 I am the infantry, queen of battle. For two centuries now I have been the bulwark of our country's defense. I am the infantry, follow me, with Washington I knew hardship at Bally Forge and glory at Yorktown, and in the fulfillment of a new nation born. I am the infantry, follow me, westward I move with a covered wagon to extend our way of life far beyond the plains. From bull run to Appomattox my blood ran red. I fought for both the blue and the gray. Divided in conflict, I united in peace. I led the charge up San Juan Hill. And later, I stood like a rock on the marn, cracked the Hindenburg line and broke the back of the hunt. I am the infantry, follow me, from Bitton and Corregidor I fought sternly back. I invaded Africa, dug my heels in it Anzio, entered Rome and crossed the Rhine. From island to island I hopped the Pacific, chopped my way through swamp and jungle. In Korea I gathered my strength and marched to the yellow. Along the 38th parallel I made my stand. Wherever brave men fight and die for freedom, I am always ready. I am the infantry, follow me. Army presents an official report produced for the armed forces. This is Fort Benning, one of the largest and finest military posts of its kind in the world. Fort Benning, located astride the boundary between Alabama and Georgia, is a military reservation that covers an area of approximately 182,000 acres or some 287 square miles of land. Like all military establishments, Fort Benning is a community of people who speak of themselves as a family, the army family. Yet like all people they have their schools, their hospital, their places of worship, their places of amusement and their shopping centers. In short, all those services which each of us has come to expect is part of our standard of living. Fort Benning is the home of many army units, but mainly it is the home of the United States Army Infantry School. This school is responsible for developing infantry doctrine and tactics and for improving infantry equipment based on the latest scientific and technological advances. Actually, the infantry school is a special kind of university with different courses that vary in length from one week to one year. The school conducts approximately 130 classes a year. Each year approximately 13,000 infantry officers including infantry officer candidates and selected enlisted personnel are trained here and take back to their units the latest in infantry doctrine. A number come from other branches of the army such as armor, ordinance and engineers. Some may even come from the Navy, Air Force and Marines. At least a thousand men each year arrive here for training from 50 different nations around the world. All as interested as we are in freedom for all mankind. In addition, this educational institution operates one of the largest correspondence schools in the world and thousands of individuals are reached by the school's other important publications. It is little wonder that this institution is considered the fountain head of all that is best and foremost the infantry doctrine and practice. There are other excellent schools in the same or related fields but none which has the scope, the impact or which enjoys a greater prestige than the Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Instruction at the school places more emphasis on practical work than on theory under the guidance of experts in each field. Each course is designed for the student to learn by doing to participate actively in the training he receives. For a major objective of the school is to train men to be resourceful, aggressive and self-reliant. Follow me, which is the school's motto and which literally means I lead the way is more than a rallying cry, it is a philosophy of purpose. To live up to it, the infantry soldier must be ideally trained and led. And so the focus of the school, both in class and in field exercises is on the training of trainers, on the development of outstanding leadership and leaders. Since the Army has always placed the highest value on human life, the schooling these trainers and leaders receive is tempered with the realization that they deal with the most valuable commodity on earth, the life of an individual, the life of the American infantryman. What is an infantryman? Here, as sculptured by soldiers from the infantry center, he is depicted as a fighter. A front runner. A man of courage, unafraid to meet the enemy head-on, face-to-face in hand-to-hand combat. The demands that are placed on this fighting man are more than those placed on any other combat fighter. An infantryman is a man with a weapon, with other weapons at his command. While he is armed with the best weapons that can be designed and produced, his basic fighting tool is, as it has been for years, his rifle and bayonet. At the school, each soldier taking the rifle marksmanship or train fire course is carefully instructed in the effective use of this weapon. Under expert instruction and utilizing the most advanced methods, he is taught how to hold and fire it correctly. Whether he is firing at fixed targets at known distances or at automatically appearing and disappearing targets at constantly changing positions and distances, he is made expert in detecting targets that the enemy seeks to camouflage and to fire and hit them from different positions. He is taught that aggressive action on his part is the best shield he can use to defend and protect himself. With this in mind, he develops complete confidence in his weapon and a desire to close with and destroy the enemy. In the thinking and philosophy of the infantry school, the infantry soldier is more than a specialist in one weapon. He is a generalist who can employ many weapons. He is, in fact, the master of an arsenal of weapons. The simplest weapon he employs is the hand grenade. He often refers to it as his pocket artillery. The infantrymen must often use different weapons to surmount different obstacles that could prevent him from accomplishing his mission. For this reason, some are trained in the use of such weapons as the grenade launcher. Still others in the employment of another infantry support weapon, the flamethrower. The psychological effect of this weapon is often enough to cause an enemy to surrender. Among the many weapons that are standard infantry equipment, none is more versatile and reliable than the machine gun. Each year, hundreds of students are trained by the school in the effective use of this weapon. Each year, these same students return to their units to pass on to others the instruction and high standards they have received, not only in this course, but in all other courses. Since the infantry soldier cannot always fire directly on a target, he learns to employ indirect fire weapons such as the mortar. This weapon is fired from a protected position and is adjusted on target by a forward observer. To fight successfully on the modern battlefield and to destroy the mobility of an enemy's tanks and other armored vehicles, today's infantryman has the 106-millimeter recoilless rifle. The excellent training students receive in this weapon and the capabilities of the weapon itself produce a highly destructive anti-armor team. Among the recently standardized weapons available to the infantryman is the anti-tank guided missile. This combat tool is light, self-propelled, remote-controlled and designed to deliver accurate lethal fire against all armored vehicles. It may be launched from the ground, from a helicopter or a vehicle. What is an infantryman? He is a man of valor, a man of weapons, a jack of all trades. To further this jack-of-all-trades capability, the Infantry School at Fort Benning offers a ranger course to all who meet the rigid physical requirements. Meaning is tough, realistic and challenging. It develops leadership under conditions which closely parallel actual combat. As a result, the ranger becomes a highly conditioned, highly coordinated individual physically and mentally. Even before his training is completed, the ranger has convinced himself that he is capable of far more than he believed possible. By the time he has completed the course, the ranger is an outstanding infantryman with exceptional endurance. He is skilled in field craft and survival, in mountaineering techniques, and tactical proficiency in patrolling and surprise raids. The ranger, as a specialized infantryman, is indeed a man of great mobility. But so is any infantryman, for he is fundamentally a generalist, with the capability of both dismounted and mounted tactics. When greater speed of movement is required, the infantry soldier is able to utilize a large variety of vehicles to transport himself, his supplies and his ammunition. Officers attending the infantry school ground mobility courses become thoroughly familiar with the vehicles issued their units, and the capabilities and limitations of each. They are taught the techniques of inspecting vehicles to determine their combat readiness. Infantry officers not only learn how to control their available transport, but also the methods and procedures used in the selection and training of drivers for wheeled and tracked vehicles. They become fully acquainted with the tools, equipment and personnel required to keep their vehicles operating. To make certain that these motorized units perform efficiently under all circumstances, enlisted personnel are given extensive training in the care, maintenance and repair of this equipment. These men learn the theory and function of each section of every vehicle the infantry uses. They learn in a practical way by doing, by troubleshooting all types of system failures that the instructor can introduce into the practice equipment. Later the students apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired to the actual repair of vehicles brought to the school's preventive maintenance shop. Yes, today's infantry soldier is a man of great mobility. He will employ every available means to meet and engage the enemy wherever he may be. To extend this mobility factor, many infantrymen take to the air as paratroopers. Fort Benning is the birthplace of the airborne. The infantry school has long offered a course to volunteers who are physically qualified. These men are taught the skills of the airborne soldier from the ground up. As the trainee progresses from the low platforms to jumps from a 34-foot tower, his self-confidence increases. At the same time, his reactions, thinking and timing become sharp and incisive. Soon, he is ready to jump from towers 250 feet high, an important phase in his airborne training prior to making his first jump from a plane. Step by step, he learns to have his courage tested. And step by step, he develops into a qualified paratrooper. So that any time the moment of decision comes, he is prepared to meet it and jump into combat. The paratrooper is further trained in the techniques of carrying his supplies and heavy equipment with him over virtually every type of terrain in a great variety of air-mobile operations and with a flexibility of movement and action that enables the airborne to carry the fight directly to the enemy. The infantry soldier's ability to maneuver is dependent on his ability to communicate. In the military, communications is called the voice of command. Just as we at home cannot function without the exchange of knowledge and information, a soldier's survival will frequently depend upon his ability to inform and be informed. Because communication is such an important aspect of a soldier's capability, the school trains men in the installation, operation, maintenance, and repair of communication equipment, radio telephone, vehicular and portable, teletype and radio teletame, telephone and telephone switchboards are in the field, all for the purpose of giving vital installations the capacity for communicating with each other. The infantryman, as we are seeing, is a generalist. Above all, he is not another piece of military hardware, but an intelligent human being with the right to expect good leadership. The infantry school, through its leaders' reaction course, gives each student an opportunity to assess the degree to which his leadership traits are developed. These traits come into sharp focus when the student is placed in the role of leading and attempting to direct a group of men in the accomplishment of a variety of problems. In this problem, the team is faced with the task of rescuing an injured pilot down behind enemy lines. The group encounters a fast-moving stream, and the injured pilot must be transported across the obstacle by means of a single cable. The team has a rope and the makings of a crude carrier for the stretcher. The problem requires the leader to be decisive and exercise sound judgment in formulating a plan to accomplish the mission. The rest of the team cooperate in carrying out the leader's decisions. Each man is carefully evaluated by an instructor in relation to his contribution to the solution of the problem. Later, each student will meet privately with his instructor to discuss the leadership strengths and weaknesses that he displayed, along with the steps to be taken for self-improvement. These men observe the performance of the team and contribute to the critique at the end of the problem. This type of practical work and personal analysis has been extremely successful in developing superior leaders for today's infantry and in producing men who can not only make decisions quickly and judiciously, but who can revise these decisions to meet each new crisis as swiftly as it develops. The school, as we have seen, holds many formal classes in many different courses, but it believes that the mere accumulation of knowledge, skills, and techniques is not enough. The best-prepared soldier is the one who can put his knowledge, skills, and techniques to effective use. Toward this end, the school provides the students with many opportunities to participate actively in various tactical exercises in which all that has been learned may actually be applied. Some activities take place during the day, some at night, each problem employing infantry weapons, each demanding that tactical theories taught in the classroom be put to practical use in the field. Some problems utilize tanks and other vehicles. Some involve aircraft of all types. Every exercise is made as realistic as possible approaching actual battle conditions, and each is planned to have every student learn the significant role he plays as a member of a skilled and powerful team. The infantry soldier is a great force in himself with the ability to perform the difficult tasks with which he is often entrusted. He recognizes that he is, above all, a member of a team, though he takes great pride in his unit and himself. He is aware that success in combat depends not only on the cooperation of everyone within his branch of service, but of every branch of the other combat services. He understands that it is the entire team and the combined action which supports him in the mission of helping to safeguard the great institutions of our free society and our valued heritage as a nation. Every soldier is, as he was in Korea and before that, a symbol of our military strength. More than a symbol, he is an extension of our determination to preserve our way of life. In times of sudden crisis, such as the Lebanon emergency, he moves swiftly to help smother the flames of possible world conflict, so that there are basically two kinds of conflict which can arise among nations. The limited or localized war, which generally occurs in relatively isolated areas of the world. Full-scale war, where the world becomes the battlefield with the potential destruction of large populations. Any future conflict of whatever proportion will be decided primarily by the devices created by modern science and technology. But history has shown that the physical destruction of an enemy will not always ensure full victory. For the only way, the will of one man can be imposed on the will of another is by the physical presence of man himself. And here are the men who will crawl out of their foxholes, rifles in hand and a cause in their hearts to advance that last mile to take that extra step and fire that extra shot to carry the fight directly to the enemy and destroy him. And the training he receives at the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning will continue his right to that proud battle cry. I am the infantry. Follow me.