[December 15, 2013] Many military veterans are often asked about combat. With our small military, the American public has little connection to them anymore and consequently most obtain their information from movies like “Black Hawk Down.”
One question (perhaps more of a concern) is asked about military personnel left on the battlefield.
For some reason there is some unease with the American people about the topic. Usually the question is phrased as: “Is it true that there is a policy to never leave a soldier behind [on the battlefield]?”
In the movie Black Hawk Down, the majority of the Soldiers wounded and killed were in the rescue of Soldiers under enemy fire in a “hot” combat zone. This scenario is played over and over in movies with a few variations as in “Saving Private Ryan” – soldiers lives are risked to save a single person or a small number of personnel (civilian and military).
My answer goes something like the following. There is no official Department of Defense or militar policy called “No Soldier Left Behind” or any law, rule, or strategy to do so. However, it is true that military personnel aspire to never leave anyone on the battlefield.
For example, the U.S. Army Ranger creed1 reads, in part:
Surrender is not a Ranger word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances will I ever embarrass my country.
Another example, but this time of an unspoken code of the U.S. Navy SEALs2 is: “Leave no man behind.”
There is good news in the public asking the question. The fact that the American public is curious, tells us that there still is a concern for the troops, that they do care, and that they hunger for information. Veterans should make it a point to answer the question as best and honestly as they can.
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[1] U.S. Army Ranger Feature Page. http://www.army.mil/values/ranger.html
[2] NavySeals.com, SEAL Code: a Warrior Creed. http://navyseals.com/nsw/seal-code-warrior-creed/
NOTE: “No Soldier Left Behind” is a veteran community venture that promotes healing and camraderie within the veteran community. The website can be found at: https://www.causes.com/causes/601573-no-soldier-left-behind
There are several books on the topic:
Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff
Leave no Man Behind: Bill Bella and the Search for American POW/MIAs from the Vietnam War by Garnett “bill” Bell and George J. Veith
Leave No Man Behind: Liberation and Capture Missions by David C. Isby
Leave No Man Behind: The Saga of Comb at Search and Rescue by George Galdorisi and Thomas Phillips
Service: A Navy SEAL at War by Marcus Luttrell and James D. Hornfischer