Great observation on the United States Army.
"Doctor, if you were organizing a regiment of infantry and it was to be the first regiment of infantry organized in the army, what would you call it?"
"What is this, Major?"
"It's a straight question, Jopp. What would you call it?"
"Well, I expect I'd be inclined to be logical. I'd probably call it the First Infantry."
"Precisely" -- Allshard nodded -- "but the powers that be didn't. They called it the Second Infantry. Now, if you will accept the fundamental fact that the First Infantry is officially the Second Infantry, you will understand everything else there is to understand about the Army" -- Allshard chuckled deep in his throat -- "because everything else becomes quite clear wen correlated with that fundamental fact. And that knowledge should keep you sane."
-- "The Devil At Crazy Man," by James Warner Bellah, first printed in The Saturday Evening Post, 21 June 1947 and later reprinted in a paperback collection of stories entitled Reveille, 1962.
6 comments:
Back in the spring of 1980, I was directed by my CO to sweep the woods near another Kaserne, in West Germany, for members of a deadly communist group called Bieder Meinhof, who, in 1976, brazenly sub-machine gunned to death the Attorney General of FRG. Supposedly some of them had been spotted near there. We, my platoon including my lieutenant, were sent out there with unloaded M16s', no ammo, no radio contact, and no other support. I asked the Lt., "If we contact these guys, do you want us to use harsh language, or what?" He didn't reply. I did have something to fall back on, unknown to him and everyone else, because this kind of bullshit had happened to me more than once before. But that's what the Army is, and does. If you're a soldier of any kind, you had better learn how to use your head, and better than your superiors, because all they do afterwards is retire, and you lay real quite somewhere. The best thing one can do to counter this kind of stupidity is hang together and depend on each other. I expect the Marines and whoever else is so unfortunate to get sent to Western African nations had better watch their six real close, being that Obongo and Co. don't really give a shit what happens to our Armed Forces. Remember how tearful he was at Ft. Hood? But they still can't be armed on post, and he goes out living it up at the golf course, with armed guards.
Isn't the 1st Infanty the People?
Comments about Obongo reminds me that I need to stock up on Halloween masks for some "Outdoor Decorations" that parody certain politicians. I still get a kick out of seeing pix of some billboards that have been popping up around the country.
It didn't start that way. First American Regiment was established in 1785, became the 1st Infantry, then the 1st Sub-legion, back the the 1st Infantry, and was renumbered the 3rd Infantry in the reorganization after the War of 1812, when the 44 Infantry regiments, were consolidated into 7.
The Army constantly redesignates units, which is why there is so little regimental tradition.
And a LTG is below a MG
In his book, Richard Marcinko says he named his SEAL command 'SEAL Team Six' to convince his opposite numbers that there were five other teams out there.
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