[Ads-l] Quote: Out of every 100 soldiers, 10 should not even be here, eighty are just targets . .. only one is a warrior (Probably not Heraclitus)

James Landau 00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Thu Aug 29 16:43:20 UTC 2024


On Wed, 28 Aug 2024 07:13:21 Zone-0400   Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>  wrote:
>remember the 1966 hit:
>>"One hundred men we'll test today.
>Only three win the green beret."

The 1966 song is not relevant here, since the song was describing recruiting and training and the subject is actual combat experience.
In 1970 I asked a Green Beret about the above quote.  He said that maybe 3 percent of applicants to the Special Forces eventually made it, but of those who were selected for training about half failed and half became Green Berets.
I also asked him "Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" and he replied, "With the National Guard pilots we get for training flights, you're safer jumping."

James Landau
jjjrlandau at netscape.com

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