His dedication to inspiring the teenagers in his classroom began long ago. He left the Army in 1988, went to college, started a family and became a high school teacher. During his15 years of teaching carpentry and electrical skills at the Career Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., Jones saw many of his students go into the military, especially after 9/11. As a veteran, he could be especially supportive and encouraging for those students. “I stayed in contact with several of them while they were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan,” he explains.
Jones also saw other students who needed support and inspiration. Too many of them were overweight—and so was he. Standing six-feet tall, he found himself at 315 pounds. It was not the example to set. “You can’t motivate others if you don’t motivate yourself,” he says. “Oh, I was fat and happy. But I didn’t realize what I was missing until I got all that weight off. I had to make a lifestyle change to get it off and keep it off. I want to set the best example I can for the kids and I couldn’t help the chubby kids when I was overweight myself.”
Working out and running became daily routines, along with changing his diet. Jones says he drinks a lot of water every day and avoids sugar, especially colas and that Southern favorite, sweet tea. It was a struggle. It took about five years. “I did diets, but finally just quit eating to lose the weight,” he chuckles, “pretty much living on a ‘baloney’ sandwich every day. It’s a lifestyle change. You have to get that mindset and do it. This healthy lifestyle has opened up new doors for me and it will do the same for anyone else who wants to lose weight. You just have to get into that frame of mind and challenge yourself to do it.”
So he installed a weight bench at the back of the classroom, challenging students “in a friendly way” to get into shape. “I ‘rag’ some of them about running with me,” he says, “and if a kid gets ‘smart’ with me, I’ll say ‘okay, come back here and let’s see if you can do this.”
His journey to attaining the coveted drill sergeant “brown round” is also unique and inspirational. As he corresponded with former students in the military, he also noticed the lack of “a military voice” in the public school system. “I thought becoming a drill sergeant would set a good example for my students and another good motivation for staying in shape,” he explains. “Everybody thought I was nuts! I thought my wife might leave me, but she warmed up to it. I think the military is a good thing, plus I might be in mid-life crisis, so I decided to come back into the Army and become a drill sergeant. Here I am, a 41 years-old, going to Drill Sergeant School with Soldiers almost half my age, I must be crazy!”
After all, five years ago, he weighed 316 pounds and couldn’t run the length of a football field. He admits a little anxiety at first. Drill Sergeant School is tough, it is grueling and the academics are intensive for two months. “Midway through the first week I thought ‘this isn’t much different from home!’” he said. “At home my wife yells at me, my kids yell at me and no matter what goes wrong, it’s gonna be my fault! Home sweet home!”
He underwent training very similar to basic training with weapons qualification, obstacle courses, hand-to-hand combat, academics and a host of warrior skills along with leadership training. And he endured being called “old man” by his classmates, whose joking sprung from admiration as they sought his guidance and encouragement to successfully get through the course.
“If you can’t do it, you can’t teach it,” Jones says. “Every day I stand in front of my kids and if I’m not an expert in what I’m trying to teach, they’re not going to listen. Kids have a unique ability to see through the smoke and mirrors—they see you for who you really are. The same applies to recruits. If you want to be a drill sergeant, you’d better be the expert or you’ll be a joke with the recruits in the barracks. They won’t follow such a leader.
“Teaching and being a drill sergeant, a leader of any kind, is not about intimidation,” he continues. “Relationships are what makes the difference in leadership and it can make the difference in turning a kid around. A pat on the back and encouragement is what I give my students and what I’ll give my recruits.”
Jones achieved the highest academic average and sixth overall on the APFT (Army Physical Fitness Training) test. He put his Distinguished Honor Graduate trophy on his desk for the students to see every day. “My students think it’s cool that their teacher did could and would do something like this,” he says.
Now that he’s earned that “brown round,” Jones says he now plans to reclassify and go to Infantry School. “I may even go to Airborne School,” he says. “I told my wife that I have to admit I’m starting to get old, but let’s just see how much young blood I can kick!
In his continued quest for inspiring and encouraging young people to “be the best you can be,” Jones looks forward to teaching Initial Entry recruits. “The ultimate would be to graduate one of my students and then be his or her drill sergeant in basic training.”
Candidates of Drill Sergeant School, Class 001, attend their graduation ceremony at Ft. Knox, Ky. this past December. Photo by Victoria L. White, 108th Training Command (IET) Public Affairs.