Quote Originally Posted by TheCurmudgeon View Post
You sound like the Army trying to justify why combat awards should only be given to Soldiers in combat positions. Sorry, but my clerks ran to the bunkers from the same rockets that landed in my FOB every week. You need to go downrange.

Don't think those engineers, mechanics, and cooks in all those civilian equivalents had to put up with indirect fire on a regular basis.
I thought the US differentiated between those who qualified for the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Combat Action Badge?

The infantry demanded (not in my army) that there be a difference between those who ran for cover and those who ran at (assualted) a defended active enemy position under fire IMHO quite rightly so. I was also a paratrooper with a number of 'operations jumps' under the belt and never got paid an allowance for that either - IMHO quite rightly so as parachuting was merely a means of transport and delivery into combat of my choice.

One understands and tolerates the adolescent macho strutting of young soldiers to prove who is more badass than the next. This should not extend to senior NCOs and officers, however.

But your essential point as I seem to understand it is that yes, the risk to soldiers in time of war is in a different league than those in even the most hazzardous civilian jobs. In a hazzardous job you get a big pay check commensurate with the risk. A troopie is down there near the minimum wage. What do you make of that? You look out for #1 and you do OK but if you lay it all on the line for your country you get diddly ....