View Full Version : Drill Instructors
KMichael
03-10-06, 05:43 PM
yeah... i had a run in with a DI or two wednesday night... some scary crap going on there... pool function... yeah if'n y'all want the full story pm me but here are the basics...
we form up... sit like good little poolees, legs crosses hands on the knees... Sgt. Bellec and Sgt Meridith come in... we all tense up they give their speech and then we all get on our feet and they're on us like you wouldnt believe... and i got double teamed...
Now im sitting here wondering wtf i got myself into... i can take it... because i have to take it... even if i wanted to... id take it... but should i really feel like this? is it normal to still be this frazzled 2 days after a 5 minute run in? or am i just being girlie about the whole thing?
You have seen nothing yet
CrazyBrave83
03-10-06, 05:50 PM
You have seen nothing yet
Seconded.
I still remember exact things that my Drill Instructors said. And that was back in 2003. They have a way of sticking with you.
jinelson
03-10-06, 05:58 PM
motion carried - shock and awe
KMichael
03-10-06, 06:03 PM
from what i have seen or what little i have seen... im scared sh*tless... and im not easily intimidated by females (except for my mom of course)... and Sgt Meridith... She's f-in scary... im not sure what to think...
PooleeMichael---------Don't THINK, you are not payed to THINK.
yellowwing
03-10-06, 06:08 PM
The Drill Instructors only have a few short weeks to instill in you lessons that will last a life time. They have to uncondition you of 17-18 years of the soft life. AND THEN build you into a United States Marine.
This time next year you may find yourself riding shotgun in a convoy through Ar Ramadi. And you will be grateful for every harsh lesson from our Outstanding Drill Instructors.
But I see that you are still motivated and determined to Earn the Title. That's what we look for!
KMichael
03-10-06, 06:21 PM
PooleeMichael---------Don't THINK, you are not payed to THINK.
ive been gettin that alot lately... one of my bad habits... i think things through too often... trying to break myself of that...
LCplLake
03-10-06, 07:08 PM
I'll never forget the time I was at a Poole Function like that, with the D.I.'s.. and my recruiter dared me to ask them if we were allowed to jerk off at boot camp. Ya'll know me.. I stood up "SIR, I WAS WONDERING IF WE'RE ALLOWED TO BEAT OFF AT BOOT CAMP SIR" - it was like in half a blink, I had 3 DI's, 2 male, 1 female in my face, the bill of their cover poking me in the forehead.. I remember hearing something about being disgusting, and if I was gonna have a nasty mind like that, that he didnt want me on his island...
I cant remember what I was feeling at the time. I just remember laughing about it afterwards..
Michael - dont sweat the nasty habits.. you'll learn how to react purely off of instinct and habit once you get to MCRD.
-Lake
Tallboot
03-10-06, 07:22 PM
I got a poolee function tommarow MORNING at 5 o clock, fun fun .. my first one .. No Drill Instructors yet, but i know that there have been times that my friends have played Paintball. I was in Recruiting office when i was Signing up for DEP, and they had a guy in there and he was telling a poolee RUN!!! NOW PUSHUPS!!! MOUNTAIN CLIMER!! NOW RUN!! WTF ARE YOU DOING!! I SAID PUSHUPS!!! signed up and told me to bein polee function saturday at 5 in morning .. cant wait
A dare like that better have money involved. DANG... Your recruiter didn't like you did he?
~
gOpHeR
Static_Sky25
03-11-06, 01:43 PM
from what i have seen or what little i have seen... im scared sh*tless... and im not easily intimidated by females (except for my mom of course)... and Sgt Meridith... She's f-in scary... im not sure what to think...
they can't kill ya and even if they did it's not like they would eat ya... it's against the law... :)
to make it good and simple P.M. it is what it is... and you have to take it for what it is... and crazy brave is right... I still remember exact quotes... these folks have a way of gettin in your head... it's their job, accept that and your fear will disappear
CrazyBrave83
03-11-06, 02:52 PM
One of the most true things I've ever heard a Drill Instructor say was
"To be a good Drill Instructor, above all, you have to be a good actor. I don't hate recruits. In fact I admire them for making the choice. But I have to act like I hate them."
It was on a Discovery show many many years ago, not the newest Making Marines installment.
You have to remember they're there to train you, to turn you into a US Marine. They have 13 weeks to make you a brutally effective warrior, and they have 229 years of knowledge to give you in that short span of time.
Truth of the matter is, as the unknown Drill Instructor mentioned...they WANT you to succeed more than anything.
cgkades
03-11-06, 07:08 PM
its not fun to be yelled at. what you feel is normal. just stick it out and push through, you will be better when you get to the other side.
ggyoung
03-11-06, 07:26 PM
:evilgrin: Poolee Michael-------The DIs as said before have a job to do and do it well.Just do your best and when it gets real tuff you have to reach down and pull up more of the best you can do and when you do this you will be amased at what you can do. I had one DI who used me as hiss ****ing post. I said to myself that I would kill him if ever I had the chance. After my 1st trip to Vietnam I ran into him at 29 Palms. I went up and said "thank you Sgt. Beelevlhimere for what you installed in me. Good Luck :evilgrin:
Echo_Four_Bravo
03-11-06, 10:49 PM
You know, for all the screaming, yelling, pain, and punishment that took place at MCRD; there is one thing I can honestly say. Some of the best memories of my life took place while I was a recruit. Some of the best friends I have in the world were in my boot camp platoon. And yes, some of the funniest things I have ever seen a human being do happened in my beloved squad bay.
bigdog43701
03-12-06, 09:02 AM
poolee michael,
after reading your post and the answers i will tell you the same. the purpose of the Marine di is to break you down and then build you into a Marine. you will be required to do things that you never thought in your wildest dreams you would or could do. you will learn teamwork nd to think as a team instead of an individual, you will realize that from boot thru the rest of your life that you control your life (no one else) what you do with this knowledge is up to you.
in 1970 i arrived at PI as a young recruit. i spent several hours standing at attention while sand fleas bit my neck knowing i could not move to smack them or scratch or i would have to suffer the rath of the di's. i can still remember asking myself then, why do i have to do this. at this time i had a deep fear of spiders. i have been known to knock doors off of the hinges when i have seen one, i have refused to go into a house because i saw one across the room on the outside of a window. you are now asking yourself where is he going. about a year after boot i was laying in an ambush in viet nam. while i was laying there with my weapon pointing out i saw a spider building a web from the bill of my soft cover. as fearfull of that spider as i may have been i kept my composure and the ambush went off without a hitch. (NOTE: i am no longer afraid of spiders and frequantly catch them by hand and put them outside where they belong).
PooleeNGN
03-12-06, 09:44 AM
my recruiter was talking about how Drill Instructors cant hit us anymore and nor cant they cus at us. i was WTF man thats so stupid. in my opinion they are turning us new wannabe Marines into pansies now. they reason they could do that back then was bc to mean Marines Lean and Mean, but now its like pansy stuff, all you gotta do is take yelling and thats it. i wonder what pansy ass recruit started to ***** about it and made the gov't give rules to Drill Instructors. anyone feel the same?
Radiofantry
03-12-06, 10:14 AM
my recruiter was talking about how Drill Instructors cant hit us anymore and nor cant they cus at us. i was WTF man thats so stupid. in my opinion they are turning us new wannabe Marines into pansies now. they reason they could do that back then was bc to mean Marines Lean and Mean, but now its like pansy stuff, all you gotta do is take yelling and thats it. i wonder what pansy ass recruit started to ***** about it and made the gov't give rules to Drill Instructors. anyone feel the same?
The reality here is that they are training people for different things now. Back then they wanted the most brutal people you could produce, and brutality produces brutality. Now they are trying to produce Marines that think, and that use non-lethal methods, etc. That's why they focus so much on talking about how much "smarter" Marines are today than they were 30 years ago.
*shrug*
yellowwing
03-12-06, 11:05 AM
Here you go Poolee Michael, from the Women Marines forum (http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27447):
During her time in Iraq, Curtis participated in more than 230 convoy operations, but she would not have wanted it any other way.
“I loved being deployed,” said Curtis. “I really enjoyed going outside the wire and actually doing something. I learned something every time I went out on a convoy.”
Being stationed at Camp Blue Diamond in Al Ramadi, Iraq, meant almost daily supply convoys to surrounding camps including Camps Taqaddum, Al Asad, Fallujah and Hurricane Point to name a few.
“Every time we would go to Al Asad something bad would happen,” Curtis stated. “We would almost always endure small arms fire or sustain [improvised explosive device] attacks.”
CrazyBrave83
03-12-06, 11:56 AM
my recruiter was talking about how Drill Instructors cant hit us anymore and nor cant they cus at us. i was WTF man thats so stupid. in my opinion they are turning us new wannabe Marines into pansies now. they reason they could do that back then was bc to mean Marines Lean and Mean, but now its like pansy stuff, all you gotta do is take yelling and thats it. i wonder what pansy ass recruit started to ***** about it and made the gov't give rules to Drill Instructors. anyone feel the same?
Two things.
They still swear, trust me.
And onto the physical contact? You'll definitely see some of that. Not beatdowns, but I'll leave the surprises up to you. As for it on a whole - the truth of the matter is that there are better ways to train a person than to beat the **** out of him at every crossing.
They'll find ways to make you suffer, that's their job :D
Static_Sky25
03-12-06, 02:28 PM
got too close to a DI while he had his Campaign cover brim press in his hand... took that thing to the side of the melon... quick way to learn that a DI's "arms length" can grow....
and cussing? LOL your Drill Instructors will definatley enhance your vocabulary
:evilgrin:
Lithium
03-12-06, 10:28 PM
As G G Y said you have seen nothing yet, but stick in there!
my recruiter was talking about how Drill Instructors cant hit us anymore and nor cant they cus at us. i was WTF man thats so stupid. in my opinion they are turning us new wannabe Marines into pansies now. they reason they could do that back then was bc to mean Marines Lean and Mean, but now its like pansy stuff, all you gotta do is take yelling and thats it. i wonder what pansy ass recruit started to ***** about it and made the gov't give rules to Drill Instructors. anyone feel the same?
Every other word out of the Drill Instructors' mouths in the new boot camp documentary "Ears, open. Eyeballs, click" is a swear word :).
Tallboot
03-13-06, 09:53 AM
Sgt Gee, and a Lance corporal i know said .. yes they cuss the hell out of you, preety much everything sentence has a cussword in it. As far as hitting .. he siad there quiet a few "reports" of the Drill Instructor throwing there Lockers and hitting them from 2nd Battalion. There not supposed to read your mail are they? they take it as soon as you open it. Drill intructors are not bound. Some recruitors will say anything to get you to join ... you dont just take yelling and thats it buddy. i havent been to bootcamp, but im around Seargent Gee every weekend -- so no i dont feel the same about Marines being trained to be pansies.
Future-USMC-LT
03-13-06, 11:44 AM
I just graduated about 7 months ago (finally got my promotion to Lance Corporal) and I can tell you as sure as I'm sitting here typing that we got cussed at a lot. I was kind of surprised, since I'd heard that supposedly the Corps clamped down on it, but they didn't. I didn't really care. My belief is that if you can't take all the swearing and cussing, then maybe you should go to the Air Force. As for contact, it happened once in a while. Some was deliberate, most was not.
One fun experience we had happened at Pendleton. I was in the head cleaning, one recruit was on the quarterdeck watching the hatch, and the other two were at the squibes desk sorting through paperwork. I heard someone walk by the head and into the squadbay. Looks like the quarterdeck recruit forgot to greet and give a report to the DI, because the next thing I heard was a ton of screaming, and then a loud boom. I waited in the head for about 5 minutes, there was no way I was going to walk on my own into a potential minefield. When I went out, the scribes desk was on its side about 10 feet away from its original spot, and all of its contents were spread out over the quarterdeck and the front of the squadbay. Lord knows how long it took the scribe to sort everything out.
yellowwing
03-13-06, 04:32 PM
Ha-haha! Good for the scribe. Those SOBs never got fire watch anyway!
cgkades
03-13-06, 07:18 PM
yeh, most have calmed down on the hitting, but i heard about one recruit that got slammed through one of the portholes, i was poked in the eye (accedent, but still sucked), i saw one recruit get struck with his front sight post and gashed his face pretty bad (needed stiches) dont know if it was accidental, but he was rushed into the SDI's office to make sure he wouldnt ***** (he didnt, he took it like a man).
Lots of people were struck in the chest, i watched one kid get thrown against his rack... lots of crazy stuff
dont go in there thinking "you cant touch me" cause they can... be a ***** and you might as well just refuse to train, they will IT the crap out of you. just take it and smile. you'll be a better person for it :)
Lithium
03-13-06, 09:40 PM
remember the thing that jesus did with turning the other cheek and all.....well dont do that, that could just be worse, but yea take it like a man (or woman)
yellowwing
03-13-06, 10:10 PM
"..and smile?" No way! I made the mistake of smiling the first minute the Drill Instructors had us for training. BIG MISTAKE :banana:
PooleeNGN
03-13-06, 10:13 PM
lol i wasnt complaining or worried about being hit. i was worried that the Corp had gone soft bc of what my SSRGT said. i rather liked to be trained the old fashion way, its what makes you tougher and stronger then the rest. its what separtes us from all the other branches
Marine84
03-15-06, 01:38 PM
Poolee Michael - You ain't seen nothing yet sweetie! If you were still frazzled 2 days after a 5 minute run in, you will be traumatized for life if you make it all the way through boot camp. DIs are taught to use psychology on you - the more they tell you that you aren't worth it, the harder you try to show them that you are. Don't take anything that is said to you personally. Female DIs usually won't hit or cuss at you like the male DIs do with the guys. But if they get to throwing things - MOVE OUT OF THE WAY OR COVER YOUR ASS! I remember one morning we went out for PT and came back in to find the whole damned squadbay torn to bits because either somebody didn't make a rack tight enough or uniforms weren't hanging in the order that they were supposed to be hung or uniforms weren't marked with names of who they belonged to. We came back in to find matresses pulled off racks and thrown everywhere, uniforms thrown everywhere (and don't think they threw them in the floor close to where they pulled them off), footlockers turned upside down - I mean the place was a MESS! They do stuff like this the whole time you're there and it's all to train you to discipline yourself to pay attention to detail. Be sure to look for strings on your uniform too cause if a DI sees one, she'll pull on it (sometimes taking a button or a whole seam out with it) and you'll flunk a uniform inspection. You'll do fine as long as you know and understand that they aren't doing to you personally - they'll be doing it to everybody.
DuckSauce
03-15-06, 04:54 PM
we had a drill instructor come up for a family night when i was in the DEP, i also ran into that very same DI a few months later. Sorta like a double take, lol.
He was a DI in the same company as i was, but didn't have a platoon. on break or whatever you want to call it.
DuckSauce
03-15-06, 04:58 PM
But if they get to throwing things - MOVE OUT OF THE WAY OR COVER YOUR ASS!
lol, I remember we were all doing drill, and the SDI pegged ME with a canteen that was ment for the one of the recruits to my right.
lol, he came and asked me if i was ok, haha. funny looking back.
Marine84
03-16-06, 08:34 AM
You will eventually run into one of your DIs out in the fleet. I ran into one of mine in Iwakuni - I was terrified of this b_tch in boot camp but when I ran into her in the fleet turns out she was one of the coolest b_tches I ever met in the Corps. It was funny though, the day she moved into the barracks and I saw her I froze up just like I had done at PI. I thought "OH HELL NO" but we had a blast roaming around Iwakuni.
KMichael
03-16-06, 09:18 PM
Thanks y'all... This is makin me feel a bit better... Kinda know what to expect now... And thanks for all of the advice... Will duck if something is headed my way... lol... Thanks all!
I think my rommate had Sgt Merideth as a DI.... not sure, but the name sounds really familiar. Normally on the female side, DI's don't tend to beat the sh!t out of the recruits, normally watch their mouth, etc. They try to set an example... but that doesn't mean nothing slip. Definately cuss words tend to slip, sometimes the DI looses control (or sometimes intentionally) hits a recruit. My DI's absolutely hated me, one DI had something personal against me, she would intentionally shove me in the chest, grab me by me collar and throw me across the squad bay, etc. Some recruits got kicked, some got hit by flying objects the DI threw, once a DI threw a rifle at a recruit. That's about as bad as it got in my platoon, oh, plus we picked up a DI that had been a SDI with a previous platoon, she got demoted cuz she let her DI's beat the sh!t out of her recruits. I know, not as bad as some of the male experiences, but females tend to lead more by example.
One other thing, I would love to run into any of my DI's, it would be great! Seeing how I was the "favorite" recruit, I have a feeling they would remember me... I sure as hell remember them.
Future-USMC-LT
03-17-06, 10:35 PM
Don't be suprised if you get a nickname in boot camp. Mine was ChewBatki (sometimes chewbacca). One reason is because, even though I only have a moderate amount of body hair, I was still one of the hairiest recruits in our platoon. The other was because I had a really bad lisp. Before boot camp, I only had a small lisping problem, but because of all the yelling, it became really bad. Bad enough that I was hard to understand when I was yelling. Another reason, my last name is Batki, hence ChewBatki.
Here's poolee michael and Sgt Meredith right down her neck...
as a parent, I can say it was the hardest thing I'd done in a long time...let a stranger yell at *my* child and say nothing and do nothing about it...
I was white knuckled holding onto the table to keep from getting up ...
http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4272&d=1142663857
David Jameson
05-17-07, 02:16 PM
If I had my drill instructors for teachers I'd have a frigin PHd.
This is exactly some of the things i needed to hear. Im told the mind games are what they are. The games these DI's play on you are meant to save your Arse in an intense situation when thinking starts to go out the door and training kicks in. i read an article about DI's not being allowed to curse and i got a little mad. When i go i dont want DI's to be pampering me, because they wont be their to whipe my butt when im getting rounds over my head. Any tips on dealing with DI's in Boot camp. A buddy of mine said that just do what your told when your told, practice speaking in the third person before you go, remove words like I, Need, and No heh.