YOU NEED TO HAVE BRAIN, HEARTS AND GUTS FOR BEING IN

INF RKS
(You start taking the class by writing this on the whiteboard behind you) Write Not for the
weak or fainthearted.
Speech starts with you pronouncing the sentence very boldly and clearly, word by word.

Main Speech:
This is supposed to be a gathering of Infantry Officers Basic Course, so I guess
nobody sitting in here is weak or Fainthearted? Are we so? Is there any?
I guess no. So gentleman my fair warning is written clearly on the board for those
weak or fainthearted or non-infantryman, because even this very ten minute long
talk which is going to be delivered by an Infantryman, for the Infantrymen will be
too much for them. Well gentleman this warning is not my brainchild rather its a
quotation from US Army manual SH 21-76 published by RANGER TRAINING BRIGADE
UNITED STATES ARMY INFANTRY SCHOOL, FORT BENNING, GEORGIA.
Now let us talk straight cause the famous General Lewis Chesty Puller rightly said,
Too much paperwork will destroy an army.
Wars are pre historic and military is one of the oldest profession. War and tactics
through ages took manifold changes but some truth remained same. INFANTRY
rules. Starting from roman phalanx, which is still regarded as one of the
evolutionary formation, up to todays modern warfare through Scads,
Intercontinentals, Space, nuke and media, always Infantry came and declared the
final victory.
Infantry is not merely an arms, it is a bond, it is a lifestyle. In infantry we live
through a wire. We walk between the thin line of FDL of life and death. Infantry is all
about brain, hearts and sheer guts. You dont believe this? I also didnt before I
joined the outfit. During our visit to Comilla Cantt in final term to get acquainted
with different arms and services, infantry was the least spectacular one. In different
arms and services they had shining brass, air conditioned rooms, video clips, great
power points, big guns and what not? But infantry? A bunch of gritty guys with the
same rifle and cold steel and dusty boots still PROUD of themselves like no other? It
was really unimpressive. But when I joined I could see what make them so proud.
Infantry is about bonding, about hearts, a bonding that is so unusual that you can
find in no one except the brothers of shared foxholes. Who is not afraid in the face
of whirling bullets? But in infantry we know that I can always rely on the man next
to me, in infantry we have the trust that my leader will take me through everything.
Thats why Pvt Babe Heffron believed that he would die in Normandy beach landing
or go unscathed. Thats why when given with the seemingly impossible task of
holding Bastogne with one bullet per man and no warm clothes in the chilly Belgian
winter in Ardennes forest one infantry formation holds its line without fear and
defeats the enemy. Thats why we do our regimentation with the soldiers. Thats
why we are infantry.
I think everybody has fears. But there are people who can handle fear, go to face it
with their eyeballs fixed and unmoved. Infantry is all about sheer guts. Marshal
1

Zhukov proved it in battle of Stalingrad. Overwhelmed with German air and artillery,
Marshal Zhukov used his infantry to bring things together. It was a dirty fight, a
brawl, man to man, building to building but finally the better infantry prevailed.
Infantry is arm that fights the battle from within. Its about all sheer god damn guts
and bravery. We do not sit kilometers behind the FDL and calculate and make grape
shots. We do not dump ammos or rations far behind. We fight eye to eye, chest to
chest with enemy. We fight not with tables and graphs but with cold steel. When
general Lewis Chesty Puller was first presented with flamethrower, he said Where do
I fix the bayonet? So that what infantry was like. You may call them dumb, yes we
may be but this dumb soldiers are the first one to take the bullets and still carry on.
Now about the brains. Battlefield is a dynamic matrix. But it is more so for an
infantryman. Things are always changing in an attack, ambush or raid. And what we
are supposed to do? Take the calculator or bino and start making correction in our
charts? No we do not have that luxury. We do not have that time. We have to adapt
ourself to changing situations and make new ways, plans and carry fwd. Thats why
there is a saying that there are three ways of doing a work, the right way, the wrong
way and the INFANTRY way. Infantry lives in the line of no return and it is the sheer
guts and brain that makes them find their way through Forest, Desert. Marshes.
Mountains in Rain. Snow or Sun by Day or a pitch black night. Thats why no matter
how much bomb they dropped in Vietnam for an unwilling and unwitty infantry USA
lost in Vietnam war.
I would like to conclude with by echoing King Henry V (five). He was talking to his
men. He said. From this day to the ending of the world. We in it shall be
remembered. We lucky few, we band of brothers. Cause today he sheds his blood
with me shall be my brother.
Thank you all by brothers.