Comments 6

  1. Dear John:

    We met a few years ago at Forest Hill Military Academy. I am head of LWMA, Camp Hill, AL. Please get in touch with me as I could sure use some of your expertise on campus for our drill team. Email me. RB.

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  2. I would like to start a class at my school just for Drilling, what do you think? I would like to cover everything dealing with D&C. How should the course read, for a new student I only want a student that will give 100% to this class. dedication, commitment, I will give quality instruction. just would like to hear from the Drill Master.

    SGM C.C.Barlow

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      Hi SGM,

      Good to hear from you! As a matter of fact, a drill class is an excellent idea. In my experience a drill class can be developed for two reasons or go into one of two directions

      1. To eliminate after school drill team/color guard activities (from my point of view this is bad and indicative of a program that is suffering)
      2. To create a time where extra emphasis and focus can be applied to the units marching teams.

      My work with Merritt Island is during their drill class, the first class of the day. I’m there each morning working on perfecting technique and we have been able to make the class the Squad Exhibition Drill time as well both for the male and female cadets. The instructors have let me have full rein. The 12/13 school year was my first and at the beginning I took all of the cadets, who are all on one or more of the drill teams, back to the very beginning of how to stand at attention and moved through standing manual, manual of arms and then into exhibition drill. This year, 13/14, has seen the first time of having a couple LET 1s into the class which has not worked out very well for them since I have not had the time to take them through the basics since I’ve been teaching more advanced exhibition work. However, given enough time, they have been able to catch on quite well. We even use this class to experiment: trying out different rifle moves to see if they layer well over top the drill that I’ve written. I also teach those cadets who want to learn, how to write a drill routine suing my Routine Mapping Tools (you can find them on my Downloads page).

      I would suggest doing the same thing for your class, making sure that your perfect standard is exactly what is being performed by each cadet. Your first year will be quite a bit of work from the TC, but as you progress, you will be able to expand. You may want to keep the class narrowed to only those cadets on the drill team and color team, I think this would help you and the cadets concentrate on the D&C and also give you a class of cadets focused 100% on improvement. After your first year, you could then rely on senior cadets to accomplish new cadet training while you work with the more seasoned cadets and going back to check on the progress of the new cadets. I would think that within three years or so, you could have a well-oiled machine running with your drill class.

      Have a great time with this class and please keep me posted as to the progress. All the best to you, I hope to see you at state this year again!

      John

  3. does the POW setting in a veterans organization need to be sectioned from the rest of the public and are there any refrances to table cloth color, color of ribbon around vase, shape of table?

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      Mr. Smart,

      The POW/MIA table does not have to be roped off or anything like that. Some veteran halls have the table in the foyer and you can see it as soon as you walk in. When you read through the POW/MIA Ceremony script, you will find the rest of the specifics you are looking for.

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