51- Combat Infantrymen carry a huge load on their backs
51- Combat Infantrymen carry quite a load on their back [26:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadThe combat infantryman has always carried the load of fighting on his back. As you know, the mission of the combat infantryman is “to kill, capture and destroy the enemy by means of fire and maneuver and fire-and-movement.” Thus, the footsoldier’s job results in “being in harm’s way” due to the dangerous situations, as well as a very heavy burden and sacrifice of accomplishment.
However, now we discuss another burden–the reality of the equipment, arms, supplies and tools that he was forced to carry on his back. And we look at this especially during the role of the combat infantryman during the Vietnam War.
The image you see on this post is a photo that comes from the book cover of the work titled The TET OFFENSIVE- A Concise History. This is a book by James H. Willbanks, published by Columbia University Press (ISBN 978-0-231-12841-4).
From my own experience as a combat infantryman in the jungles, the rice paddies, the mountains and the villages in Vietnam, I can truthfully say that we also became literally the human version of “beasts of burden.”
To help you visualize this, we outline 3 key jobs or roles in the squad of an infantry line company in this audio podcast episode, and the loads that they carried–so you can get a better appreciation of what the infantrymen had to carry on their backs.
(1) THE “PIG-MAN” — that is, the machine-gunner who carried the m.60 machine gun;
(2) THE RTO — that is, the “radio-telephone” operator who carried the PRC-25 radio for communications; and
(3) THE STARLIGHT SCOPE humper– that is, the man who carried the Starlight Scope (also known as the “night vision device”).
And then there is an understanding of the load carried by the snipers, medics, recon/recondos–and how they may have differed from the typical line company infantry loads.
In other campaigns in other conflicts, the combat infantryman was the one chosen to shoulder the burden of some of the heaviest loads one can imagine. For instance, in World War II, the paratroopers who made the combat jumps (for example, those of the 82nd Airborne Division and the 101st Airborne Division in Normandy on D-Day) were so laden down with all the ammunition, supplies, tools and armament that many could not even board the airplanes by themselves normally. In fact, many had to go on their knees or use the helping hands of others to get on board– as the weight of their burden made the paratrooper exceed well over 300 pounds.
We remember the words that General MacArthur said during World War II which told us that nobody hates war more than the soldier who has to fight it. In our case, nobody would hate the load he was forced to carry on his back in Vietnam more than the combat infantryman who had to shoulder this burden–which was necessary for him to sustain and survive the mission in the mountains, the jungles, the highlands and the rice paddies.
But such is the burden of the combat infantryman. And this burden usually went unnoticed by those who were not 11B light weapons infantrymen–not by most of the REMFS in the rear, nor most of those in the military who were not in Vietnam (but served only as “Vietnam-ERA” veterans), and certainly not by the civilians who did not have this burden on their backs.
That is why this saying is so true: “For those who fought for it, Freedom has a taste that the Protected can never know.”
Copyright (c) 2011, Matrix Solutions Corporation and Columbia University Press and James H. Willbanks. All rights reserved.
Tags: columbia university press, Combat Infantryman, machine gunner, night vision device, rice paddies, starlight scope