This thread was not derailed by the "I do the same thing as infantry" thing. It was derailed by the OP stating that reserves and national guard do not count as military.
You can't hold the ground without boots on the ground and that is what the infantry does. No one here has disputed that.
What offended people, and rightfully so, was the OP's disparaging statements about 1.1 million reserve and guard members not counting as military. This isn't an infantry thing... its an active v. reserve thing. During one of my deployments, a national guard signal unit came in and relieved and SF team pinned down under fire in Al Kut because the Czech Infantry battalion wouldn't leave the FOB. They were the only other US force in the area and the the SF was happy to see them. They weren't all that concerned about whether they are active or reserves, they were just happy for the help in a bad situation and a couple of 50 Cal's and a MK-19 made a big impact on the situation.
There is only about 1% of the US population that serves in the military these days and the OP seems to think half of them don't count, but I can assure you we could not have fought two wars simultaneously without them. Through most of our history, our wars have been fought by citizen soldiers, not a professional military. From the Revolutionary War through Vietnam, it was citizen soldiers, weekend warriors for lack of a better description, not a professional standing military, that bore the largest burden of the fighting. Would the OP content that all those veterans from WWII and Korea don't count because they were called up in a draft and went to war rather than serving continuously on Active Duty? The only real difference between those veterans, and modern reserves is that reservists have volunteered to be called up when needed rather than having to be drafted. The majority of service members who served in our previous wars were drafted, did their combat tours, came home, and went back to their civilian lives.
So the whole, this is an infantry thing, is just a red herring and had nothing to do with what offended people. I am at 22 years active duty now. 4 Enlisted and 18 Officer. I've served with just about every type of service member there is. I served as a translator and interrogator walking with Infantry squads during the first Gulf War. I have met good soldiers and dirtbags and I can tell you that neither the active force nor the reserves has a monopoly on either of those.
Thank you both for your service, but y'all need to grow up and realize you aren't the mark on the wall for what constitutes service to this country or what constitutes a soldier.
~Rex
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trob85
Bore brother bore and you can't start a thread like this you know all the "I do the same thing as infantry" bullshit comes out and like the idiot above me, your gt score was pretty low huh, no not exactly when I went into the recruiters office I did a balls check to see if they were still there and damn if I didn't earn a blue cord a few months later.
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