Posted on 07/06/2009 12:12:24 PM PDT by stan_sipple
The well-shined boots, the perfect marches, the fittest figure.
Staff Sgt. Michael F. Johnston is the U.S. Army’s new standard bearer.
The Lincoln Pius X High School graduate was recently named 2009 Drill Sergeant of the Year after a week of exhausting competition against six other drill sergeants.
“And, of course, I was just ecstatic,” said his mother, Joan Johnston, of Lincoln.
Her son has been to Afghanistan twice, but he spent the last year and a half teaching recruits the ups and downs of combat.
Sometimes he has to yell, he said in a phone interview from Fort Benning, Ga., but his job and the competition are about more than just getting red in the face.
“A lot of people think it’s a competition to see who can yell the loudest,” he said. “There’s times where you’re going to have to yell ... but when it’s time to train and it’s time to be professional — that’s the key.”
Judges for the competition at Fort Monroe, Va., tested physical fitness, knowledge of standard operating procedure, skill with weapons and hand-to-hand combat, ability to navigate — even leadership when dealing with a suicidal soldier.
Mostly, though, they tested participants as teachers of standard Army practices, which Sgt. Johnston called “skill Level 1 tasks.”
“He builds and molds these people into great characters,” his mother said.
Michael Johnston joined the Army in 2001, the same year he graduated from Pius. He was a team leader on his first overseas deployment and has been an authority figure since.
“I was only not in a leadership position for about 18 months, including basic training,” he said.
He and and his wife and two daughters— they’re expecting a third child in February — live at Fort Benning, but they’re moving in August to Fort Monroe, where Johnston will be an assistant to the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.
He comes from a military family, with a brother who’s been to Iraq and Afghanistan three times, and a father whose Navy career inspired Johnston to become a soldier.
The family moved about 18 times, settling in Lincoln in 1999.
“Michael grew up as a Navy — I don’t like the term brat,” his mother said. “I’m very proud of him. ... I know that he has a very important role.”
Funny, asking God to BLESS the Drill Sergeants during basic was the exact opposite of what I had in mind. I was 100% positive that Drill Instructor school had to have a special stairwell that led down to the underworld.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.