524: How Soldiers and Soldiering Reflect Real Life Every Single Day

This is Jocko Podcast No. 524 with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Wheeling. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. Let us be clear about three facts.

First, all battles and all wars are won in the end by the infantryman. Secondly, the infantryman always bears the brunt. His casualties are heavier. He suffers greater extremes of discomfort and fatigue than the other arms. Thirdly, the art of the infantryman is less stereotyped and far harder to acquire in modern war than that of any other arm.

The infantryman has to use initiative and intelligence in almost every step he moves, every action he takes on the battlefield. We ought therefore to put our men of best intelligence and endurance into the infantry. And that right there is a quote from Field Marshal Archibald Wavell. He's an earl. And the article was in the London Times in 1945.

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