Tomorrows Infantry

[Chazumi]

http://www.starcraft2.com/movies.xml
"Click on {Cinematic Trailer}"



Well I just saw this preview for Starcraft II. It gave me a thought
about "tomorrows Infantry".

I currenty am serving as an infantrymen in the U.S. Army, and I thought this was a pretty good "description" of today's infantrymen. So I thought I would ask about this video.

I currently have no "recorded" felonies. But I do have a huge backpiece tattoo. I am a smoker. I am big (at least in the chest area) and I would totally volunteer for a mission such as this (a fictional war in the sci-fi sense). And I can assure you that at least in my unit, most of the other infantrymen are like this (big brawny guys with records, tattoos that offend and are smokers, and would also probably volunteer for suicidal missions like the ones portrayed (although breifly) in this trailer. I am not tryin to boost the image that infantrymen are crazy-suicidal badasses, but I almost laughed when I saw this video because I saw some friends of mine, or at least their personalities in it, as infantrymen. Do you think that in the far far future we will continue to have this trend? or to you as a computer geek, would you volunteer for such a job?

I totally would. Especially since the armament provided would allow me (if I survived) to get chicks (I hope) left and right.



Sorry for double post

 

[McManus]

Well, don't you guys already offer some guys the choice between the army or jail for whatever they are being sentenced? *shrug*

The brits did it, I mean the red coats were also comprised of many convicts/criminals, at least if I am not totally off the ball... So why not?

 

[Chazumi]

Well, don't you guys already offer some guys the choice between the army or jail for whatever they are being sentenced? *shrug*

The brits did it, I mean the red coats were also comprised of many convicts/criminals, at least if I am not totally off the ball... So why not?

Yes that is totally true. A very close buddy of mine is in the army to save his paramedic/firemans license in TX. Do 3 years military service (his choice was infantry) or lose it. He is in this situation because of a bar fight

 

[Verbose]

Group identity is weird.

Infantry works to live up to a more or less mutable set of "warrior" traits it would seem.

Back in WWI British infantry officers observed that prior to the huge conscript army Britain raised the never encountered the "Tommy Aitkins" character of the British infantry man Kipling wrote about in his poetry; ever cheerful, full of understated humour no matter how beastly the conditions etc.
With this massive influx of young British men in the ranks, suddenly Tommy Aitkinses were coming out of the woodwork to right and left of them. What gives? Apparently the men were trying to live up to a set of ideals they had picked up from fiction.

The French army in WWI had a similar experience, where the men going into uniform worked hard to live up to an established image of the happy "trench warrior", the unshaven, unwashed, lousy, but ever cheerful, resourceful scrounger and survival artist of the French infantry, the "poilu". Needless to say, managing to live up to the stereotype was actually helpful to the men.

I'm guessing US infantry has its own set of stereotypes and attitudes people adopt and work to live up to. Since it's a professional army, it's hardly surprising if a strong element of a "warrior ethos" is one of the things cultivated. Being a soldier is one of these peculiar states a human being can find himself in, as it entails a calculated risk of having to go and kill or get killed oneself for the other members of society.

As for being brawn over brains, historically that was always the role of cavalrymen. Engineers and artillery have always been the thinking-man's form of soldiering. I guess PB infantry falls somewhere in between, traditionally being mostly about not-so-flashy things like firepower and cover.

 

[Verbose]

The brits did it, I mean the red coats were also comprised of many convicts/criminals, at least if I am not totally off the ball... So why not?

You mean Irishmen - as in the felony of "guilty of being Irish".