Ah - Jack Webb's movie 'The DI'.
This should be a more widely known movie than it is.
The night my platoon (MCRD San Diego, 3rd Battalion, Lima Company, Platoon 3099) were picked up by our 'permanent' DI team the Senior rolled in a VCR and played this movie. Instant bafflement: drill instructors are supposed to be ... mean? And .. yelling a lot? What is the movie-night stuff?
No worries: they turned on the fun and games after the movie was over.
Staff Sergeant King was an unusual and effective Senior DI. Several items stands out in my memory
Included in his bag of tricks was a metronome (that ran all.night.long) to get us used to marching in step.
And he procured a friggin' bass drum to get us used to marching with the band. Dragooned two of the light-duty recruits [2] to pound on the thing while we drilled around the parade deck.
Boom. Boom. Boom - boom - boom.
"FASTER!" he yelled across the deck.
Boom.Boom. Boom-boom-boom.
Like that. For hours at a go.
Now - enough memory lane krep - time to march into the future. ( Boom.Boom. Boom-boom-boom. )
[1] With a recruit's permission, of course.
[2] It was of course pure coincidence that the guys on light-duty chits - and who could not march with us while we were being graded - were also the guys with two left feet who could not march in step.
This should be a more widely known movie than it is.
The night my platoon (MCRD San Diego, 3rd Battalion, Lima Company, Platoon 3099) were picked up by our 'permanent' DI team the Senior rolled in a VCR and played this movie. Instant bafflement: drill instructors are supposed to be ... mean? And .. yelling a lot? What is the movie-night stuff?
No worries: they turned on the fun and games after the movie was over.
Staff Sergeant King was an unusual and effective Senior DI. Several items stands out in my memory
- He drove a big-ass street bike and parked it next to the barracks.
- His MOS was 'band'. This was not something I ever thought of as an actual job in the Marines.
- When we were being 'good' he'd sit us down and read us selected letters from home. [1]
Included in his bag of tricks was a metronome (that ran all.night.long) to get us used to marching in step.
And he procured a friggin' bass drum to get us used to marching with the band. Dragooned two of the light-duty recruits [2] to pound on the thing while we drilled around the parade deck.
Boom. Boom. Boom - boom - boom.
"FASTER!" he yelled across the deck.
Boom.Boom. Boom-boom-boom.
Like that. For hours at a go.
Now - enough memory lane krep - time to march into the future. ( Boom.Boom. Boom-boom-boom. )
[1] With a recruit's permission, of course.
[2] It was of course pure coincidence that the guys on light-duty chits - and who could not march with us while we were being graded - were also the guys with two left feet who could not march in step.
