Tell a group of experienced thirty year old guys that you want them to charge across a hundred yards of flat sand toward machine guns in bunkers and your going to see a distinct lack of enthusiasm. You might inspire a 17 year old kid with tales of heroism for a noble cause but it rarely works once they are over 25. Rared still if they have any combat experience. It wasn't the grizzled veterans and grognards that came ashore that day.


There was a reason that when planning the D-day invasion of France that the vast majority of troops in the initial waves were young and had never been in combat. They had been trained to the nines and practiced until the actions were automatic. But most of the experience in the initial waves was in the senior NCOs even the officers were mostly inexperienced.

Which raises the question of how they got the senior NCOs to go. Easy, the NCOs are highly motivated to try to keep the young guys alive. They know frontal attacks are meat grinders but they also figure they can make a difference. And, cynically, they know if the kids don't carry the day they will have to. When the landing on Omaha faltered it was the NCOs who got small groups moving. Which is why the waves of inexperienced troops had been salted with more experienced ones.

Young males just aren't very good at contemplating and judging the likely outcome of their actions.

I was there when an older boy rode down a hill while standing on the seat of his bike to impress come girls. After hitting the curb and bouncing off a tree the girls noticed him. Hard to miss the ambulance and blood.

I saw what happened when a young guy lit himself on fire with barbecue lighter fluid. He figured it would look cool, impress the ladies, and go out like it does in the movies. Two weeks in the burn center, months of skin grafts, and a year of physical therapy later he was mostly back to normal.

I agree that generally the females are smarter. Smart enough to let the males think that they are.