European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 5, 1950, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sitting alone with his head bowed in his a Soldier Breaks Down in a collect ing station after undergoing a horrifying experience on the korean front at what makes a Good Soldier Zacc minued from Page 111 desire to which includes aggressiveness arid wide nothing could be More ridiculous than accounts of our boys for moms Blueberry figures from psychiatrists showing that the most stable people emotionally come from Happy steady Home backgrounds May Well indicate that Home life bears a discernible influence on making a Good sol it would seem to contribute to the of Many of the attributes which go to make up strength of griping is no sign of character weak As a Many men May object to having been drafted because they have were in an essential or have other personal reasons but usually these things Are erased by the sound of bullets mortar if not Only amount perpetual awol and guardhouse whose records Indi Cate mat they Are have i noted that performances Are affected by a feeling either that they should not have been in the army or that the army want giving them a Chance to show what they could adequate training is a fifth no matter what the civilian background of a much of the responsibility for How he will stand up against fire is de pendent upon the army the responsibility goes much further than just hardening a Man the army must put Man through rigorous train ing in which he is taught the feel of be ing around bullets and shells and acquires Confidence in his own and supporting weapons and creation by the army of that in j tangible called Esprit de corps is a sixth this is integrally tied up personal Esprit these things Are anti dotes for other than making these there is Little the army can do specifically to develop Battelline for you cant bottle courage and give it government personal Esprit and Esprit de corps Are closely interwoven none the less important because they Are difficult to pin creating them is difficult be cause its hard to follow any set the real Basic consideration is recognition of the fact that Man is innately that he must have people around on whom he can draw for and human and who in turn need intelligent leadership is the seventh element involved in making a Good combat units highest in morale Are those in which the soldiers feel that their officers Are leading them Tel Are sharing their and Are doing everything possible to keep hard ships at a despite being a to the highest Standard of living of any army in the the american i can take anything that com Sand does so unless he believes that with Normal Effort and consideration it could have been we May have a soft some but when its a of have our army can it Doest take Moll coddling by officers to produce Good from it but neither do we produce Good fighting men by humiliating the army present emphasis on a belief that a Man is an individual and not a policy which has been made much Over by the newspapers As something a panty Waist army of kindness and nothing new at the army is merely enforcing a policy which had fallen into hardening a Man is one thing breaking his spirit with humiliation is a Soldier does not object to following army orders he objects to following orders based on personal dec an eighth connected with several other involves in Effort to produce Good morale among its combat troops the army unfortunately faces a Peculiar the which does a Lions share of the actual thus absorbing a major portion of the hardships and is some times regarded As the dumping ground for men who can Pas physical standards but not necessarily any other this failure to glamorize its major combat Force has led to resentment among the men upon whom the Burden of combat is in its Point of View about a glamorized the army is certainly Cor to create an elite corps of foot soldiers was proved foolish in world War ii not Only by hitlers is but by our own Ranger what happened was that the real leaders and Good soldiers in Gem any went to the where Good men were in such abundance that Many who would have been valuable leaders in a regular army unit played Only minor Rofes in the american Folly in this respect was fortunately for our Ranger battalions were held to a minimum but the spectacle of some of the Ablest combat soldiers in the american army being used to guard rear Echelon establishments be cause there we rent enough special tasks to keep them occupied up front was almost neither do we need an infantry specialized along the lines of the paratroops or the no matter How valuable Are paratroops and for the in Fantry is a bulk not a specialist what is deplorable is that so Many men who Are not physically or mentally fit for combat service Are assigned to the infantry or other combat arms and others who Are fit see service in rear Echelon world War is combat infantry badge and a month increase in pay for enlisted did much to help infantry How much greater would be the Rise in Esprit if pay were further not As a recruiting Factor but As a feeble gesture of appreciation All of these factors fuse together in the makeup of a Good the one Allin elusive word that explains Why a Soldier term that includes All the too much time has already been spent in trying to determine idealistic concepts on the grand scale of Why americans fight take fifty Diers and ask each of Why do you fight youll probably get fifty different an ask them the same question tin a Dif Ferent and y o us 1 probably get fifty other one Man fights because Hes been or dered to fight another fights to make a Good impression on his companions another for self preservation an other because he sees his Best Friend killed another because of a feeling of loyalty to responsibility another be cause somebody Short at him its so easy to get out of combat even after youre lag behind in an attack get lost on a patrol feign combat fatigue there suckers for that or better just refuse to fight what the articles of War do to you int necessarily after the War emotions will Cool and youll get off then dont More men do these things the specific answers come from the fifty sol but when you Analyse them you find real answer is Loy it May be loyalty to at Home or loyalty to other men in the unit i think the lat Ter is the dominant in it has been demonstrated often that people who face death disaster at an a bombing a communal sense that might be called a we its strange that More men in Battle Dent look at the View of things if they would take time to con they might realize that after the they avoid the veterans would probably never see any of these men Why care what they the answer is in the you Are so much closer to men when you know your life depends upon them and their lives depend upon the time beyond the next attack is in a faraway Bubble world you dare not think of too seriously lest it under these circumstances 1 f 1 does care what others he wants the men around him to con Eider him a his his or his company is a Little band quite apart from the rest of the world and engaged in a struggle for if his companions Are to consider him a he must do his and above what they think of him it is imperative that unit come although the average i might be reluctant to put his Seal to such an abstract the words of Ulysses Are still True a Man is a part of All that he has a mans unit must because it is a part of his own because he is a part of the men around him and they a part of being in combat together is like getting drunk Only More s it stands to reason that the we feel so vital in a creditable Battlefield is most pronounced in those men who have the background strength of character for it takes the elements of character to make something of the we feeling courage to tackle an determination to to the Basic appreciation for ones respect for a desire to expert this is inherently a Good if he in army training to give him the antidote for plus physical stamina and Quick both in bodily coordination and in he has the essential tools for translating his inherent ability into Battlefield is what makes a Good a column of i ammo bearers rough korean in the stars and stripes