Educating the Military Drill World
In the somber process of bringing home our fallen servicemembers, every detail matters. The sight of a flag-draped casket signifies part of the highest honors a nation can bestow. However, a modern logistical trend is starting to undermine that dignity: the practice of draping the interment flag over the shipping container holding the casket, rather than the casket itself.
This article is a continuation of Part 1, The Rhythm of Movement. Here, we go over what physically happens when taking that first step. The Gate Cycle When we talk about the gait cycle, we’re essentially describing a full rhythmic cycle of walking. Marching is a highly disciplined and stylized form of walking, so when marching, the gait cycle is …
If you are a cadet seeking mastery, or an adult instructor dedicated to absolute correctness, you already know the name The DrillMaster. For years, you have relied on my hundreds of articles, thousands of social media posts, and authoritative books to set the standard for military drill. Now, that standard evolves. The DrillMaster Podcast is your new, essential audio channel …
The first three installments established the analytical imperative (Cipolla), the ethical guardrails (Scripture/Stoicism), and the strategic mandate (Negentropy). This final article completes the foundation, demonstrating that the need to guard standards and warn against irrationality is not new—it is a central, continuous theme across military, philosophical, and wisdom traditions spanning millennia.
I asked AI and we created a further explanation in this series. I posited the question, “Does entropy have a role in Cipolla’s model?” The answer was: While there is no recognized physical or statistical quantity called “social entropy,” the concept of entropy provides a near-perfect metaphor for the destructive, corrosive force that Carlo M. Cipolla assigned to “stupid people.” …
The first installment established that the greatest threat to success is the stupid action—behavior that causes pure, uncompensated net loss to a system. It also laid the analytical groundwork (Cipolla’s Laws) and the ethical foundation (Scripture’s warning against contempt). This second installment is the call to action. We now translate theory into practice, detailing how to deploy a unified, three-part …
Every functioning system—from a military unit to a multinational corporation—is ultimately challenged by actions that defy logic: actions taken by stupid people causing loss with no rational benefit to anyone. This article lays the groundwork for understanding this challenge by synthesizing two powerful pieces of information. First, we look at economic historian Carlo M. Cipolla’s explanation of his five laws …
Movement has a rhythm and with competitive marching it is crucial to understand that rhythm and break down movement to understand it’s application better.
August 21, 1959 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/4/chapter-1 4 U.S. Code § 1 – Flag; stripes and stars on The flag of the United States shall be thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white; and the union of the flag shall be forty-eight stars, white in a blue field. (July 30, 1947, ch. 389, 61 Stat. 642.) 4 U.S. Code § 2 – Same; …
This article is not just directed toward JROTC instructors alone, but also adults over all other cadet programs. The text of a recent critique for the above photo (with additions here): Colors, you have X the wrong staffs (AFI 90-1201 tells us what to use, the light ash wood guidon staff), X wrong finials (same AFI for the flat, silver …