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When I was in the four combat branches were armor, field artillery, infantry and ADA. I think aviation has since been added, but I’m not sure. Then there are combat support branches, like the engineers. Combat engineers end up on the front lines alright. Then there are the service support branches, like ordnance. But it was a rear area ordnance (maintenance) company that got shot up in the Jessica Lynch affair (although she was Quartermaster Corps, a supply clerk).

Thanks for the definition....exactly what I was looking for. Also, thanks very much for your service.

And, as for the Jessica Lynch affair, it just goes to my point that the theater of war is a dangerous place to be. One of the guys I went to school with was killed in the first Gulf War when a SCUD hit his barracks...it was in Bahrain (maybe Saudi? not sure) a really good ways from the "front line".

That's why I never, ever trivialize the contributions a soldier makes to a war effort. And, why Burn's piece on our black soldiers was a little frustrating to me. Ordinance isn't going unload itself...someone had to do it!