History Main / VeteranInstructor

* John Basilone in ''ThePacific'' goes from receiving the Medal of Honor to being put in charge of training Marines at Camp Pendleton.

** The GaidenGame ''{{Necromunda}}'' allows you to play as the Adeptus Arbites, an officially-backed riot squad rather than the usual street gangs. Given their access to better equipment, characters who reach a certain level are removed and considered to have become this for game balance reasons.

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed'', the Earth Alliance tried to do this to [[AcePilot Mu La Flaga]] at Alaska by reassigning him as a training instructor in California. He was about to get on the boat leaving Alaska until he remembered he'd forgotten something and ran back to the base to get it [[labelnote:*]]He actually wanted to take the chance to say one last goodbye to Captain Ramius[[/labelnote]]. The result is that he's still on-base when ZAFT attacks and the boat leaves without him, so he stays with the ''Archangel''.

** I hear a 'German tank commander' once said "any one of our tanks was worth 10 allied tanks, but they always had 11"

* For the first book of the ''Literature/XWingSeries'', Tycho Celchu serves this role in Rogue Squadron, helping train the next generation of pilots while serving as Wedge Antille's executive officer. He ''would'' be flying combat missions, there's just the matter of him being a suspected ManchurianAgent that has New Republic Intelligence adamantly against the idea.

* For the first book of the ''XWingSeries'', Tycho Celchu serves this role in Rogue Squadron, helping train the next generation of pilots while serving as Wedge Antille's executive officer. He ''would'' be flying combat missions, there's just the matter of him being a suspected ManchurianAgent that has New Republic Intelligence adamantly against the idea.

* Alastor Moody from ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' is brought from retirement by [[BigGood Dumbledore]] to teach Hogwards' students the ways of wizards' warfare for the inevitable impending struggle against [[BigBad Voldemort]]. He makes a stunning impression on the youths with his harsh and unforgiving demeanor, epic TrainingFromHell and demonstrations of [[WarIsHell what wizards' ways of causing harm are like]].

* Alastor Moody from ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' is brought from retirement by Dumbledore to teach Hogwards' students the ways of wizards' warfare for the inevitable impending struggle against Voldemort. He makes a stunning impression on the youths with his harsh and unforgiving demeanor, epic TrainingFromHell and demonstrations of [[WarIsHell what wizards' ways of causing harm are like]].

* SgtRock has pulled training duty stateside, but is so committed to Easy Company that he insists on rejoining them on his furloughs.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''TheTuskegeeAirmen'', the trainees - the first African Americans ever trained as pilots by the US military - are surprised that one of their lead instructors is also African American... and that the other instructors often defer to him. He turns out to be the only instructor with combat experience (having previously served in the Royal Canadian Air Force).

* Jack Bartlett from ''AceCombat5'' is Type 1: because of his actions during the Belkan War, his superiors mistrust him without any proof, so he is stuck teaching "nuggets" on Sand Island. Gets to shine late in the game when [[spoiler:he escapes a squadron of fighters with precious cargo on board a ''transport plane'' (though, to be fair, you assist him) and then pulls off an AirstrikeImpossible like your own team ''on his own'']].
** Also, an inversion in ''AceCombatZero'': legendary ace Dietrich Kellermann, who became an instructor after retirement, is sent back to the frontlines during the Belkan War to boost the Belkans' morale.

->If he is such a great sweeper, why is he here, teaching us?

A [[OldSoldier decorated war vet]] who teaches [[EnsignNewbie novice officers]] instead of advancing up the CommonRanks ladder. Probably a military [[ShroudedInMyth legend]] and always gets his chance to shine in the OldMaster or RetiredBadass way sooner or later. There can be various reasons for him getting stuck in that position:

* The [[NazisWithGNarlyWeapons Third Reich]] did quite the opposite [[WorldWarII by early 1944]], by gathering most experienced Panzer instructors and veteran commanders into the elite Panzer Lehr Division and arming them lavishly with more and better machinery than either Heer or Waffen-SS Panzer Divisions. In practice it backfired, since they were expected to fight back the assault of Allied troops ten times their number, so the life expectancy in the Division was quite short. By the surrender in May 1945, the fighting men had been depleted and replaced a few times over.

* At the end of one season of ''{{Bones}}'', Booth (a former Army Ranger sharpshooter) was reactivated and went to Afganistan to train snipers.

* Sergeant Cyrus from ''DawnOfWar 2'' is a veteran Blood Raven who prefers to teach the chapter's initiates as Scout Marines and is implied to have trained the player character and the rest of the main squad. This doesn't stop him from playing an active role during the [[BugWar Tyranid invasion]], [[LegionsOfHell Chaos incursion]], and chapter civil war, nor will it stop him from bringing along his Initiates - [[TrainingFromHell it's part of their training, after all]].

* In ''BattleTech'', Clan sibko instructors subvert this; rather than being decorated veterans sent to educate the next generation they have been removed from active duty thanks to age, poor performance or political disgrace. The majority of them are ''very'' bitter about this and are more than willing to take out their anger on the teenaged cadets they train; which is probably one of the the reasons (along with all training being done with live weapons) why Clan training programs [[TheSpartanWay have a 90% attrition rate]].

* Literature/CiaphasCain in ''Cain's Last Stand'' has retired and teaches young Commissars at the Schola Progenium.

* Commissar CiaphasCain ('''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM''') becomes a Commissarial instructor in an Imperial schola once he's reached his "retirement". The GodEmperor having a sick sense of humor, being retired does not make him any less likely to be eaten, shot, or otherwise attacked than when he was still active.

-->'''Jimbo:''' And now, to clarify how the reenactment should unfold, let's bring up our master historian, Grandpa Marvin Marsh, the only man old enough to have actually seen the Civil War... reenactment of 1924.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', one Space Marines special character is Ultramarines scout sergeant Tellion, who stayed a sergeant to teach new recruits, and has even been loaned out to the Ultramarines' successor chapters to further distribute his skills. This seems to be a common occurrence among scout sergeants, see below.

* CiaphasCain in ''Cain's Last Stand'' has retired and teaches young Commissars at the Schola Progenium.

* [[ClintEastwood Gunny Highway]] in ''Film/HeartbreakRidge''. He is sent back to school to train a Recon squad, even though he is a highly decorated Marine. Yeah, he tends to get into bar fights and tell off his superior officers.

In a way, a commissioned counterpart to DrillSergeantNasty, in that he can put his students through a TrainingFromHell just as easily. On the other hand, he is usually [[OfficerAndAGentleman much more gentlemanly about it]].

** They did it with the snipers too. For example, the most famous Soviet sniper, Vasily Zaitsev, actually has relatively modest kill count, even compared to the other Soviet snipers, because he was puled from the action quite early after he was made an example, as the brass realized that letting him to be killed would be a blow to the morale. So he was transferred from the frontlines and got posted as an instructor in the sniper school.