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David R. Elder correspondence, April-May 1945
1945-04-23 Pvt. Dick M. Marshall to Dave Elder Page 2
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2 that someone has to go in and dig the enemy out with hand to hand fighting and Dave, that's the infantry. As a general rule the Air Corps has better living quarters and better food and clothing than the infantry. They are stationed at friendly bases and make their missions from those air bases but the Infantry has to live as close as 100 yds to the enemy sometimes. The Infantry has more than the enemy to combat, they have malaria mosquitoes, snakes, and many other such things to combat. The air corps can fly to their targets but the infantry walks to their destinations, namely Berlin and Tokio, and at the same time they have many obstacles to cross as the infantry has had to do in Germany and everywhere else they are crushing the enemy. The air corps destroys enemy communications, railways, oil refineries and other such important things, but Dave that isn't going to destroy the enemy man to man, it has to be done by some hard, bloody ground fighting and that's where the infantry comes in. They say the Navy gets the pay, the Air Corps gets the glory, and the infantry gets to do the dirty work. I can't understand why the infantry never got its share of well deserved glory. I guess most of those war correspondents never heard of the infantry until they started us on the road to victory. There are such men as the late Ernie Pyle and Gordon Gammach that have lived with the infantry and Marines and know what they go through.
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2 that someone has to go in and dig the enemy out with hand to hand fighting and Dave, that's the infantry. As a general rule the Air Corps has better living quarters and better food and clothing than the infantry. They are stationed at friendly bases and make their missions from those air bases but the Infantry has to live as close as 100 yds to the enemy sometimes. The Infantry has more than the enemy to combat, they have malaria mosquitoes, snakes, and many other such things to combat. The air corps can fly to their targets but the infantry walks to their destinations, namely Berlin and Tokio, and at the same time they have many obstacles to cross as the infantry has had to do in Germany and everywhere else they are crushing the enemy. The air corps destroys enemy communications, railways, oil refineries and other such important things, but Dave that isn't going to destroy the enemy man to man, it has to be done by some hard, bloody ground fighting and that's where the infantry comes in. They say the Navy gets the pay, the Air Corps gets the glory, and the infantry gets to do the dirty work. I can't understand why the infantry never got its share of well deserved glory. I guess most of those war correspondents never heard of the infantry until they started us on the road to victory. There are such men as the late Ernie Pyle and Gordon Gammach that have lived with the infantry and Marines and know what they go through.
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