7.07.2007

Fun with New Recruits

This weekend is a drill weekend.

I'm thinking that a few of my readers probably wonder what goes on in the quest to become a drill sergeant and are probably disappointed that I don't write more about my drill weekends.

To tell you the truth, most weekends aren't all that exciting. I take a PT test every month (I passed my run this time by 2 seconds, which means that I need to run a LOT more) and most of the time I sit in a class room and modulate on the Position of Attention and the Rest Positions while at the halt. I can also modulate the hand salute. Sometimes we march each other around to familiarize ourselves and we also do a lot of PT. But it is usually very routine and often times boring to discuss later.

I'm very eager to get my hat, because I want to be done with this and actually do Drill Sergeant type stuff. Well, they let us have a little practice today by bringing in some fresh recruits, none of which have been to basic yet.

The recruiters brought these new troops in to give them an idea of what they will be facing when they go to basic training as well as give them a leg up by providing some training in basic Drill and Ceremony (D&C) and some other training that they will encounter when they hit the ground at their basic training unit. Today it was Mout training, although I didn't get to help out with that. But I got to do the D&C training, with about six drill sergeants backing me up in full drill sergeant mode. Oh the fun to be had! Some of these troops were shaking, you could see the terror in their faces as they tried to do as they were told.

This weekend confirmed to me that this is what I want to do, I had so much fun training these troops standard D&C such as Rest Positions at the Halt and walking along and making corrections as somebody else made adjustments. I think most of them thought I was just a little older then them doing this (most of these were kids right out of highschool) and when they found out I've been in the army just shy of eight years they looked surprised. A couple of them thought I was maybe 20 or 22 at the most.

I wrote a little bit more about this experience on my Milblog, but it did get me geared up for the fact that I leave for Drill Sergeant School next month and now I'm all motivated to go there and kick butt.

Now, all I really need to do is work on that run time. It would also be nice if I can shave of two minutes or so.

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