Word: soldiers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Despite all those impediments to good cheer, 11th Cavalry morale is higher than the watchtowers that dot the border. Reenlistment, a key index of soldier satisfaction, is better than in recent memory: so far this year, some 400 men and women have signed on for another tour. Says Colonel Joe G. Driskill, the 11th Cavalry's commander: "For the first time, we're in a position to turn soldiers away...
...reason for that confidence is a basic change in the U.S. soldier. Because of energetic recruiting and the soft civilian job market of past years, the proportion of high school graduates in the Army worldwide has increased from 55% to 93% since the late 1970s. Officers report that the new enlistee is also better motivated, especially when it comes to assignments like West Germany with the potential, however faint, for combat. Says General Robert L. Wetzel, commander of the V Corps, U.S. Army Europe: "We can now afford to take the cream of enlistees...
Newer weapons and nicer digs are fine, but the soldier's best friend these days is probably the almighty buck. A dollar bought 1.8 deutsche marks in 1980; late last week the exchange rate was 2.85. Coming atop Reagan Administration-inspired military pay increases, the better exchange rate means that a newly minted U.S. first lieutenant now has about twice as much local currency to spend as four years ago. In 1980 a monthly base pay of $1,163.10 would translate to DM 2,093; today's base pay of $1,437.60 will...
...violence recalled in Bloods is chilling: the slow torture of a North Vietnamese army officer by a company of U.S. infantry; the unspeakable ordeal of a white American soldier who had been half-flayed by the Viet Cong and staked to the ground; he begged for death when his countrymen found him three days later. But the horrors perpetrated in Viet Nam, that most reported and televised of wars, are by now familiar. More surprising and heartening is the sense of affinity that blacks remember toward the people they were assigned to protect or slaughter. Says an Army interpreter...
...both sides of that same street. Thirty percent of Lee's line is now fashion jeans, which feature snappy colors and snazzy fabrics. Levi's, keeping its "older cohort" in mind, will turn out stuff specifically for them: not, as might be expected, denim editions of Roman soldier gear, but a line of shirts, sweaters and slacks designed by Perry Ellis. Brooke Shields is fronting her own line of sportswear and highlights a kind of prefab insouciance. With all this, however, tradition will not be forsaken. "People always come back to basics," insists Hervey. "There is no more...