Air Force captain helps shape parade

As big march takes shape, he will script its voice

U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Kathrine McDowell

U.S. Air Force Capt. Christopher Moore has voluntarily deployed from Charleston Air Force base to Washington to help the armed forces work out logistics for the inaugural parade.

Planning President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural parade is no small job, and a Charleston Air Force Base captain is in the thick of it all.

"It's definitely been an experience," says Capt. Christopher Moore, who works for the base's public affairs office but volunteered to help plan the military's role in the upcoming inauguration.

Moore arrived in Washington in August as a new member of the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee, which gears up months in advance to work on logistics for the Jan. 20, 2009, parade and related events. He says he volunteered for the duty to be a part of history, not because he backed a certain candidate.

"As far as the political part, it didn't matter to us who won," he says. "Military members do have political beliefs, but as far as this goes, we support that office no matter who's president."

One of the committee's early jobs is to receive applications from college and high school marching bands and other organizations wanting to take part in the historic event, and Moore said those applications hint at the task ahead.

In 2004, 343 bands and groups applied for President George Bush's second inaugural. This year, about 1,400 have applied.

That flood of applications isn't the only sign of the heightened interest this time. Moore has been swamped with requests for tickets to the inaugural, even though he doesn't have any to hand out. Those tickets are distributed through Congressional offices, not by military organizers.

"I don't know how many thousands of ticket requests I've gotten, but it's been crazy," he says. "There are a lot of people who want to be part of this, so I'm definitely honored to be up here and representing the Air Force, the Department of Defense and Charleston."

Not only doesn't the Armed Forces committee get any tickets, it doesn't even decide who takes part in the parade. That's left up to the Presidential Inaugural Committee, a group of private citizens that Obama is expected to appoint soon. That committee will raise money and decide on inaugural events.

"They're the ones who make all the calls on how big the parade is or whether there is even going to be a parade," Moore says. But it's pretty likely that there will be some sort of parade: It's a tradition dating back to George Washington's first inauguration in 1789.

The Armed Forces Inaugural Committee has about 300 members but will swell to about 700 by the time of the inauguration. And it's not even in charge of security or handling the traffic or crowd control for the massive crowd expected to descend upon Washington. Some have predicted a record-shattering gathering of 3 million or more.

As the parade takes shape, Moore says he will develop a script to be read by five to seven public address announcers along the route.

On inauguration day, Moore plans to position himself at the parade's merge point, where floats, bands and others join the parade route, mainly so he can alert the announcers if the script needs to change.

"If band X doesn't show up or is late, then my script is messed up," he says. "I'll have to communicate down the line to all my announcers, 'Pull the band X page. They didn't make it.' "

Other details include the protocol issues such as which songs can be played by civilian bands and how many steps per minute the marchers should shoot for. The committee also reviews requests for color guards at inaugural balls and other events.

"One of my jobs in public affairs is to work on that process, look through documents and regulations, and say, 'Can we support this?' "

Obama is expected to be sworn in by noon on Jan. 20, deliver a speech, have lunch with Congress and then proceed to the White House. Moore said the president typically arrives there about 10 minutes before the start of the parade so he has time to take his place on the viewing stand.

In 2004, the parade lasted about two hours, until dusk. About 47 marching bands and other groups marched in the parade with 2,100 service members and 266 horses.

Also, 1,500 military service members formed a cordon along the 1.5-mile-long route from the Capitol to the White House.

At this point, Moore says the biggest challenge to date is simply the unknown. While organizers have been planning based on previous parades, they know Obama's committee members could call for a dramatically different approach.

"We totally understand it's not our parade. It's their parade," he says. "We have to be flexible. That's one of the keys to the military. You have to be flexible. Failure is not an option."

Reach Robert Behre at 937-5771 or at rbehre@postandcourier.com.