The last passing-out parade of RUC recruits yesterday ended, as such parades do, with the throwing of peaked caps in the air.
The parade, with all its foot drill, British army marching tunes, spit-polished boots and shiny brass was redolent with the kind of imagery the Patten reforms are intended to remove.
If the first recruits of the Northern Ireland Police Service, who may not pass out until 2002, throw anything in the air it is more likely to be a baseball cap. The starched tunics on show on the parade ground will be replaced, ironically, by "combat-style" blouson jackets.
The parade may well be the closest thing ardent republicans will get to a disbandment of the RUC, and even the Chief Constable conceded that for many in the RUC there was a sense that it marked the end of an era.
Sir Ronnie Flanagan told an audience including members of the Garda Siochana that the police community was "not without a certain sense of sadness that this is the last passing-out parade in the form we have known.
"While I share that sense of sadness I also look forward with great confidence to a brighter future which no one has worked harder than those represented by all present today to create."
In the meantime, circumstances around the parade demonstrated the extent to which change will be felt in the RUC. Although the 36 new recruits (27 men and nine women) have been instructed on human rights and community relations during their course, much of their time is still spent on weapons training and "patrol tactics".
The ceremony was held at the RUC's training college at Garnerville in east Belfast. Armed officers briefly questioned those attending at a gate and a six-metre corrugated metal fence prevented anybody from the outside world from viewing proceedings.
Of the 36 recruits, only four were "perceived to be from a Catholic background", according to figures from the force's equal opportunities unit. Under Patten, this figure is expected to rise to 50 per cent.
Cameramen were cautioned about the kind of pictures they could take. "Some of these recruits have legitimate security concerns," a press officer reminded them.
Sir Ronnie told the recruits the force they were joining was built on the sacrifice of the tens of thousands wounded and the 302 officers killed by terrorists and said there was still a terrorist threat. Since the beginning of the year there have been 151 shooting incidents, 51 incidents involving explosives and six murders.
"You stand at the threshold of what I hope will be an immensely satisfying and rewarding career in policing for you all. This is a day when we look back and remember with honour and pride what has gone before in the RUC's 78-year history - the courage, sacrifice, service, comradeship, dedication and dignity.
"We now seek to build on those magnificent foundations to create a safer, more secure future for the generations to come. We will cherish the best of the past while we embrace a new future," he said.
Policing had to be about collaboration and partnership between the police and all of the communities they existed to serve, Sir Ronnie said.
"We stand ready to accept the challenges brought about by the Patten report. It is my fervent hope that all of those communities we exist to serve stand similarly ready to take up the challenge."
Before passing out, two of the recruits also spoke about their hopes for the future of policing in the North. Constable Susan Wright said she would be "equally as proud to serve in the new police service as the RUC". Constable Jackie Adams said he was proud of those who had gone before him in the force, "but I don't think by changing the name those people are being forgotten".