So far, I’ve managed to resist the urge to weigh in on what was certainly an interesting week for the US Army which is celebrating it’s 250th anniversary of it’s founding on 14 Jun 2025 with a parade on Flag Day from the Pentagon past Arlington National Cemetery and eventually down Constitution Avenue in front of a VIP reviewing stand which included President Trump who was coincidentally celebrating his 79th birthday.
I grew up as an Army brat and I’ve certainly seen my share of military reviews and parade formations and they’re usually a grand spectacle. I have absolutely nothing against military parades and even with the valid criticism that they’re the symbols of authoritarianism, it’s certainly not out of the ordinary to have them even in democratic republics such as ours.
Indeed, King Charles and the royal family of the United Kingdom presided over the Trooping of the Colour earlier in the day and the supposed inspiration for Trump ordering up this parade for the Army was one he attended with Emmanuel Macron of France in 2017.
Certainly the military parade that arguably has been the most profoundly affecting in my life was nothing short of perfection and awe-inspiring and was a honour to have the privilege to attend.
Dad would certainly have a prime viewing location for the first leg of the parade before the right turn onto Arlington Bridge…in fact, the red arrow on the route pointing northwest is not too far from Section 76.
If we accept for a moment that the real purpose of the parade was to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary (which is a huge stretch given how clearly the messaging from the administration was that the parade was at least unofficially viewed as a celebration of the President’s birthday), then I don’t have the problem with a parade of historical and current Army hardware and soldiers per se.
But there are questions that will certainly be asked about the cost of the parade which estimates have varied wildly but seem to have settled on a figure of $45M at a time when the administration is gutting essential VA services for veterans such as the suicide hotline, mental health support, and other programmes that veterans of all political persuasions depend on for survival in the civilian world.
One of my Dad’s several MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) designations was as a commanding officer of units ranging from a MASH company to a medical battalion in Germany and was an advisor to the Mississippi National Guard which at roughly 10-12,000 members at any given time is roughly the size of a division and gained plenty of experience in planning and logistics in all of those postings.
I ought to know…I spent more than a few hours of my “free” time at the typewriter in his office working the figures and typing up the massive amount of documentation and requisitions/memoranda that accompanies moving an Army unit from one place to another.
That’s what I got for a series of teachers apparently convincing my father that I had a brain and he wasn’t one to let such a resource or an opportunity for me to demonstrate the skills those teachers had been raving about go to waste.
Anywho…so much goes into that set of orders and it’s a heck of a lot more than just moving the units and soldiers involved and their equipment. You’ve got to account for feeding and housing them as well as all of the other materiel they need to perform the mission to say nothing of the coordination with all of the other pieces involved in the plan.
With that experience in mind, I’m fairly certain that the $45M figure you’re seeing is nowhere near what it cost to bring 6,600 soldiers, 150 tanks and other heavy vehicles, 50 combat helos, and all of the other equipment that was on display. The costs of repairing the streets of Arlington and DC that were never built to handle the damage a M1A2 Abrams main battle tank will do to asphalt will be in the millions that’s got to be paid by the taxpayers.
Granted, in an agency whose budget is right about a trillion dollars and the significant but unknown amount of private underwriting of the costs the parade by the sponsors (some of whom would certainly want to be in the Pentagon’s good graces when it comes to procurement or other contracts), $45M is hardly going to be a blip on their radar.
But when you consider that the Pentagon hasn’t passed a fiscal audit in several budget cycles and the few budget cuts they and related agencies such as VA are getting in the budget currently working its way through Congress, one has to wonder if this money is truly being spent wisely.
The other thing that I thought was rather striking was the exceptionally poor quality of marching, particularly when you’d see them in views near the VIP stand. You would have thought that for a parade for an anniversary of this magnitude, the orders would have come down from upon high that the marching would be in lock step for the entire parade route.
There certainly have been many theories posited on the Internet by various sources (some marginally more serious than others) as to why the marching was so disjointed.
It’s hard not to agree with the idea that there was more than a little bit of unhappiness amongst the troops being used as props as part of a spectacle that ultimately wasn’t particularly spectacular and I have no doubts there will be investigations aplenty for perceived disrespect and conduct unbecoming at the very least.
I understand their feeling but at the same time, there is a standard of conduct and performance that is expected at events such as these regardless of one’s political views or opinion of the current administration including the Commander-in-Chief (much more on that in a bit) and the reporting is that Trump is absolutely incensed at Hegseth for the “tone” of the parade that did not meet his expectations.
I’m guessing from his reaction that he was hoping for something more along the lines of what you see in China, Russia, or North Korea.
If there’s one constant in military life, it’s that a brown and stinky substance tends to roll downhill and that right quickly.
Several company clerks are going to be awfully busy processing paperwork ranging from official reprimands to perhaps a few referrals for court martial or administrative separation from the service for senior enlisted personnel and officers of those units.
Welcome to Italy!
We can forget all about the tearful reunion.
There’s a couple things I want to get straight with you right off the bat.
I don’t know what kind of shit you pulled at graduation but this ain’t no glamour detail we’re on.
I want to see you walking tall…looking good and mentally alert at all times.
Sgt Hulka – “Stripes”
It may not seem fair especially to those who have never been round the military or been exposed to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) in practise and just what kind of limits it can impose on the soldier’s First Amendment rights (even after they separate from the military).
But one of the things one accepts when they accept that enlistment or commission and swear the oath is that they’re expected to perform to an acceptable standard at all times and show proper respect and deference to the chain of command regardless of their personal political views.
That leads me to the much more disturbing incident back home at Fort Bragg that took place two days prior to this rather desultory parade where the President conducted what came off as a staged political rally using military troops as props in the background and letting fly with an utterly inappropriate speech laced with attacks on his political rivals.
I’ve long accepted that Mr Trump seems to lack any appreciation for military traditions and decorum and there’s been plenty of credible and verified reporting on what he really thinks of soldiers that are captured by the enemy in battle or make the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.
But what was far more disturbing was this internal communication sourced from the 82nd Airborne Division (a unit Dad and I are very familiar with) who made it clear who was deemed acceptable to be in the stands in the background behind the President:
One need only see the crowd to see that not only was the size restriction successfully implemented but the soldiers were remarkably homogeneous in terms of gender and ethnicity. I’m presuming that whoever posted those requirements for the division didn’t have to explicitly call out who really wasn’t welcome in the audience or the staff officers knew enough to know who needed to be doing other duties at the same time as the rally.
But I’ll confess that I was surprised at the reactions to the parts of his speech that he used to directly attack California governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass (among others that most of the soldiers in the stand would likely have no idea who they are) who are contending with 4,000 California National guard soldiers that have been federalised (potentially in violation of Title 10 Section 12406, the 10th Amendment, and the Posse Comitatus Act which is currently being litigated in a lawsuit) as well as 700 Marines being deployed to Los Angeles in spite of not really being needed or asked for.
Seriously, LAPD has dealt with far more massive and violent riots than the relatively small number of people chucking missiles and lighting self-driving cabs on fire…and that was after the Dodgers won the World Series!
One of the bedrock principles of the military is that it’s supposed to be apolitical and at least back in the day, they would go to great lengths to avoid even the appearance of partisan political views, especially when out and about in uniform!
The whole point of a military that answers to a civilian political authority is that they have to be capable of carrying out lawful orders and missions regardless of which party the people giving the orders belong to.
That’s why it’s quite disturbing that not only was a commercial vendor allowed on post at the event to hawk Trump-branded MAGA merchandise but that there were more than a few soldiers in uniform who were actually purchasing those items which you would have *NEVER* seen when my father was still in the Army.
The moment a massive standing army decides to throw it’s support behind a political party or they decide that the civilians are no longer fit for purpose, it invariably never ends well for the country.
Maintaining a professional and apolitical military as well as the freedoms enshrined in the Constitution is why we can celebrate 250 years of not having military coups every few years and the military actually running the government (whether overtly like you see in Myanmar, Thailand, China, and North Korea or only slightly less overtly like you see in Russia).
It’s one thing for soldiers to hold whatever political views they wish and vote their conscience when it comes time to enter the polling place but that’s appropriate on their time and their time only. When they put on the uniform, they are expected to follow lawful orders through the chain of command regardless of the soldier’s political views or personal opinion of the administration and their officers that are giving those orders.
Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.
Article 88 – Uniform Code of Military Justice
There’s a reason my father rarely spoke of what he thought about politicians unless he was in the company of people he felt he could trust wouldn’t rat him out because Article 88 could even be enforced against him after he retired.
So if you ever wondered why he tended to be very measured in what he’d say about them during the debates we’d often have in one of our family’s Florida rooms, that’s the reason why.
That being said, I think it’s safe to say that even without words…his views on the usefulness and moral character of politicians were not hard to guess and that was during his lifetime in which he never saw the current inmate at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue be inaugurated.
There’s a part of me that’s thankful he didn’t live to see that ceremony.
Certainly he had his opinions and they were often such that you’d have a better chance at telling the Sun to orbit round the Earth rather than the other way round but he took that oath he swore to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution very seriously just like he took his obligations under the UCMJ post-retirement.
I’m thinking it’s safe to say that he’d have been horrified at what has transpired in this country in the nearly ten years since he left us. I can only hope that wherever he may be that he has some measure of faith that the country he loved so dearly can find it’s way out of the self-inflicted darkness that currently afflicts us.