AOCS Book Written - The Pressure Cooker: Forging Naval Officers Through Marine Leadership

[First Sergeant]

After 4 yrs. of effort a book of Drill Instructor stories has been written and published. 540 pages of Marine Drill Instructors training future Naval Officers at Pensacola from 1947 - 1994. 240 stories in all written by the Naval Officers who endured the pressure of Marine Corps drill Instructors.

Several of you who submitted stories for me via this website are published in the book.

You can find it here with all five formats, Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, ePub and PDF.

http://drillinstructorstories.com/buy-the-book

 

[Saberhawk65]

Not a month goes by that I don't think about Staff Sargent Gerhart, USMC. The toughest DI at AOCS. When times got hard over the 37 years since I graduated AOCS, I always thought, "you survived Gerhart. You can live through anything". Just one story for old times sake... We were in our last day as candidate officers. We would graduate the next day or so. We were sitting around filling out some paperwork, smoking and joking. Gerhart kicked the door in and said in the voice I can still hear "Get on your G&%D!@mn face". As a class, we found ourselves in the pushup position without even thinking about it. Like well trained dogs. He then grinned that little sideways snarl of his and said "At ease Ladies" and walked out. I think he did that just to show us he could. He was one tough SOB. To a man, we could bitch about Gerhart but would fight any man who spoke ill of him.

John (Rod) Oglesby
Class 29-85

 

[mad dog]

…Staff Sergeant Gerhart, USMC. The toughest DI at AOCS...

I agree…toughest DI at AOCS.

I was in Class 41-86 in BATT I with Gunnery Sergeant Jones, United States Marine Corps…and I was voluntold by my classmates to venture to BATT II to invite Gerhart [aka “The Evil One”] to our class party. I was voluntold due to being #1 in our class in PT…and supposedly I would be the most likely to survive the PT that would be received when encountering Gerhart. Being the stupid team player, I ventured to BATT II and conducted the usual office entry to do the invitation…and of course Gerhart commences to PT the dog shit out of me for about an hour…and then he casually says he would be delighted to attend our class party…and of course he commences to PT the dog shit out of me more. Somehow I got back to BATT I but don’t really remember it…maybe some BATT II dudes/dudettes carried me back…not sure.

Collin (Wayneman) Wayne
Class 41-86

 

[Saberhawk65]

That was a bold and unwise move. You were lucky to survive "the anti-christ".

29-85 - Seahawk65

 

[SteveG75]

Next AOCS Reunion: 06/07 October 2023

AOCS All Hands Reunion

AOCS All Hands Reunion

www.aocsreunion.com

Stephen “Meat” Gaze 18-90

 

[mad dog]

Next AOCS Reunion: 06/07 October 2023

AOCS All Hands Reunion

AOCS All Hands Reunion

www.aocsreunion.com

Stephen “Meat” Gaze 18-90

Thanks for the heads up…marking the calendar for 06/07 October 2023…and I’ll have my replica BATT I t-shirt and AOCS issued G-1 ready to go just like when I attended in 2019...



Collin “Wayneman” Wayne 41-86