This nearest could find
Posted on 06/15/2025 11:35:32 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
I arrived for the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary parade in Washington D.C. on a drizzly Saturday afternoon with considerable consternation and concern.
I knew that President Donald Trump had been agitating for such a spectacle since 2017, but that his first secretary of defense, Jim Mattis, had refused, because he viewed this as something that occurred in dictatorships like Russia and North Korea. In private, Mattis reportedly said he would rather “swallow acid” than have troops parading through the capital.
Now Trump has a far more accommodating, and far less qualified, secretary of defense in Pete Hegseth, thereby opening the door to the potential politicization of the U.S. armed forces. That danger has been on display in the past week, with Trump deploying the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles over the protests of local leaders and delivering a campaign-style speech at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, that produced disturbing video clips of 82nd Airborne troops cheering while he bashed Democrats and the media.
My worry was that Trump would turn the Army parade into just another political pageant. Those concerns only grew when I saw how many of the spectators were wearing MAGA hats or shirts.
But my apprehension began to melt away as soon as the music started to play and the soldiers began to march. Dear reader, I hope you do not think I am going soft on Trump if I tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed the entire parade.
As a military history nerd, I loved to see the soldiers marching by in period uniforms from the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. I thrilled to the flybys from historic aircraft...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Max Boot: sad clown and wannabee.
What makes the Ex Russian emigre, naturalized citizen, historian, and writer, Max “Boot a judge” over whether Hegseth is qualified to be Secretary of Defense?
Hegseth has military experience, military oversight, and degrees from Harvard and Princeton.
Max Boot should go away for now. Who cares what he writes?
Bad weather
I believe your rudeness outdoes your point.
Soldiers are strong and resilient, but the reason that uniforms change and boots are redefined is that officers want their soldiers in the best condition and that means the older uniforms and boots were not the most conducive to soldier health. If this parade valued authenticity, then we have a great research opportunity to learn just how tough our soldiers of the Revolution and Civil War had it.
The music and the horrible marching was an embarrassment.
Absolutely!
You’re too stupid to realize the purposes and importance of yesterday’s parade. Sit down.
I would very much expect the uniforms from the 1800s were modernized when it comes to boots etc. Probably light years better than authentic brogans from the 1860s, while appearing the same.
If the neocons ever get back into office and ensure that someone like Trump can never be elected again, they are going to say so many nice things about his terms in office.
Not because they secretly admired him, but they desperately want to court his voter base.
Interesting. I guess I really thought they’d do authentic rather than just the appearance of authentic. Makes total sense when you say it. Thanks.
We watched it on Newsmax. The two commentators Carl Digby (maybe) and somebody else, sounded like a couple of SpecOps bro’s sprawled in front of a TV. “Yeah, you were in Eye Rack too, right? Did you get to fly in one of those?” Humorous, but not particularly professional.
Colonel, USAF JAGC (Ret)
It was pouring down rain. not everyone can stand in that for long
totally agree- DC is a socialist craphole where conservatives are not welcome
The audience was one person deep along the parade route.
It was attended by at least four times as many people—in just one location—as the combined total of all the simultaneous protest rallies across the entire country, this after months of dissing and discouraging by a mentally and spiritually sick legacy media.
Marching is the infantryman’s lot. A recruit gets winded and his feet blisters on a march in his new boots. New boots give you blisters because they do not give as your feet works inside them. A young soldier gains endurance and tough soles and cares for his boot. Boots broken in and maintained do not blister a soldier experienced in marching. Poor boots fall apart before a veteran does. Well-made boots last and were sought after on the battlefield from the feet of the fallen from the Civil War and going back.
Uniforms from any era should be well-made to be long-lasting, too. They should fit, not be snug, but offer full freedom of movement. They should be smart, easy to care for in the field, and tough enough to last in the field.
Armies of Ancient Greece and Rome had none of the advances in boots, backpacks, webbing, and uniforms that today’s soldiers benefit from. (It’s become a serious field of study.) But even those ancient soldiers were expected to carry heavy packs and march long distances. Perhaps not as heavy nor as far, but comparable. And their boots were, roughly, hobnailed leather sandles. They wore coarse garments under chainmail shirts or (for the Greeks) stiff cuirasses made of layers of glued canvas.
In short, soldiers learned to bear up under whatever gear they had, good or bad. The fancy uniforms of the 18th and 19th century weren’t necessarily the ones they marched or did their day-to-day camp chores. Those were the ones they fought in in the belief it would give them pride and intimidate the enemy.
It’s a fascinating topic and you’re right to ask about it.
My wife was there. There were 2 security checkpoints. She said the line to get through security stretched for nine blocks.
This nearest could find
That is not what I saw on TV. Of course, TV shots can be fake, but it looked like a good crowd.
The light attendance was likely because the last time patriots gathered en mass in D.C. lots of them ended up in solitary confinement for 3 years with no trial, had their devices monitored, their house raided, and their lives generally turn upside down. I’ll never set foot in that God forsaken town again.
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