Those who say female DIs weren't tough?? LOL.

Summer of 1985, Ft. Dix, NJ. We had 3 drills, Penniston, Anderson, and then we met the female, Reddner. 5-foot-nothing Puerto Rican woman, voice like a air raid siren, could bench-press 2x her body weight, had a vocabulary that would put a sailor to shame, and she could outrun and outshoot the best of us.
She was on leave when we arrived.
How did we "meet" her, you ask?
Our company came out of the mess hall after breakfast, and we were falling into formation when all of a sudden the 2nd-floor barracks windows exploded.
Out came wall lockers, dismantled bunk beds, fire extinguishers, boots, shoes, blankets, pillows, practically everything that wasn't nailed down in our bay. She had gone through our bay and given it the white-glove treatment. I guess we failed, hahahah.
It was a Saturday; we all spent the next 10 hours cleaning and putting everything back together.
The 2 male DIs were equally tough, but she was an entity all her own.
I will never forget any one of them, they were a driving force of the man I am today.

C-1-3 The Rough Riders

« Previous story
Next story »