Marine Gunnery Sergeant Hartman was the platoon Drill Instructor, played by former Marine Staff Sergeant and Drill Instructor R Lee Ermey.
“Sir aye aye sir” mostly.
I’m sure some former military types can provide the specifics, but my assumption is that there is one Senior Drill Instructor per platoon during a boot camp cycle plus some number of assistant DIs. Remember, the DI’s “load” is preparing around 40 men for combat in 16(?) weeks. So I think it pretty much would be a full time job. Sort of like the coach of a football team.
When I went through US Army Basic Combat Training (the actual name for “Boot Camp”) back in the late 1970s, the platoon had one Senior Drill Sergeant and two Assistant Drill Sergeants.
By the way, anyone else remember Jack Webb as The D.I.? My platoon’s Drill Sergeant was a lot like that–no cursing, no assaulting of the trainees.
This is completely off topic, but since the question seems to have been answered:
While I was attending Drill Sergeant School at Ft. Benning in '98, we were marching back to the barracks with one of the Drill Sergeant Candidates leading the formation and calling cadence. The Candidate in question meant to call out a “Column Right, March”, but screwed up. The platoon was sounding off loud and strong, when he gave the wrong preparatory command “Column Left” which was heard by the first and second squad leaders. But he said it on the right foot which was what the third and fourth squad leaders heard. So on the Command of Execution “March” the first and second squads executed a column left, while the third and fourth squads went right.
The Drill Sergeant Leaders (the instructors) alternated between laughing their asses off and screaming at the Candidate. “What you going to do now, Sergeant?” “How you gonna fix this?”
Air Force Basic Military Training similarly has a three-person instructor team, with one Military Training Instructor designated as the team lead. He is usually, but not always, the senior of the three (I did see one Staff Sergeant leading a team with two Tech Sergeants working for him once. I just assumed they got promoted recently and that he was senior up until then.)
During the first week or so of Basic, they will also have a rotating roster of mostly-done trainees who will work one hour shifts helping ride herd on the confused recruits. When I was in Basic, this meant three Instructors (nicknamed “Hats” for obvious reasons) assisted by two 5th or 6th week trainees (at the time, it only took the Air Force 6 weeks to produce a professional soldier, unlike some other branches. Now it only takes 8 weeks…)
This was all five or six years ago, as a search of my posting history will indicate, and I know they have revamped the program once or twice since then (for instance, to be eligible to be an MTI at all now, I understand you need to be a Tech Sergeant, as part of their ongoing efforts to weed out the predatory scum from the MTI ranks…)
In any case, my experience was that the instructors would not lay a hand on you, and would go out of their way not to swear. They would get as close to both as they could manage, which meant getting close enough to you to feel body heet from their skin (one TI had a habit of holding his hand, palm out, about a half inch from your forehead, like he was contemplating picking you up by it, others would chicken-peck you a bit with the hat to try and get a reaction). If you kept your bearing, all they’d do is make theatrics at you to try and get you to flinch or laugh (either was bad and would open you up to more attention).
They’d also use interesting turns of phrase like “WHAT THE PISS, CLOWN?!” and gesture at you with a “knife hand”, which is kind of like using a karate chop as a pointer finger. Somehow this is deemed less threatening than just pointing at someone with the index finger.
Depends. If it’s a squad, it’s the squad leader; platoon, the platoon leader or platoon sergeant usually; company, could be the company commander or a senior sergeant/NCO. There were times when I had to go somewhere and would just say “Petty Officer Smith, front and center. Take charge and march the platoon to wherever.” The RPOC or RCPO is just another recruit who is nominally in charge of the recruit company. Or at least he takes all the heat when the company fucks up from the Company Commander, who is usually either an actual Chief or senior petty officer. He remains in that position throughout boot camp, unless he’s a real fuck-up and is replaced by the company commander.
In Navy boot camp, a barracks full of guys is called a company, but it’s basically just a large platoon. My boot camp company (434, Sir!!) was comprised of five or six squads, as I recall. A normal military company is usually three or more platoons. Bravo company in a Seabee battalion usually had two rifle platoons and a weapons platoon, while Alpha company was usually much larger.
Some Army Soldiers may say that, but it isn’t correct. The Army says, “Ah-tenn-SHUHN” per FM 3-21.5 Fig. 3-1.
If it’s a Drill Sergeant, he/she is called “Drill Sergeant”. When the Soldiers get to their units and someone is running the formation, he/she is called by rank and name.
During initial entry training, it’s always a Drill Sergeant. Once at a unit, it could be anyone (often taking turns) but usually an NCO.
For us, there are 4 platoons of 60 per company. Each platoon has (in theory) 2 Drill Sergeants in the rank of SSG, and 1 Senior Drill Sergeant in the rank of SFC. So 12 Drill Sergeants total for 240 Soldiers. What fun!
Drill Sergeants.
Yes, the Drill Sergeants and Soldiers stay in their assigned platoons.
If fulltime = an average of 110 hours per week, then yea. Fulltime.
To add to my previous post, the three MTIs would be collectively in charge of two Flights of about 50-60 trainees each. They appointed “Student Leaders” from those Flights to help run things, usually a Dorm Chief, a Guideon Bearer, and four Element Leaders from each flight. From what I understand, getting some of the recruits to fill lower leadership roles to help maintain organization is a pretty common thing in recruit training.
To try to put to rest this “ten-hut” stuff WRT the US Army, Nenno is absolutely correct. Saying that was actively discouraged when I was in from 1988-1992, and I am sure they keep that faith now. As he notes, “Attention” is a clearly delineated order with a marked accentuation on certain syllables that is causing this confusion.
I was in the Field Artillery, so the common command (that actually could be given by anyone when an officer approached your AO, and privates often scrambled to be the first to do so as if that would confer some type of kiss-ass benefit) was “Battery! Atten-SHUN!”
I never once heard a DI or anyone say “ten-hut” in the four years I was in the US Army.
The only thing I have noticed that’s remarkably different in terms of speech from when I was in is the prevalence of the “HUA!!” thing, something we never did or had to do when addressed as a group (platoon/battalion/division) by a commanding officer.
There are 4 ways to do anything. The right way, the wrong way, the {army/navy/airforce/marin} way, and MY way. Guess which one you should do, recruit?
Bingo. As much as the brass might want to ramrod a totally common way throughout the service, it ends up being up to the whim of whomever happens to care in any given unit. The important thing is doing it so that it works, and the rhythm as noted above is critical.
Screwing. You don’t march in formation during battle, at least, not in a few centuries. However, it does also matter during a parade, where there can be a lot of noise. So, he wasn’t completely screwing with you.
Didn’t really notice this comment before. First, the entire command of “ATTENTION” is the command of execution when followed by a preparatory command such as Platoon, Squad, or Company.
Two parts doesn’t necessarily mean only two syllables. The entire command “Company, ATTENTION” has 6 syllables. They must all be distinctly pronounced, not jumbled together to make some grunt or growl.
Also, conisder these commands
Parade, REST= Puh-RAID… REST
Stand at, EASE= Stand-at…EASE
Or even, “Ready, Port, ARMS” where “Ready, Port” is the preparatory command and “ARMS” is the command of execution.
Plenty of preparatory commands have more than one syllable, and many have more than one word!
The command of execution must be one syllable, or have one clearly stressed syllable. Otherwise, there’s no clear timing signal.
Furthermore, “Platoon” is not sufficiently preparatory. It tells who should be doing something, but not what they’re about to do. If ATTENTION was on syllable, imagine having to figure out what to do and do it at precisely the same time!
For “attention”, the preparatory bits are “ATENNNNNNNNNNN” and the executable is “SHUN!”. Anyone who’s ever done manual of arms knows this. For practical purposes it doesn’t matter whether it’s TINNNNNNNN-HUT or ATENNNNNNNN-SHUN.
Welcome to the service, recruit!
More seriously, it’s practical, and means, “Don’t do what you read or learned somewhere else or think someone meant somewhere, do what I tell you to.”
Thanks for setting me and Bear straight. I been in the Army for 13 years now, and never heard that the preparatory command is “ATTEN…” for the last 10 years as an NCO, I have been telling the element (Squad, Platoon, Company, Battalion) Attention.
Even when I have a gaggle of Soldiers and an Officer approaches, we still call, “GROUP, ATTEN-tion.”
It does seem to matter to the troops I am charged with, however, as they don’t seem to know to snap to a specific body position when told, “TIN-hut.”
See, what we do in my Army is when you hear, “Company” (Platoon, Squad, Battalion) is to go to Parade Rest. The preparatory command is then, “ATTEN” as you post, and the command of execution is “TION.”
And actually, there are only three ways to do any drill in the Army: Talk through, By the numbers, and at Combat Speed.
Back in my day, if you got through basic training and still could not come to attention except with the PC word of the year and only that & had no clue as to ‘Ten Hut’ or many others, you would be too dumb to even be cannon fodder.
Of course, the boys & girls of today are so much better than the older soldiers.
Today, I have no clue as to what is SOP but long ago, it was not what you all are espousing around the places I was.
Look, you can’t make up your own definitions for the sake of debate. “Preparatory Command” is cleary defined in FM 3-21.5. Squad, Platoon, Company, Demonstrator are all (by definition) preparatory commands for “Attention”. That is true whether you believe it is “sufficient” or not.
Wrong. It tells Soldiers who are at a rest position to immediately snap to parade rest, and let’s them know that the command of execution “Attention” is coming. There is no other command of execution that “Company” or “Platoon” is a preparatory command for. So, it does tell them “what they’re about to do”.
I never said it was one syllable. I’ve been explaining why the opposite is true. This statement just adds to my point, not yours.
Have you even read the manual? Or do you just like to do it “your way”?
What does “practical purpose” have to do with anything? There is the right way, and the wrong way. There is no “my way” or “practical purpose” way.
I’m actually a Drill Sergeant, not a recruit. But that’s for the late welcome.
No, it means "I am in charge of you, and since I never bothered to learn to do things the right way, I am going to make you do it MY WAY. That’s what it means.
Just to make a quick correction, there are two commands that have squad, platoon, or company as a preparatory command. I forgot about HALT. Halt is a two part command. The command of execution is HALT, and it is preceded by the preparatory command of squad, platoon, company, etc.
This statement, “There is no other command of execution that “Company” or “Platoon” is a preparatory command for” should be:
“There is no other command of execution given while stationary that “Company” or “Platoon” is a preparatory command for”
Forgot about that one. The point still remains WRT what is the preparatory command, and what is the command of execution. And there is no confusion between what command is coming next after “Platoon” because HALT is never given while at a rest position, and ATTENTION is never given while marching. So the preparatory command still informs the Soldiers “what they’re about to do”.
Its interesting the difference in inflection on the preparatory command for “attention” versus “halt”. In my experience, the preparatory command for say, a company coming to attention was always more of an exclamation than it was for halt, like coming to attention was somehow more important and immediate.
