I have finally cleared my background screening for DSS. I am really looking forward to the training because being a DS has been one of my long term goals for some time now. I have been in the Army for 9 years now and I can still remember how much I admired and looked up to my DS's. I read all of the discussions on the forum about Soldiers that eventually would like to go to DSS and train Soldiers for combat. The main thing that I realized what I had to do early on in my career was to be a role model to my Soldiers. I know that I will make an outstanding DS because I have always gave all of my Soldiers the leadership that they deserved.

My Soldiers hate for me to leave and it does get kind of emotional sometimes. When you get fresh privates to the unit that had bad leadership in some basic training and AIT units it shows. Breaking them down when they arrive and intergrating them into the team is awesome to watch after all of your hard work is done. To see how they behave when they finally get it is the most rewarding thing ever. I look forward to getting that same feeling on the trail. Its what I enjoy doing.

I think the hardest thing for me will be realizing that I cant handle business on the trail like I do in a line unit. We train Soldiers by any means that we see fit to make sure that they are ready to go down range. I have read alot of the regulations in Tradoc and see that things have to be followed by their standard at all times. In a line unit sometimes you have to give a Soldier some really tough love if you know what I mean. Sometimes it takes that for one to be apart of the team and not an individual.

I look forward to the honor of being a United States Drill Sergeant. I know that the hours will be long and family time will be limited. It come along with being one of the best. Far too often I hear negative comments about how it sucks to be a DS and how knowone wants the job. That is what separates NCO's from Sergeants. NCO's will jump on and attack any challenge that they can find. Sergeants are the ones always trying to find ways to get away from the challenge. Like all others on this forum, I too will be keeping eager minds posted on what my experience's are like at DSS.