I am publishing this article to help everyone, but it is specifically for one young man who I have known for a short time. You have a choice when addressing someone in person as to how you sound, what you say and your facial and body expressions. Before we continue: if you come across as a parent to others, especially …
Why The DrillMaster for Cadets?
I was asked a short time ago why someone would hire me or use the skills I’ve acquired. That is an excellent question. Why indeed. Question: Concerning drill, what would you tell someone who is just coming into JROTC, whether they are an instructor or a cadet? Read. Read your service drill and ceremonies manual. You need to know it …
The Graveside Sequence For Funeral Directors Part 3
The military funeral with cremated remains, “cremains”. Sequence The honor guard, as few as two members or as many as six, arrives one hour before the ceremony and makes a couple of dry runs in their travel uniform. Fifteen to 20 minutes before the funeral, the team changes into their ceremonial uniform and forms up each element, pall bearers should face …
The Graveside Sequence For Funeral Directors Part 2
The Modified Funeral Sequence Again, military and first responder funerals are about the deceased, but for the family. The honor guard arrives one hour before the ceremony and makes a couple of dry runs in their travel uniform. Fifteen to 20 minutes before the funeral, the team changes into their ceremonial uniform and forms up each element, pall bearers should face the grave. When …
The Graveside Sequence For Funeral Directors Part 1
This is a Full Honors Funeral with all elements present. A Standard Honor Funeral would encompass the pallbearers also firing the Three-Volley Salute as the firing party. Military and first responder funerals are about the deceased, but for the family. With that being, the family needs to be able to see every element of the honor guard. In the image …
An Embarrassing Color Guard Performance
I created this article for two reasons: Help deflect questions that usually arise and come my way. The questions go something like this: “Can we do this/[is this proper] for our color guard?” Communicate to everyone, even Active Duty, Guard, Reserve, law enforcement, and firefighters that what you do is usually caught on camera and/or video and affects others in …
Create Goals, not Dreams
But not just goals, SMART Goals The difference between a goal and a SMART goal is your goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. SMART goals give you a much better avenue to reach your goals. Your dreams are the fuel that drives the high-performance goal engine. Specific Broad, general terms are not going to help. What, …
The Firefighter’s Ceremonial Axe Manual
See also the article, Resistance to Change: Betrayal?, for some insight that may help dealing with this sometimes rather touchy issue. Why an axe manual in the first place? Firefighter honor guard units use two of their tools as ceremonial equipment that are normally used to fight fires. When I first began writing my book, The Honor Guard Manual, I wanted …
Resistance to Change: Betrayal?
I felt the need to follow up the article that published last week, Resistance to Change: The Five Monkeys Syndrome. My help is sought out on a consistent basis from high school and college drill teams and also first responder honor guard units. I teach courses and, when asked, also give free advice over the phone, through email or on videos …
What is “Readability”?
Readability describes something that we can easily read. We get that. When we pick up a newspaper or look at a magazine article, we find it easy to read and comprehend, in general. We can read a master’s degree thesis and find complex words, phrases and sentence structure. On the other hand, we can look at a child’s first paper …