I will be attending DSS in a few months. I will be doing my DS Duty at Eglin AFB at the EOD school. I have been reading alot of info that the AIT Drill Sergeants have went away and been replaced by Platoon Sergeants. The problem with this is I reenlisted for DS duty. Does anyone know if the DS's at Eglin been replaced yet? It is hard to find information for the duty there because it is somewhat of a classified school. Can anyone help me out so I can know whether to start looking at a breach of contract?

There are no more DS slots at Eglin AFB. I attended NAVSCOLEOD last year (reclass) while they were being phased out. You might need to check some things with your career counselor b/c it isn't really a breach of contract unless you have Drill Sergeant and Eglin AFB locked into your contract.

There are still drill sergeant slots in BCT - so you can still go to Ft. Jackson, Benning, Sill, etc. and be a DS.

If you go to Eglin you will be a PLT SGT. So if you have DS and station of choice (Eglin) in your re-up contract, then your contract is probably a dead letter.

In fairness, the PLT SGTs at AIT are the same thing that the DS's were, doing essentially the same thing that they did before, just without the funny hats.

I don't know if you are 89D or not, but Army training at Eglin changed a lot while I was there - from being pretty much "on-your-own" grownup-style to being very regimented. Given the academic requirements of the school, I for one do not think that this is a very good idea. NAVSCOLEOD is a stress pit and over half of the students enrolling in CORE-I don't make it all the way through. Additionally - they have just made the school longer, adding Nukes and WMDs to the required courselist - so now to obtain MOS 89D from day one at Redstone Arsenal all the way to graduation from Eglin and pinning on ones crab now takes a little over one year. That's a long time for anyone to have to put up with the AIT mickey-mouse.

Because of the length of the school - Eglin AFB phase II is considered a PCS move (Redstone is TDY en route for reclass) and AIT soldiers will be living in post housing and off-post if they are eligible. The barracks are garbage and are being renovated. Last year an AIT kid died of an overdose of prescription drugs and everyone had to put up with the crackdown that came afterwards - IET and MOS-T alike.

If you do end up as cadre at Eglin - and if you aren't 89D - I recommend talking with some of the instructors at the schoolhouse about what the place used to be like, and how they think it could be better run today. With respect to "mainside" Eglin (the schoolhouse is 6 miles east of the main post at the ranges) - I was specifically warned by an EOD badge-wearer not to trust any of the "douchebags" mainside when I arrived. Sadly, he was right to warn me, by and large. There are some poor-quality NCO's as cadre mainside. The DS's when I was there were highly motivated but I think did not understand what they were dealing with in EOD students. Some of the PLT SGT's and administrative cadre - well, they had the easiest non-deployable job by the beach in the whole US Army - and some of them took advantage.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info Shammmy. I kind of figured that I was being left in the dark with this assignment. I do have Drill Sergeant in my contract because I reenlisted for the Drill Sergeant option program. I think that this will be a breach of contract with them sending me there.

I really dont think that is the right place for me to be anyway. I am a 63H and I am used to being in line units. I am not familiar with how EOD is ran. I am used to alot of discipline and I kind of get the feeling that Soldiers there are out of control.

If I had no choice but to do the Platoon Sergeant thing I would do it. I have been a Platoon Sergeant for two years now in a line unit. I just want to make sure that I get my fair shake. I wanted to become a Drill Sergeant to help the Army prepare young Soldiers for combat. I wanted to do something different and make a difference as well.

I feel bad that you had some some poor leadership while you were there at eglin. All NCO's are not like that. Some of us care about Soldiers and take pride in what we do. I hope that your unit now is a better representation of what NCO's are. Good luck in the future and again thanks for the info.

quote:

Originally posted by platoondaddy30:
I think that this will be a breach of contract with them sending me there.

Not at all. If you reenlisted for the Drill Sergeant Duty option and you go through school and you're being utilized by the Drill Sergeant Branch in a valid position, this is not a "breach of contract".

The Drill Sergeant ASI is guaranteed, not the station of choice.

I understand that this may not be a breach of contract. All of these changes happened too fast. Why was none of this information put out so Soldiers would know what was going on in the Army? I dont even remember this being in the Army Times. The Platoon Sergeant position might be a Drill Sergeant slot but it is not a DS position. I am not interested in just the ASI, I want everything that it entails.

I dont understand why the Army is sending me to DSS if I am going to be doing the same job that I am doing right now. I read that the Platoon Sergeant course is two weeks. The DSS course is two months. It doesnt make any sense. I am going to contact my branch to get a better understanding of what is going on.

Moderator have you had this issue with Soldiers reenlisting for the DS program and getting stuck with the Platoon Segeant duty?

quote:

he Platoon Sergeant position might be a Drill Sergeant slot but it is not a DS position. I am not interested in just the ASI, I want everything that it entails.

The AIT Platoon SGT is NOT a DS slot, it doesn't require the NCO to be DS qualified to hold it nor does it pay the SDP, even if the NCO is DS qualified.

Thanks SSGGunbunny. I just got an e-mail back from the DS Assignment Manager and he informed me that Eglin does still have Drill Sergeants and not PSG'S. I was glad to hear that. I dont know why everyone thinks that all of the AITS are going to the PSG'S? Eglin is an EOD school and as you may know, EOD has a complete different unit structure than that of the rest of the Army. He also informed me that if anything should change before I graduate DSS, He will change my assignment.

Good deal. I wasn't sure about that MOS having DS slots, some still do...mostly OSUT like Infantry and Artillery.

IMHO, switching from DS's to PSGs was a mistake, they don't do the same job...or let's put it this way, they don't do the job the same way. Which, from what I have noticed at Jackson, leads to a lower level of discipline in the AIT students.

I agree with you 100%. I was talking to my SGM about this same subject the other day. He too was a prior AIT DS and he didnt even know any of this was happening. He also informed me that type of duty was not for me. He felt I needed to be somewhere pushing and training Soldiers to the highest standards. This whole AIT PSG concept seems that the Army want are NCO's to be the Soldiers buddy. I know some PSG's that are in line units such as myself that are more harder on Soldiers than DS's. We dont have to follow the strict rules that are in place that restricts you from being a leader.

We train Soldiers for combat and rules like that seem more of a disrtaction that anything. Never the less I know that I will have to follow those rules while I am on the trail.