Queen of Battle : The United States Infantry

The United States Infantry, the Queen of Battle, is the oldest established combat branch of the Nation's long established military. Only Infantry Riflemen, trained and deployed to cope with the chaos of face to face killing, are Constitutionally charged with the awesome personal and professional responsibility of taking human life. The Queen of Battle is not a memoir; it is the disquieting story of how seemingly basically logical political decisions, sadly embodied by the precipitate change from the M1 rifle to the M16 rifle, encapsulated and symbolized the ascent and decline of the arming, training and use of the Nation's precious Infantry Riflemen, the tiny minority of men constituting The Queen of Battle. Korean War Combat Veteran and Military Historian, T. R. Fehrenbach once said with great prescience: "You may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life ? but if you desire to defend it, protect it, and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men into the mud."  Warfare without victory since 1945 has continued and the Nation's Infantry has borne the brunt of death and wounds.