The Bus - DON'T MOVE

Who says Sergeant Majors don't have a sense of humor?

"As a contingent we had all decided that we wanted to have our medals presentation ceremony on July 1st, Canada Day.  We felt it couldn't get more significant or appropriate than that.
We were excited about the day and even the Canadian Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina agreed to make the medals presentation. Our only concern was that it was swelteringly hot and humid . . . 30 degrees seems to ring a bell.  Being on parade in that kind of heat could mean people passing out which is never a good look especially when all the other nations would be watching.  And so, taking this in mind and listening to our concerns, in typical army fashion, our parade started sharply at one o'clock!!!

Standing on parade that day, with the scorching sun slowly burning my face, I felt pride at being Canadian and part of our legacy as peacekeepers. I couldn't help but reminisce about the many parades I had stood on over my time in the army and the surprising humour that would present itself on occasion from the Sergeant Major.  Usually, as we all stood there still as stones in our pristine uniforms, we would hear a scream from across the parade square, "YOU. IN THE BERET! DON'T.....MOVE!!!!!".  Invariably you could almost hear each soldier think aloud, "oh shit he saw me"!