Sheepdog Tip of the Day, After Combat tip 73
During the 20th century, only the fighter pilots got the chance to do it right. In the horrific, violent wars of that century, the ground troops often found themselves in day-and-night combat operations, unable to debrief every night. But the fighter pilots did debrief after every battle. In both formal and informal debriefings, they multiplied the joy and divided the pain, and their attitude toward killing in combat was much healthier. When a fighter pilot got a kill, his buddies toasted him and his crew chief proudly painted a small enemy flag on his aircraft. When he killed five of the enemy, he was called an "ace" and was honored and respected. When he killed an all-time record number of the enemy, he was given the highest honor and lifted up as an example for all. This idolizing and adoration of the fighter pilot has held true throughout the 20th century, but for the poor infantryman who kills an enemy soldier, the situation has become quite different. Very successful snipers or soldiers who receive major awards for valor sometimes have the number of enemy killed carefully set forth in their award citations, but the individual rifleman who kills "only" a few enemy soldiers is often ashamed to tell how many kills he has made.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Combat
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Additional Resources
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