Jesse Allamong English 100
Due to the invention of the Tank, Calvary has been oafishly obsolete in our modern military since the 1950’s. The diesel drinking giant has brought great victory to our country, but I believe the horse would bring back an edge to the war in Afghanistan. It is not my intent to talk down the tank or the roll it has played in our past. I would just like to argue my point that in some situations Calvary would be better suited to the fight at hand. When it was in use, Calvary had given soldiers certain advantages. Some of these advantages included better mobility over very rough terrain, the ability to carry more supplies for the foot soldier and having great stealth in their movement.
When the war in Afghanistan began in 2001-2002 Special Forces found that the only option for movement in parts of the harsh and rugged land was by horse or mule. Understanding that pack animals have their unique uses, even in a time of computers, lasers, GPS and the stealth bomber, the Dept. of Defense authorized the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center to create a rigorous Animal Packers Course for all branches of the military and issued a field manual on the subject. This should be a more pressing issue because I believe it could save lives, time and money for our soldiers. This alone should have opened military eyes in Washington to the need for a mounted unit but nothing had come forth.
I’ve had my own personal experiences to add to the experience of others in which a horse could have made better. I and two other soldiers were on a sniper mission watching over the Hindu Kush mountain area of Afghanistan. We started by being air assaulted into the valley floor to avoid the enemy finding our end location of 14,000 feet up the mountains. Each one of us were carrying our weapons , flak vest, ammo belt with a full load, and an 85 pound rucksack that held our food, water, C4, radios, batteries and any other mission essentials. We were expected...