What's the worst job in war?

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#1

The worst war jobs aren’t necessarily up the sharp end where the fighting is.

Among the jobs I don’t fancy compared wiith, say, being a gun number in battle are disinterring, transporting, or re-burying corpses or other remains from battlefield graves for proper burial; forcing displaced persons or POWs to return to their side when they and I know they’re going to be punished or killed; and stopping civilians, especially children, from getting on the last plane or chopper out of a collapsing position or country.

Which war jobs do you think are the worst?

#2

Clearing out the Thunderboxes - very much up shit creek!

#3

If the shit pit is dug deep enough it doesn’t need clearing.

Unless the cooks have suddenly started serving either or both (a) edible food (b)decent portions. :smiley:

#4

I’d say “Grave detail”, however the chance of getting killed yourself is kind of small for you “work” mostly in the rear.

#5

That’s the case with a lot of the worst jobs, but years later which memories of your work might haunt you most and even drive you into a breakdown?

A couple of brief contacts as a rifleman or months or perhaps years of grave work?

Or, for another worst job, being a medic doing triage and deciding who gets the chance to live and who doesn’t, when the workload is overwhelming?

#6

I would say the worst job (if it were me, anyways) would be the job of going to the spouse’s or children’s door and telling them their husnabnd or father died. I think the emotional turmoil the job entails would make one so depressed, having to tell a loved one of a death. I am not sure if it was a priest or clergyman who did this but the job must have been hell and require a person with a stong skin.

#7

Good point.

I read somewhere once a memoir by a WWII telegram boy here who had to deliver the telegrams from the service authorities.

He, like most telegram boys then and even in my youth, was about thirteen or fourteen years old and not at all equipped to deal with the reactions his telegrams caused.

He soon got to hate delivering them and it still caused him a lot of distress several decades after the war.

#8

Semi-permanent or longish-term camps require semi-permanent latrines, otherwise we all become shit-miners. :slight_smile: :army:

#9

In the UK, perhaps.

Down here, even in the most remote areas, where longish disposal of poo-like substances is required we create a septic tank. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septic_tank

The Wiki entry adequately describes our usage, apart from this statement: The term “septic” refers to the anaerobic bacterial environment that develops in the tank and which decomposes or mineralizes the waste discharged into the tank.

Here, ‘Septic’ refers to the anaerobic bacterial environment that develops when large numbers of Yanks arrive and are discharged into the host community, for which there is no effective antidote. :smiley:

In rhyming slang ‘septic’ = ‘septic tank’ stands for ‘Yank’. Thus a Yank may be referred to as a Septic. This causes them to rush off to our underfunded and understaffed hospitals in the belief that they need treatment for a septic problem. Which only adds to our mirth at their discomfiture. :smiley:

As for shit miners, what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is also yours. :smiley:

#10

Nah, I was referring to defensive positions.

My own experinces were in the far East And Near East. But there were lots of exmples on the Western Front where latrines consisted of Thunderboxes which were emptied on a regular basis. Sometime they were emptied by enemy shells. :slight_smile:

#11

I am not sure whether I would produce more shit on the active defensive or offensive. :wink:

I can guarantee that in either case my fearful shit, not to mention anticipatory blurty wettish farts, would be stunningly offensive to the point of blunting an enemy attack if they got anywhere near my lines. :smiley:

#12

Sounds like bullshit to me :lol:

Seriously, though. Some fire bases and the like where based on very rocky terrain and the only way to get the stuff out was to fly t out.

Now there’s a thought to play with. :slight_smile:

106mm Howitzer:

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rafdaybyday.com/portals/_default/Skins/Raf/images/big/Image1.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.rafdaybyday.com/&usg=__KRAMFo_yYYfPmyPcPTfGZilAeUg=&h=167&w=123&sz=16&hl=en&start=22&um=1&tbnid=QnzgWZZode9AoM:&tbnh=99&tbnw=73&prev=/images%3Fq%3Draf%2Boperations%2Bradfan%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://koyli.com/stanaden/RadfanBellHeli.jpg&imgrefurl=http://koyli.com/aden.htm&h=369&w=600&sz=30&tbnid=0_3tWlabDhAJ::&tbnh=83&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dimages%2Bof%2Bbritish%2Bforces%2Bradfan&hl=en&usg=__1QXjzTWxWKa046bV9oDLpFi5B08=&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=2&ct=image&cd=1

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00291/hosford2_385x185_291822a.jpg

#13

The poor guy who has to write the letters, or knock on the door…

#14

Ya, I said that already…glad to see we think alike on at least one subject:)

#15

I think being someone who is just an orderly in the medic tent and doesn’t have the opportunity to actually help fix wounds, but is there only to console, clean bed pans, dress wounds, etc… Also, a Chaplin during war would be a very difficult job I think.

#16

Maybe not the worst jobs, but high on my list:

Combat engineers, who had to construct something in heavy fire in front of the frontline, before the “brave” troops emerge from their secure shelters to attack (into the headlines).

Long-range commandos/etc, who in certain conditions have to kill more of their own comrades than enemy soldiers during a mission. If somebody in your group is injured so that he cannot move, you have to shoot him, because it’s impossible to carry him along without slowing down too much, while leaving injured man behind jeopardizes the whole mission (he will most likely crack under the interrogation). Standard practise: shoot the injured man and report that he got killed by an enemy shot into the head.

_

#17

kamikaze for me.Do I need to explain why?

#18

I wouldn’t agree with that.

Kamikaze were committed to their cause and knew what they were doing, and were proud to do it. While it might be incomprehensible to Western minds, it was a fine and noble thing in their culture and military tradition.

Death isn’t necessarily the worst thing that can happen to someone. The pain of living and carrying the burdens of the past can be worse. That death isn’t always so bad is illustrated by people who can’t bear the pain of living stopping it by killing themselves. As have a disproportionately large number of veterans of wars since WWI, and perhaps earlier.

#19

To offer a more serious answer to the question than my previous responses: it really depends on the individual.

Some people will remain unaffected by what might seem to others as being vile or outrageous.

In the same way as people have certain phobias which others are completely at ease with I would suggest that the same applies to which is the worse job in war - It’s a matter of individual perspective.

What the question serves to do, here, is to demonstrate that war is neither glorious nor glamorous.

#20

Excellent points there.But this is my personal opinion as a European citizen.You always hope to come back,don’t you?
Well I would.Wonder if the German pilots onboard the Me 328 would have had the same state of mind than Japanese suicide pilots.
For sure ,Taran Soviet pilots would ram German planes but always hoped they would be able to bale out to fight another day.