Originally Posted by
sullygoarmy
Tom- couldn't agree with you more. Everytime I see the "Soldier Show" come to a post, I keep thinking there's about a platoon of troops not in the fight. Same goes with alot of the other "morale" building tools out there like the rifle team, silent order drill team, etc.
After four years of nearly daily drill and ceremony at West Point, I'll be the first to say how much I hate it and how useless I think it is other than for important ceremonies. Jon hit it on the head. What ends up happening is valuable combat training gets put on hold to rehearse and "Pass and Review" for some change of command. Leaders go nuts with rehearsals and visions of Napoleanic maneuvers for what should be a simple ceremony. When I changed company commands, I refused to have any high flutin' ceremonies that would waste soldiers time. We did a quick rehearsal about a hour prior to the ceremonies, no marching, and that was it.
I think this goes along the lines of building a more practical army. Same with the old PT standards of the "turn and bounce" and all that other eight count PT exercises I hated as a PL. Most units have gotten smarter and now use more practical PT models like crossfit to get soldiers into good combat shape, not PT test shape. It all comes down to how we think. Do we want to spend hours teaching our infantrymen how to conduct a "Right Wheel" on the parade field, or how to breach and clear a room with bad guys in it?
Marc-As a piper, I couldn't agree with you more reference sending in the combat pipers. I brought my pipes to Iraq in 2004 and our Iraqi battalion HATED the things. I used to stand out on the roof of our barracks on a "Man-love Thursday" and play just to piss them off a little bit! Nothing better than some pipes blasting out Black bear to get your blood boiling! Send in the Pipers!!!
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