Originally Posted by AussieNick

Maybe a current US serviceman can answer this for me. Is it unusual for US soldiers to be trained in calling in artillery and air support?

Because it is a core competency in Australia, everyone needs to know the all corps call for fire process.

Infantrymen/Cav Scouts are trained in the basics of it, but 13F Fire Support Specialists (assigned at the infantry platoon level) are now becoming Joint Fires Observers trained by the USAF for close air support and is already trained for rotary wing aviation and call for fire arty and mortars...

New candidate - The Ghurkas.

In the two World Wars the Gurkha Brigade suffered 43,000 casualties, and to date it has won 26 Victoria Crosses – 13 by Gurkhas and 13 by British Officers. This short chronicle is of necessity brief and factual. It cannot adequately portray the spirit and the character of the Gurkha soldier, nor can it reflect the ‘esprit de corps’ and the bond of comradeship and mutual respect which bind together the British and Gurkha officers and men of the Brigade. But perhaps these words written by the late Sir Ralph Turner MC (Professor of Sanskrit at the University of London, Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge and some time Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles) in 1931, give a hint of the true feelings of both sides:
"As I write these words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your camp fires, on forced marches or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you".

In the two World Wars the Gurkha Brigade suffered 43,000 casualties, and to date it has won 26 Victoria Crosses – 13 by Gurkhas and 13 by British Officers. This short chronicle is of necessity brief and factual. It cannot adequately portray the spirit and the character of the Gurkha soldier, nor can it reflect the ‘esprit de corps’ and the bond of comradeship and mutual respect which bind together the British and Gurkha officers and men of the Brigade. But perhaps these words written by the late Sir Ralph Turner MC (Professor of Sanskrit at the University of London, Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge and some time Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles) in 1931, give a hint of the true feelings of both sides:
"As I write these words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your camp fires, on forced marches or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you".

In the two World Wars the Gurkha Brigade suffered 43,000 casualties, and to date it has won 26 Victoria Crosses – 13 by Gurkhas and 13 by British Officers. This short chronicle is of necessity brief and factual. It cannot adequately portray the spirit and the character of the Gurkha soldier, nor can it reflect the ‘esprit de corps’ and the bond of comradeship and mutual respect which bind together the British and Gurkha officers and men of the Brigade. But perhaps these words written by the late Sir Ralph Turner MC (Professor of Sanskrit at the University of London, Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge and some time Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles) in 1931, give a hint of the true feelings of both sides:
"As I write these words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your camp fires, on forced marches or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you".
In the two World Wars the Gurkha Brigade suffered 43,000 casualties, and to date it has won 26 Victoria Crosses – 13 by Gurkhas and 13 by British Officers. This short chronicle is of necessity brief and factual. It cannot adequately portray the spirit and the character of the Gurkha soldier, nor can it reflect the ‘esprit de corps’ and the bond of comradeship and mutual respect which bind together the British and Gurkha officers and men of the Brigade. But perhaps these words written by the late Sir Ralph Turner MC (Professor of Sanskrit at the University of London, Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge and some time Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Queen Alexandra’s Own Gurkha Rifles) in 1931, give a hint of the true feelings of both sides:
"As I write these words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your camp fires, on forced marches or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had a country more faithful friends than you".
AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE BRIGADE OF GURKHAS ...
www.army.mod.uk/brigade_of_gurkhas/history/index.htm

I couldn't agree more.

I reiterate my nomination of The Gurkha Brigade as the greatest fighting unit.

I don't think that either the British or American Bomber crews get the respect that deserve. They went out day and night knowing the chances of completing a tour of duty was very slim. they took out factories, the rail networks, bridges, barracks tanks and ships and with out them would we have seen a victory in 1945

Originally Posted by LeEnfield

I don't think that either the British or American Bomber crews get the respect that deserve. They went out day and night knowing the chances of completing a tour of duty was very slim. they took out factories, the rail networks, bridges, barracks tanks and ships and with out them would we have seen a victory in 1945

the idea might have been to knock out factories, etc., but they just ended up killing kids. No respect is deserved.

Ollie we have been there before, of course the Germans always avoided Killing children during the Blitz, and of Course the German army did not Conscript children into it, and course there were never ever any German women acting as SS Guards in the Holocaust Camps

Originally Posted by LeEnfield

Ollie we have been there before, of course the Germans always avoided Killing children during the Blitz, and of Course the German army did not Conscript children into it, and course there were never ever any German women acting as SS Guards in the Holocaust Camps

And the list could go indefinitely.

And we would still be only scratching the surface.

An example below of Olliegarchy's high moral ground!

It is a recently published factual eye-witness account of Lutwaffe people bombing early in WW11. It was meant to break the spirit of London - it had the opposite effect.As it happens, it did get me and my home, and seperated me from my family and mum and dad for 5 years, from the age of 5.

Saturday September 7, 1940, 4.14 pm.

Black with death. Black with Bombers, Heinkels, Dorniers and Junkers, - Three hundred and forty-eight.
- Messerschmitt fighters, - Six hundred and seventeen.


Black with a canopy block twenty miles wide. A black block of death covering eight hundred square miles of sky.
.
Bombs fell on London for twelve hours. Bombs fell on London for SEVENTY-SIX nights in a row. Bombs fell on FORTY-THREE THOUSAND CIVILIANSand KILLED them......Bombs fell on more than a MILLION homes and destroyed them. Unremitting slaughter. Incessant attack on lives and property, designed to crush the spirit of the English people. High explosive compression pulling and pushing, sucking out eye-balls, ripping off clothes, tearing out breath .




Command the future, conquer the past.

Originally Posted by Ollie Garchy

the idea might have been to knock out factories, etc., but they just ended up killing kids. No respect is deserved.

Nice rhetoric looks good on ya.