"Accurate Simulation of Military Operations" Topic

Say what? Try as I might I cannot find any combat casualty figures for marching bands.

As much as I enjoy hitting the "ridiculous" button, I would really like to have fewer opportunities to do it.

LT

Having been in both I chose 5%. Being in a band taught me to keep my uniform squared away and how to work within the framework of a larger organization both of which were, at least somewhat, applicable to my time in the service.

I know a guy whose entire army career consisted of playing the tuba in a marching band. So for him it's 100%

They wear uniform and march, which is basicly 90% of what soldiers do, or at least did, until they got lazy and started to use mechanical things (which frankly is cheating in my book)

Well, more so for the 18th Century than for today. And even closer to horse and musket reality if we shot a few during halftime. Did we have to do this one?

Once upon a time at Fort Belvoir, we were blessed with the most incompetent front-loader operator in the history of the US Army; he was a very nice guy but he was going to kill himself or somebody else or both if he continued trying to do a job he was incapable of doing.

But he could play the trumpet. He was only a year out of high-school where he played in reward-winning marching bands for four years.

Of course I couldn't go to the platoon sergeant, the patron saint of micromanagement, or to the LT, who was three months out of OCS and probably slept with his teddy bear.

Fortunately, I was more than willing to lie to people over the phone and I knew who to lie to. I called the first sergeant of the 75th JAG US Army band, introduced myself as the 1st sergeant of C Co/ 11th Engineer Battalion (Combat) and told my mark that my unit had a skinny white reincarnation of Satchmo running a front-loader but I felt that his talent was being wasted. I then called the 1st sergeant, C Co/ 11th etc etc etc, introduced myself as the company clerk of the 75th etc etc etc and my 1st sergeant had heard about the trumpet prodigy that you were hiding. We needed a trumpeter badly and we'd like to give himan audition. Tomorrow would be fine.

By the next afternoon, the most dangerous man in the company was the best trumpeter in the post band and two weeks later he was the post bugler as well.

I bring this up because I had done the opposite of what the poll asks. I took a man who was utterly horrible at being a soldier and gave him a chance to be a fantastic musician. Yes. he wore a uniform but a uniform is, in the end, just a suit; it doesn't make a soldier.

LT

p.s. SWMBO has a pile of trophies and recordings from her days in a prize-winning marching bands in both high-school and college. I showed her this poll; she snickered and said "Oh, hell no!". That's all I need.

There are certainly some similarities beyond just the uniform and the marching. The band member is acting in a disciplined fashion as part of a larger group who are all working together to achieve a common goal. That is a big part of any military organization.

Both wear uniforms and march, both also spend long times in training and boredom for just short bursts of real action.

So pretty slim but some.

People wearing the same clothes and marching can also be found on chain gangs and in grade schools taught by nuns.

LT

The last probably qualifies as Boot Camp!

Casualties in a marching band: YouTube link

How closely do the TMP Boards resemble a war-zone, at times?

""*[//]) {> ::::

Parzifal, now that reminds me of the Army.

LT