Military Discipline During Drill and Ceremony

Discussion in 'Member Casual Chat' started by camp_steveo, Feb 7, 2018.

  1. camp_steveo

    camp_steveo Well-Known Member

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    With all the debate surrounding Trump's interest in a parade to honor the US military, I thought it would be interesting to see which branch or unit people in here see as the most disciplined.

    Here is a start:


    Then, there is this footage of an inspection at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where the sentinel being inspected gets accidentally stabbed in the foot by his inspecting officer who dropped the weapon and the bayonet stabbed him.

    This is, in my opinion the most disciplined unit in the US military, as far as drill and ceremony goes. However, you could make the case that dropping the rifle was not a good example. That said, the sentinel maintained his military bearing even though he had just been stabbed and is shown to be bleeding through his boot.

     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2018
  2. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Extreme pain is extremely good.

    It's just weakness leaving the body, after all.
     
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  3. camp_steveo

    camp_steveo Well-Known Member

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    Isn't it crazy how he just carried on. That is discipline to the Nth degree.
     
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  4. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Nothing a little motrin and some mole skin won't fix.
     
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  5. camp_steveo

    camp_steveo Well-Known Member

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    If you are interested, here is a documentary about the Old Guard:
     
  6. camp_steveo

    camp_steveo Well-Known Member

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    Drink water you! LMFAO
     
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  7. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    And that is why there's only ever one guy in a platoon that pees into their canteen.
     
  8. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    Many years ago I was watching the Marines Exhibition Drill Team (the ones who spin the rifles around). I used to be on that team in high school when I was in Marine Corps JROTC so they took us to go see the real boys one day.

    Anyway the real Drill Team uses real fixed bayonets on their rifles. During a sequence where they were tossing them to one another one Marine missed his slightly and caught it by the bayonet completely slicing his hand clean open. He continued the performance as he was dripping blood all over the place and simply carried on as if nothing happened. Luckily the performance was almost over and he simply marched off with the rest of them while leaving a blood trail behind him.

    I still have the scars on my hands from the years of practicing when I was on the team in high school from just the rifle smacking me (we didn't use bayonets obviously). But after watching that performance live that day back when I was 15 the cuts on my hand never seemed that bad anymore lol.

    All of those ceremonial units from all branches are damn good, hard to pick a best one. After spending the day with the Marines that day I was in awe at how many hours they spend per day perfecting their performances. It's a full time job for those guys.

    My very first squad leader when I joined the Army had just returned from a stint as a guard for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. His stories about daily life in that unit were incredible. Tough gig, I wouldn't want to do that.

    My hat goes off to all of them equally.
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2018
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  9. camp_steveo

    camp_steveo Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, when I got out of active duty, I enlisted for active reserves. We got a new guy in from the Old Guard. He went straight there out of basic, and ETSd out of there. He was a pretty squared away soldier, but he never saw combat and had very little field training. I actually felt bad for him in that regard.
     
  10. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    It was a tough transition for my squad leader because he too went straight to the Old Guard from basic. When he finally got to our normal line unit he struggled a bit because I don't think he realized that the structure of the Old Guard isn't the way the actual military is. He was very disciplined and was a bit taken back when the rest of us weren't like that. We were disciplined enough for normal Army but nothing like where he came from and it took quite a few "talking to's" from his counterparts to make him realize that a normal infantry line unit isn't the Old Guard. Plus he had never deployed seeing how he was in the Old Guard while nearly everybody around him was walking around with combat patches during the height of the War on Terror. So his credibility took a hit in that aspect.

    He didn't do too well unfortunately, he just wasn't a good leader (I actually ended up replacing him about halfway through our first deployment together). To this day Im not sure if the Old Guard being his first military experience is what screwed him up or if he was just a jackass in general but he was the type of guy who could quote field manuals like the Bible but couldn't lead his way out of a wet paper bag. Guy just had a terrible personality overall and nobody wanted to work with him let alone follow him unfortunately.
     
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