Airborne Mike wrote:
Sorry I hurt people's feelings for saying "Hello Kitty Marine is Lame". Suck it up & move on. Ref the "General Salute", Dom is a Canadian & using Canadian words of command for drill. I have no idea what you say in the US, regardless of branch. A "General Salute" is only done for a General. OK, this is USCM land so maybe I should STFU and let the EU crowd take over.
Please let me clarify. Dom is trained in Commonwealth military drill and ceremony. He was never instructed in US D&C. During our rehearsals, he always showed us what he was planning to do and ASKED if it was ok, because he didn't know how exactly it was done in the US. The General Salute to the US flag was his idea. He didn't think it was appropriate that the marines start the march until proper honors were given to the host nation. Again, he ASKED for our approval. The marines and the crowd LOVED IT! Since Dom was the only marine to step up and sit in the hotseat to be the Honor Guard OIC, we we're grateful to see someone do it, and do it WELL! We don't do this often. No real rehearsal, no prep, no training, only a few minutes of practice before the parade. We all trusted him to do what he could to make us look sharp. HE SUCCEEDED!
Dom has made it very clear to me that he would be willing to make any adjustments to the Honor Guard traditions. All we need to do is just give him the input and like a true NCO, he'd carry out the orders. As an proud veteran and Amerian soldier, I was quite proud of Dom's displayed respect for our flag and our costume group. He felt truly honored for his role and was nervous as hell! Remember, although we love the AL, the reality is, we are still a make believe military unit. Its ok to have some fun and be creative with how we role play it. And the beauty is, if we want to make changes to keep people happy, we can!
If anyone has any feedback to give. Please do it. The Honor Guard belongs to ALL OF US. So all input is encouraged. Keep in mind, all of us that participate in the HG, do it without any real practice. Some of us this year didn't even know we were doing it until the parade! But we did look pretty damn good, IMHO.
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NYANG, MAJ Ret.