ON THE CUTTING EDGE: Atten-Shun!
Command Sgt. Maj. Teresa L. King, 48, is the first female commandant of the Army’s drill sergeant school at Ft. Jackson, SC. The New York Times profiles the “[p]etite yet imposing” woman with a “clipped speaking style, acute command of regulations and visible disgust with slovenliness” who now manages a staff of 78 instructors who conduct drill sergeant training for the entire Army:
[T]he Army’s new top drill sergeant idolizes Gen. George S. Patton Jr., has jumped out of planes 33 times, aces every physical training test and drives a black Corvette with “noslack” vanity plates. …
The eighth of 12 children, the sergeant major is the daughter of a sharecropper who grew cucumbers and tobacco near Fort Bragg, N.C. Her first job in the Army was as a postal clerk, a traditional position for women in those days.
She says she regrets not having been deployed to a war zone during her 29-year Army career, though she has trained many soldiers who were. And now, in her new job, she will have significant influence over the basic training of every enlisted soldier. …
[S]he pushes back at the notion that she has risen because she is a woman. “When I look in the mirror, I don’t see a female,” Sergeant Major King said. “I see a soldier.” …
Asked if women should be allowed into frontline combat units, she said yes, but only if they meet the same standards as men.
While she says most women cannot meet those standards, she believes she can. As if to prove her point, she scored a perfect 300 on her semiannual physical training test last week, doing 34 push-ups and 66 situps, each in under two minutes, then ran two miles in 16 minutes 10 seconds (well below the required 17:36 for her age group.)
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