01July05

Comments on infantry weapons from a friend currently deployed:

"I may be waxing nostalgic, but I think infantry weapons reached the ir zenith in 1946 with the Garand, the 1911 pistol, and the Browning MG. We ca ptured two M1919A6s in Baghdad, and the consensus was "Thank God they didn't have ammo for these," followed by "Where can WE get some?"

Comment: In 1946 American infantrymen were "fighters of the enemy, " not merely "finders of the enemy." When I went through Marine O CS in 1967, we learned (with pride) that the mission of the Marine Infantry Squad was to:

(1) Locate, (2) Close with, and (3) Destroy the enemy by fire and close combat.

In the interim, the last two items have been dropped, and magnificent statu s of infantrymen, now equipped with impotent personal weapons, has thus been diminished in importance in the minds of modern war planners. As we learne d in Vietnam, and are now relearning in Iraq, American Infantryman provide th e critical, war-winning capability that cannot be supplied by all the high-te ch gadgets in the world. Without him, no war is winnable.

/John