by I’ve been interested in seeing a military parade ever since I learned of their existence, so when our schedule lined up one happening at the renowned Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina — on Veteran’s Day, no less — I was determined to get there.
Normally I hate parades. I know I’m a buzz kill, but I just find them very boring. But a military parade, as The Citadel says, is “conducted to inspect troops, render honors, preserve tradition, and foster espirit de corps.” There’s a regimental band and everything! Much different!
Apparently military parades trace back to the time of Alexander the Great, but U.S. military parades began in the U.S. during the Revolutionary War at Valley Forge.
Prussian Army officer Baron von Steuben whipped the troops into shape that bitter winter, and those soldiers then went on to train the rest of the Continental Army.
The Citadel is a military college (“The Military College of South Carolina”) with a unique architectural look in the Spanish Moorish style. The school was established in 1842, thought it only moved to this location in 1922.
2,300 undergraduate students make up the present South Carolina Corps of Cadets, though they are not required to serve in the military. In fact, only about 1/3 of them go on to earn a military commission.
The cadets are, however, required to pass physical fitness tests in order to enroll.
The cadets “live and study under a classical military system that makes leadership and character development an essential part of the educational experience.”
The first black cadet was not enrolled until 1966. The first woman was not enrolled until 1995 after a two-year court battle –– and then she promptly withdrew after receiving dozens of death threats, and her parents’ home was vandalized. Really? This information is cause for shame in an organization that bandies about the word “honor.”
We arrived on campus early because I was rightly worried about parking our big van. It took us some time to find parking (outside the campus) and then walk back, but we had enough time to check out The Citadel Museum before the big event.
Then we took our places on the parade ground bleachers to await the start of the parade.
I didn’t really know what to expect, but was thinking there would be a few dozen participants.
Imagine my surprise as hundreds and hundreds of cadets filled the field!
The band played, inspections occurred, announcements were made, cannons were fired. It was quite a spectacle.
I was delighted with the performance and eagerly asked Doug for his thoughts after. He said he’d never seen such inability to march in unison, which of course I had not noticed at all.
Sure enough, after watching some of the video I took, there was no missing it. Oops.
We then headed across the field to check out the Citadel Chapel, which was dedicated in 1938.
The chapel contains a set of 30 stained glass windows in the 13th century Gothic style.
The windows were lovely, but the chapel was otherwise relatively plain.
