Thread pic: I can recall that when the alarm did go off.
Good morning, GN. Digging through some old files, I came across this that I saved years ago. Ernie Pyle -- 1942.
We admittedly are not rigid-minded people. Our army didn’t have the strict and snappy discipline of the Germans. Our boys sang in the street, unbuttoned their shirt collars, laughed and shouted, forgot to salute. A lot of Algerians misinterpreted this as inefficiency. They thought such a carefree army couldn’t possibly whip the grim Germans.
Most of the minor peoples of the world expect discipline. They admire strict rulers because to them strictness is synonymous with strength. The Algerians couldn’t conceive of the fact that our strength lay in our freedom.
Out of it all, I gathered a new respect for Americans, sloppy though we might be. They may call us Uncle Shylock, but I know of no country on earth that actually is less grabby. In all my traveling both before and during the war, I was frequently revolted by the shriveled greediness of soul that inhabits so much of the world. The more I saw of us Americans and British, the more I liked us.
Good morning, Mac. A little more Ernie Pyle from July 1944:
They weren’t heroic figures as they moved forward one at a time, a few seconds apart. You think of attackers as being savage and bold. These men were hesitant and cautious. They were really the hunters, but they looked like the hunted. There was a confused excitement and a grim anxiety on their faces.
They seemed terribly pathetic to me. They weren’t warriors. They were American boys who by mere chance of fate had wound up with guns in their hands sneaking up a death-laden street in a strange and shattered city in a faraway country in a driving rain. They were afraid, but it was beyond their power to quit. They had no choice.
They were good boys. I talked with them all afternoon as we sneaked slowly forward along the mysterious and rubbled street, and I know they were good boys.
And even though they aren’t warriors born to the kill, they win their battles. That’s the point.
You may have seen this but I was very interested to read the impressions of some French special forces that were with an American unit, their observations about Americans. This is translated from a French editorial I believe. I think it may be from 2014.
Thread pic: I can recall that when the alarm did go off.
Good morning, GN. Digging through some old files, I came across this that I saved years ago. Ernie Pyle -- 1942.
Love that.
Good morning, Mac. A little more Ernie Pyle from July 1944:
Ernie Pyle was a class act and popular with the troops. What a sad contrast to modern journalists that look to smear and lie about the troops.
Indeed.
You may have seen this but I was very interested to read the impressions of some French special forces that were with an American unit, their observations about Americans. This is translated from a French editorial I believe. I think it may be from 2014.
https://warriorlodge.com/blogs/news/16298760-a-french-soldiers-view-of-us-soldiers-in-afghanistan
Thanks for that, Mac -- hadn’t seen it before but glad to have read it now.