Army Times: 89% of Soldiers Do Not Want Parade

As other posters have stated that 90% number would be the same no matter who the president is. Because this wouldn't be simple as they just go out there,get it done and go home. Nothing is that simple in the military. This would be countless rehearsals. Countless standing around waiting to do the rehearsals. Countless uniform and gear inspections All so that the top brass can use his troops to lick the ball sack of the top brass's bosses. **** like that annoys the **** out the average soldier.

The armed forces rehearse the inaugural parade location and route three times. It shuts down and ties up the city of Washington each time. The parade on Veterans Day that began as Trump's Folly is likely to be no different. Trump's parade may well need to be rehearsed more than the three times the ceremonial troops rehearse it. Ceremonial troops of all the armed forces are used to the marching and parading stuff, whereas forces of each service that might be brought in to Washington will be out of their element. The "outsiders" as it were may need more drill, practice and integration with the existing ceremonial units of all the armed forces....




Rehearsal of Inaugural Parade Closes PA Avenue and the Entire Center of Washington



Armed forces units are in rehearsal position before dawn and step off at full sunlight. In this video we see the long morning shadows of the troops marching.






The Full Rehearsal Picture of the Inaugural Parade Tieup of Washington Condensed



The first four minutes of the ten-minute official video show the rehearsal at the Capitol Building West Front as stand-ins of the new Potus and VPotus emerge. The brass hat is however the real thing, i.e., the two-star CG of the Military District of Washington, Joint Force National Capital Region, who is commander of the military division which leads the parade. At 4:15 of the video the scene changes to the long view of the parade rehearsal along PA Avenue and tying up the entire city.







Potus Personal Escort Unit of Each Service Rehearse Inaugural Parade March at Ft. Myer, VA..



While the larger military units march after the president's car and motorcade in the inaugural procession, these small and up front "escort" units of each service march in front of the Potus car and motorcade. This units are not issued ammunition -- they are however trained to support the Secret Service directly if the need ever arose. Which means each member of each unit would be issued ammunition on the spot and in a flash. There are of course no videos available of this training, and rightly so.


The Army ceremonial unit at Ft. Myer next to the Pentagon is the 3rd Infantry Regiment (since 1784) in two battalions and seven line companies, several support companies, a Military Police company, the Fife and Drum Corps, and the eight howitzer ceremonial battery. Company A Alpha of 3 IR 1 Btn is the Commander in Chief Guard replicating the uniforms and weapons of the personal guard of Gen. Washington. The rehearsal is on Sheridan Avenue which extends far to our left where 3 IR billets are located. Ft. Myer is Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall the latter neighboring facility having USMC Headquarters Battalion.

USMC honor guard consists of two companies of Marine Corps Infantry billeted at the Marine Barracks in Washington two blocks up from the Washington Navy Yard and eight blocks south of WH. Marine Barracks house the CMC official residence. The USN ceremonial guard consists of two companies at the Yard. AF honor guard consists of two companies stationed at Joint Base Andrews-Bolling. GC ceremonial guard have one company at CG Station Alexandria, Va, at the mouth of the Potomac. In this third video we see first and out front the CO colonel of 3 IR TOG leading his staff of commanders of each service ceremonial unit. Because the event is a major presentation each service unit we see in the video is drawn from the service's official drill team so the requisite high and unique precision can be realized. These marchers are in short the best of the best for the quadrennial grand event.

In the video we see that these armed forces ceremonial units rehearse and practice normally and routinely yet they still get hollered at and critiqued. Participating forces brought in and that are not designated as ceremonial will have to figure their own way to present themselves either on foot, on wheels, or in the skies. JCS led by Army are planning and organizing the Veterans Day event so we can be confident it will be successful and respectful of our nation's veterans and armed forces. This will be so despite The Temp Donald Trump and his wild ideas.








Military Task Force of Inaugural Parade Committee Presents Their Plan: Expect the Same for Trump's Parade



The floor of the National Guard Armory in Washington is the regular planning center of each inaugural parade. It will be the command and planning center of the special parade to be held on Veterans Day. Representatives of the Military District of Washington brief the press on the imaugural parade and preparations December 14, 2016.

Trump was of course trying to impose on the armed forces and the American people his numbnuts idea of a Bastille style military parade irrespective of facts on the ground, on and in the sea and in the air above his head. While Trump made his ex cathedra diktats about his parade Pentagon and Americans across the land took Trump by the lapels to shake him into acquiescence. So now instead the parade and Veterans Day will be respectable, somber and far more restrained than Trump's wild notions are.


Traffic restrictions imposed due to a major parade in Washington would be in force for Trump's Parade



The staging area of parade divisions and units is the National Mall. Parade units enter PA Avenue below the Capitol West Front using a small road that traverses the mall. This is after the presidential unit has passed the road. We see the actual point of entry in the middle video above which focus on the Air Force marching contingent executing the column left turn onto PA Avenue. The standard order of march is Army, Marines, Navy, AF, CG.

After passing in review at the WH the parade units continue diagonally right from the WH and up toward 1st St (see below). Units turn off onto side streets shown below, such as 19th St., to awaiting vehicles to exit the city. The traffic snarl takes forever to snake through. As is plainly obvious, tread driven vehicles would be a disaster to the roads and a huge burden to deliver to the parade route and to dispatch from it using heavy transportation flatbed vehicles.








On an individual note, after doing my virtual four years in 3 IR TOG I lived at Massachusetts Avenue and 7th St. as a grad student (see top center-right of map). The commercial residence was Tudor Hall of the same architectural style and manner.





After grad school I worked on professional staff in the Congress and lived on M Street in Southwest DC just a few blocks from Ft. McNair which is headquarters Military District of Washington. My neighbor and I used to jog to Ft. McNair and back. Given he was faculty at the National Defense University at Ft. McNair he proved to be a vital contact who connected me to other contacts at NDU and Pentagon who were definite assets to have working in Washington. I did of course continue my relationship with 3 IR TOG at Ft. Myer to include The Old Guard Association of former members who meet annually at Ft. Myer. We do talk about Trump.



17th Annual TOGA Reunion



Soldiers from the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment welcomed former members of the regiment who are now members of The Old Guard Association (TOGA) for their 17th annual reunion. This event provides a link between our storied past and modern-day operations. (U.S. Army Video by Sgt. Sean-David McDonald) Can you spot the kid here being there?

Jredbaron96 said:

I'm being stationed on the East Coast in a few weeks.

I really hope I'm not gonna be part of this bull****.

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Prediction: 100% of those 11% who want to go march aren't going to be in the ranks.

cpwill said:

Prediction: 100% of those 11% who want to go march aren't going to be in the ranks.

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I think you may be correct, the military often chooses by size and build over volunteer for dnc, they love their uniform look, rather than having people of various builds and heaghts in a dnc formation, this is actually how I almost always got stuck with dnc, the command went by height and I was always among the tallest in my unit.