I have seen a few changes with the Army in my short break in service. Now adays, we do a lot less road marching. The 101st 20km road march standard has eased from 3 hours to 4 hours. We soldiers also call our division the 101st "truck assault division."

I have heard people say that road marching is being useless in this day of driving from place to place. The counter to this argument is Somalia. Tell the veterans of the Mogadishu Mile that road marching is useless.

Doody,
I can't speak about other armies, but in asia the Indian, Pakistani and PLA armies have a lot of route marches. In facts with our armies there is heavy emphasis on this, the fact that the troops get vehicles to move to front lines is just a matter of convenience.

They do have a lot of marching here but the ones that go on for several days have been cancelled mostly I think. The problem was that the recruits would be sleep walking and they'd just sleep walk themselves off a cliff. True story.

This type of excercise died out after ww2. The nazis loved this stuff since it would make soldiers more obedient and let people see how efficient their troops are. After tanks and jets stole the show, people figured that marching is an art best left to those who need to actually use it, like the national guard during parades.

Because marching is nice for show, but in guerilla warfare, it makes nice targets for the vietcong/contras/nationalists/kurds/taliban/terrorists/insurgents/residnets of montana to pick off.

Uh, I think you have a serious confusion of the difference between a parade and a route step road march.

Marching is still very practical.
It makes the troops more used to the load they have to carry, it increases strength and endurance both physical and mental.
Marching still has its place.
The most recent incident where marching was used as a major mobility option was in the Falklands where helicopter operations were risky due to the Argie air force. So teh British troops just marched across bad terrain and reached their objectives, surprising the Argentines.

i'm saying that unless you're willing to use trucks for long and medium distance trips only , no one's going to want to road march because they have vehicles.

It's good exercise.
And it p1sses off all the boots.
'nuff said I think

Depends on the terrain you are operating in.

marching is an essential training tool in my opinion, strength, obedience establishing bonds with your team. should it always be used in combat, I'm not sure I've never been there.