In the military environment, there is an interesting saying attributed to Marshal G. K. Zhukov: "The army keeps on sergeants... "From myself, if possible, I would add:" And on the lieutenants." All of us officers started our professional career from this starting position. I am sure that for many people the lieutenant's impulse is memorable and dear, it was and probably has been preserved by most as the core of officer romanticism. Who will forget, it seems, the physically felt weight of the lieutenant's stars, the friendly, approving, or even admiring glances of passers-by on the street, or the feeling of a winner after completing the first independent combat task? For me and my peers, all this is in the past. Fortunately, even now someone is going through an amazing time of being a lieutenant. And we envy them, but we hope for them. Everything is ahead of them. Only the first steps are still behind us, and today's baggage includes a hundred days of lieutenant's service. So the army mechanism is arranged that the role of its supporting structures is performed by them, young lieutenants. In terms of their status and age, young officers are closest to soldiers, and the classic motto "Do as I do!" most accurately describes their lieutenant's credo. So it has always been, so it is, and so it will be. The history of the past, especially the fiery years, convincingly confirms this. Lieutenants of the Great Patriotic War were the first to stand up under the enemy's lead rain, raising their platoons to attack. They gripped the steering wheels with white-knuckled hands and made deadly rams in the sky and on the ground. Years later, through the sweltering deserts and steep mountain paths of Afghanistan, they led reconnaissance teams to destroy Dushman caravans with weapons. And then, in our days, they captured the gorges and high-rises of the Argun and Tersky ranges, cleared Chechnya of bandit filth. And today they, early graying men in lieutenant's shoulder straps, for ... Читать далее