Yea our bunch of ROTC two year program cadets (no prior experience as the 4 year cadets had) looked better than that. Well, depending on who was leading the flight. One guy could not remember the 54 comand sequence. Of course the rest of us knew what the next command was supposed to be, even if he couldn't remember it.
But the real question is, why did they feel the need to march in close order formation? It's not a parade ground, and units haven't used that sort of drill in battle in centuries.
My guess is that it was an intimidation tactic.
They should have laughed them off the street.
“But the real question is, why did they feel the need to march in close order formation? It’s not a parade ground, and units haven’t used that sort of drill in battle in centuries.”
Actually, moving in step in close-order formation *is* an important tool in crowd control. When you want an unruly crowd of “yutes” to disperse — or at least back up — riot control forces, like the ones pictured here, form a line. They then advance on the crowd stomping their right foot down and dragging their left up to the right. It creates a CLOMP - hissss — CLOMP - hissss — CLOMP - hisss rhythm that is downright intimidating. To add to the effect, slap your riot baton on your shield with every stomp.
That said, no matter how intimidating this may be to a crowd of real miscreants (and it *is* intimidating), it looks downright comical when it is done in front of a crowd of little old ladies and old men. The riot cops realize this too. More than one of them has a “man, do I feel like a dweeb” look.
They are warming up, El Gato, for the next stage in Obama’s destruction of our country and our liberties.
It's still trained and used for civil disturbances (lol...not that the Tea Party really qualifies as one). The South Korean National Police Riot teams are probably some of the best in the world....they're specifically trained for the singular task of riot/crowd control and get lots of real-world practice...