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Apr-05-2011 16:26TweetFollow @OregonNews The Infantry: The Most Dangerous Lethal GameDr. Phil Leveque Salem-News.comSee recent Military Deaths in Salem-News.com.
(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I believe any Dogface Combat Infantryman would give a hoohah to my statement that being a Combat Infantryman was a game. Well, look at this way, way behind the mud, blood and guts and chickenspit were a bunch of guys with metal on their shoulder boards playing a lethal kind of chess. Every move they made of a chess piece on the map/chessboard it was/is probably that from few to very many men were going to die. Whether these geezers (anybody over 40) really cared about that it is doubtful. The name of the game is to advance with the dictum “damn the torpedos OR ARTILLERY”. The crass saying that there are only two rules of warfare: (1) young men die and (2) there is nothing old men can do about it… is a very stark fact. At any rate it sure looked like that to me. For WWII, my war, several abbreviations were put together to clarify the situation. The first was SNAFU. This was almost certainly contributed by a private or maybe an exalted corporal who was getting into the order taking and order giving branch. This was followed by TARFU, FUBAR, JANFU, BARFU and probably many more. The Viet Nam guys offered Cluster F*#K which in retrospect seems to cover the whole shebang! I think it was the Second Lieutenant “ninety day wonders” or FBI (Fort Benning Idiots) who indiscriminately engendered most of these pithy abbreviations. For WWII it seemed to have started with the fact that the pre-war Army had only about 150,000 men and officers who could not get a civilian job and had to stay put. Don’t argue with me about the facts! I speak at Veteran’s Day programs. We almost lost the war at Pearl Harbor. Japan was SNAFUed more than we were. We almost lost it at Guadal Canal, North Africa, Normandy and The Battle of the Bulge. Who saved the butts of the heavy brass? It was a bunch of 18 – 20 year old Private Combat Infantrymen who left 300,000 of their bodies on the battlefields. I will say this though, First Lts. had the highest casualty rates, followed by Second Lts. followed by Privates. The inbreeding of bravado and arrogance at Fort Benning contributed to their demise. I cannot feel any sympathy nor empathy for those junior officers. Despite their pay and glory, they were equally screwed by the system. I have heard that the West Point “ring knockers” protected their own by letting the ROTC boys and Field Commissions carry the load. Whatever the case, the Most Dangerous Lethal Game is still the Infantry. HOORAH TO MY FELLOW C I B VETERANS. WE WON THESE WARS! _________________________________ Dr. Phil Leveque is Salem-News.com’s Medical Expert For more Cannabis-related stories and factual information, go to: Cannabis De-Classified If you liked this article, please consider making a donation to Salem-News.com by clicking on the PayPal link on our front page (right side). Thank you!
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