1 It would be a video, wouldn't it?

2 Boobies!! I say!!!

3 6th!

4 Yes, I'm drunk.  Again.

5 Thanks for ruining seeing the ONT for me, DiT.

Bring me my bow of burning gold.

6 Can we close the center tag?

7 Wow, feeling very centered this evening.morning.

8 OK.  I'm getting center justify on all the comments, which is leading to a Tourette's style wish to strangle Bill Gates.

9 Oh.  Much better.  Now I just want to choke a chicken.

10

woohoo, i did that in booter camp (triple threat, 933)

they are definately much much better than we were though

i have to admit, the marine silent guard is still the best bar none

11 Most ROTC's had drill teams in the 60's.  NC State had one that did this same drill.  They practiced for hours on in. 

It is really cool.

12 Cheap acrobatics by an under-occupied, under-occupying military force. Like to see guys with PTSDs try and do this. Circe de Soleil, Chinese acrobats, Russian circus performers, most of the Red Army drill team, even your average Dominican and Cuban street dancers do stuff just as hazardous as in this video and more. It's simple repetition training, same as for athletes, musicians, typists, machine workers and trained animals.

13 I'd rather watch this than anything that those brain-dead dancers on eMpTyVee gyrate their heroin-riddled carcasses to. Michael Jackson would have wished his handler could have choreographed something 1/100 this good.

14 Was rifles are they using?

15 Needs more blasphemous imagery.

16 The riffles are usually M1 Garands, the bolts make a nice clacky sound when the butt hits the ground.

17 12

3/10

18 Looks like M1903-A1 Springfield drill rifles. Nine pounds, naked -- ten with the bayonet.

19 Now deez muh boyz. . . el Cid Summerall Guards. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2uL0XNDm1c They got the 03's. Us corps pukes drilled wif the M14. . . .yes, I was issued a fully-automatic weapon in college. Sans pin, of couse. tD '91 Golfball Fwiw, we also had Junior Sword Drill, JSD. They went over the line & got disbanded while I was there. Hazing & hospitals don't mix well at a military college.

20 pardon the link FAIL. It's worth the copy & paste or right-click. tD

21 Nice, but I'm sure the regular sailors are laughing at them for the time wasted on learning to twirl rifles instead of shooting them.

22  Nice, but I'm sure the regular sailors are laughing at them for the time wasted on learning to twirl rifles instead of shooting them.

Posted by: Aaron at June 12, 2010 12:07 AM (XUIJ5)

Bank on it, Aaron- those guys are well versed in using weapons, not just twirling them. That was one hell of a lot of discipline you just witnessed.

23 Hers another with a bit more backdrop on the BVA selection 'process.' http://bit.ly/cKcPF6 hope ya dig. tD

24

Weapons related, but OT. For reason on "Justified", I got it in my mind that Raylan uses a 1911. Finally saw the last show, and it's a garden variety Glock. He must use hollow points the amount of damage he does.

25 When I was a kid, you'd see this stuff a lot on television, e.g., The Ed Sullivan Show. O.T.: I read that Justified has been picked up for another season but they have 6 more shows in the can that were part of Season One they did not show. Per IMDB Season 2 is not until 2011. That's too far away!

26 Hmmmm.

My USMC recruit platoon didn't get into the twirling but the drill we did kicked some serious ass.

27 2011 is too far away.

28 Much like the ceremonial changing of the guard at Buckingham palace, I find this completely useless and yet completely awesome at the same time.

29 I used to do that stuff with the 03. (yeah, not that well, of course) Lotsa fun, and few appreciate just how hard it is.

These guys are machines.

30 think that was a boot camp company drill team; no ratings and all were E1 and E2. M1 Garand. Agreed that the Marine Corp Silent Guard is better. Better drills, better execution and Marine dress blues way outclass squids' white crackerjacks.

31 How come they keep brandishing knives at the black guy?

32 #19
tahDeetz

'91 Golfball ?


I'm '91 Charlie. I guess I'm not the only el Cid moron here.

33 As you say, very cool...only thing in that line I've seen that's cooler is a similar number of U.S. Marines, in full dress uniform (complete with the billed "round hats" and dark-blue and red-piping jackets, dress slacks with knife-edge creases and red side stripes, spit-shined dress shoes and white gloves, buttoned at the wrist), doing an even-more-elaborate version, using M-14 rifles (which are longer than the Springfields or U.S. Enfields - not certain which - these swabbies are using), ending with a little item called the Queen Anne Salute - finished by firing a volley of blank rounds into the air in unison.

That's right - it's not S.O.P., but Marine drill units have been known to do a full drill routine (all the spinning and twirling and tossing/exchanging, complete with fixed bayonets, scabbards off) with loaded rifles. Blanks, yes, but still...

For contrast: The type of baton used by marching band baton-twirlers weighs maybe a pound and a half, two pounds tops, is roughly three feet long and has a round, hollow rubber knob on each end. The Springfield (or U.S. Enfield; sometimes used) drill rifle weighs just a wee shade under ten pounds, unloaded but with fixed bayonet - it is roughly four and a half feet long, and it has a thick, solid steel buttplate on one end, and a seven-to-nine-inch (depending upon which bayonet is used), spear-shaped steel blade on the other end.

The M-14 (the one the Marines use), with a single-loaded short magazine inserted, is about 4 to 6 inches longer than that, and weighs perhaps another half- to three-quarters pound.

All the more cool...notice that those sailors are all of about the same size and build - and they're not small guys, either (another case where "size counts", right?). Marine drill teams that do this are similar - though, generally, the individual height will be 6' 2" or greater.

Big "batons", big "twirlers"...lots of repetition, yes - but impressive, all the same. As to that "underutilized military" and "useless" scurf....don't you think people who are capable of acquiring this physical skill level handling a rifle would be likely to be, thereby, more physically capable as posted guards, or as combat troops? Think about the strength and coordination levels developed, for instance.

34 J.S. You read my mind.. I was going to mention the "Queen Anne', we used to do it. The M-14 is a lot harder to do trick drill with, it is heavier as you say, and doesn't balance worth shit. It actually balances better with the bayonet fixed.

35 Gay.  Very gay.  Guns are not toys.  Why didn't they use batons and wear short skirts?