Retired Drill Instructor

[outerlimits]

Your A Retired D.I. If:

1. When out in public you feel the urge to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their behavior.

2. When you mention "sugar" you're not talking about a food group.

3. You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.

4. You can't have children because there's no name you could give a child that wouldn't bring on high blood pressure the moment you heard it uttered.

5. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

6. Meeting a child's parent instantly answers the question "Why is this kid like this?"

7. You think a Long Island Corny Dog is some form of prohibited sexual act.

8. You have been listed in the Museum of Natural History as a ‘Relic.’

9. Meat, preferably very rare makes your mouth drool uncontrollably in public.

10. When being pulled over by an L.A. Police Officer for a traffic citation you begin your conversation with, ‘Aren’t you one of those sorry SOBs we had to save your ass during the LA riots.”

11. You have battle fatigue syndrome if you don’t regularly watch war movies on T.V.

12. The smell of gun powder and burnt flesh gives you an ‘erection.’

13. People you have trained at Parris Island still fear you and call you “sir.”

14. When applying for Social Security Benefits, you reminded the man evaluating your pension amount that you know 6 different ways to snap a man’s neck.

15. You still wear you dog tags, sleep with a .45 under your pillow, drive a used rebuilt Willy’s Jeep, and have barbed wire on top of your chain link fence around your house.

[bobert1]

Parris Island. What an experience in 1976. Sand Fleas !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I would love to see my DI's again and say thanks.

Edited January 5, 2006 by bobert1

[m.e.t.]

They say you never forget your D.I.'s name.

Sgt. James Swinford.

He would question my parentage and hit me between the eyes with the brim of his hat. So much so that I had a bruise that lasted for three months after basic.

I too would like to shake his hand and say thanks.

[SiG Lady]

I wonder if that's the military equivalent of some of the better nuns that dragged our sorry asses thru grade school to emerge as reasonable kids. Some of the nuns were actually VERY cool people. So, thank-you Sister Anne-Christine in particular... our 8th grade teacher. One look from her at the wrong moment and she could bruise your brain (let alone your forehead) with her stare!

[Scout454]

Platoon 312, January, February 1966

Sgt. Ross

Sgt. Vance

Sgt. Costello

And a non-descript ass of a Corporal who took his place for a few weeks.

I did get the chance to thank Sgt. Vance in Oki on the way back from 'Nam.

[Larry White]

Mike, Platoon 316. SSgt Chase, Cpl Harmond. I guess we were in the same series, finished at the same time. I heard Gunny Chase was killed at Hue, I saw Harmond at seperation center Sanna Anita in 69, I was Sgt E5, he was Lcpl. I owe both of those men more than I could ever express.-----Larry

[Scout454]

Ikytx,

Welcome home.

I remember SSgt Chase.

Mike

[Waltermitty]

SSGT Reeves. Thank you very much. May I drop and give you 20?

[38superman]

Parris Island, summer of 1970.

1st training battalion, platoon 1176

Senior Drill Instructor - Staff Sargent Freeville

If I live long enough to forget my own name, I will still remember Sgt. Freeville

I lost so much weight the first two weeks, I had stretch marks on my stomach that looked like surgical scars.

When I first noticed them I freaked out. I thought I had gotten some kind of disease.

Freeville, walked past and said:

"I see your fat scuzzy body is trying to shed some of that jello, recruit."

Turned out to be the nicest thing he ever said to me.

Its 35 years ago, but I can still hear him calling out cadence as we marched.

Still remember feeling the ground shake as our boots dug into the asphalt grinder.

Tls