What general is that, and what act of military heroism? I can’t make out his nametag.
We are in a strange time, when most of our generals entered the service after the Vietnam war, and were already field-grades by Desert Storm. IOW, the only “combat” they have seen has been from a command post as a major or higher. I am not aware of any current generals who saw combat as a platoon or company commander.
For that matter, Colin Powell was such an officer, who spent a tour as an ARVN advisor before real combat in VN, then skated from war college to staff billet, and didn’t get back to VN until he was, I believe, a senior major or light colonel. The ARVN unit he advised never left base without beating drums and blowing bugles for days in advance, in battalion strength, to advise the VC to clear a path for everyone’s safety. (It’s in Powell’s own book.)
Then he managed to avoid ever leading an American platoon or company in combat, right through the bulk of the VN war, until he came back as a staff officer.
Yet somehow, he managed to become known as a “combat leader.” He never was. And that describes most of our current generals. There was no combat during their junior officer years, and they were too senior to lead troops in combat by the time of our current war years.
Plenty of REMF perfumed prince generals are pretending to be blooded combat vets.
Under W Bush, his last Sgt.Maj.of the Army, wore an EIB. I will never forget that.
Ray Odierno. Knew him at Ft Hood when he was CG of 4th ID. No nonsense guy and hard trainer. Led the 4th ID thru some tough fighting in Tikrit and later tasked with executing the surge in Iraq. Now the CSA. Sometime between then and now, he drank the Obama koolaid in mass quantities. He’s one of the early and main proponents for bringing women into the combat arms ranks.