Musings...From the Mind of a U.S. Army Drill Sergeant

By Eddie McCoy Chief Warrant Officer U.S. Army (Ret)

People generally don't read a poem just once. When I run across a poem I like, I may read it dozens and dozens of times and will probably continue to read my favorites until I've moved on to that big drill field in the sky. Musings... is provided in print by Page Publications and will be on Amazon, Kindle, and Barnes & Noble and available for ordering in most book outlets. It contains poems, a lot of pictures, and some short stories from my time as a US Army Drill Sergeant, two tours in Vietnam and later. As with everything I write, net income from the sale of my books is donated equally between Shriners Hospital for Children and St. Jude's Children's Hospital. If you don't have a favorite charity, please consider these two. Everyone needs to share good fortune with less fortunate people, and children are an excellent choice! The final part of Musings... is something that I wrote for our son when he went off to college. I was trying to provide him with something that fit somewhere in the hidden and mysterious space between Murphy's Law and Moses and The Ten Commandments. It's called McCoy's Prescription. You can contact me anytime at [e-mail]. Look for my upcoming children's book, Perry's Little Vessel, due out in the fall of 2023.

Enjoy Musings...! Many times!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887931425

Book preview

Introduction

Here’s an explanation of my intentions, and it may help you get more out of your reading or at least help you establish a benchmark of where my mind is. This book is not a great American novel. I don’t think it’s a novel at all but more like a magazine. A magazine that could consist of different articles and pieces of information. You can read for fifteen minutes or two hours, put it away, and when you start reading again, you don’t have to recall anything. I’m sharing experiences that focus on before, during, and after my years as an Army drill sergeant. The detail of this is sprinkled throughout Musings… The book is not sequential regarding time but more aligned with my thought process.

You’ll see pictures and a lot of ramblings. Following the Introduction is a rambling. It’s one of the first things I wrote when I became a drill sergeant.

The idea came from a poster that was displayed at each basic training company, and it was everywhere. The words read, Had I been properly trained. And there was a ghostlike figure of a young soldier in full battle gear. Most drill sergeants got the meaning. It is a young soldier that is killed in battle, and his soul is screaming to the reader, Had I been properly trained, and a mind like mine added, I might have made it! In any case, it spurred me to write Ballad of the Drill Sergeant.

I did a lot of writing during my time in the Army as a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. As you read, you may get a feeling of yesteryear, as the early work was inspired by events of the time, such as Center Fold. It’s about a man getting his picture in a magazine for women, like Burt Reynolds did in Play Girl—nude, of course—and it happened somewhere around 1971.

You may get the idea that this period of stumbling, bumbling, and fooling around was unintentional! Maybe. Only my wife knows the answer because she was there when this began. I can’t remember ———, or what I had for breakfast, said Winston Churchill (the latter part anyway). The emblem on the top of the front cover page and on each of the chapter introductions is the US Army drill sergeant badge. It was adapted from the shoulder crest of the Army training centers and had the words This We’ll Defend on it.

McCoy’s Prescription was a gift for our son when he went to college. I wanted to write something for him that fell somewhere between Murphy’s Law and Moses and the Ten Commandments. There are a few pages about settings goals. That was for our granddaughter Brandi the daughter of our daughter, Jerri. My wife, Diane, got involved by supplying something about how to manage tough times.

The Appendix has information about the units I served in during my assignments in Vietnam and has a map of North and South Vietnam. I make references to the Central Highlands, which was my first tour, and the southwest part of South Vietnam, which was my second tour. You can see those places on the map and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the main access points into the western side of South Vietnam from North Vietnam. I spent time around Play Ku in the Central Highlands and An Loc, just a little northwest of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) near the Cambodian border.

Enjoy your time spent on these pages, and maybe something somewhere in Musings…will either warm your heart or ease your mind for a moment.

Ballad of the Drill Sergeant

When I train this man to fight, am I training him to die? If someday he gives his life, will my conscience ask me why? If each day I do my best, then this man will stand the test, and his soul won’t say to me, Had I been properly trained.

Let no man’s soul say to me, Had I been properly trained. If our country goes to war, will he give his life in vain? If someday the time should come that it’s down to die or run, then his soul won’t say to me, Had I been properly trained.

When a young man joins the service, he joins to serve his country and become a man. The drill sergeant turns him into a fighting machine who would give his very soul for his country.

The drill sergeant teaches him to shoot, move, and communicate. The saddest part, but all too often necessary, is by taking the life of another human being! Not just for himself or his buddies but Mom and Dad, the girl back home, and yes, you and me!

Let no man’s soul say to me, Had I been properly trained. If our country goes to war, will he give his life in vain? If someday the time should come that it’s down to die or run, then his soul won’t say to me, Had I been properly trained.

The Drill Sergeant Creed

I am a Drill Sergeant.

I will assist each individual in their efforts to become a highly motivated, well disciplined, physically, and mentally fit soldier, capable of defeating any enemy on today’s modern battlefield.

I will instill pride in all I train. Pride in self, in the Army, and in Country.

I