Army Drill Sergeant Handbook

[Hebe Zuelke]

Being a drill sergeant is one of the most demanding and difficult jobs in our Army, but it is also one of the most rewarding. A drill sergeant is a symbol of excellence in initial entry training, an expert in all warrior tasks and battle drills, lives the Army values, exemplifies the Warrior Ethos, and most importantly, is the epitome of the Army as a profession.

As a drill sergeant you are responsible for coaching, counseling and mentoring hundreds, if not thousands, of trainees as you transform them from a civilian volunteer to a combat-ready Soldier. You are all that your Soldiers know of the Army and they emulate everything you do. Just as you will always remember your drill sergeant, so will your Soldiers. It is up to you to provide a positive and rewarding experience as these young Soldiers begin their journey in the Army. What you do for them will impact them for the rest of their lives.

As leadership is an art, not a science, the academy must professionally train and develop drill sergeants of character that are capable of transforming civilian volunteers to Soldiers. The USADSA establishes standards, drives improvement and leads change to ensure drill sergeants produce Soldiers that are highly trained, disciplined, physically fit, mentally and spiritually tough, and morally grounded.

Active Duty Soldiers that would like to volunteer for Active Duty Drill Sergeant opportunities should contact their HRC Branch/Talent managers. The HRC Active Duty Drill Sergeant Team receives Drill Sergeant nominations from Branch Managers on a quarterly basis. Additional Active Duty Drill Sergeant information can be found at: . The HRC Active Duty Drill Sergeant Team can be contacted at: (502) 613-5870 or usarmy.knox.hrc.mbx.e...@army.mil.

Letter From the Editor: From time-to-time sensitive topics worthy of deep discussion come up. Because of their sensitivity, the only way to address them is in a cohesive and productive way, through open dialogue. The NCO Journal endeavors to start that dialogue with Command Sgt. Maj. Robert M. Theus' article "Drill Sergeant Misconduct: Analyzing and Tackling a Critical Recruitment Issue." The article delves deep into the subject. This piece is quite long so we decided to split it into two parts. In Part 1, the author explores drill sergeants, who they are, where they came from, how much responsibility truly lays on their shoulders, training issues, and the senior leadership environment. Part 2 takes a deeper dive into the program, looks at the root causes of drill sergeant misconduct and the author's proposed solutions to remedy the issues.

Drill sergeants are charged with training, educating, and caring for every new Soldier who joins the service. In 2019 alone, 83,000 recruits enlisted in the U.S. Army and conducted their initial training under the direction of drill sergeants (South, 2019, para 16).

To ensure new Soldiers receive the best possible training and have a positive first impression of the Army and its leadership, only the best noncommissioned officers (NCOs) serve as drill sergeants. Unfortunately, despite high selection standards, there are still cases of counterproductive leadership that lead to drill sergeant misconduct during Initial Entry Training (IET).

Drill sergeant misconduct has a negative impact on U.S. Army readiness and contradicts the people-first strategy. Misconduct cases also contribute to first-term Soldier attrition rates higher than the other U.S. military branches (Marrone, 2020, para. 3).

According to U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) (2019), drill sergeant misconduct "Undermines that trust of the American public by violating Army Values, disrupting military order and discipline, and destroying a positive training environment" (p. 159). So critical is the drill sergeant misconduct issue that it requires further analysis to understand the problem more thoroughly.

Drill sergeant candidates are selected from the best NCOs across the force. The selection process is critical because the position is identified and listed as of significant trust and authority, a list that also includes sensitive positions like recruiter and Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) (Department of the Army [DA], 2019a, p. 82).

Drill sergeants are also the first U.S. Army representatives with whom new Soldiers interact during their most critical period in the service (DA, 2019a, p. 81). Therefore, selected candidates must first meet 17 prerequisites, including a background check, a behavioral health evaluation and at least four years of time in service (DA, 2019a, p. 84).

The Drill Sergeant Academy trains and educates future drill sergeants. The nine-week-long course consists of three phases designed to mirror the three Basic Combat Training (BCT) phases (TRADOC, 2020, p. 12). To graduate, candidates must complete IET Soldier requirements. In addition, they must pass oral and written assessments designed to measure their knowledge of regulations governing the drill sergeant program, IET and drill sergeant duties and responsibilities. Finally, they are certified when they arrive at their IET unit and again one year later (TRADOC, 2020, p. 21).

The IET environment is characterized by its fast-paced operational tempo, long hours, and stressful tasks. Drill sergeants serve in an IET unit at least 24 and no more than 42 months (TRADOC, 2020, p.20). The typical IET organizational structure consists of 12 drill sergeants serving across four platoons in a training company. Each platoon has one senior drill sergeant who is personally responsible for two other drill sergeants, their daily activities and professional development. Additionally, a company commander and first sergeant hold overall responsibility for everyone and everything in the company. They serve as the senior leaders in the company and play an essential role in fostering an ethical climate.

A study of drill sergeant sleep deprivation and its hazards in BCT concluded that drill sergeants are among the most sleep-deprived populations in the Army (Elliman et al. 2020, para. 1). The study also found, on average, drill sergeants were at work for 14.72 hours a day, 6.72 days per week and got less than five hours of sleep a night (Elliman et al., 2020, para. 1).

Drill sergeants control every aspect of the trainees' day. From when to wake up and go to bed, how to make their bed, when they can eat and whether they can speak or not. It is typical for training days to have multiple events co-occurring, requiring drill sergeant participation, creating situations where the drill sergeant to trainee ratio is higher than the desired ratio of 1-to-20 (TRADOC, 2019, p. 124).

Drill sergeant misconduct takes on different forms across the Army's training enterprise. According to TRADOC (2019), "Trainee abuse is any improper or unlawful physical, verbal, or sexual act an Army trainer commits against a trainee" (p. 23). The Department of the Army elaborates that trainee abuse includes extreme exercise in the form of corrective action, extreme profanity, sexual misconduct, prohibited relationships, extortion and soliciting donations (TRADOC, 2019, p. 23-24).

Sexual misconduct is one of the most severe and detrimental forms of drill sergeant misconduct. It is also one of the most reported forms of trainee abuse in the Army. Department of Defense (DoD) reports from Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 through FY 2020 detail sexual misconduct in the military and provide the exact number of cases reported involving drill sergeants. In FY 2017, seven cases of sexual misconduct involving drill sergeants were reported (DoD Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office [DoD SAPR], 2017). Then in FY 2018, 12 cases were reported, three of which were severe (DoD SAPR, 2018). FY 2019 saw 10 cases, six of which were penetrating offenses, including one rape (DoD SAPR, 2019). In FY 2020, the number of sexual misconduct cases jumped back up to 12, with five classified as sexual assaults (DoD SAPR, 2020).

Additionally, the seriousness of these internal reports detailing serious allegations and confirmed sexual misconduct cases in the IET environment was covered intensively by the national news media. This significantly affected public perception by putting human faces on the cases. For example, The Washington Post covered allegations against a drill sergeant accused of sexually assaulting female trainees (Lamothe, 2014, para. 1).

Drill sergeants endure the job's pressures and requirements every day, which can lead to dereliction of duty and poor ethical judgment. In extreme cases, that dereliction can lead to severe injury or even death.

Once case occurred at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in 2017. A drill sergeant fell asleep at the wheel of a pickup truck while towing a trailer and ran over trainees conducting a night foot march (Elliman et al., 2020, para. 4). Two trainees died and half a dozen others suffered injuries (Elliman et al., 2020, para. 4).

The accident demonstrates the severe consequences of ill-prepared drill sergeants and leadership. At his sentencing hearing, the drill sergeant said he had only four hours of sleep in the 24 hours leading up to the accident. Another drill sergeant testified the drill sergeant responsible for the accident had no choice but to drive the truck (Kulmala, 2019, para. 13-15).

The leadership and ethical failures leading to misconduct are not limited to drill sergeants alone. Pseudo-transformational leadership, destructive leadership, and ethical fading result from ineffective ethical leadership. These leadership types will be discussed in part two of this article.

Weak and ineffective senior leadership can play a significant role in fostering a climate which enables drill sergeants' unethical decision-making, Fundamental flaws in the selection and training process intensify the problem.

The current drill sergeant selection process relies on a personnel file review of NCOs to judge their fitness for the role and does not include face-to-face interviews, which can lead to improper person-environment (PE) fit. The PE fit theory, which will be discussed in part two of this article, refers to the compatibility or incompatibility that exists between people and their environment. If the right conditions exist, they create a high-performance environment and improved organizational loyalty. Research showed that when there is a good PE fit, individuals perform better, have a higher commitment level, and higher job satisfaction than those who do not (Scandura, 2019, p. 108).

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