Camp Holloway Discussion Forum Archive 05 - 02/12/06 to 01/21/10

The American Soldier

This is one of the finest tributes to the American Soldier I have seen. By a Frenchman, of all people. I wish I knew more about the source, I don't, sorry. But God Bless 'em, every one of them.

"Past generations of American
Warriors have passed the Torch of Freedom to yet another great group of
young American Warriors who carry on the proud traditions of our nation.
God Bless them all on this Thanksgiving Day.

George

All,

"A lot of people discount the French Army. I can tell you from personal
observation of them when I was in Afghanistan, the troops were motivated and
skilled, especially the one's with the patch that said "Légion étrangère".
Any problem they had was a matter of national will.

"Here is an essay I copied from another site. I found it especially
appropriate for Thanksgiving. My rough translation of the title - "Our
American Brothers in Arms".

To all of you who are down-range, keep the faith.

Sincerely,

Jim

Here is the original French article can be read in French at URL:

http://omlt3-kdk3.over-blog.com/article-22935665.html

Here is (a) translation :

//// START ////

“We have shared our daily life with two US units for quite a while - they
are the first and fourth companies of a prestigious infantry battalion whose
name I will withhold for the sake of military secrecy. To the common man it
is a unit just like any other. But we live with them and got to know them,
and we henceforth know that we have the honor to live with one of the most
renowned units of the US Army - one that the movies brought to the public as
series showing “ordinary soldiers thrust into extraordinary events”. Who are
they, those soldiers from abroad, how is their daily life, and what support
do they bring to the men of our OMLT every day? Few of them belong to the
Easy Company, the one the TV series focuses on. This one nowadays is named
Echo Company, and it has become the support company.

They have a terribly strong American accent - from our point of view the
language they speak is not even English. How many times did I have to write
down what I wanted to say rather than waste precious minutes trying various
pronunciations of a seemingly common word? Whatever state they are from, no
two accents are alike and they even admit that in some crisis situations
they have difficulties understanding each other.

Heavily built, fed at the earliest age with Gatorade, proteins and
creatine - they are all heads and shoulders taller than us and their muscles
remind us of Rambo. Our frames are amusingly skinny to them - we are wimps,
even the strongest of us - and because of that they often mistake us for
Afghans.

Here we discover America as it is often depicted : their values are taken to
their paroxysm, often amplified by promiscuity, lack of privacy, and the
loneliness of this outpost in the middle of that Afghan valley. Honor,
motherland - everything here reminds of that : the American flag floating in
the wind above the outpost, just like the one on the post parcels. Even if
recruits often originate from the hearth of American cities and gang
territory, no one here has any goal other than to hold high and proud the
star spangled banner. Each man knows he can count on the support of a whole
people who provides them through the mail all that an American could miss in
such a remote front-line location : books, chewing gums, razorblades,
Gatorade, toothpaste etc. in such way that every man is aware of how much
the American people backs him in his difficult mission. And that is a first
shock to our preconceptions : the American soldier is no individualist. The
team, the group, the combat team are the focus of all his attention.

And they are impressive warriors! We have not come across bad ones, as
strange at it may seem to you when you know how critical French people can
be. Even if some of them are a bit on the heavy side, all of them provide us
everyday with lessons in infantry know-how. Beyond the wearing of a combat
kit that never seem to discomfort them (helmet strap, helmet, combat
goggles, rifles etc.) the long hours of watch at the outpost never seem to
annoy them in the slightest. On the one square meter wooden tower above the
perimeter wall they stand the five consecutive hours in full battle rattle
and night vision goggles on top, their sight unmoving in the directions of
likely danger. No distractions, no pauses, they are like statues nights and
days. At night, all movements are performed in the dark - only a handful of
subdued red lights indicate the occasional presence of a soldier on the
move. Same with the vehicles whose lights are covered - everything happens
in pitch dark even filling the fuel tanks with the Japy (JP-8) pump.

And combat? If you have seen Rambo you have seen it all - always coming to
the rescue when one of our teams gets in trouble, and always in the shortest
delay. That is one of their tricks : they switch from T-shirt and sandals to
combat ready in three minutes. Arriving in contact with the enemy, the way
they fight is simple and disconcerting : they just charge! They disembark
and assault in stride, they bomb first and ask questions later - which cuts
any pussyfooting short.

We seldom hear any harsh word, and from 5 AM onwards the camp chores are
performed in beautiful order and always with excellent spirit. A passing
American helicopter stops near a stranded vehicle just to check that
everything is alright; an American combat team will rush to support ours
before even knowing how dangerous the mission is - from what we have been
given to witness, the American soldier is a beautiful and worthy heir to
those who liberated France and Europe.

To those who bestow us with the honor of sharing their combat outposts and
who everyday give proof of their military excellence, to those who pay the
daily tribute of America’s army’s deployment on Afghan soil, to those we
owned this article, ourselves hoping that we will always remain worthy of
them and to always continue hearing them say that we are all the same band
of brothers”.

//// END ////

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