You'll take your hat off.
Once you put it down, you want to make sure
that the brim is as flat as possible.
Once you make sure the brim is as flat as possible,
you'll close the cover,
and then you'll basically tighten it.
My name is Staff Sgt. McLean,
and this is every item in a drill sergeant's uniform.
All right, so the first uniform is going to be
the Army physical fitness uniform.
So, first item we have is our short-sleeve shirt.
Here at the Drill Sergeant Academy,
we wear an organizational shirt,
and a lot of organizations are the same.
So, here on the back we have our drill sergeant logo.
And then, on top of it, we have our name as well.
So "DSL," standing for drill sergeant leader.
On the side, here at the academy,
we have what's called a run club.
So here it says "70 MILES."
To achieve 70 miles, all you gotta do is
run 70, 85, or 100 miles within a month
to put it on your uniform.
Next up, we have our long-sleeve shirt.
Similarly as the short sleeve,
name on the back, drill sergeant logo.
Front, drill sergeant logo with the "USADSA" on it,
standing for United States Army Drill Sergeant Academy.
All right, next up we have our
physical fitness trunks, our shorts.
We have very standard shorts.
Has "ARMY" on the front left pocket.
And then at the inside, the spandex,
you have a part for your ID as well.
During the winter months,
again, same concept as the shirt and the long sleeve.
However, this is a sweater. So, same concept.
"USADSA" on the front with the drill sergeant logo.
And then, also on the back, name at the top
with the drill sergeant badge right below it.
And then the very last piece before we get to the shoes
is our drill sergeant vest.
It's blue and yellow reflective
with our names right across the
front and back piece of the top reflective belt.
We are known for having our reflective vests.
You could identify any drill sergeant across the field,
across the parking lot, just by our vest alone.
And then, finally, we have our standard-issue shoes.
Not much to really talk about,
just regular running shoes to kind of complete your uniform.
Next up we have our OCP Army combat uniform.
Our OCP, standing for operational combat pattern.
Just for clarity, OCP is the pattern;
ACU is the uniform, Army combat uniform.
So, first up, on our Army combat uniform, we have our top.
All right, this is our jacket.
On our jacket, we have several key things
that kind of distinguishes us from everyone else.
So, obviously we have our name, as worn, on the right,
and then "US ARMY" on the left.
Above the "US ARMY" we have badges
that we may have accrued
over the time span of our careers.
Same thing with the pockets.
On the very right badge is our drill sergeant badge.
Every drill sergeant who graduates this academy,
who earns the right to be called a drill sergeant,
is issued a drill sergeant badge.
Something else that's very unique
to the Drill Sergeant Academy is on the left pocket
we have what's called an instructor badge.
Here at the academy, our drill sergeant leaders
are essentially instructors of drill sergeants.
Next up we have our pants.
Pretty standard cargo pants.
Has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight pockets.
Six on the side and two in the back.
At the very bottom, we have our blouses.
So you can pull them tighter to make them
give that more of a blouse look
when you're wearing your boots.
All right, next up we have our boots.
Standard-issued combat boots
to complement your OCPs or ACUs.
The color of our boots is Coyote Brown.
It's the only authorized color that we can wear
within our ACUOCP uniform.
And then underneath your ACU top,
which is what I have on here, you have your tan T-shirt.
Basically, that's your Coyote Brown T-shirt
that you'll wear as an undergarment
to kind of complete this uniform.
So, here at the Drill Sergeant Academy,
we wear drill sergeant belts.
So our belts is what signifies who we are,
and it tells everyone that, hey,
we are a drill sergeant leader.
Drill sergeants on the trail who are not
here at the academy instructing,
they get their hat and their badge.
When you come up here to be a drill sergeant leader
and you go through your certification process,
you earn the right to wear the drill sergeant belt.
There are different colors of the belt, different stages.
You start out with the tan belt.
And then as you progress to senior drill sergeant,
you get this belt right here.
The only difference between myself
and the senior drill sergeant is
I am the Drill Sergeant Academy's DSOY,
which is the drill sergeant of the year.
So I also wear a green belt.
Everyone in the academy who is currently a drill sergeant,
whether it be the commandant, deputy commandant,
the chief instructors, which are the first sergeants,
all wear the campaign hat and the belt.
So, the next uniform we're going to talk about
is the Army green service uniform, AGSUs.
More popularly known as the pinks and greens.
So, first up, we have our brown coyote boots,
our oxfords that we wear.
The socks that we wear with this particular boot
is the same color, more or less.
Next up we have our pants.
Typical dress pants that you would find
in any other Men's Wearhouse.
With the pants, when you're wearing them,
you want no more than two creases,
or two breaks, excuse me,
at the bottom of your pants.
So as you're wearing them, that's a break, that's a break.
That's it. No more than two breaks.
All right, next up we have our belt
that we use with these particular pants.
No really set way of putting it together.
However, you want no more than 2 inches of excess
once you put the belt into configuration.
Next up, you have your long-sleeve
and short-sleeve shirt.
Both shirts have our ranks
stitched on both sleeves.
In the summer months, when it gets hot,
we do have the option of wearing
what we call tropical uniform,
tropical variation of the pinks and greens,
where we will wear the shirt, the pants, belt, shoes,
and then our name tapes and the top six awards
will go on our top of our left breast pocket.
Next up, we have our tie.
Pretty standard-issue tie.
There's three different types of knots
that are authorized when we're wearing our pinks and greens.
One is a half Windsor;
two, full Windsor;
and the last one is four-in-hand tie.
So, finally, we have what we call our overcoat,
which is the highlight of the uniform.
It shows all of our awards and decorations.
It completes the uniform over time.
On the left side, we have all of our awards
that we are awarded as well as any badges.
Same as our OCP uniforms, as I'm wearing now.
On the right-hand side, we are authorized
to have a foreign badge, one foreign badge on our uniform.
This particular foreign badge is the Norwegian ruck marches.
To you earn this badge, you gotta ruck 18.6 miles.
Now, there's other badges out there as well,
i.e., foreign jump wings and things of that nature.
On the coat as well, there is a belt that's already built in
to give you that more of a tapered look.
So, typically, we would wear this for ceremonial purposes.
So, as a drill sergeant, we would typically wear these
during our graduations, during family days,
maybe in-processing, pickup.
We would wear our pinks and greens just to show them,
hey, look, this is what right looks like.
So, to top off the pinks and greens,
a drill sergeant, obviously we're known for
our drill sergeant hat, our campaign hat.
So we are authorized to wear our campaign hats
with our pinks and greens.
Every drill sergeant is not necessarily
issued a hat press, sort of like this one.
However, it is highly recommended
for each drill sergeant to get a hat press
in order to protect their hats from the elements.
Hat presses ranges anywhere from
$80 to $150.
And you can get them as personable as possible.
This is basically a standard-issued hat press.
And most drill sergeants, if not all,
like myself, have two.
One that's standard issue and one that's more personalized.
So, like, for my personal one, I have my name,
I have the Air Assault badge, Airborne badge,
and a few other things that are on it as well
that makes it personable to me.
So, basically,
every mechanism is different.
However, for this one, you'll unscrew it.
You'll take your hat off.
You'll tuck the straps in.
Once you put it down, you want to make sure
that the brim is as flat as possible.
Once you make sure the brim is as flat as possible,
you'll close the cover,
and then you'll basically tighten it.
It is recommended for a drill to use it every day.
As soon as you get home,
go ahead and throw that hat in the hat press.
For me, every chance I get.
If it rains outside and I don't have my hat covered
to protect it from the rain and from the elements,
as soon as I get inside, I'll throw it in the hat press
just to make sure that it maintains that flat brim.
And this is every item that a drill sergeant wears.