AAR for Drill Sergeant School

That's right -- I'm naming names here folks!

Narrative

I had many expectations of what drill sergeant school would be, mostly based on the experiences of some colleagues who’d been through the course in the past 10 years or so. What I found when I arrived was completely different from the anecdotes I’d heard.

I think the biggest expectation one has when coming to DSS is to get smoked like you’re back in basic training again. Nothing could be further from the truth. While we had a few episodes where the DSL’s needed to get us horizontal to get our attention, nothing in this course could be categorized as “physically demanding,” except one or two training events in the latter part of the cycle. This may be a shortfall. I think DS candidates should be icing themselves and crunching Motrin every night after training. The goal of DSS should not just be to teach candidates about the intricacies of TRADOC 350-6, BRM, and the ups and downs of the IET environment. It should also be to turn out physically fit NCO’s – allow those who come to the course in shape to remain so, and those who don’t to get there. Teaching and leading SPT is great… but there really needs to be more for those of us who want to get better.

As I mentioned in the hotwash, I honestly believe the DSS here has some of the most knowledgeable, professional, and straight-up OUTSTANDING NCO’s serving as DSL’s. I think the true mark of that is the fact that two DSL’s were coming off the trail during our cycle – yet we didn’t even know it! There are, however, two side to every coin – and the flip side is there were one or two DSL’s who made the days drag. DSL Bobblehead told us during our first few days here that at DSS, much like downrange, you have two types of DS’s; those who can train and DO, and those who can’t, and cover it by screaming and yelling.

I have no trouble naming names – DSL Bighat is one of the most unprofessional NCO’s I’ve had the displeasure of working around in my twelve years of service. I have a hard time taking lessons on combat leadership from anyone without a right shoulder patch, especially when it’s being offered to me in a screaming voice while I’m doing flutterkicks (which are never executed, at least in any copy of FM 21-20 I’ve ever seen, with a rifle held in the air perpendicular to the ground). Feel free to write this off as sour grapes, or a personality conflict if you will, but I think events later on in the cycle bear out my opinion.

Now, spit the sour taste of the poor performers out of your mouth, because there’s plenty of great ones to talk about. If I had to vote for the DSL of the Cycle (if there is such a thing) I would be torn between DSL’s Bobblehead and Littleguy. As my DSL, SFC Bobblehead was our squad’s guide in the journey to becoming a drill sergeant – and as we navigated the twists and turns of an ever-changing training schedule and a whole lot of “hurry-up-and-wait,” he did everything within the limits of his abilities to teach us what we need to know to be successful. Most of all, he was able to share his experiences (there was SOME value to having too much time blocked for a particular subject) to illustrate a point. I noticed that a number of the other DSL’s seemed to take his lead – i.e. on one of the Sand Hill trips, we rolled for the next day’s module. He had the foresight to bring the sheets and the dice, while most of his peers did not. This easily shaved an hour or more off the time we’d have to hang around 2760A waiting to be released for the day. In the realm of coaching, teaching, and mentoring, he had more patience for me and my peccadilloes than he really should have had, including an incident for which, by all rights, he should have given me a written counseling. He chose to talk it out and make me understand the error of my ways. That really meant a lot to me -- if a vote were based on loyalty alone, I’d have to cast my ballot for him.

DS Littleguy is another matter altogether. If you had asked my at the middle of week 2 which DSL I’d like to see get hit by a truck, DSL Littleguy would have been tied for first. Once I got past the way the delivery method, his messages started making more and more sense. THIS is the guy who’d link the IET environment to every lesson he’d pass on. Hell, there were times when I’d wish we WERE doing pushups for some of the infractions he pointed out. He took over for DSL Bobblehead one day in class and in a matter of moments, shattered every misconception I had about him. I’m not going to get into how – the important thing is that his is one of the internal voices I think I’ll hear when I’m a drill sergeant, telling my what’s right and wrong. My respect for him increased exponentially when I learned he’s scheduled to leave the trail at the end of this month. Here’s a guy that could have just let most of the little things go during his last cycle – but he was a ball of fire right through the end. I’d feel priviledged to work with him or SFC Bobblehead again.

Another straight shooter is DSL Mech. He has all of the positive attributes of the other two DSL’s I mentioned – but there’s one attribute (you might call it a flaw) he displayed the others didn’t. While some would call the frustration he voiced on several occasions bitching (from my perspective, never within the hearing of any other DSC’s), I call it candor. Here’s a guy who’ll call a spade a spade, and damn whoever disagrees. It seemed to me he shared our disdain for all of the idle time waiting on chow, trans, or time hacks – and in seeing his reaction, we knew it wasn’t just us! The only improve I would level in his direction is the EO class. I think it was a big mistake to allow the middle portion of that block to turn into a “chick bashing,” allowing any male Soldier with a horror story to stand up and deliver. Remember your audience. There are combat arms Soldiers with no working experience with females on their way to Ft. Jackson. Allowing the storytelling to continue, and adding some anecdotes of your own, may not only push some of these sergeants to be over-cautious when dealing with female SIT’s – but their own female DS partners as well. Other than that, no complaints for this DSL.

I want to address another issue that was a thorn in my side during this course. As an Army at war supporting a nation at war, we know that things have to be able to change at the same pace the world changes. That’s one of the reason why when Soldiers first began encountering IED’s in Iraq, there were being added to training scenarios within weeks at training centers in the states. I know for a fact that TRADOC can adjust doctrine in a matter of weeks. So why is DS Proponency so behind the power curve? Why is there a section about the foxhole-supported firing position in the BRM block when it’s been phased out for MONTHS? I know the history of this POI – piloted at Leonard Wood in November, and taught for the first time in March. If this is a partial re-write (as was intimated to me by TRADOC almost a year ago) why are we still seeing old methods? Speaking of old, there are several test questions that the DSL said have caused problems in past cycles. If they’ve been identified to proponency, what’s taking so long to either rectify them or produce new tests? I took one test where 7 of the 30 questions were duplicates. Let’s get to work on that!

Now, on to the important stuff – like chow. I understand the trials and tribulations of last cycle’s mealtimes. Unfortunately, the solution was a little Draconian – when you consider that making sure Soldiers are given the opportunity is not quite the same as FORCING Soldiers to wait in line, eating or not -- compounding that, if I may be so bold, is the out and out fraud perpetrated by DSS by making Soldiers sign in as if they had eaten a meal even if they had no intention of consuming said meal. I thought that flew in the face of the declarative at the beginning of the cycle – “This is the most professional school you will ever attend.”

Finally, I think the idea of mirroring the phases of BCT became a running joke in the school by the fifth week – I believe we were still flying that red banner still. If candidates are supposed to work toward the goal of “phasing up,” then build some incentives into the goal. Perhaps no dinner formation in blue phase, or only three times per week during the white phase. The privileges increase with time, formally, in BCT. If we mirror that POI (to an extent), our should increase too.

I’m sure as time passes, more will come to me, but by then it won’t matter much! I’m probably out of bounds writing this much as it is. I feel, however, that I owe the school the honest feedback that it has asked for since day one. I want to close by saying that I’ve learned a great deal – not from the lesson plans, the POI, or the hands-on – but from the stellar Drill Sergeants at DSS and the experiences of the awesome NCO’s I had the distinct pleasure of working with here.

This We’ll Defend,

SFC Lavigne
Broadcast Public Affairs Chief
Drill Sergeant
Mike.lavigne@us.army.mil

Graduation time -- and the dreaded AAR

Well, four days to go. We're out of the field and we've already got the hat issued. I'm looking at 2 uniforms with the famous drill sergeant patch sewed on and I gotta tell ya it looks great!

In keeping with my open and honest policy, I'm posting the hotwash AAR (that's After Action Report for the uninitiated) below. I may post the narrative after I'm done -- it's already hit almost 2000 words -- but I won't post it until after I've excised the names of the guilty! Here goes --

Sustain:
- On-the-spot corrections are tied to lessons from the Initial Entry Training environment, i.e. “Sergeants, if your privates were acting like this, this is what you’d do…”
- Dry lessons required by Program of Instruction were spiced up by Drill Sergeant Leaders with personal experiences from their days downrange – without a doubt one of the most valuable parts of this training.
- However limited in scope it was, continue to expose Drill Sergeant Candidates to Soldiers in Training whenever the time permits. In fact, increase the time allotted in the POI to “on the job training” during Drill Sergeant School.
- Professional, knowledgeable, and for the most part, OUTSTANDING Drill Sergeant Leaders. I could count on less than one hand the number of DSL’s that I would not want to work for (or have work for me) in a basic training company. They were able to communicate their ideas, beliefs, and lessons learned in such a manner as to inspire in me an intense desire to be the best drill sergeant I can be. They helped me grasp the importance of training these young men to be able to survive in combat. I think I understood that concept prior to coming to school, but these top-notch NCO’s really hammered home its importance.

Improve:
- TOO MUCH TIME WASTED IN DSS! A fellow candidate used to run a stopwatch in the times where we simply sat around and waited, be it for trans, for chow, etc., and gave up after NEARLY 80 HOURS! DSL’s should keep track of every block of instruction that didn’t take the complete amount of time required under the POI and submit to higher for possible POI adjustments. This time could be better spent, especially if it were used in the manner mentioned above – OJT.
- Drill Sergeant School (and its leadership, in my opinion) placed far too much value in form over substance. For example, if Field Manual 3-21.5 describes a certain procedure for forming a platoon in a line formation, THAT’S the standard… not this jog-in-place, base-platoon-dress-to-the-left nonsense that’s been required all cycle. If we’re going to have the regs preached at us all 9 weeks, then the leadership should ensure the regs are being used!
- Tying in to the final “sustain” from above, the time we were allotted around Soldiers in training was far too little to actually be able to get a feel for life in the IET environment. For those candidates whose most recent exposure to this world was back at basic training, the DSS actually does them a disservice by sending them partially unprepared to that environment. Combat Support and Combat Service Support sergeants (with a few infantry guys as well) should go to the Basic Combat Training Brigade for several days (to those units that have training requiring 100% Drill Sergeants on site) to assist in the training and to “soak up” some of the atmosphere. Obviously the vast majority of the 11 series sergeants should do the same over at Infantry Training Brigade. When you consider the 2 Fridays (from my recollection) we spent on Sand Hill ostensibly observing SIT’s, we spent more time looking at the EST 2000 and getting the walk-through “this is 1-38’s chow hall” tour than actually seeing the dynamic between DS and SIT. THAT’S the learning point!
- Too much of the course is rooted in the Basic Combat Training environment. When you have such a large class and so many going to the Advanced Individual Training world, there needs to be some balance. In keeping with this, there are no DSL’s with AIT experience (other than One Station Unit Training) to mentor those who are on their way there. Perhaps Training and Doctrine Command can consider allowing some AIT drills to extend for the full 42 months to come here (or the other school for that matter) with a follow-on assignment somewhere else on the installation after their time on the trail is complete.
More later on -- stay tuned!