Stormtroopers in the Rose Parade?

Check out this photo I found on Yahoo! yesterday - I got a kick out of it. It's not every day you see Star Wars stormtroopers marching down a street in a parade. These stormtroopers are a fan-based group known as the "501st Legion" from 22 different countries and 26 U.S. states, marching down Colorado Boulevard in the 118th Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year's Day.

Call me a history dork, but I can never hear stormtroopers and not think of Nazi Germany. Wikipedia had a good comparison when I went to the Website this morning looking up Star Wars stuff.

A scene from Star Wars, Episode IV...

...and a scene from Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda film, Triumph of the Will.

I wonder in these PC times, if the original Star Wars were released today, if there would be an outcry about George Lucas' Nazi Germany overtones, and his use of the moniker stormtroopers. I'm betting there would be a laughable PC outcry, and that's ridiculous.

Anyway, I digress, I just thought it was funny to see Star Wars stormtroopers marching down the street in the Rose Parade.