How does the military get such a large number of people to suddenly get into a formation and they all stand still at the same time?

>>898044679 (OP)



The person in charge shouts "fall in".



Then the box starts to form in front of the person who said fall in. Depending on the size of the formation, it's usually a six or eight man front if it's a platoon of 30+ guys. It all starts from the guy in the front right of the box, from the formation's perspective (so to the left of the guy who shouts "fall in".



This post man assumes the position at the front right of the formation, and everyone forms off of him. The guy who shouted "fall in, will be centered on the six or eight man front. It is the formation's responsibility to center themselves on the guy who says "fall in". Then it's all spacing and easy shit from there.



tl;dr it all forms off the front-right guy.



Also, to make things pretty for drill and ceremony purposes, they pick a decent number that forms a perfect box with no missing spots. Then, during rehearsal, everyone falls in. The guy in charge says "if you're taller than the person in front of you, move up. Then everyone re-shuffles. Then he says "right face" and everyone turns to the right. Then he says "if you're taller blah blah blah" again, and they re shuffle. This gives the formation an even appearance in height, with the tallest person at the front right, and the shortest in the back left, from the formation's perspective.



This actually goes all the way back to ancient phalanxes, because apparently you used your shield to cover the guy to your left. The guy in the front right didn't have anyone to cover him, so he better be the biggest guy there.



At least, that's how we do it in the Army. I don't know about the other branches.

Thanks for that anon



no problem anon, glad i could help

> tl;dr

Fuck off, autist. The sarge is a wizard and he casts a "freeze" spell on them.

>>898044679 (OP)



Discaprin

>>898044679 (OP)

Cucks do what they're told

Same in Canada, except sizing is different.

>Tallest on the right, shortest on the left, in single rank, size

so you have line from tallest to shortest, tallest is right marker (you said post man)

>numbers

Everyone calls a number, with tallest calling one. This is for next commands

>odd numbers forward, even number one pace step back - march

So you are separated

>number one stand fast, even numbers right, odd numbers left - turn

Now everyone is in a big curved line, which is you straighten out would have an average height with a dip in the middle

>reform three ranks quick march”

Now the big line (with a 180 curve in the middle) marches to reform three.



Doing it this way creates an even height across with both ends having the tallest people, without a noticeable change between two singular people. Then the short people can be in the middle, don’t care about them

t. 6’4”

Shit mixed up even and odd number on the turn. Flip that around
