thedrifter
07-31-09, 07:32 PM
Hanover Marine wins Drill Instructor of the Year award
Published: Friday, July 31, 2009 5:58 AM EDT
Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island (S.C)— Gunnery Sgt. Jesse Becker, of Hanover, has won the Drill Instructor of the Year award.
The Marine Corps League honors Marines with awards in 11 different categories each year.
“Being a senior drill instructor, you have the ability to interact and be on a familiar basis with the recruits the entire time,” Becker said. “You can see their development, all the way from the time they get here to their graduation, when they walk across the parade deck as Marines. You can see the impact that you and the other drill instructors have had on them. The reward you get for the hard work you put in makes it worthwhile.”
Award nominees are selected by either the offices of the Commandant of the Marine Corps or the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, depending on the type of award, before being forwarded to the MCL for announcement, said
Becker, a squad instructor and academic coordinator at the Drill Instructor School, is a helicopter crew chief by trade, with four combat deployments under his belt. He’s been a DI at Parris Island for the last two years.
Becker was selected for this award because he is the standing winner of the 2008 Marine Corps-wide competition for Drill Instructor of the Year, which he earned after emerging victorious from a board held in Quantico, Va., last fall.
The competition for DI of the year is tough, and Becker had to rise above more than 20 other Marines last year to earn the title of Parris Island’s finest. The screening boards come down to the most minute detail when dealing with Marines so close in caliber, according to the Marine Corps League’s coordinator of the enlisted awards program, Chuck LaBerge.
“These Marines represent the best of their element, and are chosen very wisely,” LaBerge said.
Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Wheeler, MCRD San Diego, was selected as the West Coast’s best DI. So, the competition for overall drill instructor of the year for the entire Corps came down to those two Marines, who met in Quantico the night before their board.
Becker had served as a junior drill instructor, senior drill instructor and series gunnery sergeant before becoming a teacher at the Drill Instructor School. He said each billet affords drill instructors different avenues by which to influence recruit training. He said his favorite was the role of senior drill instructor.
“As a series gunnery sergeant, you’ll have a series, so you may have 250 recruits. In my current job, as an instructor at DI school, I have the ability to influence 66 drill instructors that can then each affect 92 recruits,” Becker said. “The reach you have, putting drill instructors out to the regiment is far greater than you have as a drill instructor,” he added.
Ellie
Published: Friday, July 31, 2009 5:58 AM EDT
Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island (S.C)— Gunnery Sgt. Jesse Becker, of Hanover, has won the Drill Instructor of the Year award.
The Marine Corps League honors Marines with awards in 11 different categories each year.
“Being a senior drill instructor, you have the ability to interact and be on a familiar basis with the recruits the entire time,” Becker said. “You can see their development, all the way from the time they get here to their graduation, when they walk across the parade deck as Marines. You can see the impact that you and the other drill instructors have had on them. The reward you get for the hard work you put in makes it worthwhile.”
Award nominees are selected by either the offices of the Commandant of the Marine Corps or the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, depending on the type of award, before being forwarded to the MCL for announcement, said
Becker, a squad instructor and academic coordinator at the Drill Instructor School, is a helicopter crew chief by trade, with four combat deployments under his belt. He’s been a DI at Parris Island for the last two years.
Becker was selected for this award because he is the standing winner of the 2008 Marine Corps-wide competition for Drill Instructor of the Year, which he earned after emerging victorious from a board held in Quantico, Va., last fall.
The competition for DI of the year is tough, and Becker had to rise above more than 20 other Marines last year to earn the title of Parris Island’s finest. The screening boards come down to the most minute detail when dealing with Marines so close in caliber, according to the Marine Corps League’s coordinator of the enlisted awards program, Chuck LaBerge.
“These Marines represent the best of their element, and are chosen very wisely,” LaBerge said.
Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Wheeler, MCRD San Diego, was selected as the West Coast’s best DI. So, the competition for overall drill instructor of the year for the entire Corps came down to those two Marines, who met in Quantico the night before their board.
Becker had served as a junior drill instructor, senior drill instructor and series gunnery sergeant before becoming a teacher at the Drill Instructor School. He said each billet affords drill instructors different avenues by which to influence recruit training. He said his favorite was the role of senior drill instructor.
“As a series gunnery sergeant, you’ll have a series, so you may have 250 recruits. In my current job, as an instructor at DI school, I have the ability to influence 66 drill instructors that can then each affect 92 recruits,” Becker said. “The reach you have, putting drill instructors out to the regiment is far greater than you have as a drill instructor,” he added.
Ellie