I'll just say one thing, we got our supplies up in the mtns. by mule train. Yes everyone did their share and some of them paid the price. War was and still is HELL.......Rocky
I appreciate your comments, but have to say I'm of the opinion that not everyone always did their share. If that were the case there would have been fewer court martials, no black market in the rear areas, and more senior commanders who would have been up in the front lines where the shooting was more often than they were. To me, at least, this makes the CIB all the more important since it signifies (for the most part) that the man who really earned it did his share without any doubt whatsoever.
Here is one of the best descriptions I've seen of what the CIB means to those who really earned it.
In his widely acclaimed book War In A Time Of Peace, David Halberstam comments on the Combat Infantry Badge as follows:
What the military in its codes valued more than anything else was honor; serious military men always knew which of their colleagues had served their time in combat and could be counted on. That was why in private, when they were in uniform among each other, army men often did not display all their ribbons but instead wore the Combat Infantry Badge. It was the army’s true badge of honor, and wearing the CIB without other ribbons—even the Silver or Bronze Star—was part of the culture’s secret language, the way real army men spoke to each other, deliberately understated. It said in effect that the recipient had been there and done it, and for anyone else who had also been there, that was all you needed to know. And if you hadn’t been there, it didn’t matter what you thought.
Of course, this description rightly places me among those whose thoughts on the subject simply do not matter. However, I am more than satisfied (and honored) with just having known such men.
Jim