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Clues from the Clueless!

Dr. Drill

You can submit your questions to Dr. Drill via e-mail to : DrDrill@CadetStuff.org.

Dr. Drill,

I am trying to establish a color guard in my squadron, and I am in charge of teaching it. The only problem is I can't teach something that I or anyone else in the squadron doesn't know. Is there some kind of instructional video, or someone in one of the local military units that might be able to help me?

C/Maj. Lee Confused

Dr. Drill Responds

This is, of course, a serious problem: how to teach that which you don't know. You could, of course, use the references I provided in the response to the previous letter, read through the various manuals, and attempt to learn it on your own. It can be done, although it is difficult to learn that way.

National HQ has a video (which was in short -- or non-existent -- supply at NCC 18 months ago) which Dr. Drill did not find to do a very impressive job of teaching Color Guard. NHQ was supposedly working on a better one...??? Dr. Drill has never seen a good instructional Color Guard video, but good video tapes are available of the Marine Corps Color Guard. You can find a couple of Marine Corps Color Guard videos at here.

Also, many teams which have competed at NCC have taken video. You might try to get your hands on one of those.

The best way to learn Color Guard, of course, is to find someone who knows it and can teach it to you. Be sure, however, to show the references listed in the previous letter to anyone who will be teaching you, as things have changed over the past many years, the procedures differ amongst the various branches of the military, and Civil Air Patrol rules for the Color Guard Competition differ somewhat from even the way the AF does it.

Best of luck!

Dr. Drill.


Caution: Dr. Drill isn't always one hundred percent serious. Please activate your Joke Detectors. And don't call us when you find yourself explaining to a membership termination board why you used a staple gun to keep a cadet's hands at his sides during "To The Rear, March". All we're going to say on your behalf is "Duh!"

And if you find yourself on the bad end of a serious counseling because you decided to go toe-to-toe with your squadron commander over the position of the guide during a squadron-in-mass formation or something similarly trivial, well, we're just going to point, laugh and call you names!

Dr. Drill welcomes comments and corrections. Nothing herein is to be construed as official policy unless quoted from an up-to-date regulation or manual and Dr. Drill is not to be used as a blunt instrument to reshape the pointy heads of your superiors. Dr. Drill has made an extensive study of the drill and knows some people who know some things, but he's not the Final Authority on what happens at your unit. That Final Authority is? That's right, kids! Your UNIT COMMANDER.

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