[Porsche-O-Phile]

I'm not trivializing the sacrifices of our men/women in uniform today and I certainly don't want to get into an argument over which generation's soldiers were "better" or "braver", but I do think that being sent "into harm's way" today is done in a lot more calculated manner which is carefully planned and designed to limit risk/exposure/casualties.

To stand in one of those landing craft approaching the Omaha Beach knowing damn well that you'd likely be dead, maimed or wounded in a few minutes, or hoping that you'd be one of the one-in-ten or one-in-twenty that actually made it up the beachhead over the bodies of your fallen companions without being shot, grenaded, shelled, shrapneled or blown to pieces had to be scary as hell. I'm not saying solidiers today don't experience their own hazards (IEDs, snipers, suicide bombers, etc.) but in general it seems that missions today are selected and designed to have a much higher probability of success with fewer casualties.

On D-Day, it was all about throwing masses of troops and resources at a couple of relatively small points to establish a secure point of entry onto the European continent. Everyone knew it. It was like the old 18th & 19th century tactic of forming lines with enough guys where even if half of them fell, the "bigger picture" would still be a net advance. Not much consolation for the unlucky ones.

All I'm saying is today's soldiers should be grateful they're not called upon to be "just numbers" like the guys on D-Day were. Missions and objectives can be chosen a lot more selectively - they don't have to just swarm positions en masse knowing full well a certain percentage is going to have it be "not their day". I'm still grateful for the jobs they do (my personal misgivings about their unfortunate exploitation and misuse by short-sighted and politically-motivated grandstanding politicians aside).

The WW2 soldiers had balls the size of basketballs. Not sure many of us (me included) could do what they did and storm that beach. It'd be awfully hard not to despair in that position knowing that you were very likely about to die.