Veteran's Day 2012

It's Veteran's Day in the USA and Armistice Day in others.  Every year around this time I reread Robert Heinlein's classic novel Starship Troopers.  I first read this book in college when I was an army cadet and it was a major influence in my decision to list Infantry as my first branch choice.  Here is a quote from the book:

“There are a dozen different ways of delivering destruction in impersonal wholesale, via ships and missiles of one sort or another, catastrophes so widespread, so unselective, that the war is over because that nation or planet has ceased to exist. What we do is entirely different. We make war as personal as a punch in the nose. We can be selective, applying precisely the required amount of pressure at the specified point at a designated time . . . .
We are the boys who go to a particular place, at H-hour, occupy a designated terrain, stand on it, dig the enemy out of their holes, force them then and there to surrender or die. We're the bloody infantry, the doughboy, the duckfoot, the foot soldier who goes where the enemy is and takes him on in person. We've been doing it, with changes in weapons but very little change in our trade, at least since the time five thousand years ago when the foot sloggers of Sargon the Great forced the Sumerians to cry "Uncle!"
Maybe they'll be able to do without us someday. Maybe some mad genius with myopia, a bulging forehead, and a cybernetic mind will devise a weapon that can go down a hole, pick out the opposition, and force it to surrender or die--without killing that gang of your own people they've got imprisoned down there. I wouldn't know; I'm not a genius, I'm an M.I. (Mobile Infantry) In the meantime, until they build a machine to replace us, my mates can handle that job--and I might be some help on it, too.” 

  

So here's a well done to all veterans; especially to those I have served with.  So here's to the "Raiders" of the 2nd Bn, 47th Infantry, the "Bulldogs" of B Co, 2nd Bn, 47th Infantry, the "Scorpions" of Combat Support Co, 2nd Bn, 47th Infantry, "Bad to the Bone" of HQ Co, 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Old Reliables), the "Ready Rifles" of the 1st Bn, 52nd Infantry, the "Mad Dogs" of D Co, 1st Bn, 52nd Infantry, the "Regulars" of the 7th Bn, 6th Infantry, the "Mad Dogs" of D Co, 7th Bn, 6th Infantry (we redesignated), the "Gators" of HHC, 7th Bn, 6th Infantry, the "Warriors" of the 4th Bn, 12th Infantry, and the "Regulars" of the 2nd Bn, 6th Infantry . . . and of course to all of the "Roughnecks" out there!

I've worn the patch of two combat divisions; the 9th Infantry Division (Old Reliables) was my first assignment. 

The patch that is permanently on my right sleeve is that of the 1st Armored Division (Old Ironsides).