REMEMBER YOUR DI?

[crazyphil]

A while back I started a thread called Remember Your Recruiter?
This time it's your Drill Instructor, or whatever it was called in
your branch of the military. I have a fond memory of my DI.
We had a foot locker inspection one day. I used one of those
razors that you screw open and put a blade in and then screw it
shut. Well, he picked up my razor, unscrewed it, and I guess
there was a very small remnant of soap. Almost invisible.
He yelled "What the xxx is this? Are you going to be a xxx
xxxxxx crumbum all of your life?" Things like that made him
un-forgetable. Was your's un-forgetable too?

 

[SMSgt]

SSgt Morales. Terror of the 3301.

 

[Rustyt1953]

SSgt Salazar. He had his 1505's and fatigues tailor made. He was a walking recruiting poster.

 

[STCM(SW)]

CC was ABM 1st class(E6)
Company 293, 1960 Great Lakes.
Don't remember his name, just all the tattoo's he had.

 

[Old 44 Guy]

Mine was always had us doing pushups until our arms gave out. Then the verbal abuse came out in 4 lettered words.

 

[michael1000]

It was good cop/bad cop in the 3701BMTS. I won't mention their names because they might be on here. Actually they were kinda nice guys after it was over.

 

[tlawler]

Mine was PNC (Chief Personnelman)Bufinch. July 1979. I never knew a paper pusher could yell so much.

 

[holo]

While I dont remember there names I do remember the fun we had. Being only 18 years old the 3 we had during basic and A.I.T. changed my life. I often tell people I wish I had videos of those days so I could remember more. After the first few weeks I really grew to like our D.I.

1985 FT Lenoradwood MO. E 1-2 Co.

 

[steelslaver]

Gunnery sgt Randal, ssgt White, sgt Clark

 

[vonn]

SSGT Navarro, the epitome of the tough Sgt. CIB,jump wings,combat patch. Could run faster backwards than we could double time and starch in his fatigues could probably stop a 50 cal. Rode a big HD hog that was so shiny it hurt your eyes. Took a 17 year old punk kid that thought he was tough and made me into a 10 foot tall bulletproof soldier with a sense of honor and pride. I owe him a lot.

 

[jimmyj]

Second Class Petty Officer Spencer (African-American).
Hard timed Southern Boys big time.
Base Commander walked in when Spencer was mis-treating southern recruits.
Last I heard Spencer was on the Ice Patrol in Alaska.

 

[NYlakesider]

Great Lakes Illinois Met Mr. Atwell (E6) at the railroad platform as soon as we got off the tracks. He had a very impressive vocabulary. A good bet was he could swear and curse for 2 minuets and not repeat a word.

 

[fordson]

Gunny Godwin, 1970, AOCS, NAS Pensacola. Back from his third tour in VN. Shave head, missing front teeth and yelled a lot. When he had the Duty, he would wake us up at 0200 or so, gather us in the battalion passageway and tell us war stories. Pace back and forth. Don’t remember his stories cause I fell to sleep leaning against the wall (bulkhead).

 

[Donn]

SFC David K. Shope, SSG Theo Gordon. Shope was the archetypal lifer DI. Big, scarred face, tattoos up both arms, could've been Aldo Ray's brother. Gordon was young, our age. He was tough, but was always on the square with us.

 

[two-bit cowboy]

Don't recall the two guys' names. They were both Military Police. Both had been to 'nam (this was spring '72). I have their names on our flight graduation photo, somewhere in those plastic bins of old photos down in the dungeon.

Early on I thought the biggest words they could pronounce had four letters, clean or otherwise. They turned out to be okay guys. We made sure nobody failed out of our flight -- we were harder on the slackers than the TI's ever had a chance to be. We were all Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, Colorado, and South Dakota boys. We called basic training "Scout Camp," which we all agreed had been tougher.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Yep..........I'm married to her.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I’m down at Montgomery attending Squadron Officers School.
We have dinner thing called a Dining In preceded by a Cocktail Party.
I step up to a small bar and order a drink.
The Bartender looked familiar.
Brain runs memory tape High Speed. There he is!
You were a PT Instructor at Harlingen!
He weak smiled yes. He was a tough cookie and not well liked.
He mumbled something about how many guys remembered him!

 

[2tall79]

Staff Sergeant Alvin Taylor. 19 YO from Dallas, TX. Already back from a tour in VietNam as a LRP.

 

[Tradewind36]

AOCS, NAS Pensacola 1971. SSGT Beetle, small guy with a big voice. A few months after I left he blew his brains out in the middle of the night sitting in his car outside the battalion. Gunny Smith used to impress us with how he chugged Listerine, died a couple years later with liver failure.

 

[Telecaster]

Air Force DIs are easy. Yet, I learned it very well. Heck, I still right face sometimes just because.

 

[SupportTheSecond]

SSGT Suarez and SGT Combs. Mean as nails both and one male one female.

 

[Claymore33]

He really LOVED YOU

Of course they really loved us, they were just trying to get us ready for COMBAT. More sweat on the training field, less blood on the battlefield.

I am sorry to say that BOOT CAMP / OCS has been watered down since the inclusion of females and snowflakes.

 

[AJ]

1969 Parris Island, SC

S/Sgt. J.H. Jones

S/Sgt. E.R. Snowmwn

Sgt. Beeman

 

[pmanton]

The first 9 years of my service were with the Marines. I was a member of Plt. 232 MCRD S.D. The year was 1955. The DI was SSGT Dohse who had lost a finger fighting on the German side during WW 2.

He and the assistant DI were on my case 24-7. They never let up. I swear I was was in for more **** than all the rest of the platoon combined.

In the end I fooled him.

 

[fordson]

AOCS, NAS Pensacola 1971. SSGT Beetle, small guy with a big voice. A few months after I left he blew his brains out in the middle of the night sitting in his car outside the battalion. Gunny Smith used to impress us with how he chugged Listerine, died a couple years later with liver failure.

I remember a Sergeant Beetle (dark hair, small guy with a big voice) that would fill in for Gunny Godwin near the end of our AOCS (late Spring time of ‘70). Could be the same guy (?). The scuttlebutt we heard about him was he was the senior surviving enlist in his company and was jumped several pay grades to E-5. Maybe……..?

 

[straightshooter1]

Do I remember...sure! SFC Durrough, good guy, lied about his age to get in the Army at 16, tough as nails.

I remember our Platoon Sergeant, SGT Pagan, a real jerk. Lived in the barracks, came in drunk many nights, always waking us recruits up and, a couple of times, making the platoon fall out in our undies, carrying our lockers at right shoulder arms. I honestly don't know how I did that-I was on the second floor and it prolly would kill me to do that today.

Somebody found a way to dime him out (we had a corporal who was an Acting Platoon Sergeant and just about to leave for OCS) a good guy and almost approachable. Someone told him and he told Durrough and he told the CO and, it was glorious.

Bob

 

[vt_shooter]

Off topic, but how many of us can still do a nice clean about face, like what our DIs taught us?

 

[fordson]

Off topic, but how many of us can still do a nice clean about face, like what our DIs taught us?

Use to. Now a days it just makes me dizzy to try it…..

 

[Greyman50]

Remember mine well, except his name. Nice guy, RVN Veteran , from Kentucky. Picked me to be platoon driver since he looked at my records from growing up on a farm. We had a bunch of NG DI’s that wanted to prove who they were.

 

[Sistema1927]

Staff Sgt. Gary Trogdon.

He rode me pretty hard, seeing as how I went through BCT as a Spec 4. However, the day of our graduation he took me to the NCO Club just before I shipped out for AIT.