Word: infantrymen
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Another classic case of waste and confusion involves the Viper antitank weapon. Ten years ago, the Army decided to provide infantrymen with cheap, light antitank bazookas. The Vipers were projected to cost about $75 apiece, but design changes began almost as soon as the weapon was proposed. The weight, it was decided, must be reduced to less than seven pounds This meant the warhead had to weigh less than a pound, which sharply limited its potential destructive power. The size of the rocket motor was also reduced to cut blast noise. By the time the contractor finished redesigning...
Much is made, in an ideological and not very convincing way, of supposed rigidities in Soviet military practice. Their pilots and naval captains are taught to fight strictly by the book and risk being shot by security police if they deviate into independent maneuvers. Half-trained Asian infantrymen, most of whom cannot understand their Russian-speaking officers, march stolidly forward, knowing that if they falter they will be machine-gunned by the KGB. So blindly is the stricture against retreat enforced that even a temporary strategic withdrawal is forbidden, and the Soviet officer who recommends it is dragged...
Also disconcerting to the U.S. was the weak performance of Salvadoran infantrymen who had just returned from 14 weeks of training by U.S. 82nd Airborne Division instructors at Fort Bragg, N.C. Many of those troops were pinned down by the rebels in Morazan until the Dragonfly jets forced the guerrillas to abandon their positions. U.S. military advisers in El Salvador have been trying to persuade army troops to move in five-man patrols as they comb the countryside. Instead, the Salvadorans travel in vulnerable column formations along main roads. Says a frustrated U.S. aide in San Salvador...
Symbolized by the long column of American infantrymen marching through the desert, the U.S. presence is expected to bolster the latest peace-keeping effort. In addition to providing a total of 1,100 troops, Washington is picking up 60% of the $225 million cost of the first year of the mission. The U.S. force should also reassure the Israelis, who strongly pressed for it. They still recall that an earlier peace-keeping group that did not include Americans was expelled by Egypt's late President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1967, helping to set the stage for the Arab-Israeli...
...outside of Belfast grew silent. The militant Protestant leader, the Rev. Ian Paisley, had spoken of the "third force," his shadowy army of vigilantes, and now they appeared out of the night, marching three abreast, in ranks some 5,500 strong. A few strutted with the gait of trained infantrymen. Others stumbled to keep in step. But whether wearing face masks, field jackets or street clothes, all displayed orange armbands inscribed with the words FOR GOD AND ULSTER. Thundered Paisley from a makeshift reviewing stand: "My men are ready to be recruited under the crown to destroy the vermin...