What Ground Combat Entails Part Three

Categories: Harder to Kill, Military

On this third piece, I’m gonna have to get a little dark. This “What Ground Combat Entails” series is focused on giving the readers the everyday average grunt perspective on shit downrange. So I can’t bullshit you, it’d be a disservice to those of you who actually enjoy this little series. If I was not one hundred percent real, then why even bother writing? I don’t like getting dark, but often times in the world we neglect the reality of the situations around us. Our perceived safety has fostered a level of disbelief that anything bad can happen to us or those we know.

Death.

You’re going to learn a lot about death if you’re involved in ground combat. You may cause death, you may see innocent people caught up in the crossfire, dead and maimed, you may see someone you consider to be kin, utterly and entirely blown away and disfigured, hell it might even be you. It might be quick, it might be slow. But the reality doesn’t change. It’s going to be part of the job to some degree.

You will see horrible shit. You will possibly CAUSE horrible shit. This is why the quote exists,

 Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar. And still there are things worth fighting for.

– Norman Schwarzkopf

There is no getting around it, no matter how great technology is, no matter how much you or others around you train, someone will end up breathing their last and you’ll be a part of it somehow. That shit will suck. I only say it like that because the truth of the matter is there are no words I could really use to describe what it’s like losing a friend, or a mentor in combat. I can’t fancy it up to make you feel the entirety of the emotion that you’ll feel. It’s just going to f**king suck.

What ground combat entails is a lot of death and you’re not always on the giving end of that shit.

Ground combat is brutal, it is bloody, you will see shit that you never even dreamed of. That’s the honest to whatever deity you pray to, truth.

Like I said, I don’t like being all depressing, I’d rather be funny, but there it is. F**in’ death. It’s real, it’s final and when it’s your time, it’s your time.