How many times has your color team come across a situation where if you entered in reverse order, the team would be correct when finally posted? These pictures may help to illustrate the issue: In this picture, the team probably entered correctly: single file with the American flag in front, but they had to turn to the right which places …
Why “Equipment”
Why do I use the term “equipment” and not just say “rifle”? Good question; here’s the answer. When I was writing my second book, The World Drill Association Adjudication Manual and Rule Book, I quickly found that I had a slight dilemma. When I came to write the section for the judge who judges armed routines, I realized that I …
The Drill Meet
What is a Drill Meet? In America, the drill meet, after putting in hours of hard work designing, choreographing, practicing, rewriting and practicing some more, is a competition for drill teams, Drillers and color teams (NOTE: military-based: “color team;” music-based: “color guard“). The organizations that compete are each services’ Jr., high school, and Sr., college, Reserve Officer Training Corps, Army …
Joint Service Order of the Colors
The regulation that directs this order of precedence was Department of Defense Directive 1005.8, Order of Precedence of Members of Armed Forces of the United States When in Formations (31 October 1977) and now that information is contained in each service drill and ceremonies or protocol manual. The more interesting part of the story is the history behind why that …
Armed Driller Alternatives
‘Part One’ of this post is here: Psst, Hey Buddy. Armed Exhibition Drill Rifles for Sale The above blog post is great if you want to buy a demilitarized rifle or even a working 1903, M14 or M1 Garand, but what else is out there and are these alternatives right for military drill? Well, let’s look and see: Let’s start …
Why do we Practice the way we do?
Sometimes students have a hard time understanding why it is we spend so much time working on individual skills, when it’s easy to see that most of the team can do the skills. I tell them it’s a lot like a sports team. Every experienced baseball player has skills – they already know how to run, how to hit, and …
How to Become a Certified Visual Judge
The World Drill Association and DrillMaster now offer a training and certification program for judges for the military drill world. All aspects of military drill come under the visual category and should be judged as such. That is where the program comes in. There are four visual captions: 1. Overall Effect 2. Composition Analysis 3. Movement 4. Equipment Also a …
Regarding Colors
Colors (meaning a color guard or, more precisely named, colors team), are a little different today than a few years ago, the honor guard standard is being used everywhere you look and, in my opinion, this is a very good thing: soon to be gone are the days of a color team unceremoniously stomping through a formal dinner setting or …
Dipping the American Flag
I read this short article that was sent to me by a retired Marine friend of mine: The 1908 Summer Olympics were held in London, England were extremely controversial. Many of the medals were won by Irish and Irish-American athletes who were not only members of the Irish American Athletic Club of Celtic Park in Sunnyside, Queens, but also members …
Eyes Right for a Color Guard
Click here for info on “Color Guard” vs. “Color Team.” The Question: Hello, I’m in an Army JROTC and I have a Federal Inspection coming up. I’m doing the color guard for the AFI and I wondering on what to do during eyes, right. Do I salute the rifle like this picture? Or do I just look to the …