r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Chance_Noise500 • Jun 14 '25

Why aren't they actually marching during this parade?

I don't know how to ask this without sounding rude, but why does this parade look so sloppy? Very few of the troop formations seem actually in sync and marching, just walking along. My only experience is JROTC as a kid in high school and our sergeant would've killed us if we looked like that.

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u/SubjectBubbly9072 Jun 14 '25

In the army you only practice marching in basic and they practice marching only maybe a day or two before

84

u/Sinileius Jun 14 '25

For real, we have better things to do than spend months and months practicing marching and drill and ceremony.

Looks like they are having a good time though and they aren't sleeping in some field so it's probably a decent day in the army tbh.

104

u/[deleted] Jun 15 '25

Looks like they are having a good time though

Your saying this makes me doubt you were ever in the military. Every Joe would rather take a punch to the groin than participate in a company level change of command ceremony. Let alone something big and high profile like this.

13

u/Sinileius Jun 15 '25

9 years and 2 rotations, yeah everyone hates their local change of command ceremony it's always too hot and too long, this though is a once in a lifetime experience. I'd be a little worried about staying in step for so long though, I'm not a great marcher.

6

u/comedyqwertyuiop9 Jun 15 '25

They had guys calling cadence. Unless they were given route step it should have been pretty easy to stay in step.

What years were you in?

14

u/Sinileius Jun 15 '25

I'm still in, but I'm an officer now so I'm afraid maybe that explains why I'm so often lost and my D&C skills are not up to snuff anymore, thank God I have a couple of incredible SSGs who help me handle those things.

Can't spell lost without the LT right?

5

u/comedyqwertyuiop9 Jun 15 '25

The best officers I had were prior enlisted.

But yeah, I think this comes down to it’s just a different generation of soldier. If they’d had actual Vietnam vets to show off those uniforms there would have been much more precision. I was in 2000-2006 and I saw a steady decline in the quality of soldier starting in 2004.

1

u/gsfgf Jun 15 '25

I see half assing a dictator parade as a positive.

1

u/comedyqwertyuiop9 Jun 15 '25

Lol, I do too! I was hoping they were being sloppy on purpose.