So, quick story!

As you can see, this poor British Army soldier collapsed, and it might help to understand this is quite common in ceremonial units.

I was in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, which is the U.S. Army’s equivalent of this unit.

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When you do ceremonies in units like these, you have to stand at attention, without moving, for a long period of time. You’re trained to not move a muscle, much less an inch, and of course, for various reasons, soldiers still pass out. But we called it “falling out”.

It’s not just locking your knees! That’s the most common reason for falling out, but it’s also other things: dehydration, heat stroke, sometimes exhaustion. I say that because “don’t lock your knees!” is an easy critique but doesn’t paint a full picture. Don’t judge this soldier!

Every soldier arriving at the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (also known as “The Old Guard” or TOG) went through a three week training course called ROP (Regiment Orientation Program, pronounced “rope”). It sucked! For many reasons.

You had to learn how to prep your uniforms immaculate (we literally pressed our own uniforms on an actual pressing machine). You learned basis regs of the unit. But the worst part, by far, was testing at the end of each of the three weeks by standing at attention for a long time.