SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

Hey! My dad is no longer with us, so unfortunately, I can’t ask him this question. I was never that interested in his military service, until of course, he had passed away.

I know he was an E7 sergeant in the army. He told one story about a private who pointed a jammed gun at him when he was teaching the group how to fire guns or something. Would that have made him a drill instructor? I do remember him getting us kids to march and he would kind of like turn around and click his heels together and then say left left left right left and he would do that thing with his hand and say let’s move out and kind of do some kind of hand movement. This was when we were supposed to leave the place we were at.

i’m not really sure where I can find information about what his job was in the service. Does that sound like a drill instructor though?

You maybe to geta copy of his records from the National Archive.

A lot of the time to get selected for Sergeant First Class (E7 is the pay grade) you need to either have gone recruiting or gone Drill Sergeant ( Drill Instructors are chairforce, crayon eater or squid). It is likely that he was, but marching soldiers and instructing them in basic rifle marksmanship is something even an Sergeant (E5) should know. I'd highly advise requesting his records from the National Archive if your interested in his service.

I would really want to know if that private survived, or if he’s still running laps at some base-camp…

Get his records, but simply based on the utter beginners-mistake of that private I’m guestimating your dad was receiving them early. I would think instructor.
Thank you for his service. From the tone of your post you sound proud of him and I think you should be.

A US government website states, 'You can request service records for yourself or for your next of kin (spouse, parent, child, or sibling).' I'm not certain how detailed the default records will be, but that can give you a good start.

"You maybe to geta copy of his records from the National Archive."

I was going to type this but Digital Spyder already did.

It is nice to have good memories of family to share. There might also be discharge or
other papers in some family stuff as well.

You can request a copy of his records through the VA with the SF 180. I'd post the link on the VA website, but this forum doesn't allow hyperlinks.

My dad retired as CWO3 from the Army. When in Vietnam, he got an air medal. He was a personnel officer and drove a desk, so we’re uncertain why he got this medal. Would the records say why, or just that he got it?

They would. There's a narrative attached to every award. It may not be terribly satisfying. At the end of a deployment, often many people of similar ranks get the same award with a very similar narrative, but it at least explains why it was received.
He may have been admin, but was he a pilot? I assume so if he was a warrant officer. At any rate, if he assisted the crew while on a plane that was under fire, he'd qualify, no matter what his job was.

No, not a pilot. I don't know the title for his MOS, but during Vietnam he was responsible for moving troops and getting bodies home. I remember hearing stories about being on a helicopter. Maybe he was moving from place to place?

I would really want to know if that private survived, or if he’s still running laps at some base-camp…

i remember the story, my dad said the lrivate came to him with the gun pointed at him saying it was jammed. My dad said very calmly and normal tone, alright, go sit it on the stool over there and we’ll look at it. Pvt. did that and came back to where my dad was standing. At that point my dad said he started screaming profanities at the private who was surprised and didn’t realize he’d done something wrong. "I was cursing and screaming at this guy, every bad word I had ever heard, and some I just made up right there" 😂

Omg. the stories my dad told about the army were hilarious. He also went to college in the early 1950s with a wwii vet who was about 10 yrs older and had been in combat. This guys name was Bill and Bill took no shit and they got into some funny mischief. 😂😂😂

simply based on the utter beginners-mistake of that private I’m guestimating your dad was receiving them early. I would think instructor.

i think this story happened at Ft. Leonardwood MO, but then again I could be wrong. I believe he was stationed there, someplace in south east Virginia and I think I have seen a picture of him with a group of men at a base in Kansas? I want to say Ft Leavenworth but I think Leavenworth is a prison.

I know out of his basic training class 2000 men were there, 1,998 went to Germany and 2 were kept back in the states. My dad was always pissed he was one of the 2 kept back. He said he did all these things to get ready for combat, etc. I do remember him saying they were talking about sending him to OCS and/ or language school??? There was a test, etc but then he realized he wanted out after his time was served. I dont know all the details and my
memory of the stories is bad, he was almost 50 when I was born and he passed a while back, so I might be remembering things wrong.

Ft Leavenworth is an Army base in Kansas and there is a prison there. I lived there as a kid and my mom would get our hair cut at the prison b/c it was really cheap.

Gotta,

Do you have access to your Dad's DD214 paperwork? That is the form you receive when you are discharged that lists your final rank at the time of issuance, service medals awarded, duty stations, and other important information such as discharge status. Probably one of the most important forms you get when discharged, as it is used to verify everything from VA eligibility, discharge status (honorable, medical, other than honorable), and as such is a valuable piece of information.

Copy and pasted from usagov website. Sorry, I cannot post the actual link but you can google what I pasted. You just have to make a request from the National Personnel Records Center for their DD214.

How to get copies of military records

Getting access to military records can help with veterans benefits, ancestry research, and more. Learn how to get your own records or someone else's.

Request service records

1917 - present

Records for yourself or next of kin

You can request service records for yourself or for your next of kin (spouse, parent, child, or sibling). Choose one of three ways to request service records from the National Archives:

And as for DI, etc. it's possible, but it's also possible that he wasn't. We receive so many additional duty orders in the military that almost anyone with enough rank can be in charge of weapons qualification, etc. Marching soldiers is something every NCO in a leadership position does. I was running ranges as an E5 promotable. Many make E7 (SFC) without DI badge.

[This message edited by StillLivin at 5:26 AM, Tuesday, January 2nd]