I love the infantry because they are the underdogs. They are the mud-rain-frost-and-wind boys. They have no comforts, and they even learn to live without the necessities. And in the end they are the guys that wars can’t be won without.
Ernie Pyle
Orion's Cold Fire
All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
My Dad was combat infantry. He graduated West Point and was a company commander with the 101st Airborne for the Normandy invasion. He ended up hit by a MG42 destroying his right leg, resulting in 3 years in hospitals, resulting in meeting my mother who was a nurse, resulting in —- me.
So, it worked out for me anyway. My Dad too, he recovered, sans leg, got an advanced degree in Chemical Engineering and did quite well.
He currently “resides” in Arlington National along with my mother who was added around 20 years later.
I’ll rise above my partisan feelings as a chemical engineer and say 101st Airborne in Normandy is a crowning achievement.
My Wife’s Brother in Law has a Masters in ChE from MIT. Pretty impressive guy.
The ChE’s in the mid 20th century revolutionized our world with petrochemicals that did everything. I guess it was their golden age.
The Germans seem to have been especially dominant in the field for some reason.
They had a very advanced organic chemistry industry and academic standing. This started I think because they were interested in producing dyes used in coloring cloth originally. Coal tar was a source for these dyes. They had any number of brilliant chemists in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Smart people. A little too organized.
“Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian and it’s all organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where the chefs are British, the mechanics French, the lover’s Swiss, the police German and it’s all organized by the Italians.”
There is more than just a little truth in that analysis.