"The Spirit of the Bayonet!"

Ok, so, being a crusty, retired Army NCO I'm supposed to sit around grousing about how they're screwing up my Army, kids today don't know how easy they have it, why, I remember when Von Steuben used to make us do ruck drill barefoot in the snow uphill both ways...

From what I can tell, most of the changes in the just under 10 years I've been retired have been positive, or at worst neutral.  (Except for this second change in Commanders in Chief, but you can't blame the Army for that...)

I think this is a  mistake, though.  Not that I think that it is highly likely that US soldiers will engage the enemy with bayonets any time soon--an opinion which I am sure Lieutenant James Adamson of the Scottish Regiment would have shared, up until the moment he ran out of ammo and killed a tango with the pigsticker on his L85.  Which is probably a worse bayonet handle than the M16.  (I had to go back and fetch my handguards, which came off at the second or third station.  And I still have scars from the charging handle and forward assist.  You could tell the guys who had bayonet drill in Basic Training, they wore gloves.)

But bayonet drill is an excellent training tool.  It can build morale and esprit.  Especially when your Battalion Commander is the first one on the course and tackles it so vigorously that he breaks his elbow on the first obstacle...

Shoulder Sleeve Insignia ("shoulder patch") of the Seventh Infantry Division, the "Bayonet Division".


Gone but not forgotten. UPDATE: The Seventh Infantry Division, "Bayonet", has been reactivated a sa reserve command at Ft. Lewis, WA. Whether it will survive the upcoming drawdown is unknown.