Wow! Average American military personnel saw 40 days of combat

[patrice]

a year during WWII. The average during Viet Nam was 240 days a year!! (Because of the helicopter.)

On PBS's "The Fog of War" just now.

I'm thinking this sort-of qualifies what the Great Generation has to say about what military should or shouldn't bear now.

I wonder what the average is for Bush's War. I don't see how you could get much higher than 240 days a year.

[Bucky]

1. Yeppers. High mobility radically increases your cumulative firepower

But obviously increases the stress on the troops, too. The whole post WW2 experience is so different from what our Viet vets went thru. There's a different kind of bond between the WW2 vets I've met compared to how the Vietnam vets act. It's quieter, and seems less painful.