Having been there and done that, all I can say just who in the right mind would want to go to war.

I guess it would just have to depend on what you're fighting for mate... I know that i wouldn't much like the idea of going to war without a good reason.

Rich.

ozmilman......When you are in the Army you go where you are told and fight who you are told to fight, choice does not come in to it.

Yeah, totally, i realise THAT... I just said that i wouldn't much like going without a good reason. I'd still obey orders and believe that my superiors know something that they don't want me to know - but it's for the good of the country.

Rich.

Kina

Are you saying you got a unpleasant reception when you got from Iraq? I admit that I too am against the war, but thats was way over the line. Sounds like someone needed a good smack.

I'm very sorry about that, that was very disrespectful.

Originally Posted by FutureDevilDog

I would have been in the Pacific Theatre during WWII

Jesus, I woundn't. The Japanese infantry was arguably the bravest of all during WWII. Imagine facing an enemy that almost always fights to the death. Never surrenders, never quits, never retreats. I have read ancedonts about marine Corpsmen tending to fatally wounded Japanese soldiers turning their back to them only to have their patient stick a scalpel into the Corpsmans back. Not to mention what would happen if you were captured by them.

I would say infantry, western front, WWII or as a Union soldier in the army of the Potomac.

I wouldn't have chosen to fight in any war, unless it was necessary. Nothing glorious about seeing your best mates shot or blown up IMO.

If I have to choose a war though it would have been pre-gunpowder, where personal skill on the battlefield would have meant more than it does in modern combat. Being a Samurai would have been pretty cool so I guess some of the feudal Japanese wars.

The Japanese Army in WW2 was in spirit a Samurai army. They harnessed the essence of 'budo' or the 'the way of the combat' and to surrender or be captured was the worst shame they could endure. Shame, or lack of it, is very important in Japanese culture. This is why very, very few Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner in WW2 and why any US invasion of the Japanese mainland would have resulted in a blood-bath.

Thanks for all the good posts, keep them coming. on that subject. but here is another question, all though some have already stated.


*what part would you of wanted in that war?

Problem with the Japanese force is that most of the time they had no damn food. And Budo is "the martial way", the way of mind and spirit combined (I read a whole heap of stuff before going for my black belt grading).

To answer the new question, i would have liked to have been one of the U.S. Green Beret's who went up to the central highland near Combodia in '66, '67, and '68 and started the CIDG program... I think that was near the Ho Chi Minh trail wasn't it? Training cidgees to harass Victor Charlie.

Rich.

for some reason i would've wanted to be a part of D-Day. Storming the beach and such in Normandy.