How do soldiers feel about commanders who send them to high-casualty missions while the commanders themselves are safely ensconced in the base?

 The highest rank that I’ve ever encountered on the battlefield was a captain and that was perfectly fine with me. Only on one occasion, I saw my brigade commander in the combat zone and I remember that I said to myself: “WTF is he doing here?”

It is often said that commanders should lead their troops into combat from the front, but in reality, military commanders on the battlefield are a liability.

Battalion or brigade commanders, due to their age and the time spent on military academies, often lack the physical fitness and the instincts to look after themselves. Their basic training happened years ago and they have long forgotten even the most basic infantry skills. Very few of them are interested in keeping themselves “sharp”, but even if they do, they are a distraction.

I remember a moment during the war in Kosovo when we were in a position inside a house, fighting against the approaching enemy when all of a sudden an older soldier entered our position. He said in an authoritative voice:

“I am commander XX and with the order from the brigade, I am in charge of this unit.”

The same time he spoke his words he was nervously eying out of the window as if he was afraid that the enemy would sneak up on us.

We were five guys in the room and we all looked at each other with amusement. Then one of my friends addressed the officer and told him to fuck off.

This guy was out of the door quicker than one might have guessed and we all started laughing. I think he was quite happy that he could go back to his headquarters and continue to give us his orders over the radio.

We were a guerrilla army and we simply had no time to waste with babysitting higher-ranking officers. However, if you are in a regular army, you often have no choice.

To be fair, I’ve never encountered a military leader who ordered us to go on a dangerous mission and who did not tell us to be very careful. They always left the initiative to the troops on the ground, to decide what is the best thing to do and when it’s time to withdraw.

In the military everyone has an assigned place: The commander commands and the soldier fights it out. There is really no point for a high ranking officer to risk his life on a dangerous mission. There aren’t that many qualified officers around anyway and it’s not easy to replace them.