I just took command of the 597th Quartermaster Company (laundry and bath) here in Puerto Rico, and it's got me thinking about why our Army (armed forces) rule on the world stage. You take an infantry guy, granted ours are probably trained better, but not THAT much better that it alone would account for the disparity around the world. Basically, they train a guy to shoot (maybe he shot gophers on his farm when he was a kid), give him some type of army uniform and send him out in a squad with a mission. Sometimes he stays out for days, weeks, perhaps even months. He get's tired, cold, wet, hungry, just the same as our guys. But our guys have several advantages.
Now #4 is what the 597th takes care of, and I have to say, I'd take a clean happy infantry man 9 times a week and twice on Sunday, over some bedraggled, malnourished, dirty, and rotten toothed SOB. I remember from Gen Schwartzkoff's book that he said after they pulled the first dirty, tired, cut up Iraq infrantryman from his hole in the ground in the middle of the desert, he knew we had Saddam beat. Anybody who would treat their soldiers like that didn't know what it took to win.
That's why we win folks, Combat Service Support, HOORAH !!!
Okay now, I'll be accepting jokes about being commander of a Laundry and Bath company *G*.
So I'm off tomorrow for two weeks with my soldiers in support of a Area Support Group training mission (that's like a brigade... but different, chuckle). We will be in the desert. Lovely.