“I will not tuck my thumbs!”
Nine voices yell out the phrase in unison over and over after instructors spotted potential Honor Guard Airmen tucking their thumbs into their fists while standing at attention in formation.
Moments like this are common during the first week of Honor Guard training, a four-week, 200-hour course that turns Airmen into ceremonial guardsmen. The first week is a reintroduction to ceremonial actions like facing movements and military bearing.
Most of the trainees haven’t participated in those activities since basic military training or technical school. It’s also a chance for instructors to break bad habits trainees bring with them such as thumb-tucking as they begin to rebuild them into model Airmen.
The most common habit to be unlearned Honor Guard instructors call Air Force feet. It’s the toes apart and heels together stance every Airman uses while standing at attention. It’s one of the earliest lessons imparted by military training instructors at BMT.
“We’re breaking habits that were never purposely formed. It’s an unconscious response instilled in Basic, when Airmen are called to attention,” said Senior Airman Samuel Smith, 96th Weather Squadron and lead instructor for Class 25B. “Because it’s become an instinctive movement, it’s a very hard habit to break.”
Trainees must unlearn this behavior and replace it with a toes and heels together stance used by ceremonial guardsmen. This is accomplished by putting the Airmen in a high-stress, high intensity environment and loudly correcting them until the proper form is used, similar to BMT methods.
“We train with intensity, so the Airmen can handle anything they may see in the field,” said Master Sgt. Robert Joyce, Eglin Honor Guard superintendent. “We want our training to be more pressure-filled and stressful than a field environment, so the guardsmen are more prepared for the experience of being in those physically and emotionally taxing situations."
Attention to detail is critical during the course because the Airmen’s look, movements and bearing are on full display for vulnerable loved ones of a lost military member or for someone’s important ceremony, like a retirement or change of command.
"The attention to detail cannot be minimized. It cannot be forgotten,” Smith said to the trainees after a uniform inspection. "I expect perfection, and I will get it, or you will not graduate from this course.”
That perfection is strived for during the first week by repeated facing movements, handling a ceremonial rifle and memorizing the Honor Guard Charge, one of only eight official charges in the Air Force. The 150-word creed explains the honor guard mission. Trainees must memorize it, then recite it loud and proud. If they don’t sound off loud enough, instructors interrupt and try to break the Airman’s concentration. The goal for the Airmen is to tune out those distractions, focus on the words and deliver the creed with authority.
Smith described the training course as a house and Week 1 as the foundation the rest of the training phases to come are built upon.
The second week incorporates two-person flag folding and ceremonial movements while carrying a casket into what they’ve already learned.