Why do soldiers still learn to march even though that it’s not practical in actual combat
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Marching is taught for a variety of reasons. First, it teaches active listening. As an outsider, this can be difficult to understand, but marching actually has many rules. Marching entails a lot more than just walking in a group. For example, you have to listen for specific commands like “column left” “to the rear,” “mark time,” and “half-step.” Marching teaches individuals to listen very closely (for the commands) and execute the command immediately. This is an important part of being a soldier/airman/sailor/marine. For the person calling the commands, you have to learn them all and use them to navigate the people you’re leading–often in a tight space (like on a parade field). These skills are also really important because it forces you to think on your feet. It’s a lot like playing an old-school video game where you have to be thinking ahead two or three steps to get past an obstacle. If you call out the wrong command while leading troops in a march, it can quickly become a mess (e.g. people bumping into each other, turning the wrong direction, etc.). Then there is the element of marching being a *group* activity where an individual’s actions will have consequences for everyone else. This is a critical lesson for military members because you have to rely on your team, and they have to rely on you–an individual making a simple mistake while marching can really mess up the entire group–and it’s better to learn this lesson doing a low-risk activity like marching than it is on the battlefield.
Background: am a 20+ year veteran who initially struggled with marching until I thought about how I learned to beat Super Mario 2
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