I would think a trained honor guard wouldn't make that mistake. I've probably wasted 3 months of my life standing in formations, seen 2 people drop. One in bootcamp, one while we were standing at attention on the uss Eisenhower while President Reagan circled in a helicopter and gave a short speech over radio that was piped to the 1MC (one of the ships many intercoms), I remember be cause it was my buddy standing behind me. He fell right into my back. Fun fact: our formation spelled the Name IKE. Still have a picture of it somewhere.
Yes, people who have been on the Guard are trained to keep their knees unlocked. But, after long standing, some people’s minds wander and they instinctively lock their knees. That’s when even seasoned Guardsmen mess up. I have actually seen a guy fall asleep standing up and not fall down. As the Commander, I had to subtly wake them up. Usually, for super long winded political speeches, I would snap around and do an “inspection” walk to each member and insure they were okay. If a member was stressed, I would have them do an individual fall out movement and go back stage. Then they would come back after a free minutes. We made it look as professional as possible.
I would think a trained honor guard wouldn't make that mistake. I've probably wasted 3 months of my life standing in formations, seen 2 people drop. One in bootcamp, one while we were standing at attention on the uss Eisenhower while President Reagan circled in a helicopter and gave a short speech over radio that was piped to the 1MC (one of the ships many intercoms), I remember be cause it was my buddy standing behind me. He fell right into my back. Fun fact: our formation spelled the Name IKE. Still have a picture of it somewhere.
Yes, people who have been on the Guard are trained to keep their knees unlocked. But, after long standing, some people’s minds wander and they instinctively lock their knees. That’s when even seasoned Guardsmen mess up. I have actually seen a guy fall asleep standing up and not fall down. As the Commander, I had to subtly wake them up. Usually, for super long winded political speeches, I would snap around and do an “inspection” walk to each member and insure they were okay. If a member was stressed, I would have them do an individual fall out movement and go back stage. Then they would come back after a free minutes. We made it look as professional as possible.