I
guarantee you that ALL Drill Instructors are memorable. But
there is that one that stands out for a very simple reason:
they are The Heavy.
What
does this mean? Well, we had three Drill Instructors and they
all three had very different roles.
The
Senior Drill Instructor is your
Daddy. While tough, demanding, and normally mean as they come,
he is the Pack Leader. He is the one you want to please, the
one that controls the others. If the training is working,
it doesn't take long before if becomes the platoon's overriding
desire to make the Senior proud and woe be the Recruit that
disappoints the Senior. The Senior is the least of all evils
when it comes to the Drill Instructors and he becomes a father-figure
in the memory of all recruits.
In
my three-hat team, there was also The Teacher. This role was
mainly given to SSGT Garcia and
being a brand new Drill Instructor, he was not as stress-inducing
as the rest. This was for a couple of reasons. First, he was
learning the ropes. Second, it was his job to teach so he
had to tone down the terror in order to teach us what we needed
to learn. This, of course, is all relative because what we
considered "less stress-inducing" would
to others seem like raging, maniacal lunacy.
The
third category, and the one Drill Instructor Sergeant Robinson
filled, was The Heavy. The Heavy has basically one mission
in life: unfiltered terror. He is the starved pit bull and
the Recruits are the dangling meat. The Heavy is never happy.
Never satisfied. Insulted that you exist. His very presence
is enough to make full grown men cower like frightened Chihuahuas.
Drill
Instructor Sergeant Robinson played this role to the hilt
and looms in my memory as the single most intimidating human
being I have ever met. While only about 5'7" and of skinny
build, he exists my memory like King Kong. He had red hair,
a fair complexion that turned beet red when he yelled (which
was every time he opened his mouth). The veins in his neck
stuck out like thick cords when he was in full roar and when
he wasn't yelling, he had a permanent look on his face like
we had just deflowered his daughter.
I
hold no animosity toward him to this day. In fact, I am in
awe that he could keep up such intensity for 3 solid months.
As of 2006, I have only been in contact once with him over
the phone when, as a newly-minted 2nd Lieutenant, I looked
him up and called him. Since then, I've lost touch with him
and deeply regret that. To sit down and have a conversation
with this man, as I've done with my other two Drill Instructors,
would be an honor to the highest degree. As long as he doesn't
start yelling...
Drill Instructor
Sergeant Robinson leaves his mark on Recruit Lee.
