I guess the evil that men do really does live after them.

It still hurts to think about it. Hope this helps you understand a little better what one old BQ thinks happened that day. I'm sure you'll get some other responses if you hit up every class of '82-'85 BQ on the Email page. Their story may differ from mine. That wouldn't surprise me. I had to do a lot of cogitating when I got your Email as to just what happened that day.

Here's the story as I remember it:

We had completed the first part of the drill, gone into block band, and were southbound, preparing for the next part of the drill in block band formation. For some reason (lots of speculation here, some people say the MOB was blowing whistles on the sidelines, some say the bugle rank just screwed up), the 4 leftmost bugle rank members countermarched to start the next manuever 10 yards early!! Everyone in those 4 columns (myself, on the bass rank, included) followed the leader and before you knew it, things were pretty screwed up! We attempted to get things back together, but by the time that first countermarch was completed, everything was totally FUBAR.

We kept trying to unscrew things by slowing down and speeding up those four columns right up till the end of the drill, but weren't even back in block band when we started into our last countermarch before the block T. The "T" ended up looking more like a big sloppy question ( ? ) mark drawn by a 4 year old.

We never started up the War Hymn at the end. The head drum major just signalled for a left flank and we marched off the field. No free beer, just walked off. All us guys were confused, pissed off, in shock, etc. It wasn't until we got back to dorm 11 & watched the halftime rerun Sunday night that we realized the magnitude of our F__kup. Needless to say, no eight O'clock.

Some blamed the 4 bugle rank leaders who countermarched 10 yards early. Those guys felt even lower that the rest of us. They caught a lot of crap tthe next week. After that drill, we really emphasized individual initiative over the "follow the leader" mentality that seemed to take over after we got into block band formation. After that game, every BQ (not just the fish) looked down before halftime. We really got serious about our drills after that.

The thing that sticks most in my mind is the sound of the statium as we walked off the field after that abortion. You could have heard a pin drop.

Hope this helps. Feel free to share this with anyone who gives a damn.

Best Regards,

Leon Hutto '82
A-Company Infantry Band XO