50th anniversary of Drill Sergeant School gets commandant to look back

By Lisa FerdinandoJune 30, 2015

Command Sgt. Maj. Lamont Christian
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Drill Sergeant School poster
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50th anniversary of Drill Sergeant School
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50th anniversary of Drill Sergeant School
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50th anniversary of Drill Sergeant School
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WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 11, 2014) -- Looking back, Command Sgt. Maj. Lamont Christian pretty much knew from day one in the Army that he wanted to be a drill sergeant.

His life has come full circle from a recruit at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in 1984, to head of the U.S. Army Drill Sergeant School there.

Now, he is overseeing a busy week, as the school marks its 50th anniversary and holds its annual competitions for drill sergeant of the year and Advanced Individual Training platoon sergeant of the year.

The competitors are graded on tactical events, academic and oral board events, physical readiness training, and other events to decide the best of the best, Christian said.

It is a great responsibility being a drill sergeant, as they are charged with turning civilians into Soldiers and molding the future of the Army, he said.

Christian said he is still in "awe" being around the non-commissioned officers who pass through the school.

"I've been doing this job since May, I was told about it a year ago, and my heart still beats fast some days when I do something as simple as run with the formation," he said.

The leaders of tomorrow's Army stand among the ranks of the recruits at basic training, he said. While a drill sergeant may not always remember each of the recruits over the years, a Soldier will always have memories of his or her drill sergeant.

"That Soldier, the day that they become a battalion commander, they will remember you; that Soldier, the day that they become a command sergeant major, they will remember you," he said.

Christian knew in basic training that his calling was to be a drill sergeant.

"My heart just pounded with the desire to say 'this is what I want to be one day,'" he said, before emphasizing: "No, it's not even what I 'WANT to be,' -- 'I HAVE to be this one day.'"

Christian, whose father was a paratrooper at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, said he had "no desire whatsoever" growing up to join the military.

"I joined the reserves at first with the desire just to do a couple of years and that was it, just give myself an opportunity to get stable and financially figure out the rest of my way through college," he said.

Then a "light went off."

He credits his drill sergeant with molding him into the non-commissioned officer he is today.

In basic training graduation, the drill sergeant voted him "most likely to become a drill sergeant" and presented Christian with a drill sergeant badge.

"On the day that I graduated from Drill Sergeant School, that's the drill sergeant badge I wore on my uniform," he said.

ARMY LEADER

Consistency, professionalism and motivation are just a few of the traits of a good drill sergeant, Christian said.

He's very proud of what he sees in today's drill sergeants and drill sergeant leaders.

"Having served as a drill sergeant leader myself, it took me a while to really get a full understanding of what my role and function as a drill sergeant leader was to be," he said.

He realized he had to provide the future drill sergeants with tools and knowledge that would make their job "not necessarily easier but less stressful and more efficient to allow them the ability to transform civilians into Soldiers," he said.

"There's a level of efficiency that you need to be able to do that when you're talking about 55 Soldiers who were civilians two weeks prior to that," Christian said.

Never pass an opportunity to share knowledge with the Soldiers, as you never know how your words or actions will live on, he said.

Case in point: his cadence "Hard Work" is featured on iTunes and in a Gatorade commercial. It was a total surprise to him, he said.

He has watched videos where children are "jumping around and clapping and just falling all over the living room floor" when the cadence comes on, he said.

"They just hear the cadence in the background and they love it. You don't know what impact you will have on the future as a drill sergeant on a daily basis."

DRILL SERGEANT LEADER

Having to wake up at 0300 to 0330 and be on point all day, a drill sergeant must be a highly motivated individual who can lead and who knows the Army inside and out, said Sgt. 1st Class Matthew Torres, a drill sergeant leader.

A drill sergeant must be patient and able to deal with a wide range of backgrounds, Torres said.

"You have some Soldiers who have their PhDs, you have some Soldiers who have their GEDs; you have some Soldiers who were pampered for their entire life, and you have other Soldiers who have really been the head of the house ever since they were probably 12 or 13," he said.

"Everybody is on a different learning curve," he said.

It's a demanding job; drill sergeants must go to work no matter how they feel.

"It's very long hours," he said.

"I look for motivation, someone who is going to be motivated, someone who's going to want to wake up and get the job done, whether they're sick or feeling healthy, or they're having a good day or a bad day because you have 50-60 Soldiers who are relying on you."

As a recruit at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Torres never thought he would become a drill sergeant.

He thought his drill sergeants were "animals" and were "carved out of stone," he said. "I didn't think anyone raised them; I thought they just came out already as drill sergeants."

To him, it seemed liked they didn't eat or sleep -- they just knew how to run, shoot, and teach; "they knew how to yell at us, they knew how to get us motivated," he said.

But he acknowledged that everything they did was for a reason, and said he keeps in touch with all of them and tells them 'thank you' for everything they did in molding him.

"I remember them actually teaching us and actually showing us how to do tasks. My drill sergeants didn't just yell just to yell, they were wanting to teach us and that is what really helped," Torres said.

(For more ARNEWS stories, visit www.army.mil/ARNEWS, or Facebook at www.facebook.com/ArmyNewsService, or Twitter @ArmyNewsService)

Related Links:

U.S. Army Drill Sergeant

Army.mil: Inside the Army News

VIDEOS: Drill Sergeants on YouTube