Honor And Courage

Spur on! Spur on! We love the flashing

Of blades that battle to be free.

'Tis for our sunny south they are clashing,

For household, God and liberty!

- The cavaliers Glee, Unofficial Song of the Eighth Cavalry

Fulda Gap, July 28, 1985, 09:30, West Germany

Eight hundred men stood in formation in the motor pool awaiting their battalion commander. They were split into five companies, Headquarters Company, Hellraisers, the nerve center. Alpha Company, Assault, the rock. Bravo Company, Battle, the armored spear. Charlie Company, Combat, decision on the field. FSC, Havoc, the ones who kept the whole machine working. Together the five companies made up the First Battalion of the Eighth Cavalry Regiment. Today would mark their final day in West Germany, they were turning over the responsibility of defending the Gap to the Eleventh Armored Cavalry and then they would be on a plane bound for home. However, today was more than that.

The Battalion Sergeant Major, Command Sergeant Major Howard Bishop, a shorter man standing around five foot six with thinning grey hair stood in front of the formation, facing the men.

Bishop took a deep breath before addressing the formation. "Battalion!"

The company first sergeant looked over their right shoulder and announced "Company".

After a short pause, Bishop gave the command of execution. "Atten-tion!"

In a single uniform movement, every member of the battalion snapped to attention and in as one cried the Battalion name.

"Mustangs!"

The sergeant major smiled.

"Come on, I don't think Ivan heard you. Battalion, Atten-tion!"

"MUSTANGS!"

"That's what I like to fucking hear Mustangs!" Bishop executed an about-face and stood at attention. A few seconds later he was approached by another man, an officer with light brown hair and a thin chevron mustache, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Cox.

Bishop saluted the battalion commander. "Sir the Battalion is formed."

Cox returned the salute and took Bishop's place as the Sergeant Major stepped aside.

"Alright on the command of fallout, fallout, and horseshoe around me. Fallout!" The uniformed ranks dispersed and the soldiers circled around the battalion commander. "How we doing today Mustang?"

Hundreds of cheers and hooah's were the reply the colonel received.

"Outstanding." Cox took a breath. "Today is a special day for the regiment, Today we celebrate the regiments the 119th anniversary of our founding, and if you don't mind I would like to read Y'all the history of our organization."

The Colonel reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, put on his glasses and began to read.

"On July 28, 1866, the United States Congress authorized the formation of Eighth Cavalry Regiment at Camp Reynolds California. At the time the regiment was made up of veterans of the Civil war, both Union and Confederate. Their mission was the security of the western frontier. From 1866 to 1890 the Eighth Cavalry Regiment, now nicknamed the Mustangs, fought several campaigns against the Indian tribes, the Eighth was actively engaged in Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California, Texas and New Mexico." Cox paused and studied his troopers, those in the front knelt down while those standing stood at parade rest. Everyone had their heads bowed as they listened to their heritage.

"Two years after the capture of Geronimo the Regiment advanced north and engaged the Apache in North Dakota and Montana. During the Spanish American war the regiment deployed once more this time to Cuba, the four-year mission led to a secure peace on the Island. In 1905 they sent us to the Philippines in order to subdue guerrilla forces fighting there, the Mustangs performed admirably and in 1914 returned to the United States just in time to catch Pancho Villa and his boys slipping. We had to sit out the First World War but we were in the thick of it during the Second World War. The regiment fought in the New Guinea Campaign, the Liberation of the Philippines, the Battle of Okinawa until finally, we occupied the Japanese home islands." He looked up from his papers and look at his troopers.

"Now this is where we, the Battalion, made a name for ourselves. In 1950 First Battalion, Eighth Cavalry regiment engaged North Korean forces along the Pusan perimeter, later that same year the Battalion held the line against thousands of Chinese soldiers during the battle of Unsan. The Battalion took the brunt of the Chinese attack, constantly maneuvering to block the Chinese flanking elements when the First Cavalry was ordered to retreat we made up the rear guard fighting until cut off and forced to link up with Marine forces cut off in the Chosin reservoir. When 1951 rolled around, we launched our counter-offensive and pushed the Chinese back to the 38th Parallel. During the Vietnam conflict, we were reorganized as the First Battalion, Eighth Cavalry Regiment Airborne and renamed the Jumping Mustangs. Again we proved our worth in Vietnam fighting in throughout the theater and relieving the Marines surrounded at Khe Sanh. Our role as airborne didn't last long, but the time the war was over we returned to our roots as Armored Cavalry and since then defended Korea and West Germany from communist threat." Cox folded the paper and shoved it back in his pocket.

"Our Regiment, our Battalion has made history, and we continue to do so. I do not know what the future holds for us. The threat of war hangs over us once more, mere miles away Soviet armor and infantry stand ready to strike. Y'all knew the mission, hold the line, die in place, buy time, yet every day you my tankers mounted your Abrams and rolled outside the wire knowing that any day could be your last. Yet every day, you my scouts laid in the dirt and hot sun knowing that you would be the first to witness the Soviet armor advancing on our lines. Yet every day, you my infantrymen manned the machineguns and waited for a war that may or may not come. And now our mission is complete and we responsibility now falls to the eleventh, words cannot express how proud I am of you all."

Cox went to attention and saluted his battalion. "Honor and Courage."

The battalion broke out in a series of cheers and applause. A generation of men had just completed one of the hardest tours of duty that Army had to offer at the time, and as fate would have the Battalion would once more be at the forefront of history.

So tomorrow is the 152nd anniversary of the Eighth Cavalry's founding and I just had to knock out a quick interlude in honor of my Regiment.

For those who haven't served in a Cavalry formation we're knee deep in tradition it's damn near cultish. Spur rides, stetsons, cavalry balls, the whole nine yards we love who we are and we love our traditions no matter how stupid some of them are. When I first started writing Boy's of '85 I wanted to tell a story of a generation fighting a war no one was prepared for, but now after a spending a year in a Cavalry Formation the story became more. It gives me a medium to show people who we are as an organization, Gate for a jingoistic as it is has given me the perfect world to show you who we are both in garrison and in combat.

Honor and Courage.