend liberty. Go into town, leave base, on base enlisted club and watch a sports game on TV. For some reason we went to the next town up, Wildwood. One of the few married guys had his wife come up from North Carolina so you can guess what they did those weekends. Actually she was visited to see us training and the CC told him in a reasonable voice not to have her come on base again.
At the time the final week was devoted to all kinds of films on drivers safety (they stopped that shortly after I graduated). Which was pretty laid back and some of the films weren’t bad, especially the one on a kid learning how to drive and care for a motorcycle.
I know CCs got extra pay but I never heard how much. Why did they do it? Well, it wasn’t an overseas, isolated LORAN tour like Attu, French Frigate Shoals, Iwo Jima or Kargabarun, Turkey (“it isn’t as bad as it sounds” as people always hastened to add, except for the one guy I knew
who was stationed there in the Ford administration and got his jaw broken by Turkish army sergeant who didn’t like Kissinger’s stand on some Cyprus civil war flareup). You went home to your family most nights As I said before my CC (who had a beard, by the way, which were allowed in the USCG until the mid 1980s)was pretty laid back, just finishing out his tour, didn’t care a whole lot about winning the weekly “honor company” award, which we never did while other CCs did. I gather our sister company (recruits assigned alphabetically), the guy was a young BM1 (first place boatswain mate) was a bit tougher but pretty reasonable. Of course the USCG does draw from a slightly higher pool, as a smaller unit with relatively small chances of seeing combat, you will get more more mature adults. Or during Vietnam, it was known as the “Jewish Navy”, because as one of my Jewish friends said “many proud sons of Israel joined your outfit to avoid getting killed in Vietnam”. There weren’t that many Jews when I was in. A surprising number of Filipinos since there was some kind of post WWII-Filipino independence agreement to let a certain number join the Navy each year. After one hitch, some would transfer to the USCG because it was the same job, with fewer hassles. Usually in the military, the more people a station has, the bigger the bullshit. So the yelling and screaming stuff, while it exists, is kind of overdone-everyone is a volunteer and kind of knows what they are getting into.
I remember seeing an article on CC/DI in “Navy Times” and one of them was quoted that he received a number of letters from parents after their kids graduating thanking them. “you did more with our son in eight weeks than thew two of us and the schools did in 18 years”…that sort of thing. So maybe there is that personal satisfaction. I aqm not in favor of a peacetime draft and I think we have fought too many wars (or police action as a BMC was explained the difference between Korea and Vietnam-Bay of Pigs was Cubans against Cubans in his learned opinion). But a military tour is a good thing for most people, IMHO
Drill sergeants get an extra $375 a month in special duty pay. It’s supposed to cover their extra expenses. Drills are supposed to set the example so they spend extra money keeping their uniforms and equipment looking good. As stated before our drills worked in shifts. Very long hours but they didn’t live with us. Someone was always there. But they didn’t need all of them there all the time. In between cycles they had a couple weeks if administrative time in which they could keep norm hours and get time off.
I was in the Navy a long time ago, and “Dad” (as we called our DI) was ALWAYS around. I don’t remember him ever being gone for a day during our training until graduation.
After a while, us officer candidates would pull a duty working in the “fishbowl”, which was some spaces attached to our living quarters where the DIs would bunk and shower and live while our class was in training. There was a washer/dryer where you had to do his laundry, and I think I remember being assigned to wake him up at his regular time so the training day would start. So yeah, he pretty much lived with us the whole time our class was going through training.
A lot has been covered well. Here are some answers specific to my situation.
We do not live permanently in or near the barracks. However, one drill sergeant must remain at the barracks at all times. So we take turns staying overnight. We will walk around and do checks on the soldiers but generally will just stay in the platoon office. Each office has desks, computers and normal stuff, but also a shower, lockers, fridge, microwave, and latrine. Drill sergeants are allowed to add whatever else they want. Most add at least one couch, tv, dvd player, maybe a cot, video game system if they’re into that, etc.
Almost never the entire weekend. Later in the cycles, one may expect at least every other Sunday off, and some Saturdays. Saturdays are training days like any other, but sometimes Saturday training is such that only minimal drill sergeants are necessary. So the rest can go home early or maybe not come in at all..
Not really. Not like your’re thinking. There is on base housing if the drill sergeant wants it, but it is no different than housing offered to other service members on post. Not in style, size or location.
During most of the training after the first week or so, only one drill sergeant needs to be there overnight. That person gets the following day off. But considering he already worked from midnight to 8am, he even puts in a full day’s work on his “day off”.
For the first 72 hours of the cycle, everyone must stay at the barracks in the office. Nobody goes home. After that our schedule is roughly 4am to 9-10pm for the next three weeks. At the 4th week onward, we work 4am to usually around 6pm or so. These times are just generalizations. It’s not like we punch a time card, If there are unresolved issues or extra stuff to take care of, we stay longer. Then there is field training where we have to stay out in the woods with them, so we don’t go home on those nights either. 90-100 hours on a “typical” week without overnight duty is about average.
It really sounds worse than it is. I see my wife almost every night, even if it is just briefly before sleeping.
As my wife puts it, “At least it’s not a deployment.” When it is my turn to be at the barracks all night, my wife will sometimes stop by around midnight with take-out or something and we will eat dinner and watch some Family Guy episodes, then she’ll go back home. She uses the back entrance so soldiers never see her.
Also keep in mind that the normal tour for a drill sergeant is 2 years, with an option to extend a third. It isn’t a permanent job or anything.
Straight through. Soldiers are out of bed by 4:30am Monday through Saturday. Sunday, after the first week, is set aside for spiritual wellness/church/etc. Every other Sunday or so, they will go to get haircuts and purchase necessary items like soap, razor blades, etc. But that is organized and supervised by drill sergeants. Sunday is a pretty relaxed day for soldiers, but it isn’t the same as having the day off.
Any number of reasons. In the Army, at least, that reason could also be “forced to”. I think I heard the Marine Corps only takes volunteers for the job. Not sure if that is the case. But the Army takes volunteers and voluntolds. Either way, it is an excellent career move.
There is extra pay. $375. But I have never heard anyone say they decided to do it for “the money”. A 6% pay raise for 2.5X the work? Doesn’t add up. In my case, coming from an Airborne unit overseas, I took a substantial pay cut. Airborne duty pay and COLA for Europe add up to twice that of drill sergeant pay. So it wasn’t extra money at all…
Feel free to ask for clarification on anything. I have been an Army drill sergeant for a little over a year.
We don’t have scheduled days off, except for the day following “duty”, what we call a “comp day”. When a drill sergeant is noticed to be missing, he is either on his comp day, or pulling some other duty. Not only is there CQ Duty (staying at the barracks), there is Battalion Staff Duty (24hr shift at the battalion desk), Brigade Staff Duty (24hrs at Brigade), and even Post Staff Duty (24 hours manning the desk and phone for the entire post).
There are also funeral details, mandatory certification training, taskings and other randomness. So even when the drill sergeant isn’t there, he might not be enjoying a day off.
Here’s another question I’ve wanted to ask. Is it true that swearing and other personal insults (the kind of DI behavior seen in Full Metal Jacket), is no longer allowed? I just don’t understand why a DI can’t use whatever he feels necessary to motivate and train, and if swearing was part of his thing, so be it.
What would happen if you would call a recruit a “disgusting fat body”? or punch a recruit in the stomach, like Harman did to Joker? Or perhaps use racial slurs? What is the punishment for the DI?
