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Drill Instructor do have a heart and passion

By: chuck seward

I started boot camp MCRD SD Feb 5th 1960. My Di’s were Sgt Hardy and Sgt Harr, very tough and rough Marines. I was the youngest and the smallest in my plt. 216. Needless to say I got a lot of attention and none of it good. They used to grab me by my stacking swivel (my adams apple) and squeeze and ask me the eleven general orders and other things. Also they would stand in front of us when at attention and hit us in the stomach hard. Before we went to Camp Mathews we did a px call, we all had to buy chewing tobacco and we found out later why. They said that the smoking lamp would not be lit at Mathews, that was fine with me because I didn’t smoke anyway. So why the chewing tobacco?

They marched us down in back of the tent area one evening and made us all fill our mouth with as much tobacco as we could hold and chew and looked in our mouth with a flashlight to make sure we had enough. All you heard all night was one very sick Plt. Still at Mathews one day while sitting on our buckets cleaning our M-1’s the Drill Instructor called pvt Nichols to the duty tent with bucket of warm water, canteen cup, and his tobacco in which he was instructed to fill his mouth with tobacco and drink it down with the warm water. I have never seen anyone so sick in my life. Still at Mathews on the rifle range pre qual day, I was not doing well when I felt my DI standing over me and said ” maggot one more maggies drawers and your azz is mine”. Target went down, target came up, maggies drawers, he said maggot and I looked up as he hit me in the mouth and split it wide open. Next day on qual day I made one point from expert. Anyway getting to what this post is all about, before I went to boot camp my girlfriend was in the family way, we were young, dumb, and stupid and my DI’s knew about this and how troubled I was over this. One day he called me over to where he was and said “as man to man not DI to recruit” would I like to call my girlfriend. Of coarse I did not know what to say or what was coming but he took me to the phone center at Mathews and let me call and even asked me for a dime to call his girlfriend. From that time on I was left alone and never picked on again. Our Plt. was 2nd highest shooters of F Company and we graduated series honor man and series honor Plt and of all the complaining I’ve done I would not have changed a thing. It was an honor to be trained by two great Marines, they made a man out of someone who wasn’t much of a man when I went in. Lance cpl Chuck Seward 1960 to 1968 Semper FI

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Comments

Raymond Edwards - June 13, 2020

MGySgt Irvin, Thank you for your service to our country and for successfully serving two tours as a Drill Instructor. I too served two tours at PISC 70-73 and 79-81, both tours in 1st Bn. If I could go back in today I would like to go as a Recruit or a Drill Instructor.LOL Raymond Edwards, Sgt Maj USMC Ret

John Brosnahan - June 13, 2020

We were in the same platoon John Brosnahan. What a small world!

Ralph R. Krummel, Jr. - June 13, 2020

To me it made no difference what is said about what the DI’s did or din’t do, they made us men and most importantly they made us Marines forever. No one forgets the important ones in life’s building of men and at the top of the list are the DI’s at thr MCRD’s.. I did the swamp, Parris Island, and I’d do it again.. R.R.Krummel,Jr, SGT (Retired), MOPH VN

Louis P. IRVIN, Jr., MGySgt (Ret) ’62-’85 - June 13, 2020

Enlisted in June of 1962, age 20, Plt. 144, MCRD, San Diego. Promoted to Sgt while at Marine Barracks, Naples, Italy 1966. Was there ’64-’66, then 9th CommBn, 29 Palms (culture shock!) volunteered for Drill Instructor duty at San Diego. Graduated DI Scol 10 Nov 1967. Served in “E” Company, finishing tour as Water Survival Inst. Was now a SSgt Radio Chief with orders to RVN. Got to Oki waiting for a hope down south. Division Commander Chief had my orders changed because the 3rdDiv just out of RVN needed Radio Chiefs. I was assigned to the 9th Marines at Schwab. Requested orders back to the Drill Field, got them, so back to the Depot at SD. Had 2 honor platoons in “F” Co. Volunteered to be an instructor at Drill Instructor School as Drill Master. Left there and went to work for my good friend, MGySgt (Ret) Bobby Biers at PTU. He was instrumental in my being meritoriously promoted to Gunny. Was NCOIC of Water Survival Section. So all of this being said, my two tours as DI were the most satisfying duty of my 24 year career. Much of the above stuff went on, but very few DI’s I knew did the extreme stuff. There was a difference between “thumping” and “maltreatment”. Thumping was done for a purpose.in any event being a DI was and is the most demanding, satisfying job a Marine could have. There are Marines who may disssagree, but if you haven’t had a successful tour on the field…..!

Tom Coughlin 63-67 - June 13, 2020

If your DI did their job right,then they helped shape who you became.If you washed out in life then they did not do enough.I wish I could tell mine THANK YOU.Semper Fi

Ramon reyes - June 13, 2020

Went in 68 weighing 100 pounds and 26 waist,I could say my senior DI was funny perez,SSgt good Sgt nunnery and of course Sgt JESTER all the hard training paid off,I came home on leave weighing 130 pounds and with a waist size of 32″ and I don’t regret it at all . I got my ass whooped by them probably for a reason, you think.

PETER Perez-Donnelly - June 13, 2020

*Seward only made Lance Corporal in 8 years in the Marine Corps?? I was in 4 years and made Sergeant in 3 of those 4 years and “I also came out a Sergeant(E-5) ! ” *

David Purcell - June 13, 2020

I went through boot camp in 1971. The recruits that were caught after lights-out smoking in the head were made to place a bucket over their head and smoke an entire pack of cigarettes and then were dealt with even more by the drill instructors.

David Ravanesi - June 13, 2020

Went through boot camp august 58, shock of my life, 5’6 135 lbs, after about two days I said to myself what the hell did I do? Got out 3 months later 155 lbs thought I could run through walls. One day on the parade field, our Senior DI GySgt Stuart Floyd, says to me is that rifle at the proper degree? (order arms) I looked down said yes sir, next thing I know I m on the ground, when I looked down he hit me in the stomach and whacked me on the jaw, of course I dropped the M-1 , he says that rifle better not have a chip on it. I was in shock, 17 yrs old no one ever hit me like that. You guys will understand this, I would never change that moment, today I feel like that but at the time I said whoa! Parris Island made a man out of me. The best damn thing I ever did was being a Marine. Semper Fi David Ravanesi Plt 182 B Co 1st Btln 58-62. Other DI s Ssgt Lavin, Sgt Kilman.

D. H. Swan - June 13, 2020

Our senior DI in August 58 was a Staff Sgt. named Hardy, a Korean vet. Wonder if he was the same Hardy you had.

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