An excerpt from the coming book. Enjoy.

Thanks as always to /u/FluffyClamShell

As combat arms guys, we were always talking trash about the REMFs. "Rear Echelon Mother Fuckers." Basically, that is anyone who isn’t fighting the fight. We hated them, because they weren't out in the field suffering, or at least not as bad as us. We always had the most spartan conditions. Included in REMFs were members of other services also not forward deployed. They all seemed fat and lazy to us young men who felt like hard chargers being ready to get in the shit. I talked shit about them the entire time I was in, as did everyone. Ask any vet from a line unit.

The exception was our guys. In the units I was in, our support was an organic platoon of cooks, mechanics and supply attached to our battery. So we gave them a pass, because they went where we went and took care of us. No soft duty for them.

I wrote before about how we cross trained with mechanics so we could keep our equipment up. You develop respect for those guys over time. If you are smart, you take care of all those organic support guys. They are in your battery, they are going to the fight with you, and you may (and will) damn well need them. We excuse the medics and doctors back at the rear - they are going to save our life.

That's why I took good care of them. I bought drinks when we were out. I made sure I was the kind of soldier who learned something once from the mechanics. I even pitched in on a couple of repairs on the CO's M577. I stole things for the support platoon from time to time once I was in the E4 Mafia if they needed anything. I once got drunk with the battery cooks while on KP duty at 1200 hours. I found out later that was just a thing for the. Amazing the food was always so good in the mess hall.

But those real REMFs? The ones hundreds or thousands of miles from the fight in air conditioned offices who are running our lives? Man, FUCK those mother fuckers. Worthless cocksuckers, the lot of them. Ask any GI in a line unit. They don’t fight. They don’t contribute to our fight directly, so fuck ‘em.

The thing is though, we need those REMFs, because they do contribute to our fight. As much as we despise their creature comforts and their sometimes fat and lazy nature that we couldn’t have in our ranks, we need them. They are the higher headquarters that keep things moving so our support guys can get what we need to us. It’s pretty simple. The Army is logistics. Without those REMF's, our requests for fuel, beans, bullets, and spare parts don't get filled and we are fucked. Add to that the intelligence we get (which is sometimes useful) from support. Some douche bag riding a lazy-boy in a cool, dark room in the States after eating a Whopper combo for lunch is pulling satellite data while we are in the desert baking. FUCK that guy. I hope he doesn't stress his finger with all that clicking.

But thanks, too. Now we know where the 45th is near As Salmān. Cool. Let’s go get them.

And hey, I’ll buy your REMF ass a beer when I get home. We are both service members after all. Thanks REMFs. Thanks for all the support over the years - I appreciate it.

OneLove 22ADay Slava Ukraini! Heróyam sláva!