The Surveillance and Target Acquisition Platoon of 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines during the mid 1980s through the mid 1990s had their platoon t-shirts printed with this on it: Invisible Souls – Leave .308 Holes; my favorite shirt ever.
First, this is in no way a slight on pilots, artilleryman, or anyone else. This is to point out the idiocracy in maligning the evil sniper; which is actually a phobia – an irrational fear (snipaphobia).
Pilots / aircrew
American airmen (all services) have been absolutely brilliant during the recent wars. They have destroyed more enemy personnel than we will ever know. I might not be writing this right now if it were not for Marine aircraft and crews. But you must realize aircraft bombardments, although they are getting better, are an ugly way of warfare, killing as much infrastructure as enemy. God bless our American aircrews.
FYI, I have never heard anyone call a pilot or their aircrew cowards; in fact they make movies about pilots and their crews, to show their honor, courage, guts, and glory. This is good because it gives civilians at least a little taste of what servicemen and women go through.
If you are a pilot and you kill 5 enemy planes then you are an ACE; a hero for life. When your ground crew paints the silhouettes of enemy planes on your plane, well that is normal. Cool, I agree. They are all heroes.
Artillery
Artillerymen; the kings of battle. Anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an enemy barrage knows that it is terrifying. It is terrifying, but the fact is, historically artillery is a weapon of fear more than a weapon of death. Oh, do not get me wrong, arty kills a lot and they have supported me so many times I could not give you a number. These are great warriors.
Receive a BDA (Battle Damage Assessment) from your FO (forward observer) reporting 12 dead and total destruction of the neighborhood and start high-fiving each other and dancing around and no one blinks an eye. It is normal; they have a euphoric feeling of relief that they have done their job protecting your own people.
FYI, I have never heard anyone call an artilleryman a coward; in fact they make movies showing these great warriors in action and it shows their honor, courage, guts, and glory. This is good because it shows civilians at least a taste of what servicemen and women go through.
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