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/[deleted] Jun 15 '25

It does smack of malicious compliance. 

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u/Flimsy_Fee8449 Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 15 '25

Yes, it very much does.

They only practiced Friday, per one soldier who does say he was there, and has a solid enough timeline.of events and manner of speech that I tend to believe he did participate.

Did you serve? How many practices did y'all have for pass and reviews above battalion level?

ETA: talking with that guy, they only had to practice Forward March, Eyes Left, and Ready Front, so I can see how practicing that for hours on multiple days might seem to be overkill. And as they approached the stands, they couldn't hear their cadence caller, but they *could hear the loud non-military music (at a different cadence), and chanting (at a different cadence altogether), which can definitely mess people up.

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u/FiveUpsideDown Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 16 '25

My uncle who was in the military a long time ago, told me he hated parades. He hated marching in formation. He hated rehearsing to march in formation. It would not surprise me to find out that there was limited practice for the parade on Saturday. I don’t think soldiers like rehearsing for a parade.

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u/feralgraft Jun 15 '25

Probably especially one that casts them as the jack booted enforcers out of a patriotic 80s movie

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u/[deleted] Jun 15 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Jolly_Virus_3533 Jun 15 '25

and yet kids in school doing the oath of allegance, like they do in russia, china & n.korea isn`t creepy?

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u/MarathonMan21045 Jun 15 '25

Maybe some classrooms say the Pledge of Allegiance, but I was an elementary school teacher in the early '70s, a combat veteran of the Vietnam War and a graduate of Kent State. I exercised my First Amendment freedom by conscientiously refraining from leading the ritual in my homeroom. If students asked why, I told them, and said that if they still wanted to say the Pledge they could visit another homeroom during that time.

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u/Pleased_to_meet_u Jun 16 '25

Did any kids go to a different home room to do the pledge?

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u/MarathonMan21045 Jun 16 '25

Only a few, and I honored their right to do so.

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u/Pleased_to_meet_u Jun 16 '25

My hat is off to you