Here’s a fascinating article written by a French infantryman in Afghanistan extolling the virtues of his American comrade in arms from a certain well-known Army division. It’s from 2008, but Blackfive just linked to it. Here’s the original article in French… the above is a translation — well worth the read. Here’s a taste, read the whole thing:
And combat? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all – always coming
to the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the
shortest delay. That is one of their tricks: they switch from T-shirt and
sandals to combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the
enemy, the way they fight is simple and disconcerting: they just charge!
They disembark and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions
later – which cuts any pussyfooting short.This is the main area where I’d like to comment. Anyone with a passing
knowledge of Kipling knows the lines from Chant Pagan: ‘If your officer’s
dead and the sergeants look white/remember it’s ruin to run from a fight./So
take open order, lie down, sit tight/And wait for supports like a soldier./
This, in fact, is the basic philosophy of both British and Continental
soldiers. ‘In the absence of orders, take a defensive position.’ Indeed,
virtually every army in the world. The American soldier and Marine,
however, are imbued from early in their training with the ethos: In the
Absence of Orders: Attack! Where other forces, for good or ill, will wait
for precise orders and plans to respond to an attack or any other
‘incident’, the American force will simply go, counting on firepower and SOP
to carry the day. This is one of the great strengths of the American force
in combat and it is something that even our closest allies, such as the
Brits and Aussies (that latter being closer by the way) find repeatedly
surprising. No wonder it surprises the hell out of our enemies.
I read this when it first became public. It is a great account, and I am not surprised. I think many in our country who do not interact with our military have an immature view of who our military are, and how it functions.
[Airport Loudspeaker] Ladies and gentlemen, your US Armed Forces will shortly be abandoning this style of fighting — attack instead of waiting for orders — at the request of their Commander in Chief. They will return to the good ol’ American way in approximately three years, all contingent if we have a military. Thank you and as you were. Oh, no, Captain Oveur, the other courtesy phone.
Rufus, I hope you have the chance to check out the Geoff Tate portion of yesterday’s show sometime. He had similar misconceptions about the soldiers … before he interviewed them.
I am eagerly looking forward to hearing your dulcet tones in my ear on my mp3 player during tomorrow’s run.
Eric I didn’t get to listen yesterday (had an engagement ceremony with the future Mrs. V’s family) had Geoff Tate in fact “changed his stripes” so to speak?
I don’t think he’s changed his stripes as much as realized his original thinking was ill-informed (or uninformed, especially strange having a military dad and wife as well). Great stuff about the post-9/11 world in which we live, too. He also brought up some stuff about the world’s “haves and have nots,” on which he and I probably don’t agree much, but that’s the beauty of agree to disagree. Geoff Tate = class act.