APRIL 6, 2023 – What do drill sergeants do before 9 a.m.? They win the Army’s video bracket challenge. That’s what.
Fort Jackson submitted three videos, one titled, “Drill Sergeants Before 0900” into an Army-wide bracket-style Instagram video contest supporting the service’s new branding initiative.
Videos were submitted by the Army Training Center, 165th Infantry Brigade and the 193rd Infantry Brigade.
The bracket-style competition was for videos with the theme of how much a unit or individual accomplishes before 9 a.m. The contest harkens back to the 1980s Be All You Can Be commercials with the tagline, “In the Army we do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day.” The Army recently began reusing Be All You Can Be as its recruiting slogan again.
The videos could be no longer than 30 seconds. Throughout the course of the competition, the GoArmy Instagram account posted videos in pairs to be voted on by viewers for a 24-hour period. At the end of that time, the winner would move on to the next round.
Fort Jackson videos were only beaten by other Fort Jackson videos.
“The only time a video from one of the Fort Jackson units lost was to another video from Fort Jackson,” said Nathan Clinebelle, the post’s social media manager. “Basic Combat Training is something a majority of people in the Army have experienced and can relate to. Our videos were not staged or scripted, so they had a more authentic feel than some of the other submissions.”
All three videos were filmed and edited in a two-week time frame.
Production, a collaborative between units, took roughly 30 hours to make with 15 hours of filming and another 15 hours of post-production.
Leadership from 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry and 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry regiments assisted with logistics and providing the time and events to film.
Second Lt. Jillian Warnock, Company B, 3-60th, assisted with the concept, planning and filming. The rest of the production and post-production was completed by Clinebelle from the Fort Jackson Public Affairs Office.
“Drill Sergeants Before 0900” was the 165th’s entry filmed with Sgt. 1st Class Jack Young from Company B, 3-34. This narrowly beat the 193rd’s video “The Forge” in an earlier round 51% to 49%.
This video went on to defeat the 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade video in the final four and then beat the 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment video in the final round with a score of 55% to 45%.
Story by Robert Timmons
Fort Jackson Public Affairs Office