To be a warrior....

[ The old warrior]
It is not my intention to glorify war. I have been there and found no glory.
War is a terrible thing, but sometimes the alternative can be much worse.
Freedom is only won and kept at great cost, and it is a warrior's place to pay that cost.
A true warrior does not want war, he prays that his mere presence will deter the enemys of his people. He fights because he must, and kills only when necessary. The taking of a life is a terrible thing, it changes you forever.
History tells us that Mankind has always waged war, and there is no end in sight. Here in America we take our freedom for granted, but that freedom was won and kept at great cost. The only way we will remain free is to be prepared to fight for that freedom. This requires properly trained and equipped warriors ready to do battle, to do less is suicide.
Keep your battles in cyberspace, nobody dies (except virtualy), it is a far better way to fight.

There are many aspects to being a warrior.


Honor

- A warrior without honor is a bandit. A warriors honor is his most valued possesion. Allow a defeated enemy to retain his honor and he may become an ally. Remove his honor and have an enemy for eternity!

Duty

- A warrior lives on duty. Duty is what gets you through the dull boring parts. Duty is usully what got you into the war in the first place.

Courage

- A warror without courage is worthless. Do not confuse courage with having no fear. Everyone is afraid, courage is going on anyway. A little fear is good, it keeps you careful, to much fear keeps you from doing what must be done.

Weapons

- You must have the proper skills and the wisdom to know when to use them. Your skills must include not only weapons use and unarmed combat, but survival skills of many sorts. Almost anyone can trained to use almost any weapon... But will they know when to use it? And on the right target? A warriors weapons training must include all aspects of weapon use and deployment.

The traditional weapon of the warrior is the sword. I have had the good fortune to have found masters to train me in most of the edged weapons. I have collected quite a few from the 16th and 17th century.

There is a vast difference in fighting with a sword as was done up to about 200 years ago and the modern way which is to kill from a distance. Killing a man face to face is not the same as putting a rifle sight on a distant silloete or muzzle flash and pulling the trigger.
I will add more on swords and swordplay in the near future.


Tactics and Strategy

- All the skills in the world will not save you from a serious tactical error! One of my instructors had a favorite saying "What is the deadliest part of your body?... Your brain!".

I had the good fortune to be taught by some of worlds finest instructors in tactics. I think the most important thing I learned was: You cannot plan for everything, but it does not hurt to try.
Proper tactics will allow a few to accomplish much, improper tactics will cause many to accomplish little.

The best source of information on tactics and strategy is history! If you would be victoreous in battle, then study the great battles of history and the men who fought them. The weapons change but the tactics remain. Remember to study the failures as well as the victorys, you will learn more from the failures.

Though in modern warfare much of the combat is done at a distance, it still comes down to man to man in the end. Again read history and see how the tactics have changed to suit the distance at which we can kill each other.

One of the greatest tacticians of all time was a man named Sun Tzu. He wrote a master work on the subject called the Art of War. Sun Tzu lived in china about 2400 years ago but his words are mandatory reading for both the leaders of the military and corporate worlds today.


Teamwork

- In combat a bad attitude gets you killed. Your buddies are your world and teamwork keeps you all alive. A good team can accomplish what would be impossible for a group of individuals. This Rambo, one man army shit does not work in real life. Failure to hold up your end may doom the entire team. In combat you fight to stay alive and to keep your buddies alive

Command

- Command is the hardest of all. In combat there is no time for a democratic vote. One and only one must be in charge, and make the decisions for all. This does not mean that a commander does not listen to his troops, on the contrary, a good commander always listens to those under his command. BUT there is a big difference between advise and information and the actual desision. Even the "right" decision may result in some being killed. The ability to provide leadership under these circumstances is very difficult, and requires a special individual.

My "war" was Vietnam. This is not the place to relive my experences there. As to my tour and unit.. well lets just say I was a GS6 and spent a most of my time in the highlands.


= Monitored site - You will be watched here of course

(Links updated on 3/25/97)
I'm afraid I lost a lot of links. mostly in the weapons area, the sites are just gone.. So I guess will have to find some new sites... Stay tuned...


Look here to learn more about the code of the warrior.

AIR COMMAND AND STAFF COLLEGE - Leadership and Command

Go Rin No Sho The Book of Five Rings

LFOWLER'S HOME PAGE - A great page on being a warrior in the Samurai tradition.

The Celts - A brief history of the Celts

Brief Instructions Upon My Paradoxes of Defence, by George Silver - A bit of a tough read, but well worth it, an English "Sun Tzu".


Traditional weapons of the Warrior.

Traditional Japanese Swordmaking - Great Site lots of information


Martial Arts and unarmed combat.

MARS - Martial Arts Resource Site

Pyong Hwa Do Resource Page - martial art, kung fu, gung fu, karate, self defense


Intellegence - To win you must have to good information.

Central Intelligence Agency - Great info source - Remember the CIA's main job is to gather information.

CIA Operations

Declassified Satellite Photographs

kim-spy - Espionage, spies, links to a lot of DOD sites.


Masters of Tactics - To win you must have a plan.

Sun Tzu - a sampler of quotes. For more... These sites contain the complete text, but with different approaches.

Murphy's Laws of Combat - Funny, but oh so true.


This page last Updated on Feb. 16, 1996
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