drill sgt advice

[Love Life]

Marines are voluntold for DI duty based off of meeting the minimum requirement for the duty. Volunteers are normally the top 10% of the Marine Corps.

I’ve been a DI since 2017 and have held all the jobs/billets in it except for Drill Master. If you have any questions, please ask. I’ll answer them frankly.

[d4xycrq]

"Bloom where you are planted".... Didn't a famous Devil Dog say that? Meanwhile, lots of E-6 (PO1) USN types head to Recruit Training Command to distinguish themselves for being selected for Chief. It's a big deal.

Lots of good advice in this thread...the only other thing I could add would be the nephew Marine using the opportunity to cherry pick super squared away recruits for the Osprey maint community. Who knows, one of his recruits could be the Crew Chief for the nephew's aircraft that he pilots - as a Captain. Semper Fi!

Ray
ex-Boomer Puke.

[rancher1913]

thanks lovelife I passed that up the chain of command to him.

[mikwat]

If he wants to be a pilot, he needs a commission. He should look at the MECEP program, and will have to do so before he's too old. 27 I believe, waiverable up 31 if I recall.

[JBinMN]

You were a Phrog Pfixer?

I spent '76 & into '77 as NCOIC of the Flt. Equip. Shop for HMM-164 at MCAS Futema before going on to
'ply my trade for HMX-1 at Quantico till Dec '80.

We probably know a handful of the same guys.

Very likely. The Corps is a "small world".



Semper Fi!


------------

Marines are voluntold for DI duty based off of meeting the minimum requirement for the duty. Volunteers are normally the top 10% of the Marine Corps.

I’ve been a DI since 2017 and have held all the jobs/billets in it except for Drill Master. If you have any questions, please ask. I’ll answer them frankly.

Funny!

I like how ya did that... and... Yuk yuk.


BTW...All the "volunteers", tell themselves that stuff. Makes them feel better for being a "volunteer" in the Corps.

Don't know about the Corps in the last 30+ years after I left, but back then, no one really wanted to "volunteer" for anything, since "it all paid the same".


LOL


& Semper Fi!, as well!

[corbinace]

Don't know about the Corps in the last 30+ years after I left, but back then, no one really wanted to "volunteer" for anything, since "it all paid the same".

Not really sure about that. I volunteered for any duty or extra job that came along and was a pretty gung-ho squared away Marine. As a result, I was promoted to E-5 after just 2yr, 5mos and 19 days. That made the last 2.5 years of my five year hitch pay more than my contemporaries who barely made E-4 before they got out. On top of that, the increased rank allowed me to learn to be a better leader. That training has kept me in a leadership role my whole working career.

So, volunteering was the key to any minimal success I have enjoyed in life. It has paid me pretty handsomely I feel, if not monetarily, at least in self esteem.

Please do not take my comments as an attack on you personally JB. It is more of a general railing against those who give less than their very best and miss out on the rewards of a hard job done well.

As an addendum to your discussion of knowing the same people and it being a small Corps, have you seen this site? It is dedicated to keeping Marines in touch or finding each other. As well as telling some interesting stories about our brothers in arms from both current and past.

https://marines.togetherweserved.com...pp?cmd=Landing

Carry on Marines.

[Love Life]

There I was at 0345, walking decks and listening to firewatch reports, lol.

Bleed blue!

[JBinMN]

Not really sure about that. I volunteered for any duty or extra job that came along and was a pretty gung-ho squared away Marine. As a result, I was promoted to E-5 after just 2yr, 5mos and 19 days. That made the last 2.5 years of my five year hitch pay more than my contemporaries who barely made E-4 before they got out. On top of that, the increased rank allowed me to learn to be a better leader. That training has kept me in a leadership role my whole working career.

So, volunteering was the key to any minimal success I have enjoyed in life. It has paid me pretty handsomely I feel, if not monetarily, at least in self esteem.

Please do not take my comments as an attack on you personally JB. It is more of a general railing against those who give less than their very best and miss out on the rewards of a hard job done well.

As an addendum to your discussion of knowing the same people and it being a small Corps, have you seen this site? It is dedicated to keeping Marines in touch or finding each other. As well as telling some interesting stories about our brothers in arms from both current and past.

https://marines.togetherweserved.com...pp?cmd=Landing

Carry on Marines.

I don't take it personally, no worries there.


Keep in mind I was doing a little "pulling on the chain" with Lovelife, so my comments were in fun & not completely serious, but with the part you address in your post, I will mention that, it was like I said in the units I was in over the 6 years I was in & most of the time, it was just like Lovelife said, many times Marines were "voluntold" as in volun-TOLD to do something, since no one seemed to want to volunteer for a lot of duties & in particular, duties that were not looked upon as a "fun" thing to do. I.E.- Barracks Duty NCO, or some extra "field day" duty cleaning some part of the unit area that needed" sprucing up" because of some "dog & pony show"(parade) was in the works or some visiting dignitary, or I.G. was going to be around, and other "chores"(duties) like that.

Now, when it came to volunteering for duties that might be a bit of fun while at work, hell I was not the only one to be stepping up for some of that. I had some great times "reluctantly" volunteering for such difficult missions as flying to air shows in some other state, having the extremely difficult time of explaining how the AC worked to some pretty young ladies, as well as the rest of the folks who were there... with those "grueling" times on liberty after the show times ended & we had to find something to do until the next day of the airshow, and that sort of extra duty... Yeah, there was competition of fellers wanting to be the first one to "reluctantly" volunteer for that sort of thing.
{ BTW, IIRC, there was always a little "TAD pay" involved, and that did not hurt one bit, IMO. So it "did" pay more & it wasn't "it all paid the same". }

Not so sure about whether or not volunteering or being "voluntold" was a thing put into ones record, since I do not recall ever seeing it in any place like a fitness report or the like, but there certainly was a record for how well one did in any schools they attended & that would certainly demonstrate some motivation to be considered for promotions & such.

Anyway, I was a "hard charger" as well, & moved along up to SGT & was up for SSGT in the "eligibility zone" when I got to DI duty at PI, but due to my missus illness after the loss of our middle child, just before my being given orders to DI duty, at the end of my DI tour, we decided that it was time for me to leave the Corps & go back to being a civvie to help reduce some of the stress for her with the demands the Corps puts on us all in order to serve & do our duties, with deployments & such. I do miss the Corp though & would have stayed 30+ years if I could have, without the possibility of issue for her.
{ Yeah, I know the Corps doesn't issue spouses, but **** happens. }

Anyway, like I said , "No worries"!


Semper Fi!


P.S. - I will go check out that link. Thanks!

[JBinMN]

there i was at 0345, walking decks and listening to firewatch reports, lol.

Bleed blue!

lol

[JBinMN]

Lovelife,

I was just thinking about your "Bleed Blue!" & it reminded me that I think I still have one of the blue 3RTBN PT blouses and a pair of red shorts that we used to wear back then when I was there. It was a kind of "mesh type" fabric, IIRC.

Also makes me wonder if the "Scarlet & Gold" of 1st & 2nd RTBN were still used now.
Even when I was in 3RTBN "Mike" Co, as a boot at Dago, those 3 colors were used to distinguish between the BNs.
I reckon that tradition still stands. Or, at least I hope it does. I know they have changed some things over the years. ( I would also like to know/see if the S.O.P. or the Drill Manual has been changed at all in that time, just out of curiosity anyway...)

One more BTW... although most of the other folks won't care, but maybe you "might" be interested to know, that the recent past & now retired Sgt. Major Battaglia, who was the USMC Sgt Major who served as Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 30 September 2011, until December 11, 2015. , attended the same DI class(03/84) as I did, and we were both at 3RTBN together at the same time.
From a Wikipedia page:

Completing various deployments, in February 1984, he was transferred to Parris Island, South Carolina, for duty as a Drill Instructor assigned to Company I, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion and the Field Training Unit.

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_B._Battaglia

He was a pretty squared away Marine when I knew him & a pretty good guy as well, I seem to remember.

Anyway... Just a bit of 3RTBN, & "DI alumi" history.... I thought it was a bit cool to know, anyway.


Well, thinking about this old stuff got me to just reminiscing a bit about old times this morning... Oh well. Those days are gone, I do miss the Corps sometimes though.



Semper Fi!


P.S. - Back when I was there, WMs wore a regular WM "Barracks"cover for WM DIs,(<IIRC that is the type of cover they wore.) while only the men wore the campaign covers. I understand that has changed. IMO, they should have left it the way it was, but times change things, and sometimes we don't get a voice in the matters. Still think they just don't look right, with campaign covers though...

[shdwlkr]

I was army and they put me where they wanted sometimes not where I would have chosen, left after 7 years as I had enough of the "games" the army liked to pull on you. Left as a SFC so I was a real screw up, but I never questioned where I was put, more wondered how long before the next change.
The military today has to have individuals that can do many things as they have no idea where the next hot spot, shortage of individuals is going to happen. I wish him the best and looking back wished I had sucked it up and stayed.

[MrHarmless]

Do you think the powers that be are going to make somebody a warrant officer (I assume this is the promotion that comes with being a pilot) if he balks at the responsibility of turning recruits into Marines let alone flying one of their multi-million dollar aircraft?

To heck with that logic fella. Those two things are completely incongruous. Assignments are basically at the needs of the branch. Leadership can fight for you, but there's only so much they can do in most cases. There's almost never any "Quid Pro Quo". His desire of any particular assignment has no bearing on what leadership thinks he deserves. Nobody's gonna say, "You don't wanna be a DI? No heli-plane-o-copter for you!". Such an aggressively ignorant line of thought.

Anyone who loves their job would be miffed, and rightly so, if they had it taken away from them for several years to do something unrelated.

You think if I get sent to a staff job in DC in a few years I'm gonna do a backflip for joy? Heck no. I'm gonna be miserable and try and make the best of a garbage deal, networking be darned.

Edit: That being said, training newbs is unbelievably rewarding. It'll be slow at first, drag a little, and then just start flying by.

[Love Life]

1st bn wears red, 2d BN wears yellow, 3rd BN wears blue, and 4th BN wears maroon. Females do wear the campaign cover.

[Tackleberry41]

Marine DI school might as well just be called brainwashing, screws up everybody who does it. I always had the poor luck of having a former DI as platoon sergeant. There is a fine line between hard core and hard stupid, they live on the other side of the line. Turn them into robots spewing nonsense 24hrs a day. Friday everybody else is off on liberty, we were playing games. Went to the desert, we were the only platoon carrying full ammo in the rear. During desert storm, they had the battle of Kafgi, however its spelled. It was 150 mi away thru the desert, everyone else in the battalion sleeping. We were in fox holes waiting for the attack. Yea cause we would have zero notice tanks going 25mph were on the way, and would not pick them off with aircraft. Yet that same former DI when the bullets started flying, no where to be found, hiding in the amtrak. Only showed when it was time hand out kudos. Marines changed uniform regs, get those name tapes army used. Was not required for another 2 yrs, after I EAS, no we had to be the only people on base with them. Finally they transferred the idiot.

[Love Life]

[popper]

Not Marine but Navy DI was a great guy, turned a bunch of ragged school kids into men. A little 'old school' mentoring with long hours may seem drudgery but the guys who benefit are very appreciative. Thanks for his service.

[JBinMN]

1st bn wears red, 2d BN wears yellow, 3rd BN wears blue, and 4th BN wears maroon. Females do wear the campaign cover.

Thanks. Well, other than the campaign cover deal, at least some things have not changed...

[shdwlkr]

I have a grandson that just went from reserves to active Army, is he in for a change, but his head is in the right place. Granddaughter in the coast guard trying to get into helo maintenance only thing stopping her even get on the selection list is missing important dates, she has been told to pay attention to the calendar and yes they would like to see her get into the program just not willing to hold her hand. The military is funny like that, it is one place you do as you are told and do what needs done and they put it in your record. In my case I had officer's that just like to see how I would react to different things and for the most part I did what was asked, yes sometimes it was not the best but in the end it worked and I could have got up the enlisted ladder as far as I wanted, was offered E8 if I would have stayed, but as said early I was done with the military after 7 years and a few medical issues. Wished I had stayed now but that was not in the books so to speak. The army has kept track of me since I left on a regular basis so I guess I screwed up to well as how many can say 50 years after enlisting the military still knows your name and where you are? Hoping to go visit my old fort this summer Lord willing, strange how you can miss a place that gave you so many challenges. I will say this never felt so good about myself or what I was doing as I did in the Army.

[Winger Ed.]

[QUOTE=shdwlkr;4630285] strange how you can miss a place that gave you so many challenges. /QUOTE]


The challenges are what makes 'em so memorable.

[Parson]

Don't know about the Corps in the last 30+ years after I left, but back then, no one really wanted to "volunteer" for anything, since "it all paid the same".


LOL


& Semper Fi!, as well![/QUOTE]


I volunteered for almost everything, paid off big time, made rank faster than anyone I knew but that was over 50 years ago