Posted by Abel Pharmboy on May 28, 2007 It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men [and women] who goes into battle.
- Norman Schwarzkopf
Superb Memorial Day posts today from Orac at Respectful Insolence and Mark Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math.
“An inglorious peace is better than a dishonorable war.”
Remember some of those front-line heroes grow up to be generals and politicians, e.g. (Arranged by name, war in which command position held, war in which he engaged in combat).
Hubert Gough, Britain, WW1 – Boer War.
John French, Britain, WW1 – Boer War.
Herbert Plumer, Britain, WW1 – fought in the Boer war and the British colonial campaigns.
Douglas Haig, Britain, WW1 – Boer War, Kitchener campaign against the Mahdi.
Winston Churchill, Britain, both World Wars – Boer War, War against the Mahdi, Western front (briefly commanded a battalion).
Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, US, WW2 – Both saw frontline action on the Western Front.
Horace Smith-Dorrien, Britain, WW1 – Zulu war (One of the few white men to escape from the Battle of Isandhlwana alive and on foot), Boer War.
Behind a lot of these generals and politicians there is an ex-soldier who came through combat alive and is sure in his heart that he knows what it’s like for his men.
By no means an exhaustive list.
May 28, 2007
May 28, 2007