Apache Troop platoon sergeant applies leadership skills gained from being a drill sergeant

Photo By Sgt. Jared Sollars | Sgt. 1st Class Shane Hanover provides security during a meeting with an Iraqi police commander. Before becoming a platoon sergeant for Apache Troop, 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, he was a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson, S.C.  

MOSUL, IRAQ

07.16.2009

Story by Pfc. Jared Sollars 

145th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment   

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SYKES, MOSUL, Iraq — Every Soldier's military career starts the same way, a flight or a drive to their basic training post and then a sleepless night of in processing. Then the Soldiers meet their drill sergeants whom they will never forget.

Sgt. 1st Class Shane Hanover, a platoon sergeant in Apache Troop, 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, has recently made the transition from being a drill sergeant to being a platoon sergeant. Drill sergeants acquire skills that they can bring with them when they switch into a new career field or return to their previous job.

"Commitment to the task is key, you decide you're going to do something then do it," said Hanover, a native of Davenport, Iowa, when asked what skills he acquired during his time as a drill sergeant that he brought into becoming a platoon sergeant. "Train at the lowest level, take your weakest Soldier, the one that has the least amount of mobility and train at his level then work your way up."

With more than 500,000 Soldiers in the U.S. Army and numerous units across not only the U.S., but around the world it's unlikely that Soldiers will run into their drill sergeants again in their military career. During this deployment Hanover has encountered two Soldiers he trained in his basic training platoon from his last cycle as a drill sergeant and got to see first hand the results of his training.

"It's been pretty nice running into some of the Soldiers I trained, getting to see the after effects of the damage I did," said Hanover jokingly, "My Soldiers now will tell you that they're all thoroughly convinced that I trained 2,000 plus Soldiers to have post traumatic stress disorder, because I'm a little harsh, I'm a little rough around the edges and I'm no different from when I was on the trail, I'm very hard edged and strict and I'm no different out here."

The drill sergeants will train their Soldiers for ten weeks. The Soldiers are trained on how to fire their rifles, survival in harsh situations, maintaining physical fitness and acting like a Soldier should with military customs and courtesies.

Before Hanover became a drill sergeant he didn't have a lot of experience working with female Soldiers however this job has showed him it's the same as working with males.

During Hanover's military career he spent time as a recruiter, then a drill sergeant and now a platoon sergeant. He has seen the process of making and molding Soldiers first hand from enlistment to graduation from basic and leading them in combat.

"The high up you go in the ranks the more distance you put between yourself and the Soldiers," said Hanover, "All the joy for a Soldier who is a leader, an NCO, comes from leading Soldiers, but if you can't lead Soldiers directly it just doesn't feel the same. When you're a drill sergeant you have 64 Soldiers and you impacted every one of those Soldiers directly. So I'm right where I want to be."

• Date Taken: 07.16.2009
• Date Posted: 07.16.2009 10:12
• Story ID: 36442
• Location: MOSUL, IQ