Arriving at Ft. Benning from Ft. Jackson, I immediately felt as though I had reentered orbit with the rest of the solar system. Ft. Jackson is a sandy, provincial outpost in the galactic hinterlands to which I hope I will never have to return. Part of my perception of Ft. Jackson was undoubtedly shaped by my isolation in a Basic Training Battalion, where I had little access or exposure to the rest of the installation. But nonetheless, it is a post that is in many ways removed from the rest of our universe, or at least lays on its outer edge.
Ft. Benning stands in stark contrast to that; it seems to be at the heart of our 21st century society. A place not lost in time, but one that is setting the standard. It is a beacon in its own right, as Ft. Benning is known as “the Home of the Infantry”. With four Infantry training Brigades, the United States Army Ranger School, and the 3rd Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment, it is the place where you go to learn how to fight and win wars on the ground. Going back to the time of Caesar’s legions, Infantry has been the decisive force in battle, and while many of the technological advances of the past two thousand years have changed the way we fight, Infantry’s supremacy on the battlefield and in the warrior community has endured.
“ You may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life-but if you desire to defend it, protect it, and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men in the mud.”
T.R. Fehrenbach
1963
Fehrenbach’s assertion holds true to this day, as our experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan have demonstarted. And so the 199th Brigade, of which I am now a part, is a high profile Brigade with students not only from other services but also other countries. We have the 1st Battalion, 507th Airborne Regiment, where Marines, Airmen, Sailors, and of course, Soldiers all come to get their wings. We have the Jumpmaster’s course and one of the Army’s two Pathfinder schools. We have OCS, obviously, where not only American Army Officer’s train, but also aspiring Officers from some of our Allied countries throughout the world come to further their military education. There is the Basic Officer Leadership Course II, which all commissioned Officers in the United States Army attend. Infantry Officer Basic Course also falls under the umbrella of the 199th Brigade. And I cannot forget to mention the International Student Training Program, more infamously known in many circles, as the “School of the Americas”.
It is, therefore, a very common thing to see Marine First Recon guys coming out of the chow hall, or Jamaican or Italian Officers walking down the halls of building 4, where we take most of our classes. Just this past Tuesday when we were entering the classroom for our instruction on offensive operations and operational terms and graphics, there were maybe 15 soldiers from various other countries sitting in the back with a 1st Lieutenant from the 199th and a couple of civilians who I think were translators. I couldn’t exactly be sure which countries they were from, but they were clad in three different uniforms, though a couple of the groups appeared to share a common language, one which sounded rather Slavic, from the bits and pieces I was able to catch from their translator.
The next day our first class on troop leading procedures was actually given by an Australian Sergeant Major from the Royal Australian Regiment, Sergeant Major Bromwich. Tall and heavy with very red, perpetually sun burnt skin, short gray hair and a bushy black mustache, his Australian accent was thick, but not incomprehensible. He was missing half of his left middle finger and half of his ring finger on his right hand. Sergeant Major, it quickly became apparent, is a professional Infantryman with over 25 years of experience throughout the full spectrum of operations. I felt very privileged to be sitting their receiving instruction from someone of his stature. And I was even happier to have the diversity of nations present in the classroom that day. Perhaps it is my New Yorker’s heart, but for some reason it gives me great pleasure to see and work with Soldiers and Officers from other nations. It makes me feel like I am back at home, in a strange way, living in the center of the universe, the heart of the empire, walking down the streets of our own 21st century Rome.
There is a very good book out right now, Empires of Trust: How Rome Built––and America Is Building––A New World, by Thomas F. Madden, that explores the clichéd comparison between the two empires in a new light and pays particular attention to how both empires developed strong military alliances with many nations in order to bolster their security. It was a book that I read last November and played a significant role in my final decision to come to OCS. I am satisfied that I am now an actor in that history, the history of the American empire, which we are living out, all of us, right now.
Working with Australians and Colombians and Mexicans and Italians and Jamaicans and a hundred other nations towards the goal of greater global stability, it is something I feel is worth sacrifice and risk. It is something beyond speculation and pontification; it is practical, not intellectual. I do not mean to say that there is anything wrong with the intellectual world. It is the world I was raised in my whole life. But it can only take one so far without practical applications to balance it out and nurture it with substance. The military is not the only place where one can find practical dilemmas in need of solution, not by a long shot. There are as many ways to engage the world as there are stars. I only mean to say that I think that for me, the Army was a good choice. I feel like I have grown as much in the past 4 months as I did in the whole previous 4 years.
On a side note, we received information about the branch allocations for our class this past week. 13 Infantry, 6 Military Intelligence, 10 Armor, 10 Signal Corps, 5 Adjutant General, 5 Chemical, 8 Ordnance, 4 Air Defense Artillery, 14 Field Artillery, 4 Engineer, 6 Military Police, 2 Transportation Corps, and 13 Quartermaster slots. It is overall a really good distribution and with 13 Infantry slots, it looks like I will be pinning on those crossed Muskets here in a couple of weeks. Infantry is my first choice, Engineer my second, and I am confident I will make one of those two. I am currently ranked 43rd out of 159 in my class, though that will certainly change in the next two weeks before branching.
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