As I said before, all Marines take a 30-inch step at 90 steps per minute when marching in formation to get from point "A" to point "B." No more, no less, no latitude. The stride and steps per minute are exact. There is no room for deviation. "One heel, one heel" the DI chants as up to 75 boot heels hit the ground simultaneously as one. If you have ever heard that sound, you will never forget it. The well-trained, highly experienced DI turns the cadence and commands into something like a gruff song so that the cadence is always precisely the same, even many years later. However, most music majors need not apply.

The most difficult, arcane formation on any parade ground was "Form For Shelter Halves" which had something like two dozen individual commands to open the platoon side to side, then front to rear as I remember, but don't hold me to the 24 commands after more than 60 years. The M1 rifles were stacked upright in groups of three, the field marching packs were removed, the canvas-like shelter halves (each was one half of a pup tent) were removed, the tents on their folded poles were erected, the tent pegs were not driven in the ground except on dirt drill fields, and then each two Marines stood at parade rest at each side of the open flap end of the laid-out pup tent.

Each command was sharp and clear, and the final formation had to be precisely aligned from front-to-rear and side-to-side. Except for a few Old Corps DI's (from the "wooden ships and iron men" era), to my knowledge no one after WWII ever performed that maneuver except maybe for beer bets in enlisted men's slop chutes (i.e., beer bars). In fact, most Marines in 1953 had never heard that series of commands. And don't bother looking for it in the current "Landing Party Manual" because it went out after Korea when Marines in the field no longer carried those shelter halves around.

Reading the tea leaves, I was absolutely sure that was the series of commands with which Gunny Sgt. Snake would ambush me on the last day and the last test in DI school. Somehow, I just knew it. So I studied it for more than three weeks; day and night whenever I had a spare minute or more. I broke it into four distinct series and extended the preparatory commands in a verbal two-count hesitation before each barked command of execution. When I finally had it down pat, I told nearly every guy in our class that Gunny Snake would try to fail me on the last day with the "Form For Shelter Halves" series of commands, so that each candidate would be sure to bring all of the prerequisite equipment in their field marching packs and be ready to perform at a rapid, uninterrupted tempo. I even had a few dry runs with the guys in my squad at the far other end of parade grounds (huge asphalt drill field) and behind the base movie theater where no instructor from the DI School was likely to see us practicing those maneuvers over and over again.

Finally, DI Class 19 of 1953 fell out on the parade grounds (sometimes called the "grinder") where Gunny Snake called each DI candidate front and center, and announced the random marching maneuver to be performed. Since we had an unusually large class for this last stage of training, most candidates had very abbreviated appearances; something like: "Atten...hutt. Left...face. Forward...march. To the rear...march. To the rear...march. Platoon...halt. Right...face. Parade...rest." And then another candidate would be called front and center, and we would go through another brief routine.

That rain dance went on for well over an hour. Although I was the Squad Leader for the First Squad, I was not called front and center until the last man to qualify. With a dead-pan lack of expression, Gunny Snake announced my qualifying drill field maneuver: "Form For Shelter Halves."

"Aye aye, Sir. Atten...hutt. Dress right...dress." Then I took that whole platoon through the entire maneuver in cadence, and by the numbers as smooth as a black cat's fanny. Then I reversed the order and put them back into a platoon formation by the numbers in a little over a minute while Gunny Snake's mouth actually fell open as he watched in utter amazement as every man in the platoon bit his tongue or inner cheek and tried very hard not to laugh out loud. As I returned platoon command to Gunny Snake, over his sagging shoulder and about 50 yards beyond, I could see MSgt. Ramsey standing in the shade of the Administration Building as he watched the whole performance...with approval?

The next day when I received my orders right after our graduation ceremony and class photograph, I was one of only three newly minted DIs who were immediately assigned to various recruit platoons as working DIs. All of the remainder of the graduates were assigned to a DI pool on the base, or were sent to Camp Mathews as rifle coaches.

Thank you, Sun Tzu, you murderous old Mongolian motivator, you. I read your book.