Norwegian Invasion

This past week we had some guests fro Norway come to visit. Hans Majestet Kongens Garde (HMKG) (lit., His Majesty The King's Guard) were in Ottawa, and they were part of the Changing the Guard Ceremony with us on 2 days. Their band accompanied our band during the inspections and the Drill Team performed their routine after we marched off. I would have enjoyed having them on parade with us, as I didn't get a chance to see their routine live since I was on parade both days that they marched up with us. These guys are really good, as good as the USMC Silent Drill Platoon, so they made us look bad, but they get 6 months of training to do their show, we only get 3 weeks, and they do exhibition drill, where we do Ceremonial Drill, it's slightly different. The biggest difference being their's is much more exciting, where ours is traditional and functional.

This is one of the better videos of them that I have found, hope you enjoy it.

This is an exert from the Montreal Gazette talking about their stay in Ottawa.

Norwegian Ambassador Tor Berntin Naess has scored a cultural coup. The ambassador, who confessed he finds it difficult to attract cultural groups from Norway to Ottawa, is playing host this week to 130 members of the King's Guard.

The group of predominantly 19-year-olds is in town after flying to Halifax to participate in the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo for the third straight year.

In Ottawa, they spent Monday visiting the Parliament Buildings, and yesterday they joined their Canadian counterparts to take part in changing the guard. Wednesday marked the first time a foreign contingent has been allowed to participate in changing the guard with the Ceremonial Guard on Parliament Hill.

The ambassador said the young men and women enjoyed their visit to Parliament and looked forward to participating in the changing of the guard. In addition, they performed last night at Ashbury College for a group of several hundred invited guests. Thursday, the ambassador hosted a party for them at his residence.

"Very seldom do we have something from Norway in Ottawa," Mr. Naess said. "Normally they want to go to New York and it's hard to get them to come here, too."

Mr. Naess said that although these soldiers have not seen combat, they have many friends who are in conflict zones -- including serving as part of Norway's contributions to the NATO efforts in Afghanistan -- and they may end up doing the same when their service with the King's Guard comes to an end. For its part, the King's Guard is responsible for protecting the royal family and holds ceremonial functions at peace time.

But travel is not uncommon. Its members have performed six times at the prestigious Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which takes place at the the entrance to Edinburgh Castle. The King's Guard has also made appearances outside Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides in Paris, at the Grande Place in Brussels and at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.

The End of Drill...

... well of intensive drill anyways. Tomorrow is the last day of intensive drill and then we do our first Guard Mount on Saturday.

Over the past 3 weeks, besides getting the worlds best "farmer's tan", I taught my division of 22 troops a lot about drill and the traditions of the military. It's not easy taking people that speak 2 different languages, I have both French and English speakers in my division, and teaching them all the fine points and details of drill. When doing drill I can be very worried about the smallest things, like where the hands are, is the thumb sticking out, or tucked in, are the feet at the proper angle, and many more small details. We teach them all the moves they need and then we teach them the Guard Mount format, but there is just too much information for them to master in the 3 weeks that we have to do it in. One of the hardest things, is getting people that have thought they knew how to do a particular movement, but they were doing the small things wrong, change the way they were doing things. A good example is standing at attention, it's one of the first things we learn as a soldier, but in order to make it look good we have to make suer everyone does the movement exactly the same. So we ensure that everyone pulls the weapon in as their leg comes up, because if left on their own, some will have the weapon forced in as the leg comes up, some as it comes down, and some in the middle. So it's had to break people of their habits, and introduce the new habits that we want them to have.

So over the 3 weeks, we taught, or re-taught them how to march, halt, stand at attention, stand at ease, stand easy, shoulder arms, order arms, fix bayonets, un-fix bayonets, present arms, change arms, do right and left forms, right and left turns, slow march, and perform double sentry drill.

So tommorrow, they will be doing drill for the first time in their full dress uniform, some of them will be a little suprised to find out how tight it is, and how much it will restrict their movements. And then on Saturday the next phas eof the summer will begin. I'm really hoping that it goes well.

Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense