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Commander Confusion!

Dr. Drill

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

I am having trouble finding in the AFMAN 36-2003 drill manual where the person in command of the flight should march. I know it used to be centered on either side of the flight, however I was told that this changed when the manual was updated.

Sincerely,

Cadet I.M. Slick

Dr. Drill Responds

Section 2.2.2 states, "The commander faces the troops when giving commands except when the element is part of a larger drill element or when the commander is relaying commands in a ceremony."

This means that the commander should not be leading the march from the front (i.e. because she would then not be facing the troops). There is no other requirement, however, for the location of the commander while marching. She may be on any side or to the rear of the flight.

Hmm... Are you sure the manual used to say something different? More likely (and this is how many of the drill errors we see regularly are propagated), you were taught that the commander should be centered on either side of the flight, and it was easy to assume that this came from someplace in the manual. Maybe at some time in the distant past it was so specified, but the text quoted above from AFMAN 36-2203 - the Air Force Drill & Ceremonies Manual - is identical to text in the previous AFR 50-14.

There is a "Drill for Dummies" article that addresses this and other questions relating to commanding a unit in drill. Why don't you take a look at "How do I give drill commands?".

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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