Drill instructor

"I'm their drill instructor. I get to be their worst nightmare."

- Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez

A drill instructor (DI), sometimes referred to as drill sergeants, is a non-commissioned officer serving in the UNSC Defense Force specially assigned to train recruits, introducing them to the military way of life. A drill instructor was to encourage, teach, and train recruits to set themselves to the highest possible standards of personal conduct and professional skill. One of the several duties of a drill instructor was to stop exhausted and stressed recruits from taking their frustrations and anger out on each other and instead allow the recruits to take their anger out on themselves. Eventually, if the drill instructor did a proper job, the recruits would come to admire the drill instructor. Drill instructors would lead physical training exercises or even participate in live-fire practice exercises against their own recruits.

Drill instructors are used with in the several branches of the UNSC Defense Force, including the UNSC Marine Corps and the Navy. Drill instructors were also used as Officer Candidate Schools, including Luna OCS Academy. The Colonial Militia's drill instructors were non-commissioned officers that served in other branches of the UNSC and trained a planetary paramilitary force. In the SPARTAN-II program, there was a naval drill instructor for each individual Spartan trainee. The SPARTAN-IIs were introduced to their drill instructors the day after they were kidnapped from their homes and brought to Reach. In the SPARTAN-III program, there were only seventy-two hand-picked drill instructors for over three hundred trainees. Some of the DIs were medics and washouts from the SPARTAN-II program. The drill instructors of the SPARTAN-III program occasionally donned Mark II Semi-Powered Infiltration armor during live-fire training exercises. Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez led the drill instructors that trained both the SPARTAN-IIs and the SPARTAN-IIIs.

Trivia
Drill instructors serving in the UNSC Marine Corps and UNSC Navy are occasionally referred to as "drill sergeants". However, in the United States Armed Forces—the military force that the UNSC Defense Force originated from—the term "drill sergeants" is used to only refer to drill instructors serving in the United States Army.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo: Contact Harvest
 * Halo: The Cole Protocol
 * The Life
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * Dirt
 * Halo: Blood Line
 * Halo: Reach
 * Dr. Halsey's personal journal
 * Halo: Fall of Reach
 * Boot Camp