JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Virginia Military Institute cadets stand in the cold Thursday as they wait for practice. The capital should be warmer Tuesday than the region's weather — temperatures are supposed to hit freezing.

JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Virginia Military Institute cadets practice Thursday for the inaugural parade, where they will march in a different formation than usual.

JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Roanoke County Cadet Mark Turner is one of hundreds of students at VMI who will march in Tuesday's inaugural parade. A graduate of Cave Spring High School, Turner also marched in the inaugural parade for Gov. Tim Kaine in 2006. After graduation, he plans to go into the U.S. Marine Corps.

LEXINGTON -- As a freshman at Virginia Military Institute, Mark Turner of Roanoke County got his first taste of a substantial political event when he marched in Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine's inauguration parade in Richmond in 2006.

Now a VMI senior, Turner and all 1,200 of his cadet peers will march in the nation's capital Tuesday for a political event of a whole different scope. They will be part of the inauguration of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States and the country's first black commander in chief.

"Not everyone can tell their kids they marched in an inauguration, especially one as historic as this upcoming one," said Turner, 22, a Cave Spring High School graduate.

Scheduled to graduate in the spring, Turner will be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marines. He will complete six months of training in Quantico but is unsure where the military will send him afterward. He is committed to the Marines for eight years, at least half of which will be under Obama's command.

When asked what direction he thinks Obama should take with the war in Iraq, Turner said it is his duty to support the commander in chief without question.

"I have my personal views, but whatever he does, I will support. Whatever I get told to do, I'll do," Turner said.

Tuesday marks the 13th presidential inauguration in which VMI cadets have marched. The first was 100 years ago when President William Howard Taft, the nation's 27th president, was sworn into office.

In addition to uniform inspections, the corps of cadets practiced marching several times last week on the school's parade field. Thursday afternoon after the cadets assembled in front of the barracks, all but a few received a reprieve from marching in the mid-20-degree weather. Tuesday the forecast is supposed to be a little warmer, hovering around the freezing mark in Washington, D.C.

The cadets are accustomed to marching, but VMI spokesman Lt. Col. Stewart MacInnis said the presidential inauguration is different. Cadets usually march in rows of five by company, but Tuesday the corps will be compressed into two massive battalions with 15 cadets per row, which makes turning more of a challenge.

"It is a different form. There are a few things they have to learn," MacInnis said.

On Tuesday, breakfast will be at 4 a.m., and the cadets will load onto 26 buses to leave Lexington at 5 a.m. Upon arriving at the Pentagon, each cadet and bus will be screened by the Secret Service, MacInnis said. The buses won't return to VMI until about midnight.

VMI was selected from thousands of applicants to march in the parade. VMI will be just one of a number of military-associated participants in Tuesday's events.

Air Force Academy Cadet Squadron 4 will also march past Obama. That group of 92 cadets will include Drew Hundley, a 2005 William Byrd High School graduate, who is a senior majoring in behavioral sciences. The squadron represents the Air Force and its academy by virtue of being the outstanding group of its kind for 2008, a news release said.