Educating the Military Drill World
It has taken me a while to research and formulate a statement that calls on cadet program HQs to take a hard look at procedures. During this time, AFJROTC, NJROTC, CAP, and Yount Marines were the programs in my view. I am not calling out individuals, I am calling out the institutions, not people.
Three powerful concepts—Building Cohesion, Competition Simulation, and Peer Leadership—will build a truly dominant and strong drill team and color guard.
This guidance provides judges with a consistent framework for evaluating flight (platoon) commander positioning during regulation drill, ensuring assessments are based on published drill standards rather than regional practice, instructor habit, or competitive normalization.
Senior Pentagon reporter Jeff Schogol recently published an excellent piece at Task & Purpose1 detailing the restructuring of U.S. Air Force Basic Military Training (BMT). The article focuses on modernization, but two particular aspects stand out because they directly reinforce something I have taught for years: drill and ceremonies are not cosmetic traditions — they are functional training tools with real-world application.
For many people involved in military drill, ceremonial color guards, marching band, or drum corps, one question keeps resurfacing: How did we all start in the same place—and end up speaking completely different languages about flags, rifles, and sabers? The answer is not stylistic. It is structural. It is a story about authority—where it came from, where it went, and …
In recent decades, military drill teams—particularly those performing exhibition drill—have increasingly adopted visual elements commonly associated with pageantry arts. Audiences often see this overlap and assume the two are functionally equivalent. They are not.
Although exhibition drill may borrow tools from pageantry arts, the two are not the same discipline. They differ fundamentally in purpose, authority, design intent, and evaluation philosophy.
This article outlines the ceremony’s historical development and the origins of the specific ceremonial units that participate. It is written for instructors, historians, ceremonial planners, and drill and ceremonies professionals.
This article evaluates a publicly visible Civil Air Patrol cadet Color guard presentation based on published ceremonial standards, flag protocol, and drill doctrine. The purpose is educational and corrective, not personal. All observations below are based solely on what is visible in the referenced image and applicable regulatory guidance.
For decades, the military drill and ceremonies community has struggled with a persistent and often unspoken problem: who is actually qualified to judge drill and ceremonies.