Parade (military)

A parade refers to any times soldiers are in formation with restriction of movement. The American usage is "formation."

Four-part commands

The typical parade commands are spoken extremely clearly and emphatically, and consist of four major parts.

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• Identifier, or who is to follow the command. This is typically (number) Section, (number) Platoon, (letter) Company, or (name) Regiment, although the prefixes are often dropped when there is no ambiguity (Section, Platoon, Company (Coy,) or Regiment.) Parade can only be given by the parade commander, and always refers to the entire parade, regardless of size.
• Precautionary, or what is to be done in an adstract sense: Move to the Advance, Move to the Retire, etc.(This is not always used in American usage)
• Cautionary, or the first part of what is to be done. In American usage, this is called the "preparatory command."
• Executive, or execution, a single syllable on which the soldiers actually move. This is as true in the United States armed forces as in other services; however, the accent of the commander often leads this to be hears of as simply huh on commands such as "Present Arms" and "Order Arms." There is always a significant pause between the Cautionary and the Executive. In American usage, the executive command is always given a greater emphasis than the preparatory command.

i.e.

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• 4 Platoon (Identifier,) Moving to the Right in File (Precautionary,) Right (Cautionary,) Turn (Executive.)
• B Coy (Identifier,) Advance (Precautionary,) Left (Cautionary,) Turn (Executive.)
• (U.S. usage) Battalion (Identifier), Right (Cautionary), FACE.
• Brigade (Identifier).

Often there is no chance of ambiguity, and much of the command can be unspoken. In such cases there must always be the Cautionary and the Executive.

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• Present Arms
• Atten -Tion