Eeehh, so yes, after basic i did not march anywhere really. And you do need to brush up on it to keep in the swing of things…. But honestly, you know your unit is going to march in a parade months in advance, and for better or worse are going to represent the armed forces, you schedule mandatory training time.
Is it wasteful? Arguably under normal circumstances, definitely under this circumstance.
So i can only conclude that either they did not care, or do care a lot, or someone who was supposed to plan this fucked up and they just grabbed people.
I am surprised at how many people do not get it. In military you cannot not comply with the orders, especially whan there is clearly nothing criminal with it. The guys doing sloppy marching is pretty much the only agency they have and the only way to protest and boycot that ridiculous parade.
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“They did in protest” is the funniest cope I have heard, ever I think.
i don’t give a shit either way but it makes far more sense that it was in protest than that all of those soldiers are too incompetent to march properly. insisting it must be incompetence because you want to think bad things about the us military is the real cope.
Or its simply that drill and parade are not really practiced outside of bootcamp because marching in lockstep requires quite some practice.
D&C is used daily by the US Army, to move personnel from point A to point B. During running. During inspections. During pass and reviews.
15 years out, and “9 to the front and 6 to the rear” is still drilled into my head. Even my “about face” is still solid, while needing some practice.
This depends a lot on your branch and unit. Many many people never do a pass and review or any type of inspection other than counting inventory. I disagree that marching skills are used during running, that’s freeform.
Anyone who has served longer than 3 years has done a pass and review.
Anyone who has been to a perm duty station has had a class A inspection.
Anyone who has ever served has marched daily, in formation, from point A to point B.
Double time is a marching speed, aka running, and you have to run in step.
Ok. I guess your perspective is correct and there is just one military that is all the same.
“Defend our nation” by starting wars to keep rich people rich?
no sometimes they start wars to get rich people richer
but for reals its not the soldiers starting wars its the higher ups and the people who make weapons who start wars
It is soldiers who willingly join that organization, knowing the same or more as we know. So they are as morally bancrupt as their leadership
It’s crazy that the people involved for the most noble (to them) reasons are the ones most likely to be pulling triggers and/or getting killed, while the ones starting the war for evil reasons typically come out ahead as long as they are willing to ignore the mountain of bodies in their wake. (cue narrator)
Or as a wise man once said:
Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor? Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor? Why do they always send the poor? Why do they always send the poor?
the bottom line is money nobody gives a fuck
Unfortunately I think you are correct.
it is what Serj says in SOAD’s song Boom!
great music video for that btw
They deliberately half-assed the parade because they don’t like the way Trump treats them. Trump calls them “suckers and losers.” He cuts their benefits Why would you show any loyalty (or enthusiasm) to someone who treats you like that?
More Trump quotes: “You fucking generals. Why can’t you be more like Hitler’s generals?” 2017
On the burial of US Army private Vanessa Guillén: “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!” December 4, 2020. Trump has denied having made the remark.
“We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral.” August, 2018. Trump has denied having made this remark.
re: John McCain, who was captured and tortured for five years: “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, okay? I hate to tell you.” July 18, 2015.
“But, you know, during the Vietnam War, I got very lucky. I had a very high lottery number.” November 9, 1995.
On the 1,800 US Marines who died at Belleau Wood in France during World War I “Suckers.” November 11, 2018. Trump denies having made this remark.
On US soldiers in World War I “Who were the good guys in this war?” November 11, 2018. Trump denies having asked this question.
“I don’t get it. What was in it for them?” November 11, 2018. Trump denies having made this remark.
On disabled veterans “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.” September 30, 2019.
“Look, I don’t want any wounded guys in the parade. This doesn’t look good for me.” Summer 2017.
I can understand why someone would ask who the good guys were in WW1.
It’s a question that shows a childlike understanding of war in general, but that’s how war is often sold. A team sport with body bags.
That said, WW1 is hard to pick a “good” side. It was a mess of a war, but no side was particularly vile when compared to the others…
But for a US president, there’s only one valid answer.
A US president can admit that Vietnam was not a shining moment is US history, but the world wars? No.
I had a very high lottery number
ah yes. that’s how lottery works
During the Vietnam War there was a draft, so you could end up being conscripted and shipped halfway around the world to fight it. One way to avoid getting drafted was a lottery where, if you picked a high enough random number, you could avoid being drafted.
The thing is, Trump never picked a lottery number. Instead, he got five draft deferments, 1 medical and 4 educational. A lot of rich people at the time were able to avoid military service alltogether by getting a doctor to sign off that you had a sketchy illness. In Trump’s case, it was bone spurs, which apparently healed right up after the Vietnam War ended. Trump kept his 1-Y deferments until after 1972, when he was reclassified 4-F (permanently ineligible for service). By claiming he got a “high lottery number” Trump makes it sound like staying out of Vietnam was an amazing stroke of luck. That was just another lie. Trump had powerful friends and family intervene for him. Luck had nothing to do with it.
I think the way they marched says more about trump than it does their ability to march. I very much doubt they forgot how to do it.
No one will ever match North Korea’s marching game.
I despised drill and ceremony. Standing in the heat and humidity, waiting to move and watching soldiers drop because of heat stroke. Never lock your damn knees.
Made more sense back in the day when you didnt have TV or anything to do for most of every day.
I did the last sentence and got punished when I was in school ☠️
Did they even know locking knees feel painful already?
Story time, boys and girls.
When I joined the Army and went to basic training, one of the first things they did was show us how to stand at attention, at-ease, right face, left face, and about face. Then they turned the training unit and marched off.
And then stopped and screamed at us for marching like Nazis.
Turns out, you don’t see US soldiers marching like that because it’s stupid as hell, and you can’t do it for twenty miles with a rucksack. The US military for all their many, many faults, is real good at war, and marching like a toy soldier doesn’t help you do war.
So we learned how to march like Americans, which is much more casual. The only thing you’ve gotta do is make sure you match the stride length of the soldier in front of you, but even that is more of a suggestion than a hard rule. We got good, though, because we were assholes.
We would ease out behind someone who was walking somewhere and roughly the same height, and step slightly faster than the person in front of us, until we were close behind them. Then you perform a little skip at the last second to get back to the same stride and close the last few inches. The end result is that your chest is hovering about an inch from their back, your nose is an inch from the back of their head, and your hands are swinging right behind theirs. While walking at full speed.
You haven’t had a jump scare until you’ve marched two blocks, turned your head, and glimpsed someone’s face an inch from your own.
I was only in marching band. 25 years later, I promise I could still do it with zero practice. This was on purpose.
If you were in marching band, there’s a good possibility that you had more thorough training in marching than what’s given in basic training, especially if you went to competitions. Marching makes up like half the activity of marching band (it’s in the name). Marching is only one of a plethora of things that are taught during the few months of basic training, and once you’re out of basic, you may never have to march again.
I also think your expectations on how rhythmically-inclined the average person (or soldier) is might be on the high side based on your experience in an activity with a bunch of highly rhythmically-inclined people.
I was in army cadets for like 2 years about 17 years ago and could still do this with 0 effort and I have a very poor sense of rhythm.
Trust me, anyone that’s spent more than like an hour learning to march could still do it with ease decades later.
Marching makes up like half the activity of marching band
Marching makes up about 25% of daily life for a solider. We had PT formations, morning formation, weekend safety briefing formations, formations for training sessions, etc etc. If you have an element of troops, of any size, and they need to move from Point A to Point B, you’re marching there.
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The band played “Fortunate Son”. They all knew exactly what they were doing.
If shit ever does hit the fan full send (I very much doubt it) he doesn’t have the army.
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From what I’m hearing from coordinators and people inside its not that they can’t march. It’s that nobody wanted to. They had to be there. So they phoned it in. Malicious compliance.
Like the squeaky tanks. That was a choice made in the motor pool. They could have greased them up and tested to make sure they were smooth. But they made a different call.
Lmao I didn’t think about that. Probably didn’t think it would be quiet enough to hear it squeak either.
Same, considering its age that thing is in mint condition and barely made any noise, really highlighted how much crowd noise wasn’t there
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but i do find it hard to believe. I think most people that take pride in their jobs won’t half ass it.
Lol, half assing it is the default setting. Most people in the military are 18-22 year olds doing one enlistment contract and mostly hate it and want to get out as soon as they can.
When has the US military defended the nation? I got the impression that they’re mostly used for invading foreign countries for financial gain, cf Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Yugoslavia, Sudan, Panama, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Guatemala, Korea.
Yeah. That’s kind of America’s whole thing. Making money. Exploiting everything. Americans are the Ferengi.
Defending America = defending capitalism = doing whatever they can to make American, capitalist companies more profitable.
I don’t hate capitalism. Don’t get me wrong, but I generally don’t like capitalists.
Capitalists are what makes capitalism capitalism. How can you hate one without the other?
The same way I don’t hate Christianity but most Christians drive me up a wall.
The concepts can be good, valid and even the best option in some cases, but the way it’s weilded can be dramatically different based on the person wielding it.
You are comparing apples and oranges with your explanation.
Religion and belief are two separate things.
Christians drive you up a wall because of their beliefs not because of their religion.
This is not the same as hating capitalists but not capitalism.
Didn’t North Korean military slap US military with their dick on their faces for years? Isn’t that the reason a North Korea exists at all?
This is just not accurate.
Here’s an example proving it incorrect:
https://youtu.be/aeFltEjzR2Y?t=1212
That’s just a unit. Not a ceremonial one.
The key difference is you can actually march to that music. Fortunate son is slightly too fast for a proper pace which is why the front of the one group was wavy and people were out of step. Also if anyone was actually calling cadence, the people on the left side probably wouldn’t have been able to hear it over the music.
Marching can be done to no music.
Side ranks keep sideeye on the element leader to the side, everyone else keeps side eye to the person on their right.
There are also the marshall with the whips. If all else fails, you keep cadence to that.
In a silent march, you keep in step with the “Clomp clomp clomp”, which also, is quite easy to do, and is done often.
Yeah, you literally just keep the beat in your head. Anyone can do it.
Your left, your left, your left righto left righto left right your left, keep in step, keep in step, step, step, step…
Runs through my head when walking alone, 15 years later.
“Boots, boots, boots, boots…”
I did Mandatory service in Germany almost 15 years ago, i still sometimes hear “links, links, links two drei vier, links” in my head.
