Air Force Manual
36-2203 has everything you will ever need to know about drill. However, unless you have a
fair idea of what the movements are supposed to look like, you'll never be able to figure
it out from the manual. The information isn't organized in a way that most people in CAP
want to look at it. For instance, where do you go to find out what the length of a
standard step is? Well, if you look up 'step', it tells you that it is "The distance
measured from heel to heel between the feet of an individual marching." The correct
drill word is 'pace' and, if you look up 'pace', you find that it is "A step of 24
inches. …the length of a full step in quick time."
So, we're going to attempt
to organize everything in the drill manual into a format that will make casual study and
looking up questions easier. Each section will contain footnotes detailing the reference
in AFMAN 36-2203 and there will be a full and complete index. All footnotes refer to
entries in AFMAN 36-2203 unless otherwise noted. There are a ton of footnotes. If
you're willing to take the contents at face value, you probably won't need to look up the
references very often. If you're harder to convince, then you'll find the footnotes
useful.
The goal here is to
correct common mistakes and provide a convenient reference to the more esoteric and
neglected portions of drill. Therefore, there won't be a great deal of reiteration of
things that are generally done correctly, such as the position of attention and the
positions of rest. Pretty much everyone has those down pat.
Drill, like anything else,
is open to some interpretation. However, my experience is that if you dig deep enough and
cross reference enough, eventually you'll understand exactly what the writers of the drill
manual had in mind. With that in mind, any discrepancies between this guide and Air Force
Manual 36-2203 or misinterpretations of the intentions of the Air Force Basic
Military Traning School's Standardization Division are strictly the fault of the
author. |
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