Posted on 05/15/2007 10:34:47 PM PDT by Retain Mike
Because my son was a Marine Corps rifleman, the guys I have written to, prayed for and sent packages to have most often been "trigger pullers". One guy landed in Maine just last week. One guy is over there now and leads a four man sniper team in Ramadi. Four others have made it home after up to three deployments. The guy who went there three times did not have to go, but volunteered for a sniper team, which also happened to operate in Ramadi. This experience is so different from the reality of our fathers and grandfathers.
The continual drumbeat about the hardship of multiple deployments and length of deployment for our troops caused me to reflect on a couple passages from Omar Bradley's book called A Soldier's Story. The current media commitment to inject despondency into our military, and society at large contrasts sharply with the hardships faced by soldiers of "The Greatest Generation". Bradley says the following:
"Previous combat had taught us that casualties are lumped primarily in the rifle platoons. For here are concentrated the handful of troops who must advance under enemy fire. It is upon them that the burden of war falls with greater risk and with less likelihood of survival than in any other of the combat arms. An infantry division of WW II consisted of 81 rifle platoons, each with a combat strength of approximately 40 men. Altogether those 81 assault units comprised but 3,240 men in a division of 14,000".
"Prior to the European invasion we had estimated that the infantry would incur 70 percent of the losses of our combat forces. By August we had boosted the figure to 83 percent on the basis of our experience in the Normandy hedgerows. The appalling hazard of an infantryman's life in combat is illustrated at St.-Lo where in 15 days the 30th division sustained 3,984 battle casualties. At first glance those casualties seem to imply 25 percent losses for the division. That figure, however, is deceptive. Because three out of every four of those casualties occurred in a rifle platoon, the rate of loss in those platoons exceeded 90 percent".
"For the infantryman there are no 25 or 30 missions [Army Air Corps] to be completed for a ticket home. Instead the rifleman trudges into battle knowing that statistics are stacked against his survival. He fights without promise of either reward or relief. Behind every river, there's another hill - and behind that hill, another river. After weeks or months in the line only a wound can offer him the comfort of safety, shelter, and a bed. Those who are left to fight, fight on, evading death but knowing that with each day of evasion they have exhausted one more chance of survival. Sooner or later, unless victory comes, the chase must end on a litter or in the grave".
Thanks so much for taking the time to put up this wonderful perspective.
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