Band of Brothers.... Did Spears do it?

[Hangtime]

Our kids and their heros.

Like I said, people will believe what they want to believe.

[Yeager]

If I saw an officer shoot an enlisted man in the heat of battle, I would consider that officer equivalent to the enemy and shoot him myself.

[GtoRA2]

It's funny to think about it, that people may think less of the man if he did it.

I don't know, but I lean towards yes he did it. It does not change anything.  From what they say he was one hell of a combat leader. That he killed some germans in cold blood does not bother me. It's war.


Feeling that he is less of a man in my opinion if he did it is hypocrasy. We fire bombed cities filled with women and children. Those bomber pilots were doing what they had to do to win.  As was spears, if he did what he may have well have done.



We now try very hard to make war in a new kind and gentle way. It may very well cost us victory.

[Hangtime]

Originally posted by Yeager
If I saw an officer shoot an enlisted man in the heat of battle, I would consider that officer equivalent to the enemy and shoot him myself.

Kinda easy to say that, in your nice comfy safe house. What you don't know and what you will probably never know is either war or what it does to the men that have to fight it.

Peace..  has a price.

[Yeager]

I was a soldier in battle in a previous life.  I have killed and been killed with utmost savagry.....I know the face of war.... I know the smell of burnt flesh, the feeling of  hell rapidly rushing towards me, these things I know.....

In my dreams I have saved and been saved, felt the heroes gratitude and the cowards disgrace.  I know the feeling of rushing forward towards the enemy, under heavy and accurate fire....I know the feeling of running in absolute terror  away from my enemy with weapons thrown clear for a miniscule advantage in speed.....

I am a student of war.  I study it and imagine it for reasons that are simply beyond me.

And Yes, if I ever saw one of my officers kill another one of my men while under fire, in a cowards fetal position, or repulsed in horror by a suicidal order then that soldier, that officer would aquire the value of the enemy in my sights and be eliminated.

There are simply some actions that are beyond the realm......

If I understand correctly Hangtime, you are a survivor of war.  I admire you if it is so and yet I would also be saddened by your experience in war, for I know in my dreams that in the way war makes the human spirit more intense, the way war makes the life experience far more profound, war equally degrades the soul and deeply wounds the center of love in our hearts.  

God bless you and protect you.

[Hangtime]

Yer damaged goods, Yeag.

...and the blessings of an abstract diety and the intangible protections proferred are of little use to myself or the millions of others the wars of my time have touched.

but thanks for your kind thoughts.

And Yes, if I ever saw one of my officers kill another one of my men while under fire, in a cowards fetal position, or repulsed in horror by a suicidal order then that soldier, that officer would aquire the value of the enemy in my sights and be eliminated.

and tell me what would you do if you walked a trail for 11 months.. took dirt piles, bled for 'em; watched bagged buddies go home the hard way, the walked off the pile to go do it again, all for some thankless unfathomable reason .... so, what would you do if some lil dipstick butter bar gave a move out order and 15 minutes up the trail caught a bullet of the wrong caliber?

You don't know till you get there. No one does.

[Yeager]

Its cool, hang....I was just working on my compositional writing techniques.

Im a reluctant athiest, I just like the way saying "god bless you" feels.....

When I talk about the situation spears appears to have been involved in I do realize quite cleary I am operating on self conjecture....that is to say: Who the hell knows what I would do under such circumstances!  hehe

Tell old yeager some war stories....gimme the goods bro!

Where did you serve in nam?  unit?  actions?

[ahgod69]

I would say the Butler did it, and not spears..  He didn't have a candlestick..

[Yeager]

Ok, Ill start.....

When I first hired in at my company there were lots and lots of people to learn to know......

There were three that stick with me all these years later.....all of these fellas were of shorter than normal stature and chronically quiet, mostly.  Very Decent blokes overall.

When the first guy retired I learned that he was a "glider boy" and had flown in to France in the darkness of June6, O'Dark Thirty!  He was gone before I could talk to him.

The 2nd fella always made jokes about his swedish ancestry and his professed love of alchol and fish.  Turns out he was a marine at Inchon and had traveled north of the 38th to some resovoir...chosin.  After he retired someone showed me an old photocopy of the guy when he was "on duty".  

He had a M1 Garand in one hand, a pinapple grenade in the other.  On the ground in front of him was a opening to an abandoned bunker with a defleshed skull laying there (obvioulsy a china man or a NK swabee!).

I could tell the man standing there was Arnie minus 30 years.  Man....I wished I would have known.....

The 3rd guy was famous for his sneezes.  The guy would sneeze on the other side of the building and the floor under you would shake.  Turns out this guy was just a kid, walking along some dirst trail in Nam when an AK47 loaded his abdomen with lead.  Last I heard he was fighting lung cancer but that was years ago......

[Hangtime]

Originally posted by Yeager
Tell old yeager some war stories....gimme the goods bro!

Where did you serve in nam?  unit?  actions?

I don't have 'war stories'. I was in Service & Evac down in the delta. That wuz 9th Inf, assigined to a Maint Bn (709th). We had more than a passing aquaitence with the graves registration dudes. I recovered equipment that broke, smoked or got poked. Brought it back, scraped 'em out and delivered it to Ben Luc for refit or scrap. Our semi permanant dirt was a ****-hole called Dong Tam. Did a couple of months at Tan An Air Field with the 99th Combat Support Bn doing rig work for heli plucks. Our happy lil highly versitile group dragged and bagged everything from loaches to PBR's.

So, sorry. No real war stories. Saw way too much of the aftermath to enjoy 'war stories' per se. Best I can do for yah is "Once in a while we'd get shot at. For the most part, they missed." So sorry to dissapoint...

[Yeager]

Hang. if you were on the ground, then you were there.  Period!  Thank You!

I remember as a kid watching the flat rail cars loaded with howtizers and tanks headed for the port of tacoma from Ft Lewis.....en'route to Nam.  We tried to throw rocks that far...to see if we could hear the "clank" off the armor....

So many more stories......

I remember the night my dad came home from a month long TOD after bringing back a C141 full of caskets loaded with guys not much older than my older brother at the time, and my mom and dad crying on the back porch....those kids were barely older than Ken........I have memories......I was nearly there....I guess...

I think, if I could say anything it would be that I occupied that space in between VietNam and the 1st Gulf war......where almost three entire generations of americans were able to pass through to adulthood,  where youngsters werent required to sacrifice ...........I am greatful, I guess....

[Furball]

Originally posted by Yeager
If I saw an officer shoot an enlisted man in the heat of battle, I would consider that officer equivalent to the enemy and shoot him myself.

you wouldn't have done well in the WWII Russian army of enthusiasts...