What's the longest you ever had to stand in formation and for what purpose?

5 hours for a brigade change of command. In the Georgia heat, that's no joke.

I don't remember the exact length of time, but somewhere right around a 1/2 day for a Division change of command....and a couple of half day practices leading up to it.

We were in formation for several hours, three consecutive days for the rehearsal ceremony of the Armor School leaving Fort Knox....the actual ceremony only lasted about an hour. I was impressed that only a couple Soldiers fell out, the threat of heat exposure is cumulative, keep that in mind and do not keep your people in formation just because!

I remember my basic training parade field graduation ceremony like it was yesterday.

It was summer. Extremely hot. Relaxin' Jackson. (I was scheduled to go to Benning, but, about 1-2 weeks prior to departing, I received orders to go to Jackson instead.)

It fell between roughly 1 hour and 1 hour + 30 minutes.

My company commander 'fell out' about midway through.

Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, Honor Guard. We had a retiree funeral, standing at attention for a couple hours because the lead forgot his que to put us at ceremonial at ease...new mexico sun doesn't play in the summer!

WORST EVER, Division Review, 82ND Airborne Fort Bragg ....

Second post here, not the longest, but worth a mention. The entire command was standing at in formation for an open Captain's Mast (NJP - Article 15). Anyway, it was a classic case of how leadership changes formations times by 15 minutes every time it was passed down.. Had a newer E7 call the entire formation to attention when he though the Skipper would arrive in 5 minutes - ended up standing at attention for well over 45 minutes. I suppose the E7 was too nervous, inexperienced, or absent minded to put the formation at-ease.. Several Sailors fell out due to heat or locking their knees. Thankfully when the Captain arrived, he took one look at us and put the formation at-ease (very unusual for an NJP).

Had to stay in formation for well over 2 hours in the hot Florida sun when our instructor called us to attention for muster, forgot the muster sheet so went back inside to get it, and forgot about us. We had pretty nasty sunburns after that - several people dropped out from locking their knees. I can't really talk much about my time at my "A" school because I have nothing good to say. The leadership there was absolutely toxic at the time..

It was about 3-4 hours long in Italy in the summer on a very hot flight deck for a Change of Command ceremony.

One of the first ones to fall out was a Marine SGT! Oh yeah.... The other Marines in the command gave him hell for that.

When Gen. Norman H. Schwarzkopf left I Corp in Ft. Lewis. I thought my legs we're turning to jelly. We had M-16's with fixed bayonets and a soldier in the unit beside mine about impaled himself when he locked his knees. The soldier behind him grabbed his LBE, probably saved his life.