U.S. Armed Forces
Drill Instructors are held responsible for the welfare, behavior, and military education of the recruits assigned to them on a 24-hour basis throughout the period of initial training, of which the most well known is Basic Training or boot camp. Their responsibilities include areas such as military discipline, physical fitness, and weapons training. The title of Drill Instructor is a billet independent of rank, to be held by Non-Commissioned Officers who successfully complete the intense training program to earn that title.
The rank held by drill instructors varies by branch:
- Drill Sergeants in the United States Army are Sergeants (E-5), Staff Sergeant (E-6), Sergeant First Class (E-7), and rarely Master Sergeants (E-8) .
- Drill Instructors in the United States Marine Corps normally hold the rank of Sergeant (E-5) through Gunnery Sergeant (E-7). A Corporal (E-4) is no longer authorized to attend Drill Instructor School therefore not authorized to hold the billet of a Drill Instructor. Successful completion of Drill Instructor School grants the Marine an AMOS (Additional Military Occupational Specialty) of 0911.
- Recruit Division Commanders (formerly Company Commanders) in the United States Navy are Petty Officer Second Class (E-5) through Master Chief Petty Officer (E-9).
- Military Training Instructors in the United States Air Force are generally Staff Sergeants (E-5) through Master Sergeants (E-7), though some hold the rank of Senior Airman (E-4).
- Company Commanders in the United States Coast Guard are Petty Officer Second Class (E-5) through Master Chief Petty Officer (E-9).
The arduous nature of drill instructor duty means that such assignments are among the most prestigious carried out by enlisted personnel. Those who become drill instructors are eligible for a variety of military awards, such as the Marine Drill Instructor Ribbon, and the Army's Drill Sergeant Identification Badge.
Read more about this topic: Drill Instructor
Famous quotes containing the words armed and/or forces:
“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon’s teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“The popularity of disaster movies ... expresses a collective perception of a world threatened by irresistible and unforeseen forces which nevertheless are thwarted at the last moment. Their thinly veiled symbolic meaning might be translated thus: We are innocent of wrongdoing. We are attacked by unforeseeable forces come to harm us. We are, thus, innocent even of negligence. Though those forces are insuperable, chance will come to our aid and we shall emerge victorious.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)