RETRO TV: COMBAT!

Combat! premiered on the ABC television network in 1962 and lasted five seasons until 1967 for a total of about 160 episodes. The series highlights a fictional US Army squad of infantrymen led by Sergeant Saunders (Vic Morrow) in a platoon with Lieutenant Hanley (Rick Jason) as the platoon leader.

Soldiers in Saunders’s squad vary but by season 3 the squad settles down to a core of five men- Sergeant Saunders, PFC Kirby, PFC Caje, PFC Littlejohn, and “Doc” the medic. There was a PFC Nelson in the squad, but he was killed in action early in season 3 with little fanfare. Also killed in action regularly are the new additions to the squad as well as many of the guest stars for many of the episodes. The “core” squad members are often wounded or captured by the Germans, but never killed.

Lieutenant Hanley is the only officer the viewers meet on a regular basis. While in one episode the battalion commander is the centerpiece of the action, other officers are usually confined to several scenes in one episode. Early in season 1 the viewers learn that Hanley was once also a sergeant in the same platoon as Saunders and that they friendly rivals for the affections of a young and attractive Englishwoman.

Shortly after D-Day on June 6, Hanley was awarded a battlefield commission to lieutenant and platoon leader, possibly because he attended college. This is a story arc left undeveloped by the scriptwriters, much to my disappointment. Hanley and Saunders sometimes appear together and sometimes one appears without the other. During some episodes Hanley is leading the squad without Saunders. As a former Army sergeant, myself, I find this a problem.

Another problem I found was the squad patrols. The soldiers bunch up instead of spreading out, the point soldier is too close to the rest of the squad, and that the soldiers are too loud. I found myself yelling “Patrol discipline!” every time this happened fully realizing this was Hollywood and that the scene was not a page out of an Army training manual.

In addition, it may become obvious to most viewers that the series episodes are non-sequential. In one episode the date is October and the very next episode the date is August. In several episodes it is winter with snow and the very next episodes it is warm with no snow. Also, all the fighting occurs in France. This happens because the squad represents the battlespaces and experiences of many real squads of US soldiers who fought the German army in 1944. Unlike MASH, a popular “war” television series of the 1970s set in Korea but really a satire of the war in Vietnam, Combat! Is a commentary on war in general. Episode foci include-

 

·       Absurdity of war

·       War is sometimes necessary

·       Difference between killing the enemy and murdering the enemy

·       Impact of war on civilians both at home and in the war zones

·       Effective leading men into battle

·       Humanity and inhumanity of the enemy

·       Thin line between heroism and cowardness

·       Effects of PTSD

·       When orders can be ignored or even disobeyed

·       Unit cohesion keeps soldiers alive

As a teenager I remember watching the series and the only thing I remember was the “cool” Thompson submachine gun Sergeant Saunders always carried as his primary weapon, So, I am pleased that my wife and I are currently binge watching the episodes (all of them have been uploaded into YouTube) so I can catch the full drift of what the actors and writers are sharing about combat.