Several years ago, in casual “after work” conversation with colleagues over drinks, one of our French co-workers commented about “America’s love of war.” When asked for clarification, he explained he served with American troops in the ME. He thought US soldiers and special forces were excited to go into battle to kill people and break things. That puzzled him and his fellow French soldiers. John, also a combat vet in our conversation (Army Ranger I think), explained,
“It’s not excitement to kill people and break things as much as it is getting to implement the rigorous training that we constantly do. It’s like training and practicing for a sport everyday of your life for years but never getting to play a game against another team. We finally get to put our toys and training to the test.”
I got a kick out of that but was sure it only further confounded the Frenchman. These guys are true warriors.
In Desert Shield/Storm we teamed up with a French unit. We traded MRE’s. The particular one I traded came in a small wooden box with some type of meat, cheese and a small bottle of wine (go figure). It told me all I needed to know about how they go about War.
His French 13th Regiment loved going to Chad to fight and were always wanting to get back to it.
In my Armor Officer Basic class of 107 1st and 2nd Lieutenants, we had five Marines. In those days (1977-78) we had no scramblers on radios and still used code via CEOIs and did not speak in the clear. Our senior Marine who had been an enlisted man in Vietnam seemed confused by Army radio procedures and explained to the instructor, “Sir, we want the enemy to know who we are. We want them to know where we are going. We want them to come and meet us there. And we want them to bring all their friends.” He got a round of applause.