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Sgt. 1st Class Sylvester Brookins and Sgt. Jered Meeks are two of five Mississippi Army Citizen-Soldiers who currently wear the iconic campaign hat.
Meeks, a MSARNG recruiter in Yazoo City, recently graduated from the U.S. Army Drill Sergeant Academy in August, earning the right to don the drill instructor hat.
“I think that it’s a cool honor to become the most recent Mississippi National Guardsman graduate,” said Meeks. “It was a long road getting here to this point and there were a lot of obstacles I had to overcome.”
According to Brookins, a MSARNG State Inactive Duty Training manager and senior drill sergeant, there are only five Mississippi Guardsmen who are actively serving in the Recruit Sustainment Program, or RSP, in a drill instructor capacity.
“It’s a big opportunity and it means a lot because we are few and far between as National Guard drill sergeants,” said the Yazoo City Army recruiter. “I was speaking with other Soldiers from other units and they said their states don’t have drill ser¬geants. So, to be one in the Mississippi National Guard, it’s a great experience.”
In 2008, Brookins became the first traditional Mississippi National Guardsman to attend and graduate from drill sergeant school. Meeks, who is also a traditional Guardsmen, is following the footsteps of his senior drill sergeant.
Meeks recalled that becoming a drill sergeant wasn’t easy. Only the most qualified non-commissioned officers are chosen to attend drill sergeant school at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where they are trained to fulfill a unique and important role.
Meeks transformed himself physically and mentally to set himself up for success before the nine-week school.
“You hear horror stories about how the school is and how they send you home for not doing the push-ups properly,” said Meeks. “So I worked out every day, except on Sundays. I worked on my push-up form and sit-ups.”
“Drill Sergeant School was intense,” he said. “It was physically, mentally, emotionally, and academically (tough), with academi¬cally being number one. We started out with 100 candidates and we only graduated 58.”
As a drill sergeant, Meeks manages the RSP site in Green¬wood. The Army National Guard RSP prepares Soldiers for the successful completion of Basic Combat Training and subsequent military occupation specialty qualification. The RSP provides full visibility on the preparation process and ensures the Sol¬diers ship to training mentally prepared, physically ready, and administratively correct.
Other RSP sites throughout the state are in Senatobia, Amo¬ry, Jackson, Monticello, Philadelphia, Wiggins and Hattiesburg.
“It is huge to have drill sergeants in the ranks of the Mississip¬pi National Guard,” said Brookins. “You hear talks in the Army Times and throughout the ranks about how Soldiers come back from Basic Combat Training or Advanced Individual Training on how undisciplined and out-of-shape they are. With the Recruit Sustainment Program, Soldiers are put in the Guard, they at¬tend the Recruit Sustainment Program for a time period, they go to training and then come back to the Recruit Sustainment Program site to be battle-handed off to their unit.”
Brookins said if you want to be called a ‘Soldier,’ it will take physical and mental toughness. These are just basic re¬quirements, but he said the RSP will set young recruits up for success.
“I tell all my privates they have the keys to success for initial entry-training and it’s right here in the Mississippi Army Na¬tional Guard,” said Brookins. “I tell them the Reserves and the Active Component don’t have Recruit Sustainment Programs. When you sign up, you go straight to basic training. Whereas in the Mississippi Army National Guard, we have Recruit Sustainment Program sites where we are doing strength training, we teach them rank structure, how to march, and field tactics.”
“The sites that have drill sergeants, they are getting that face-time with their drill instructors so they won’t have that shock-and-awe when they get to basic training and want to back out when they think they can’t handle it,” he said. “We are building their foun¬dation and giving them the tools to be successful.”
As a U.S. Army drill sergeant, Meeks and Brookins are re¬sponsible for coaching, counseling, and mentoring of hundreds, if not thousands, of warriors as they transform from a civilian to a combat-ready Soldier.
According to Brookins, drill instructors are all the recruits know of the Army and so they emulate everything a drill ser¬geant does.
“Once I put that hat on, it’s game on,” said Brookins. “I’m always spot checking myself, I’m making sure I’m doing the right thing because warriors are looking at you even when you don’t think they’re looking at you.”
Being a drill sergeant is one of the most demanding and difficult jobs in the Army, and according to Brookins, it’s also one of the most rewarding. It’s up to the drill instructors to provide a positive and rewarding experience as young Soldiers begin their journey in the Army, he said.
“When I’m in public and some kid or adult walks up to me and says ‘I know you don’t remember me, but thank you for what you did,’ that’s the rewarding part for me,” said Brookins. “That means I did my job. It’s about these kids because they are the future of our Guard, our Army
| Date Taken: | 12.28.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 12.28.2017 13:16 |
| Story ID: | 260480 |
| Location: | JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, US |
| Web Views: | 216 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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