The percentage of “proper†combat troops probably would vary depending on circumstance and what one considers a proper combat arms soldier (or Marine). For instance, if pre-war infantry, armor, artillery, air defense, and combat engineers are the only proper combat arms people in the Army, then there will be very few of them left in Europe in 2000. If one expands that definition to include combat support people who may have taken part in rear area security or emergency action (including MPs and combat support types attached to brigades), the number rises. If one includes all replacements who have gone through a combat arms school sent since 1997, one could have a significant number. If one includes all replacements given any sort of combat arms training sent after the Thanksgiving Day Massacre, the number grows. If one includes pre-Exchange State Guardsmen drafted in 1998 or later, the number grows. If one includes USAF and USN military police-type troops pressed into duty as riflemen, the number grows.
By late 2000, the 111th Brigade has a small cadre of pre-war combat arms soldiers who saw action in Europe, Korea, or the Middle East before the nukes started flying. However, by this time at least a third of the brigade is made up of former MI soldiers who participated in security and disaster relief missions in early 1998, fought the Mexican Army in mid-1998, and have been involved in sporadic combat with the Mexican Army and marauders throughout southern Arizona since that time. While no one granted any of these people an 11B MOS, surely at some point battlefield experience and post-Exchange training must make them the equivalent of light infantry. Granted, they aren’t the kinds of riflemen conducting raids into enemy territory in 1999, but the former MI troops are reasonably skilled at patrolling and large unit action against dug-in bandits and light conventional forces like the Mexican Army units facing them.
3rd Brigade of the Arizona State Guard (AZSTAG) has a high proportion of experienced soldiers, some of whom have experience as riflemen in Vietnam. Many of the State Guardsmen in 3rd Brigade retired to southeastern Arizona after wrangling desk positions at Huachuca in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Many of them volunteered for service in AZSTAG in 1996 and 1997 and now find themselves reserve riflemen. Not all of them are combat arms, but by 2000 all of them have more than two decades of service and at least a few months of combat time. How does one figure these people into the equation?
At the end of the day, I’d guess that the percentage of infantry in an average US Army infantry battalion in 2000 who actually hold an 11-series MOS awarded by the Infantry School and Center at Fort Benning or one of the US Army Reserve training divisions is less than half. In some cases, the number would be much less than half. In some cases, the pre-Exchange trained infantry might be five percent or less.
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