E-5s fitting the drill bill
Tours as squad leaders prepare younger soldiers to shape newbies
By Kelly Kennedy
Times staff writer
FORT JACKSON, S.C. — A call for drill sergeant school a few months ago surprised Sgt. Steven Roode. He thought the duty outranked him.
“I thought [drill sergeants] had to be all E-6s and E-7s,” he said. “But I found out it’s more about being a drill sergeant, not about what rank you are.”
“I would have requested it,” said Sgt. Jeremiah Reynolds, who said he didn’t know E-5s could be drill sergeants. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I came in. I’ve learned how to take better care of soldiers.”
Until February 2005, drill sergeants did have to make the rank of E-6 before they could guide new soldiers through their first months in the military. But the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan forced Army officials to rethink the regulation. With so many staff sergeants deploying overseas or increasingly committed to three-year assignments in combat-ready units, the Army was running out of trainers. So the service decided to tap E-5s since combat experience might be maturing E-5s more quickly into strong leaders.
“The Army ages you quickly,” Roode said, explaining that he had spent 14 months in Iraq.
In 1997, the Army stopped using E-5 drill sergeants after the sexual assault scandal at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. Four drill sergeants faced charges ranging from fraternization to rape of trainees. One staff sergeant was convicted on 18 rape counts and 25 lesser charges. Though none of the charged drill sergeants were E-5s, Army leadership feared younger leaders might be easily influenced by the habits of bad drill sergeants.
But in 2003, the Army command decided to test E-5s to see if they:
• Were mature enough to be drill sergeants.
• Were capable of handling the stress of the job.
• Compared favorably with the higher ranks academically.
• Could work well with the rest of the drill sergeant leadership.
Fifty E-5s entered Drill Sergeant School in a pilot program in October 2003 at Fort Benning, Ga., Fort Jackson, S.C., and Fort Gordon, Ga. The Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences set up a study to see how they fared.
“We had no negative comments about it,” said Col. Thomas Hayden, deputy commanding officer at Fort Jackson. “They’re actually doing great. One was drill sergeant of the cycle last cycle.”
According to the study, E-5 and E-6 drill sergeants performed at about the same level.
“It became, in every aspect, very difficult to distinguish the study’s [E-5] drill sergeants from the remainder of the drill sergeants,” the study states. In fact, anecdotal reports from commanders and senior noncommissioned officers suggested that E-5s were “easier to deal with” than staff sergeants because they were “eager” and “self-effacing.”
“Being that they’re so young, they’re more receptive to what we’re giving them,” said drill sergeant instructor Melinda Pressley, a staff sergeant at Fort Jackson’s Drill Sergeant School. “They want to learn. They want to pass that information on. That’s what will make them good drill sergeants.”
In February 2005, Gen. Peter Schoomaker, Army chief of staff, approved reinstating the E-5 drill sergeant program because sergeants did so well during the pilot. As of March, 45 E-5 drill sergeants were working at Fort Jackson.
“We have 10 to 12 E-5s in each class and they’re doing good,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Scottie Thomas, commandant of Fort Jackson’s Drill Sergeant School. “Some NCOs want to be drill sergeants because of how they were treated by their drill sergeant: They want to be just like their drill sergeant. That has never changed.”
In the study, the E-5 drill sergeants ranged in age from 22 to 38, with an average of 27.
“At first, it was a little awkward training people who are older than you,” said Roode, who is 25. “I still learn myself every day, but this reinforces what I’ve already learned.”
The program is designed so that each E-5 is matched with an E-6 or E-7, Hayden said, and so that only one E-5 drill sergeant serves in any company.
“There’s a lot of peer leadership,” Roode said, “but you get messed with a little because you’re an E-5.”
Like any drill sergeants, the E-5s have to prove themselves before they are accepted into Drill Sergeant School: They can’t have had any disciplinary action for the previous three years. They can’t have financial problems. They can’t have any charges of sexual harassment or fraternization. And they can’t have had any drug or driving-under-the-influence offenses for the previous five years. After that, they go through a background check.
Of those who entered Drill Sergeant School as part of the pilot, 86 percent graduated — the same percentage as the staff sergeants and sergeants first class. Academically, all three ranks averaged between 86 and 88 percent on test scores.
After making it through Drill Sergeant School, they earn an extra $375 a month, as well as long hours, homesick privates, too little time for training, and the pride of graduation day.
“The biggest fear was maturity,” Hayden said. “There wasn’t that big of an age difference between the privates and the E-5s, and if you’re not mature, there’s a tendency to abuse it.”
But the report “found no systematic evidence that should preclude sergeants from returning to drill-sergeant status.”
Of the E-5s who entered the pilot program, 60 percent had combat experience. A key recent change to basic training has been the squad concept new soldiers will encounter in Iraq. Now, drill sergeants serve as “squad leaders” who lead their teams through obstacles. In the past, drill sergeants coming from noninfantry positions have not had as much experience as squad leaders.
“The E-5s are already holding squad-leader positions overseas,” Pressley said. “They may not have the years as far as age, but that’s what we’re training drill sergeants to do here: Be squad leaders.”
The instructors said drill-sergeant experience tends to grow those sergeants into better leaders.
“They don’t stay E-5 for very long,” Hayden said.