Last Saturday
Not my actual best friend but a great picture of two guys hoisting espressos.
There was a lot going on last Saturday. There was a Big, Beautiful, Parade in our Nations Capitol. There were No King rallies all over America. There were riots/protests in L.A. but that seems like a daily occurrence. There was a lot of controversy on the internet about the poor Marching skills on display in Washington.
When I checked X (formerly Twitter) this morning there was a lot of angry back and forth between people about the marching. One guy who purported to be an Active Duty Army Officer, pointed out that soldiers in real units were too busy training to waste time on Drill and Ceremony. Another person pointed out that the 75th Ranger regiment is the most lethal light infantry unit in the world and didn’t need to be good at D&C. Some else posted about their time in the Boy Scouts and their rigorous D&C training.
To be honest I see all of their points. Training to fight wars is important. The Rangers are so badass that they don’t need to worry about marching in step. And yes, I concede that the Boy Scouts have rigorous standards and are quite good at D&C. The debate over this will rage on. As will all the other internet based, dumpster fire debates out there.
I wasn’t in Washington for the big beautiful parade. Nor did I attend any of the No Kings rallies. Instead my best friend came over and we poured a couple of cold ones. We sang Happy Birthday to the Army, which turned a very spry 250 years old. We smoked cigars in my garage as it was raining and my Long Suffering Wife was off exercising her constitutional right to peaceably assemble. We told war stories and talked about friends who are no longer with us.
It was a pretty good day. We didn’t watch the Big Beautiful Parade on TV as that would have led to controversy. The best friend is a former Drill Sergeant who used to train people to be Drill Sergeants. He’s quite passionate about D&C. I am a former Army Civil Affairs Officer, we are not know for our sharp D&C.
Fortunately we were able to have a very pleasant afternoon by not discussing this controversial topic. Drill and Ceremony can be quite a polarizing topic if you let it. Pretty much like anything else. Like politics for instance.