Army Drill Sergeants Work On Being More Effective Leaders by U.S. Army Maj. Michelle Lunato 98th Training Division (IET) Public Affairs Officer
September 3, 2019
The U.S. Army drill sergeant hat symbolizes excellence, making
the wearer of the iconic Brown Round an image to emulate. However,
drill sergeants don’t just leave the Drill Sergeant Academy infused
with a career’s worth of knowledge. Like every other Soldier in the
Army, they must continually train to stay proficient.
So,
with that goal in mind, U.S. Army Reserve drill sergeants and
support staff with 2nd Battalion, 389th Regiment (Basic Combat
Training), 3rd Brigade, 98th Training Division (Initial Entry
Training), gathered together for their annual field training
exercise on May 17-19, 2019.
However, this was not a standard
field training exercise, said Lt. Col. Nathaniel Stobert, the 2nd
Battalion Commander. “When we came up with the vision for this, we
really wanted to break the mold of going to a field training
exercise and doing stand-alone situational training lanes, and then
waiting until the next iteration of training. This one was really
focused on a battalion mission order, with each company having a
piece of that mission, and all that going towards the common
battalion mission.”
To accomplish a battalion-level mission with more than 100 U.S.
Army Reserve Soldiers from six companies stationed across two
states, Stobert knew he needed a dynamic location that could offer
the Soldiers combined, valuable and realistic training. Pulling from
his civilian experiences as a New York State Special Operations
Response Team member, Stobert decided to hold his battalion’s field
training exercise at the New York State Preparedness Training Center
in Oriskany, New York.
May 18, 2019 - U.S. Army Reserve drill sergeants from 2nd
Battalion, 389th Regiment (Basic Combat Training), 3rd
Brigade, 98th Training Division (Initial Entry Training),
detain "threats" during a simulated attack that was part of
the battalion field training exercise at the New York State
Preparedness Center in Oriskany, New York. (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Michelle Lunato)
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The state-of-the-art facility offered the U.S. Army Reserve drill
sergeants and support staff not only enough space to tactically
train outside, but it offered them an unparalleled opportunity to
train in a simulated city that was complete with buildings,
furniture and décor.
The elements of furniture and décor in
the buildings may seem trivial at first, but they add a sense of
vital realism to the training, said Staff Sgt. Andrew J. Miller, a
U.S. Army Reserve drill sergeant with Bravo Company out of Webster,
New York. “When it comes down to clearing a room, not every room is
cookie cutter. It’s not just a door in the center, with five foot on
each side. It’s not 10 feet on each side, with nothing in the
middle. There could be beds in there. There could be multiple doors.
There could be a hallway. There could be windows. We want to make
sure we cover everything,” explained the drill sergeant. “So coming
in here and having that experience, of coming into this room
thinking it was just square, and now there is a hallway and we have
to determine what we are going to do from there. So we adapt. We
overcome. And then, we learn from it so we can later pass that on to
our Initial Entry Training Soldiers.”
The lifelike
environment just added to the value of the training that is critical
for all Soldiers to readily know, said Sgt. 1st Class Brian Shields,
a U.S. Army Reserve drill sergeant with Alpha Company out of
Mattydale, New York. “The training is awesome. It supports the
battalion and brigade Mission Essential Task List and reinforces our
Skill Level One tasks. It refreshes every Soldier, at all levels on
how to do those skill level tasks, and these are the tasks that are
going to keep you alive in combat.”
The fact of being able to really immerse into the scenario just
made the training more effective, said Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth
Anthony Watson II, a U.S. Army Reserve drill sergeant with Foxtrot
Company out of Webster, New York. “We have the drawings and sand
tables that we can make to give us an idea on how we want to perform
a task, but when we actually get to the location and fulfill the
mission, so to speak, the sense of realism comes into play. Then we
can play off of each other and coordinate, or improvise as
necessary.”
The challenge of communicating on the move and
feeling the impact of the simulation rounds, added a level of
invaluable reality to the training, said Miller. “It adds a little
bit of a realism to it, where you can actually feel yourself getting
hit and feel a little bit of pain with it.” That pain, made the
Soldiers get down further when taking cover, identify the risks of
window quicker and realize the importance of avoiding fatal funnels,
explained the drill sergeant with prior deployments as a combat
engineer.
Enhancing the drill sergeants’ and support staff’s
basic Soldier survival skills was the main goal, but the multiple
elements of the field training exercises allowed for additional
training benefits, said the U.S. Army Reserve battalion commander.
“All the collective and individual tasks that they are being
evaluated on are all things that every Soldier needs to be able to
do to survive when, and if, they deploy to a combat environment. So
even though this doesn’t have to do with our drill sergeant mission
per say. It has everything to do with being a Soldier. And in
addition, the most valuable part of this is that it gave our young
leaders an opportunity to lead under stress and uncomfortable
situations, in environments they were not used to, and work together
with other young leaders in a way that they don’t normally get a
chance to during battle assembly weekends.”
Communicating
outside the company level certainly had its challenges since it is
not an everyday occurrence for the six Reserve companies spread
across two states. However, with those challenges came benefits,
said Watson. “It gave the companies a chance to work collectively as
individual units, but brought us into an environment where we had to
communicate with multiple companies with multiple missions at the
same time.”
May 18, 2019 - U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 389th Regiment (Basic Combat Training), 3rd Brigade, 98th Training Division (Initial Entry Training), quickly discuss their route options while searching for a "threat" during a battalion field training exercise at the New York State Preparedness Center in Oriskany, New York. (U.S. Army photo by Maj. Michelle Lunato)
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Of course there were issues—little things to tweak, but that
comes with all training events, said Sgt. 1st Class Pamela Renee
Shriver, a U.S. Army Reserve drill sergeant with Delta Company out
of Horseheads, New York. “It was a big benefit to work with the
whole battalion, being able to communicate and work with each other,
because we just don’t see each other every weekend.”
The
large-scale communication and coordination may have caused some
stress but it was just what Stobert wanted for his Soldiers.
“Perfection was never the goal, but leadership, challenge and
physical effort were the goals, and we accomplished it,” said the
U.S. Army Reserve battalion commander.
Collaborating with
various Soldiers from across the battalion who all had different
experiences and job skills was an eye-opening experience, said Sgt.
Chad Griffith, a U.S. Army Reserve drill sergeant candidate with
Foxtrot Company who was on his first weekend training with the
battalion. “The first thing that stuck out to me was the people…it’s
definitely a melting pot. We drew on a lot of previous experiences
since everyone comes from different backgrounds, different MOSs
[military occupational specialties]. So everybody brings something
different to the table that we can all draw from each other. It’s
unlike anything I’ve ever encountered anywhere else I’ve been in the
Army.”
By the end of the weekend and a number of iterations
of training, the drill sergeants said they felt more confident about
not only their personal Soldier skills, but also their ability to
instruct future trainees with more confidence.
“As a drill
sergeant this [training] is really important because it allows us to
practice how we would give a course, how we would give training to
standard, Army standard,” said Staff Sgt. Stephanie Bodough, a U.S.
Army Reserve drill sergeant with Charlie Company out of Boston,
Massachusetts. “It put us in the position of how we felt when we
were taught, so that when we are working with trainees, we have a
better perspective on how to give them instruction so they all
understand.”
The unique field training exercise led to
developing the drill sergeants as Soldiers first, which naturally
led to making them more confident and knowledgeable leaders, and
even the newest Soldier in the battalion recognized the
comprehensive value in the weekend.
“It was a lot more than I
was expecting,” said Griffith. “I was expecting to come out and
basically get a hands-on approach to instructing from a drill
sergeant’s perspective, but it was a lot more than that. I certainly
did that, but we also incorporated a lot of tactical training and
hands-on field training as well. So again, the entire Soldier
concept wrapped up into one weekend was definitely what happened
here.”
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