Warriors In Their Own Words | First Person War Stories
Aug 13, 2026 · 55 min · 18 segments
Colonel Charles Bussey courageously flew P-51 Mustangs as a fighter pilot in World War II. His training came with the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the all black Army Air Corps unit. Bussey also went on to…
How do you think the infantry has changed? How do you think that that's different in 40 years?
Oh, well, first of all, they're integrated.
And the black soldier in the Army today probably is the only soldier in the world who's better than that Korean.
The blacks in that Army are unbelievable.
They're tough, and they're smart, they're strong, and they're well, well motivated.
I'm very happy with what's happened there.
You can't denigrate these people because they've got everything.
The equipment, is unbelievable.
You heard some talk about the tank warfare out in the Gulf there and the helicopters and the sighting mechanisms that are available for night and day make this soldier more than he ever was, more than any enemy is.
The American Army today is just indescribable.
They've got the equipment and they've got the motivation and They encourage people to earn that extra pay by being paratroopers and whatnot, and they're unbelievable.
I think it's great.
I'm very, very happy with them.
The engineers have got better equipment than they ever had before.
I just finished making a contribution to a military encyclopedia.
I did the combat engineer portion of this thing.
They've got mines, and they've got... bridging, they've got counter-mine equipment, and all this does is make your job more possible.
And the more possible your job is, the more you can put into it.
When we suspected that there were mines, we had an old thing that we went looking for, and if this thing buzzed, we thought we had a mine, and guys would take bayonets.
And when you are going to have to use a bayonet to dig up a mine, your head is right down there on top of that damn thing.
This is not conducive or it's not a morale builder, let's put it that way.
But now they've got detectors that are more sensitive and they've got mechanisms now to fire long strings of demolition out over a minefield and then detonate this thing and blow up mines.
We have tanks that have rakes in front of them to dig up mines and disperse and whatnot.
And the infantry soldier knows that those engineers are going to get those mines out of his way and in a hurry.
And he waits until the time is right and he goes.
How do you think the infantry has changed? How do you think that that's different in 40 years?
Oh, well, first of all, they're integrated.
And the black soldier in the Army today probably is the only soldier in the world who's better than that Korean.
The blacks in that Army are unbelievable.
They're tough, and they're smart, they're strong, and they're well, well motivated.
I'm very happy with what's happened there.
You can't denigrate these people because they've got everything.
The equipment, is unbelievable.
You heard some talk about the tank warfare out in the Gulf there and the helicopters and the sighting mechanisms that are available for night and day make this soldier more than he ever was, more than any enemy is.
The American Army today is just indescribable.
They've got the equipment and they've got the motivation and They encourage people to earn that extra pay by being paratroopers and whatnot, and they're unbelievable.
I think it's great.
I'm very, very happy with them.
The engineers have got better equipment than they ever had before.
I just finished making a contribution to a military encyclopedia.
I did the combat engineer portion of this thing.
They've got mines, and they've got... bridging, they've got counter-mine equipment, and all this does is make your job more possible.
And the more possible your job is, the more you can put into it.
When we suspected that there were mines, we had an old thing that we went looking for, and if this thing buzzed, we thought we had a mine, and guys would take bayonets.
And when you are going to have to use a bayonet to dig up a mine, your head is right down there on top of that damn thing.
This is not conducive or it's not a morale builder, let's put it that way.
But now they've got detectors that are more sensitive and they've got mechanisms now to fire long strings of demolition out over a minefield and then detonate this thing and blow up mines.
We have tanks that have rakes in front of them to dig up mines and disperse and whatnot.
And the infantry soldier knows that those engineers are going to get those mines out of his way and in a hurry.
And he waits until the time is right and he goes.
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