Legend: Drill Sergeant Called "The Terminator"

A monster stalked Logan Heights. The most fearsome of Drill Sergeants whose cruelty was so legendary that they had become known as “The Terminator.”.Our SDS whom I will refer to as SFC “Smith” seemed more annoyed by tales of the Terminator’s depredations than anything else. We fully expected him to demonstrate that the Terminator was not the worst thing that could befall a young private. Instead, he tended to sigh and roll his eyes perhaps halfheartedly assigning a few push-ups, nothing major. Our other drill sergeants seemed, however, to find the Terminator endlessly hilarious and would regale us with tales of its cruelty.Occasionally we would spot an unfamiliar Drill snorting and stamping their way along in search of something to disapprove of. “Is that the Terminator?” We would ask but the answer would always be no. Eventually they revealed to us that the dreaded Terminator was not some bodybuilding monster, but a female drill sergeant attached to one of the nearby Hawk missile AIT units.

I made it most of the way through basic training without encountering her. But my luck ran out a few days before graduation. We were in the home stretch, and our drills were cutting us a lot of slack. Because of this, I felt secure enough to risk a minor transgression. I took a shower after lights out.She must have been passing by and heard the shower on after 2100; appearing in the latrine with me abruptly as if by evil magic. The only thing missing was a puff of sulfurous smoke. If a male drill sergeant had entered the female showers, it would’ve been a career ending scandal. But apparently, the rules didn’t apply to her.She was perhaps the smallest person I ever encountered in uniform, around 100 pounds of hate and anger wrapped in the pelt of some unfortunate Asian lady. My towel was beyond my reach so instead of trying to cover myself; I simply went to parade rest.She gave me a fishy stare as if examining a new species of intestinal parasite and very softly said: “drop”, so I dropped. She reached over and turned the shower handle all the way to cold and glared like a codfish a while longer and remarked “private, that is the tiniest little dick I have ever seen.”.Then the bitch turned on her heel and vanished. Presently my buddy ran in and told me she was gone. According to him she entered the building, proceeded directly to the latrine, and then left without speaking.

Following my first encounter with the Terminator, she seemed to be all over the training center. We speculated that she might be a set of triplets due to multiple sightings at approximately the same time in different parts of the training center. But graduation was soon upon us, and I more or less forgot about the Terminator. To my later chagrin, she would not forget about me.After graduation, those of us with the same MOS (16R Vulcan crewmember) were marched a few blocks to a new barracks that would be our home through AIT. Two or three weeks later my buddy and I emerged from the Shopette to find a platoon of females apparently leaving a nearby mess hall. We went to parade rest and waited for them to pass but their drill sergeant, ignoring the platoon guide called a halt right in front of us. She had them right face and put them at ease and then turned on us. It was, of course, the Terminator with her patented fishy stare apparently trying to decide if she felt like eating us or not.While we waited I noticed the females in her platoon had a frightened air about them; they reminded me of rabbits freezing in the presence of a bobcat. Thankfully she must have eaten with her troops as she barked, “Wonder Woman, front, and center!”. One of her rabbit women left the formation and sprinted to the front. “Tell me Wonder Woman; she spat which one of these strapping young specimens caused you to break military bearing?”“The tall one, Drill Sgt,” she shouted, Indicating my friend.(Who never let me forget.)Realizing that her formation was blocking traffic, she had them fall out to the shopette’s gravel parking area. Once everyone was organized she announced that because “Wonder Woman” missed male companionship so badly that we would have a foursome.She then walked over to me and informed me that this was particularly generous of her because I possessed the “the tiniest of all dicks.” I did note that she was either unaware of the existence of breath mints or they didn’t come in a flavor pleasing to her.. but I digress. She announced that push-ups were missionary, flutter kicks were cowgirl and sit-ups were doggy style. She then smoked the absolute hell out of us and private “Wonder Woman,” calling out changes of position as it suited her.After a considerable amount of time, she formed up her platoon, ordered Wonder Woman back into ranks, and announced: “Ladies, there are about nine miles of dick on this post, and none of you skanky whores will see a single inch!” And motioned to the platoon guide to march them off.Now I told you that story to set you up for this one. Some weeks later I was sitting in the Denver airport in route to permanent party at Fort Lewis Washington. To my horror my former senior drill Sgt. SFC “Smith” wandered along with the lady who was apparently his wife in tow. They were in civilian clothes but I recognized him at once. It took me a moment to recognize his wife you’ve guessed by now that it was indeed the Terminator, who just couldn’t resist saying “well if it isn’t private little dick” in front of everyone waiting for the flight. Fortunately they were headed back east to visit family and I didn’t have to endure her during the flight.