U S Military Academy at West 
Point



















  Last Updated: 5/28/98

    CADET PARADES


    There are twelve parades held at West Point each year. Seven of these involve two of the Corps' four regiments and five parades involve the entire brigade. Brigade reviews include Homecoming and the Thayer Award in the fall, and the Alumni Review, the Superintendent's Awards, and the Graduation Parade in the spring.

    Back in the days when we paraded three, yes three, times per week, the marches to be played in the parades were named in the USCC daily bulletin along with their authors. Plebes were required to know the marches so that when asked by an upperclassmen they could provide the answers. (Yes there was 'unauthorized' quiet 'talking in ranks' but heaven help the plebe who didn't know the marches.

    A second requirement during parades or P-RADES as they were called was to be able, when directed by an upper classman, to tell a joke while in formation on the Plain. The funnier the better and sometimes resulted in a Tac, seeing the Tar Buckets shaking in his company, meeting his company before it was dismissed after the parade to determine the cause of the movement. The Tac usually knew the reason. The plebe who told the joke that was so funny usually got to sit 'at ease' for the evening meal.

    It was tradition to pray to Odin, the Cadet God of Rain, when the weather was overcast, to cancel a long run (during Beast) or a parade/drill. Thelow-pitched, drawn-out chant of "O-o-o-odin-n-n!" coming from open barracks windows is a particularly haunting memory for me.

    In a similar vein, when we in the 4th Regiment were marching back into North Area after a parade or drill, we took advantage of the echoing acoustics of the sally port to sound off with an imitation of the soldiers from the Wizard of Oz. "O-ee-o, ayo-o!" was repeated at a low pitch, reverberating ominously off the stone walls. It was particularly sardonic when we were wearing long overcoats, which resembled the uniforms of the Wizard's (witch's?) palace guards.

    THE FALLEN CADET AT PARADE A passed out cadet was always encouraged to stay down.
    1. It looked better.
    2. It was the best therapy for the condition.

    One march, titled "Graduation March", is only played once each year at the graduation parade of the senior class. It contains smatterings of various traditional West Point tunes including "Dashing White Sergeant", "Wedding March", "One Hundred Days Till June", and "The Girl I left Behind Me" to name a few.

    Rumor also is that some cadets dressed a female in a cadet full dress uniform and had her march in the Graduation Parade. This occurred before females were admitted as cadets. On another occasion, a cadet's father marched in the Graduation Parade.


    I don't remember all my slugs, but I do remember one for leaving my sabre on the Plain [forgot to wet my damn glove...then nearly wet everything when that saber flew out of my hand]. I seem to recall that I wasn't too worried about the hours...I just wanted to get that sabre back!!


    By the way, your list brought up some "fond" memories, like toppling like a tree during a June week parade after the upper class entered me in a DRY pancake eating contest that breakfast - and I DIDN'T EVEN WIN!! Luckily the fall jarred me to consciousness and I was able to march off the field with the company. Only consequence was, You OK? YES SIR!, Then smack your dull chin in. Ah yes - now I get sick if I eat more than three pancakes.
    From a 1911 song book:

    The Army team's the pride and dream of ev'ry heart in gray
    The Army Line you'll ever find a terror in the fray
    And when the team is fighting for the black and Gray and Gold
    We're always near with song and cheer to "sound off" strong and bold:

    The Army team
    Rah! Rah! Rah! Boom!

    On brave old Army team!
    On to the fray
    Fight on to Vic-to-ry
    For That's the fearless Army way.

    1937 Bugle Notes substitutes:
    "And this is the tale we're told:"
    for
    "to 'sound off' strong and bold"
    Text unchanged as late as 1986-90 Bugle Notes

    John Ward
    USMA 1964

    ****
    John,

    I didn't know there had been a change either, but as I read the first part of your post, my reaction was "That ain't right!!!" as I hit the changed line in the song. Funny, how things get engrained into your sub-conscious!!

    The song reminded me of a funny moment from Plebe Year--funny now but decidedly un-funny at the time!! It was during the Acceptance Parade during ReOrgy Week, late August 1960...not a time that is remembered fondly by the Class of '64.

    I was a member of Company F-2. Like the other doolies in the company, I was greatly intimidated by all the NEW upperclassmen that were suddenly circling us each day. We had found ourselves being constantly inundated with new things to do and learn (deliver papers, memorize company drill rolls, learn table assignments, memorize beverage preferences, etc). It was definitely a period of task overload!!

    Well, our company had marched onto the Plain, done the final Squads Left (with me fortunately posted in the front rank where I couldn't screw THAT up!!), and come onto line. It was a full p-rade, so we had quite a bit of time (at a full brace) while we waited for the band to do its thing. [Note: Funny thing; I can't remember what that is called. Trooping the line?? Oh, well...] I like every other Plebe was attempting to remain unnoticed during all this. And I, like every other Plebe, was having no such luck!! As the band passed by, an upperclassman standing behind me (don't remember who, but I have always mentally blamed Bill Ivey or Curt Esposito, two yearlings who I came to hate for the next 9 months and then love for the following 38 years!) asked me something about the name of the song the band was playing. This was the first inkling I had that we were expected to go to the Central Guard Room and find out the names of songs to be played at parades...as if I didn't have a long enough list of 'things to do' already!!

    Anyway, as the upperclassmen around me were explaining to me why I was probably the dullest thing to ever enter the gates at USMA...and would surely NEVER have what it takes to complete Plebe Year (let alone GRADUATE!!)...the band (now right in front of us) was in the midst of playing "The Thumper". At some point, one of the upperclassmen behind me made a comment to the effect that 'everybody who knows ANYTHING about West Point knows THIS one' and another promptly chimed in with "Do YOU have any idea what it is, SMACKHEAD??" As ill-fortune would have it, the band, at that very moment, was playing that part of "The Thumper" which has a few bars from "On Brave Old Army Team"--and I DID know THAT song (heck, we had been singing it during Beast). When I heard those bars, I KNEW I had been saved. I was about to PROVE to them that I was, in fact, NOT the dullest thing that had EVER walked through the gate and that I just MIGHT graduate someday!!! With chest popped well up, I responded proudly "YES, Sir!!!" I think they were a bit startled that I would have a clue--since I obviously had not memorized the parade songs. They rather dejectedly asked "Well, what is it?" I suspect anyone who has gone through Plebe Year can imagine the reaction when I told those upperclassmen within hearing that the name of the song was "On Brave Old Army Team"!! By the time my response had registered with them, the band was long past those few bars from the football song...so I really did look like the "dullest....". Needless to say, by the time that parade, my first one as a full-fledged cadet, was over, I had appointments to 'drive around' to virtually every yearling room in Co F-2 for what I KNEW would not be social calls.

    Never forgot that afternoon...or that song. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I came to become acquainted with the Yearlings of Company F-2 very early in my cadetship.

    Regards,

    Sam Burney '64

    ps Things DID get better from there...though not real abruptly!!


    A remembrance from the mists of time-

    When real TROGS marched the plain they had a special form of recognition for things appreciated.

    Much to the disdain of the Reviewing Officials, TACS and Officers in Charge, TROGS registered their appreciation of certain announcements or persons of note by rattling their fixed bayonets while shaking their M-1 Rifles causing the bayonets to vibrate ominously.This was usually performed while at Parade Rest but could be accomplished from nearly any position in the Manual of Arms.

    At the reviewing stand this was heard as a metallic whisper and unless thoroughly imbued with TROGism knowledge it was difficult to understand or ascertain the source of the "applause" or to determine from whence it came. All true TROGS will remember this most effective way to show appreciation ... not duplicated since the days of the long bayonets and M-1 rifles.

    This same form of "applause" was also recorded at times during Band Box Reviews -- it sometimes helped to keep the ice from sticking the metal butt plates to the cement in Central Area.

    Bob Morrison True TROG of the Class of '60


    One fine October Football Saturday in 1986, while the Corps was assembled on the Plain for the GAP, the Dunkin Donuts truck pulled into Central Area (we could buy donuts at the CCQ desk on Saturdays. The money went to company funds). The JOD (Cadet Junior Officer of the Day) fired up the PA system (that old vacuum-tube beast we used to have, not the sexy solid-state system they have now) so that he could announce to the CCQs that the donuts were ready for pick-up. Well, the guy was obviously NOT a Juice major, because he got a little confused as to which switches to throw and which knobs to turn. Smack dab in the middle of the parade, during a lull (I think it came right after "Honors to the Nation"), we could hear the click, hum, and static of the PA system coming on (with a little feedback thrown in for good measure). In what was probably the loudest announcement I have ever heard, as the JOD's voice went booming across the Plain:

    "ATTENTION ALL CADETS! ATTENTION ALL CADETS! THE DONUTS ARE IN! I SAY AGAIN, THE DONUTS ARE IN! OUT!"

    It took all the fiber of our being for those of us on the Plain NOT to fall out laughing on the ground. We were then hit with a feeling of pity for the sorry JOD, because we saw the Supe (LTG Palmer) whisper something into the ear of his Aide, who went trucking off to Central Guard Room for name and company of the offender (rumor has it the kid got 25 and 20).

    The GAP had absolutely NO idea what the heck had just happened...

    Dennis Yates, 1989


    M-1 Thumb and Glove

    The term was appropriate. After inspection arms, TROGS inserted their thumbs into the breech of their M-1's with the heel of their palm holding back the operating rod and pressed down on the follower. Then, on command, sharply retrieving their thumb and regrasping the wrist of the stock, the bolt slammed closed with a satisfying metallic "CHUNK" marking the end of Inspection Arms.

    If a Plebe (never an upper class TROG) was careless, his thumb got caught between the bolt and the chamber and resulted in a horrible sticky red mess that not only hurt but caused the rifle to corrode where the blood touched it. The M-1 thumb was a sign of disgrace and the Plebe was a marked man for some time to come. One sure way to make him suffer was to drive him around on calls with his M-1 to repeat inspection arms over and over. It's really difficult once the indignity has occurred and still fresh to keep it from happening again and again. OF COURSE, neither my roommate nor I ever used such training for Plebes, but there were fierce TROGS who did. About a year later the thumbnail would grow back.

    Another sure sign of incompetence with an M-1 was much the same except instead of the thumb, a white dress glove would get caught and pull away from the hand when Order Arms was commanded. Michael Jackson-like, the offending Plebe would oft times be required to finish the parade with his glove hanging from the breech, a testimony to his ineptness. To say that he attracted some attention after the parade ended is understated.

    Never happened to me! Either one! Just a casual observer and recorder of fact.

    Bob Morrison, 1960


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