" Too Easy: An Infantry Soldier's Life "

   I recall when Tennessee Titans football team went to Fort Campbell, Kentucky to try and do morning physical training with my unit 3rd Battalion, 327th Infantry 1st Brigade Combat Team "Bastogne" 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Steve McNair (RIP) said on television news, "We are NFL football players but we can't hang with these men. They look like ordinary men but these guys are like supermen. It's incredible what they can do."
 

  On news footage they showed all the Titans falling out of a ruck-run, some couldn't get up with a full ruck load, some gave up and said 'no way, can't take this'...It was a reality check for NFL athletes and the fans who watched that news broadcast.
 

  Infantrymen don't do it for money, cause the pay sucks, nor for fame or recognition because most people never hear about our work and the rest don't believe it, nor because it's glamorous...It's just 'who' one is and 'what' one does...You're either cut out for that life or your not...A happy band of masochists who (rather than complain) say when their cold, wet, hungry, sleep deprived and humping 120lbs of extra weight for 25miles, "Hoo-ah!!! Let it suck some more!"
 

  When they've done enough physical exercise that their limbs are jelly and they can barely stand up, the Infantrymen will shout, " We like it! We love it! We want some more of it! Make it hurt! Make it hurt! Make it hurt! " Men who say, "Pain is just weakness leaving the body! Pain is our best friend, it lets us know we're still alive!"
 

  Men who get off on the pain and misery that makes other men cringe and withdraw...Men who value honor, camaraderie, brotherhood, courage, strength, and altruistic love above all other things...Men who mean what they say and say what they mean...Men who are not afraid to suffer and sacrifice their lives for honor, loyalty, and to protect the people they love (or the people they don't even know)...Men who hate bullies and whose greatest joy in life is to make the predator become the prey...Men who are professionals even before they are old enough to shave or buy a beer...Men whom, despite hunger, fatigue, muscle failure, sleep deprivation, cramps, blisters, flu virus, high temperature, or injury, will parachute or rappel into an area of operation and then run a literal marathon under a full combat load just to get to the fight of their lives!
 

  So tell me again, how 'sports' athletes who get paid multi million dollar contracts have it so tough playing with a broke finger or cramps (Lebran James), how a gangsta rapper (50cent) on stage feels like his job is equal to being a combat soldier, or an actor (Tom Cruise) says his job is every bit as hard as being an Infantry Marine in Afghanistan...Maybe we should give them another 50million dollars annually, along with a hug, since those cup~cakes got it so tough.
Hoo-ah4Life,
AnDrew*