Insanely Awesome Soldiers

Most great heroes throughout history share two characteristics; they are courageous and they are brilliant. However, it is the thin line between courage, brilliance, and sheer insanity that characterizes the most awesome heroes of all. So, in light of this fact here are my

Top 5 Most Insanely Awesome Soldiers

1. Hannibal Barca (Okay, it's your first command. You're stationed in neutral territory. What should you do first? If you answered, "Siege and burn a bunch of neutral cities, march your entire army with elephants across the Alps, and launch an all-out invasion of Rome, all completely contrary to your original orders," then you might just be Hannibal Barca. If you succeed in demolishing THE ENTIRE ROMAN ARMY several times, then you're definitely Hannibal.)

2. Leonidas (Are the politicians taking too long to decide whether to join with the other city-states against Persia? If you're King Leonidas, then the solution is clear. Take the 300 soldiers under your direct command, join up with 700 Thespian soldiers and proceed to take a stand against an army of (according to Herodotus) 1,700,000 men. And you'll also be able to hold them off FOR THREE WHOLE DAYS! During the whole process be sure to tell lots of witty jokes about how you're all going to die.)

3. Jack Churchill (If you take a claymore, longbow, and bagpipes into battle against the forces of Edward I of England, you might be William Wallace. But if you take a claymore, longbow, and bagpipes into battle against the forces of Adolf Hitler, then you can only be Jack Churchill. Bonus points if you lead your men into battle by playing bagpipes while simultaneously tossing grenades, use nothing but your claymore to capture 42 Germans and a motor squad, and escape from two POW camps by simply walking away. At the end of the war you'll probably say, "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years." Then you would probably retire from the army and become one of the world's greatest surfers.)

4. Audie Murphy (If you're a 5'5'', 110 pound guy you can't do much in battle right? Well maybe not until your best friend is shot right in front of you while surrendering. Then you might pull out your gun and kill every enemy in the machine gun nest, take their gun, and proceed to kill every Nazi in sight as well as taking out two more machine guns. Then later when you and eighteen men are up against 240 German soldiers and six tanks, you might rush out alone, jump into the turret of a burning tank destroyer, and proceed to use its .50 caliber machine gun to destroy all six tanks and mow down all the German soldiers, then leap from the tank destroyer before it explodes.)

5. Horatius Cocles (The Clusian army has routed the Romans. The Romans are fleeing for their lives on a bridge across the Tiber followed closely by the enemy. What should you, a junior officer in the army, do to stop the enemy from getting across and overrunning Rome itself? Answer: If you're Horatius Cocles, you stand at the bridge and HOLD OFF THE ENTIRE ENEMY ARMY SINGLE-HANDEDLY while your fellow soldiers retreat in panic. Then when everyone's across you shout back for the consuls to destroy the bridge, and start using dead bodies as shields as you fight. Finally, when the bridge is gone, you plunge into the Tiber River in full armor and swim to the other side where you emerge riddled with sword and spear wounds and still holding on to your weapons.)


Honorable mentions: Alvin York, Alexander the Great, Turner Ashby