UCLA vs USC

		UCLA vs USC
		I must apologize for the quality of this picture, but I had to show it. You see every year, the UCLA and USC NROTC Drill Teams would compete. The winning team earned the right to keep the Marion Davies Trophy in their unit's trophy case for the following year. It was a big event for the units and the rivalry mirrored that between the schools' football and basketball teams. The photo here was taken at the start of the competition when I brought our drill team onto the field and reported in to GySgt W.L. Crider, the gunny for our unit. That's me in the center giving a sword salute with my Marine Corps sword. The competition included uniform and weapons inspection, a standardized set of drill maneuvers - close order drill - and then a period for fancy or "trick drill." During the fancy drill program, each unit could perform whatever special drill exercises that it wished. We had worked on ours several days a week for about three semesters. It was complicated, damned daring (you can't imagine what we did with our Springfield rifles, bayonets attached!). And our precision was a thing of beauty. We had the luck of having our fancy drill program at the end of the competition. While the USC Drill Team was executing its final maneuvers, we were positioned in the field behind the onlooking crowd. No one saw us load our weapons with blank cartridges. When the USC team left the field, we came on and gave the best performance we had ever given. At the very end, the drill team formed into a "V" formation, facing me. On my signal, they executed what is referred to as the Queen Anne Salute - some fancy stuff with your rifle and you end up down on one knee with a rifle salute. It was executed in a ripple, from front to rear - the first two men started their salute, then the second two, etc., until they were all in the salute position. It was then that I executed an about face and began a sword salute to the senior inspecting officer. But this was fancy drill, so my sword salute included a whirlwind-like spin just before I brought the blade down into the salute position. And at the moment that the blade came to a stop, each drill team member squeezed the trigger of his weapon. It was a single explosion; it echoed off the dormitories and the Women's Gym, and shocked the pants off everyone. We won. We ruled.