Omaha Beach, June 6 1944, 1st Wave - Would You Do it?

[SSN Vet]

Fill non-combat slots with those wishing to serve, but unable to fight. Then those able to fight can do so.

Though I understand and appreciate this point, I don’t think most of the folks that advocate it appreciate how a standing professional army works. If you want to recruit and retail soldiers and sailors for a 20 year career, you have to give them the opportunity to have some periods of “normal” life, in which you live in the states, work a 40-60 hours/week and go home to mamma and the kids 5-6 nights/week. In the navy, that’s called shore duty and for guys like me it typically worked out to be 3 years sea duty (attached to a warship spending up to 300 days/year at sea) followed by 2 years of shore duty.

When all of the non-combat jobs are filled up with “gimps” (derogatory term used by able bodied sailors to describe people who can’t hold their own weight), you have no shore / non-deployed positions available for these guys to rotate into.

In a force that is undermanned, with a total head count of ~500,000 do you really want to make 80% do all of the hard work, while 20% fill a cushy desk job. Should they guy who just spent 18 months away from his family, be denied a career enhancing state side billet because all of those positions are taken, and then be turned around for another deployment, because the force filled it’s congressionally allotted head count with NUBS (non-useful bodies)? There’s only so much of that kind of hardship you can impose upon a guy, before he exercises the only “vote” he has and declines re-enlistment.

I commend those with disabilities who want to serve. But I have yet to meet anybody who has “sucked up” a deployment who thinks this is a great idea.

 

[frankcostanza]

Yes. I would have a full load in my drawers, but yes.

 

[usp9]

Not to change topic but...

A better question may be - Would you join the Rangers at Point Du Hoc? Their casualty rate was incredible.
http://www.worldwar2history.info/D-Day/Pointe-Du-Hoc.html

 

[SSN Vet]

If I had a choice?

That’s the part people who have never experienced military service don’t seem to get and is why the premise of this thread is faulty.

There’s a reason they’re called “orders” and not “recommendations”….

If you were in, you were in and you did what the heck you were told.

Two little things, called a “Courts Martial” and a “Firing Squad” were in place to make sure everyone knew exactly how much “choice” they had.

There’s a reason why non-coms and officers were issued side arms. And anybody who was thinking about exercising their “free will” when ordered to “move up” would find out what that side arm was really there for.

But the moral sense of duty and desire to not let ones mates down, was all that was required for all those who served “honorably”.

 

[SSN Vet]

I will not risk my life for this government. In WWII, I would have but I don't believe the country is worth defending now.

Well then, you are the ultimate hypocrite and free loader…

You enjoy all of the benefits of the richest and freest society on the planet, yet you will not stand with those who defend it.

Rather, you count on men who are better than you, to stand up and defend you, your family and all that you have.

If the United States of America is not worth defending, can you explain why you haven’t chosen to live in Romania, the homeland of you wife? Or would you like to name what more perfect country you think is worth defending?

 

[sacp81170a]

Yep, given the circumstances of the times. I've done plenty of things that were potentially dangerous so as not to let buddies down. This wouldn't be any different.

 

[OFT]

I don't think that my old legs would run fast enough.

 

[SSN Vet]

That our men had to land with such little close air support, virtually no armor, and often in water over their heads was criminal.

well they wern't exactly using smart bombs back then (criminal of the government to have not developed them 50 years sooner) and death by friendly fire was a HUGE concern and reality....

and the armor (tanks) were either blown up or on the bottom of the channel....

or if you mean body armor....it was 25 years later before that technological innovation was first put into the field (by who? Oh yeah, the criminally negligent U.S. Army)...

never mind the lousy weather (Ike should have called the whole invasion off and waited until 1945, since those in Nazi occupied Europe didn’t really mind)

nor bother to consider the German guns or any of that.....

Yup, an armchair quarterback can always dig up an ambulance chasing lawyer and sue the government, casually tossing out that kind of language, because men who are better than they, failed to attain the level of perfection so easily dreamed up from the cozy warmth of their office chair.

 

[JohnL2]

Back when I was younger and more gung-ho you couldn't keep me from going. Like others have said, not letting the unit and buddies down is an incredibly powerful motivator. Also, keeping ones' honor is something you take pretty seriously in your younger years. It is war. Do your part young man.
Now? FORGET IT.
There are other ways of testing your skills, courage, and mettle to yourself in times of peace with equally dedicated people. Really great cool people.

 

[Eric-WA]

If I'd been in service at the time then but somehow knew what was coming,

a) of course because like someone else said it's an order not a recommendation.

and b) It wouldn't be just me, it'd be my brothers in arms. I don't know how many of you have ever had the benefit to work on a crew that's been together awhile, but those men are your brothers. I can only imagine how that bond gets facing death in the European theatre the way they did.

 

[siglite]

Not only would I do it, but I have done it. In sandbox V1, the 5th MEB did an amphibious landing. We were told the beaches were hot. We fully expected everything they encountered at Omaha beach. Turned out, we landed peacefully with no incoming.

Let me tell you. Riding in that mike boat is a surreal experience. I wasn't exactly happy to be there. But there wasn't a Marine on that boat that would not have stepped right into 12.7 fire and taken it to them. If the iraqi army had actually been there anyway.

Our "hot" amphib landing turned out to be pretty darned cold. And wet.

 

[freakshow10mm]

my grandpa is old, and he's still tougher than me.

if i was chosen to volunteer, i would. But would i run back in time to a 90% chance of death? no.

My grandfather served in both WWI and WWII. Born January 30, 1895, died May 14th, 1994 just before I turned 13 (I'm 27 now).

He looked into the face of death many times and kept moving forward.

Courage is being scared ****less, but doing it anyways.

90% chance of death? Bring it and let the chips fall where they may.

 

[husbandofaromanian]

The Romanian government is not worth my life either. Maybe those who benefited from affirmitive action would feel more like fighting for our government. I have been the target of affirmitive action all of my life (I am 46).

 

[dogrunner]

I can date my earliest memory to that landing. My Uncle was a part of the first landing. He was hit three times in about fifteen minutes and blown off a streacher while being evacuated....Spent six months in a hospital in England and was promptly returned to his unit till hostilities were over.

I clearly recall my Aunt writing him and crying at the same time. I was three and a half years old!

When he returned home I remember seeing a depression in his back that would have been big enough for me to stick my fist in. Said that was the result of the mortar round that blew him from the strecher.

May he rest in peace........he was 37 years old when he was drafted!

 

[buck00]

I think it is way too easy for keyboard commandos to blurt "oh yeah I'd do it!" How many of the same guys who said yes just got done playing "Medal of Honor" on their XBOX?

So my point is, words mean very little. If you are 18 and just chimed in with a casual "yes", go enlist, and get back to us in six years- then I'll respect your answer.

 

[siglite]

I think it is way too easy for keyboard commandos to blurt "oh yeah I'd do it!" How many of the same guys who said yes just got done playing "Medal of Honor" on their XBOX?

So my point is, words mean very little. If you are 18 and just chimed in with a casual "yes", go enlist, and get back to us in six years- then I'll respect your answer.

See post #86.

 

[divemedic]

Every generation has their few who sacrifice all for the greater good. Being a firefighter, the question we ask is this:

On 9/11, the guys in the second tower certainly, and the guys in the first tower probably, knew that the tower was coming down. They could have run for their lives, and been spared. Instead, they chose to enter and to stay, and in so doing they sacrificed their own lives, and spared dozens of others. Those 343 firemen, and the LEOs who went with them gave their lives so that others would live.

Could I do the same? I would like to think I would, and I hope I could live up to that standard, but until I am actually faced with that decision, I will never know.

 

[freakshow10mm]

I spent four years trying to enlist in the military. I got PMR'd out of MEPS in Milwaukee, WI in 1999. Got letters from the governor but they wouldn't take me. But I still had to register for the draft; to which I couldn't serve when I showed up because of my PMR status. Tried two years ago again, same thing. PMR report came up. I ain't a coward. I'll walk the walk. The government won't let me.

 

[jlbraun]

The most powerful motivating force in the armed services is not the officer screaming at you from the rear, or patriotism, or anything else. It's the desire to not let your buddies down.

 

[skinewmexico]

Makes me sick to think my Uncle died June 6th, 1944, somewhere in France, so that people today could let their personal dislike of George W. completely erase their concern and support of the United States.

 

[siglite]

....so that people today could let their personal dislike of George W. completely erase their concern and support of the United States.

Disagreeing with your nation's policies does not equal an erasure of "concern and support" for one's nation. Voicing of concern and discontent, and debate is a critical founding principle of this great nation.

Just because a person might believe something about the administration, past administrations, the next administration, or various folks in congress that may seem like satan incarnate for this reason or that, does not mean that a person is unpatriotic.

For example, I hated Bill Clinton with every fiber of my being. But I still willfully carried arms in the service of my country under him. It is not mutually exclusive for a person to love their country and fear their government.

 

[jlbraun]

....so that people today could let their personal dislike of George W. completely erase their concern and support of the United States.

Being able to voice one's dissent is EXACTLY the reason that your uncle died, sir.

 

[woodybrighton]

I'll be sitting back at camp with my underpants on my head two pencils up my nose
answering every question put to me with the reply WIBBLE
alternatively having a nice cup of tea at Pegasus bridge

 

[Mark K. C.]

To answer a question with a question: How could you not? So, yes, most assuredly. OTOH thank God for those who did and thank God I will never be in that situation.

 

[hso]

Please remember that we all agreed to address the argument and not attack the individual when you signed up at THR.