{"id":59935,"date":"2025-06-17T21:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T19:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=59935"},"modified":"2026-06-17T02:01:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T00:01:43","slug":"the-reasons-for-the-lack-of-martial-spirit-of-united-states-soldiers-when-they-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/06\/17\/the-reasons-for-the-lack-of-martial-spirit-of-united-states-soldiers-when-they-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"The reasons for the lack of martial spirit of United States soldiers when they parade"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/06\/14\/los-uniformes-historicos-que-el-ejercito-de-eeuu-ha-rescatado-para-su-250o-aniversario\/\">The 250th anniversary parade of the United States Army<\/a> has generated many comments, some of them very negative.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/06\/14\/the-historic-uniforms-that-the-u-s-army-has-rescued-for-its-250th-anniversary\/\">The historic uniforms that the U.S. Army has rescued for its 250th anniversary<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2016\/10\/12\/the-25-european-countries-that-organize-military-parades-on-their-national-days\/\">The 25 European countries that organize military parades on their national days<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>Among the most criticized aspects of the parade was <strong>the lack of martial artistry of the American soldiers while marching<\/strong>. In some units, it seemed as if they were taking a stroll instead of marching. From the United Kingdom, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@forces_news\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">BFBS Forces News<\/a> has published a video contrasting this lack of martial artistry with the rigorous way in which the British soldiers marched:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"US military parade raises eyebrows among drill aficionados. Is British best?\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9VXPoczMFTI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The way the US Army soldiers march has surprised many. After all, <strong>the United States is the world's leading military power, and a parade is a way to showcase that power<\/strong>, so it's always advisable to take care of details such as precision and coordination when marching.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54596530379_fb91cd8399_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54596530379_0dbf6ab0dc_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><big>In the United States, military parades are not common<\/big><\/p>\n<p>There are several reasons that may explain this lack of martial spirit. The first is that, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2016\/10\/12\/the-25-european-countries-that-organize-military-parades-on-their-national-days\/\">military parades are very common in Europe<\/a>, despite being a great military power, <strong>military parades are not common in the United States<\/strong> outside the barracks. It is normal there to hold parades when there is a military victory to celebrate, and every July 4th it is customary to hold a parade to commemorate Independence Day, but it is a civic-military event, which is conducive to more relaxed discipline. In fact, <strong>that parade in Washington has received criticism from people of different ideologies<\/strong>. Some of these critics equated such a parade with what happens in North Korea, an opinion steeped in ignorance, but one that perfectly captures that country's mentality regarding these events.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54596530969_c03562b30a_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54596530969_b338201f00_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><big>The weight of military tradition in Europe<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Another reason for the lack of martial spirit is that <strong>the United States doesn't have military traditions as long-standing as those of European countries<\/strong>. As BFBS Forces News points out, today's military parades have their origins in military formations that were formed in battle thousands of years ago. <strong>Greek phalanxes and Roman legions required great coordination of movements on the battlefield<\/strong>, and achieving this required great discipline.<\/p>\n<p>Much more recently, <strong>the line infantry that emerged in the 18th century created a military culture that is still deeply rooted in Europe<\/strong>. This infantry moved in lines on the battlefield, which had to be well coordinated. <strong>Battles were surrounded by a ritual that is preserved today in military parades.<\/strong> Non-European countries, such as China and North Korea, have adopted these traditions, taking them to the extreme rigor typical of totalitarian regimes like theirs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54596596463_d037031d18_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54596596463_1353afc48f_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><big>The sense of discipline in a professional army<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Another important reason for this lack of martial spirit is that <strong>The United States has a professional army, and its soldiers only receives drill instruction during training.<\/strong> There may be soldiers who, since their initial training, have never participated in a parade. <strong>This is evident in American units deployed in Europe:<\/strong> they also march in a less martial manner when participating in military events on the Old Continent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For the US Army, practical combat training is more important than the rigor of marching.<\/strong> Personally, I believe that in the US, they overlook <strong>the importance of close-order drill for discipline<\/strong>. In fact, many of the military traditions that exist in all armies, including the US, are based on <strong>maintaining discipline in a strongly hierarchical organization<\/strong>. Obedience and the necessary respect for authority and rules are one of the foundations of an army's success.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A quote attributed to George Washington states: \"Discipline is the soul of an army.\"<\/strong> Close-order drill does much to build that discipline, but it doesn't guarantee it. In fact, <strong>the Russian army is very rigorous on parade and a disaster on the battlefield<\/strong>, as is being demonstrated in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54596689890_922526877c_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54596689890_af08f4596c_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><big>Marching without weapons and with rock music<\/big><\/p>\n<p>Finally, there is a fourth reason that may seem irrelevant: <strong>the United States Army marches without shouldering rifles<\/strong>. In the June 14 parade in Washington, DC, the units that were armed were those in which the soldiers wore <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/06\/14\/the-historic-uniforms-that-the-u-s-army-has-rescued-for-its-250th-anniversary\/\">historical uniforms from past wars<\/a>. <strong>A formation of unarmed soldiers always gives a less martial appearance than one that does.<\/strong> In the first case, this absence of weapons reinforces the image of soldiers parading.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, <strong>we could add a fifth reason: music<\/strong>. Both in Europe and the United States, there is a large repertoire of military music, ideal for accompanying soldiers in parades. However, <strong>at the June 14th parade in Washington, the soundtrack was rock music<\/strong>, even though some military units had their own marching bands (it was impossible to hear what they were playing because of the thunderous sound of the electric guitars). <strong>I love rock and heavy metal music, but they are not suitable for marching.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54596549983_c945898513_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54596549983_23e131f737_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Of course, there are exceptions. <strong>In the United States, there are ceremonial units that have a high level of rigor when it comes to parading<\/strong>, such as the 3rd Infantry Regiment \"The Old Guard,\" which is the oldest unit in the US Army, in charge of guarding the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/04\/04\/arlington-the-largest-military-cemetery-in-the-world-and-the-grave-where-there-is-always-a-sentinel\/\">Arlington National Cemetery<\/a>. It also happens that <strong>this unit always marches with weapons<\/strong>, whether they be the old M1 Garand semi-automatic rifles (the ones we see in this photo) or old muskets from the Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Photos: U.S. Army. <\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 250th anniversary parade of the United States Army has generated many comments, some of them very negative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,11550],"tags":[24657,10431,318],"class_list":["post-59935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-defense","tag-3d-infantry-regiment-the-old-guard","tag-united-states","tag-us-army"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-15 10:17:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}