Depending on your point of view, the advance of technology can be a good or bad thing. For the 3,000 men of the Swiss army's bicycle brigade, the last combat cyclist unit of its kind in the world, technology is definitely bad because it has rendered them obsolete. A modernization of the Swiss army is beginning and the cyclists, along with a 2,800-strong horse-transport unit, are going the way of mounted cavalry and the carrier pigeon. "They're not protected enough," lamented Col. Jean-Pierre Leuenberger, a brigade commander. "Can you imagine a Swiss cyclist unit in the Gulf War?" No, but they'd be more colorful than a stupid Scud missile, at any rate.
Tradition Dies
Depending on your point of view, the advance of technology can be a good or bad thing. For the 3,000 men of the Swiss army's bicycle brigade, the last combat cyclist unit of its kind in the world, technology is definitely bad because it has rendered them obsolete. A modernization of the Swiss army is beginning and the cyclists, along with a 2,800-strong horse-transport unit, are going the way of mounted cavalry and the carrier pigeon. "They're not protected enough," lamented Col. Jean-Pierre Leuenberger, a brigade commander. "Can you imagine a Swiss cyclist unit in the Gulf War?" No, but they'd be more colorful than a stupid Scud missile, at any rate.
