Every move in a battle is studied and has a reason behind it. Nothing is random. And in wars, each Army Weapon is important, but without a doubt the Infantry plays a primary role, being the one prepared to face the enemy face to face. That is what makes it the most numerous weapon in the Spanish Army – the others are Cavalry, Artillery, Engineers and Signals. And that need to occupy “positions of risk and fatigue” is their distinction. It is also what led Colonel Álvaro Díaz to choose this weapon as his destination after leaving the General Academy of Zaragoza. For a year now he has also been the director of the Infantry Academy, which today, the day of the Immaculate Conception, celebrates its patron saint with an important agenda of events.
«The Infantry is par excellence the Weapon of maneuver, facing the enemy through the combination of fire and movement until reaching, if necessary, hand-to-hand combat. It is precisely this ability, that of confronting the adversary face to face to prevent him from occupying an area of land or expelling him from it, that gives the Infantry its essential characteristic, shock power,” he explains in conversation with EL MUNDO in the little time she has while she finalizes the preparations for this Friday’s events, in honor of her patron saint, the Immaculate Conception. Yesterday, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, visited an Infantry unit in Guadarrama (Madrid) on the eve of the celebration.
Its ability in hand-to-hand combat is so important that the rest of the weapons in the war work so that the Infantry can develop its capabilities well. So much so that the colonel assures that in all the armies of the world “the Infantry is the most numerous Weapon.”
The academy trains soldiers at the basic level, who spend two and a half of the three years required for their preparation there, as well as those at the higher level, who arrive in Toledo after spending four years in Zaragoza. The Academy has been in Toledo since 1850 and, in the current building, since 1948. Ukrainians who receive training in Spain also live there. Which only has the location in common with the Infantry weapon. There are also 97 officers and 230 non-commissioned officers (115 per course) who, in addition to technique, learn values.
«The need to operate so close to the adversary, subjected to the fire of their weapons, forces the infantryman to combine his solid technical training with a deep moral training, only in this way is he able to subdue the survival instinct and risk assaulting a trench or entering in a building occupied by the enemy. Situations that I think are easy for all of us to visualize, especially when currently, and unfortunately, they are very common in the news,” explains the colonel.
In his opinion, it is essential that students graduate with a clear need for values such as discipline, the spirit of sacrifice, camaraderie or a sense of duty. «They are essential so that in the midst of the chaos that combat entails, where one is subjected to innumerable stressors, the infant is able to control the most basic instincts that assault any human being in that type of situation and ensure that his intervention does not results in disproportionate actions.
Being the most numerous weapon, in Spain they are deployed in twelve autonomies -including the two archipelagos-, and in the two autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Students have a variety of branches within the Infantry to specialize in. Thus, within the Arma there are two large units: the heavy ones – with the Leopard battleships and the mechanized Pizarro -, and the light ones, Mountain units or the famous Parachute Brigade. This Friday all of them celebrate the one who is also the patron saint of Spain since the miracle of Empel in the Flanders wars. A day with solemn events where there is no lack of “remembrance of all those who preceded us and who made the faithful Spanish infantry the best in the world.”