SNAP AND MOTHERFUCKIN’ POP
I love the cute smile the adorable Marine on the left flashes his buddy at the 1:09 mark.
And the title of this post is what a unit performing close order drill tries to achieve with all its movements.
Someone watching COD being performed can judge some of the quality of the drill movements simply by closing his eyes and listening.
If the movement makes a single popping sound from everyone performing it — it’s been executed properly. While if you hear a ripple in the sound of the movement, then it hasn’t been as tightly executed as it should have.
February 20th, 2013 at 2:14 pm
This is pretty cool seeing the inside of this platoon. Each year when they hold auditions, that drill floor will have about 100 Marines vying for a spot. Over the course of several weeks the group gets smaller and smaller, and the training gets more relentless, more unforgiving. I recall about five years ago there was this brutal Senior Drill Master who never failed, it seemed, to pepper every sentence with at least two variations of the word Fuck. You could hear him throughout the building. He was hot. It was hot.
February 20th, 2013 at 8:09 pm
These are amazing young men, but the most amazing men in the world are serving in all parts of the world tonight.
February 21st, 2013 at 12:47 am
How about a former Marine in abbreviated uniform, doing rifle drills as a go-go at Q? Even you, Scott, in less abbreviated kit.
February 21st, 2013 at 7:45 am
Iwga — the thing about these guys is that they’re not just “show” Marines. In order to be in the Silent Drill Platoon you have to have an infantry MOS {Military Occupational Specialty}. They’re selected for the platoon from one of the Marine Corps’ two schools of infantry while they’re students there — and after their tour with the platoon they are rotated into a combat infantry unit.
These guys are all Grunts, every single one of them.