Janissary I.

This is coolbert:

Here is an interesting tidbit from the wiki entry on the professional soldiers of the Ottoman Empire.

The Janissaries.

"The Janissaries (derived from Ottoman Turkish: ينيچرى (yeniçeri) meaning "new soldier") comprised infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguard."

"Such Janissaries became the first Ottoman standing army"

The first standing army since the time of the Roman Empire? Perhaps so. Distinctive for the time [1400's]. The jannisaries were the BEST troops in the world for several centuries. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire was in large measure due to the fighting abilities of these elite troops.

Regular, active-duty soldiers, who:

* "The Janissaries wore uniforms"

* "were paid in cash"

* "marched to distinctive music"

* "lived in . . . barracks"

AND:

"They and served as policemen and firefighters during peacetime."

See my blog entry on how firefighting [as say on the scale of extinguishing a California wildfire] is as close as you can come to being in combat without someone actually shooting at you.

When fighting a fire, you are dealing with a dangerous enemy who is unpredictable, even wily. DANGER IS PRESENT in a way it is not in ordinary field training exercises.

The commanders of the Jannisary thought the same way I do? Good training, providing the type of stimulation NOT often found for soldiers in peacetime! Logical minds arriving at the same logical conclusions?

coolbert.