I was a Colonel's driver for about 6 months at Bragg. One of the colonel's I drove for asked me a lot of questions about the troops in 1st COSCOM. One of the questions was about those "change of command" ceremonies. I told him, "Well Sir, I can honestly say that we like the actual ceremony much better than the practices." He then asked me why. "Because Sir, when the actual ceremony is over, we don't have to form back up and do it all again!"
We also talked about how most troops really get to know their Company Commanders and sometimes even Battalion Commanders, so the change of command "pass and review" does mean something at that level, but anything above that and it doesn't really mean much. That kind of hit home with this Colonel, he told me about the mixed feelings he had about getting promoted to LTC, knowing that he wouldn't know most his troops in any commands he held after that.
If I may be so bold as to answer Robbie Ferguson myself: Here our officers are trained to gain our trust and respect also. Some officers take the training to heart, while others don't. It's what makes the difference between the Officers who get saluted, and the Officers whose rank does.
