support

Googling after your note, thewayne, I found a set of pie charts (http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/download/csipubs/mcgrath_op23.pdf) showing the "tooth-to-tail" ratio of American forces in various wars.  In Vietnam in 1968, only 35% of the soldiers were classified as combat, as opposed to support, logistics, and administrative.  Now it's slightly less, one in three.

Of course you have to wonder what the reality is on the ground . . . would I have been a tooth or a tail?  I was totally "in" combat, walking through the jungle and getting shot at, but in fact I never fired my weapon; my function was totally support of the infantry, blowing down trees so helicopters could land to extract the wounded.  So I was a tail, but I was armed to the teeth.

You could say the same, in extremis, about the cooks.  Their basic function was to provide horrible food, but every now and then you have to put down your spoon and pick up a gun.  ("All right, men, it's time to go kill some people on purpose . . . . ")  Come to think of it, one afternoon we did have a cook stuck out on a hill with us overnight – the poor sod had come in with a chopper delivery of "hots" and was stranded with us overnight, white apron and all!

Speaking of Vietnam! – I just heard a chainsaw fire up in the side yard.  Some guys have come by to remove a tree on the west side of our yard.  A welcome invasion, as one of its large branches looms over our bedroom.  Better go watch!

Joe