This Troper's DS subverted the trope physically (little Cuban guy), but played the attitude straight. So, ''so'' straight. He had the chops to back the 'tude, too.

Wow, really? ThisTroper's fellow shipmates told them about their Company Commander in Sea Cadets Bootcamp... who was an short female with a squeaky voice. Accordingly, everyone, including the CO, laughed at her.

He didn't have a squeaky voice. What he ''did'' have was a truly epic file of commendations, which I got to see while working in the battalion office. That's what I meant by "the chops".

ThisTroper has had a few experiences with Drill Sergeant Nasties. Basic Training was at Fort Sill, and we actually had a DS who sent a guy to the hospital because of an incident in the GRENADE RANGE (completely warranted, yet still screwed up). And Oh My God, you have NEVER been screamed at or treated like crap until you face a TAC officer in Officer Candidate School *shudder*.

ThisTroper's CC in Navy boot camp was five-feet-two and 120 lbs... and his forearms were larger than his thighs, and he played the mannerisms of the trope exactly straight. ThisTroper will never forget the day where one recruit, secure in the delusion that showing up on time for one's doctor's appointment was strictly optional, was instantly cured of this delusion when our CC concluded his lecture on the virtues of punctuality by ''picking up his desk and throwing it clear across his office''.

Did he smoke a pipe and eat spinach, by any chance?

Not so much. But you have correctly guessed what his nickname was. *g*

This troper's father was an Air Force TI who never learned to leave his work at work. (Small wonder that when this troper joined the Army years later, the evaluations said that I had a "dislike of authority figures bordering on mania".) And yes, my DS was a complete bastard.

This Troper can confirm the truth, especially in combat arms [=MOSes=], where the drill sergeants pride themselves on their sadism. Sometimes they may play 'Good Cop, Bad Cop', but most of them take too much pleasure in 'stomping knee deep in your ass'. "Welcome to Prang's House of Pain! I can toughen you up or I can break you off!" There were some notable subversions, including one who sounded like Scarface (scary!), another who sounded like Gomer Pyle, and another who sounded like a Puerto Rican drag queen.

Inquiry: how do you know what a Puerto Rican drag sounds like? (No, really what do they sound like?)

You'll know one when you hear one. Really, there won't be any mistaking it. If you can't find one in real life, listen to John Leguizamo for a close approximation.

This troper remember seeing a few of these in various talk shows where delinquents will learn how to respect adults from Raymond Moses, a drill instructor (don't know what happened to him after the show ended, probably KIA) whom taught them what fear was about. I so wanted to go on that show if only to go Pyle. Jr on him. Regardless I gotten a degree of respect for him when I grew up and stop thinking about the fight against TheMan.

This troper had one of these as an RA leader at my church. He (The leader) ran it like a boot camp; resulting in many push-ups, many insults towards us thrown around, and the realization that Hell ain't a bad place to be when compared to our group under his leadership.

The cool thing is that those who do right will often get the benefits of experience. Given the people that are tapped for DS duty, you'll get stuff that isn't in the book.

ThisTroper's father, a retired Marine, claims that Gunnery Sgt. Hartmann from FullMetalJacket would have been considered one of the nicest DI's around when he was in boot camp. He also says his own DI was your standard DrillSergeantNasty combined with ScaryBlackMan, AngryBlackMan, and BoisterousBruiser.

My ''dad''.

This troper was stationed at Lackand AFB for tech school after basic training, and met a couple TI's and team members outside of the basic training environment. Most of them were quite pleasant, and joked around about how it was all an act to scare the trainees and get them in line.

This troper, while working at a fast-food place one summer, had a regular who was a sweet, darling, tiny little old man who apologized profusely when he spilled coffee on her once. He also was the drill sergeant equivalent at a camp for troubled kids.

ThisTroper remembers two high school soccer coaches. I remember a several memorable moments. The most memorable one was when our team messed up during a drill and had us run laps until further notice. While we were running, he walked to the middle of the field, and actually delivered TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. He always wore shades, so when he looks at you, you get the feeling that he's giving you a hard, piercing glare. Every time there was a competitive drill, there was of course no reward. The correct thing to ask is "What's the punishment for the losers?" (usually hills until further notice with at least a hundred push-ups and sit-ups in perfect form). Sometimes, to mix it up, we had to do push-ups on a hill facing downwards, which is harder than doing them on no slope. Sometimes, you wonder why you need half a thousand push-ups every practice in soccer. That was the JV coach. The Varsity coach screamed even louder and longer, more literally to this trope. While the JV coach never had profanity, the Varsity coach had no problem screaming profanities at the top of his lungs. So glad I switched sports ^_^. No more 4-5 hours every day of putting up with that. The other coaches were nice and encouraging and made you feel like you want to be out there. It gave you automatic bragging rights in school (over other sports like football, lacrosse, etc.) to be on our soccer teams because life was just that hard and sadistic every practice. I would say that a comparison between them and drill sergeants isn't far off. I do repect the soccer coaches, though.

This Troper has had his fair share, but the prize goes to a relatively easy-going, universally loved one who is now known more for having been arrested for possession of marijuana and ''statutory rape.'' BewareTheNiceOnes.

I am very glad that I only had to take one year of P.E. in high school. The boys' P.E. coach, if I remember correctly, yelled at his classes quite a bit. He'd be another one-note "how did he get this job, again?" teacher if he didn't ''mock me the moment (and after!) I tried to report that some of his students had joked about RAPING ME.'' (To put this in perspective, I had and still have the body structure of a wet noodle, and am shorter that damn near everyone else in the school. You'd think he'd at least hear me out; it wouldn't be hard for anyone in his class to beat the shit out of me) Drill Sergeant Fucking Worthless. (Both girls' and boys' coaches made us run laps for up to eleven minutes, and if someone so much as stopped to tie their shoes or catch their breath, everyone runs for another minute. All it did was tire everyone out and give us huge stitches in our sides. Not particularly bad, until you consider that it was either sweltering hot or ballsack-shrinkingly cold in our gym) And when I got out of that godforsaken class, I got to take Health with my former coach--who always placed me near the misogynistic idiots and once made me think I'd be the one getting the shaft for reporting two guys who pretended to have sex with me, probably because she thought I hated men because of my problems with Sergeant Worthless's class and ''did I mention the RAPE AS COMEDY?''

Inverted by this troper, who prefers to remain soft-spoken and firmly direct so as to encourage proper behavior from his troops. However, I did make one soldier almost cry by looking him in the eye and simply saying, "I can't believe you did this. I'm very disappointed in you."

This troper used to take Tae Kwon Do from a guy who ranged from mild Tsundere to this. My mom used his as a threat to keep me in line. Once I got suspended from school for swearing, and I spent the whole hour doing army P.T. I was an 8 year old at the time, so that was insanely hard.

However, the man in question wasn't a bad guy. He was laconic, but definitely not unfair. He was like a good drill sergeant without the service.

This troper had a crew coach in 09 who was this. During a practice, the two varsity mens' boats clashed oars, and he almost hurled me out of the cox seat. Also, after the men's first eight lost a race, he made them spend the next practice doing a 10K at 2min splits.

This troper had a PE teacher in high school who really was an former DI in the Marines. Contrary to the trope, he didn't make us run obstacle courses filled with rotting meat under barbed wire, and kept the swearing at a PG level (worst it ever got was calling us "retarded fruitcakes"), but heaven help you if you showed up late for class...

This troper had a substitute PE coach who drove us to the limit and beyond. We all hated him. I don't remember what his name was, but I do remember the nickname I gave to him: Amalek. Keep in mind that this was at a Jewish high school.

'''''SERGEANT! YOU WILL GIVE ME A FUCKING EXPLANATION ON WHY YOUR PANSY ASS DID NOT GIVE THIS PIECE OF SHIT HERE A HUNDRED PUSH UPS!!'''''

'''*BANG BANG*'''