seanmc1114 Posted January 17, 2019 Share #1 Posted January 17, 2019 Youtube is full of all sorts of interesting official Department of the Army videos. I ran across the following from 1971 showing the training of students at the Third Army Drill Sergeant School at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. What I find interesting is that in the scene of the graduation ceremony showing the students receiving their diplomas and Smokey The Bear hats, most of the graduates are Privates First Class. I have heard of Drill Corporals, but never Drill PFC's. Would these men have automatically been promoted to sergeant upon being assigned to a drill instructor slot? If not, would they still be entitled to wear the Drill Sergeant Identification Badge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanmc1114 Posted January 17, 2019 Author Share #2 Posted January 17, 2019 PFC graduate receiving campaign hat and diploma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seanmc1114 Posted January 17, 2019 Author Share #3 Posted January 17, 2019 PFC graduates showing their campaign hats and diplomas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VolunteerArmoury Posted January 30, 2019 Share #4 Posted January 30, 2019 Thats interesting. I was in a Drill Sergeant slot in the late late 90s as an E-4. This was during my time in the Army Reserves. Reservists could be an E-4 Specialist or Corporal but I think Regular Army required a Drill to be E-6 to attend DSS which that changed to E-5 at some point then maybe back. At that time, if we finished DS School prior to making E-5 then we were to wear a black or dark blue helmet liner & were called turtles or those who were Corporals were turtling as Drill Corporals. I transferred to another DS unit prior to going to school & they did the same. The only time at that point that someone lower than E-5 would wear a round brown was for color guards. When berets came about wearing the liners in at least my Battalion ceased (& I took them home) but the term of turtles continued with the DSS qualified E4s wearing berets. So had I completed DS School as an E-4 I wouldve added the X-ray skill identifier so wouldve been an 11C10X. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted January 17, 2020 Share #5 Posted January 17, 2020 Could the Pfc's be Reservists???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan H. Posted January 17, 2020 Share #6 Posted January 17, 2020 I seem to recall that at one time, the army would take certain candidates and send them to the Drill Sergeant Academy. Upon graduation, they would be promoted to corporal. I would assume that the photos show PFCs graduating and that upon graduation, they would advance to corporal. I know that there were a fair number of drill corporals in the army in the 60's and they were always paired with a far more senior drill instructor. The corporals would typically live in the barracks while the more senior DIs would go home at night. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted January 17, 2020 Share #7 Posted January 17, 2020 1971 was during the Vietnam War. Due to man power constraints, promotions were accelerated leading to the derisive term for "shake and bake NCO's" at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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