Small Wars Journal

The Common Denominator

Sat, 04/23/2016 - 10:40am

The Common Denominator

Keith Nightingale

Universal to all combatants is utter exhaustion, sleep deprivation and the occasional ability to sleep in the worst of environments when the body said it had to. One image is that of two soldiers on Hamburger Hill the day it was finally captured.

They had been fighting, slipping, sliding, gaining and losing ground for almost a week. They did not sleep as the circumstances of their presence was so primordial that the body rebelled at any attempt to succumb to fatigue. The adrenalin pumped night and day, their eyes were reduced to pink-lined pinpricks as they surveyed every fold and limb that might harbor the enemy.

In a cataclysmic moment, they surged forward, up and over and claimed the mud, destruction and bodily remains as theirs. But that was at a great cost-both physically and emotionally. At some moment thereafter, their biological clocks said I Surrender and they fell into the image we see. They are oblivious to the world awake and unaware of the relative discomfort of their position.

Sleep is the anesthetic they crave and are greedily ingesting. Very shortly, they will be wakened and begin a slow transition to the real world beyond the shadows of their mind. They are Infantry doing what Infantry does.

The second is of a group of the Mike Force on the 3d and 4th Corps boundary. They have been engaged in a constant fire fight for almost a week. They are composed of the dregs of Vietnamese society but here they are royalty. They fight and fight well but exposure brings a toll.

Their weapons are deficient compared to the enemy and their external support marginal at best. Despite whatever disclaimers were made regarding their personal lineage. they stood as disciplined, competent Infantry determined to succeed with nothing but will if necessary.

The one resource they needed as does all Infantry-sleep-was not a practical reality. They did what they had to and finally they reached some state of repose. At the first moment of opportunity, they collapsed as a mass, mindless of comfort, placement or the thousands of irritations that would disturb the repose of a normal person-but at the moment this shutter snapped-they were not normal. They were Infantry.

One cannot make the transition from Safe to Sleep. His mind still carries a full movie reel of what he has seen and done. Its presence may take some time if at all to diminish to an acceptable level permitting rest. Later, when he sleeps in a place of peace, his mind may well be in full combat on the battlefield and sleep eludes him again. This too is a trait common to Infantry.

If you come across Infantry in combat, your greatest gift will be granting them the ability to rest. That is a pearl beyond price.