How do soldiers in the front line of any army feel knowing they will be the first to die?

The frontline isn’t the worst place to be when the fighting starts:

In most conflicts around 90% of casualties are inflicted by artillery fire and air strikes. These two “weapons” don’t usually strike only at the frontline, but often target the “hinterland” where important logistics and command structures are located. It isn’t said for nothing that logistics decide a war.

Syrian Civil War

And while at the frontline most soldiers are somehow protected by armor (in tanks and armored personnel carriers, for example) or hide in trenches and bunkers, transport and logistics personnel are far more vulnerable:

In Iraq, during “Opertion Iraqi Freedom”, being a truck driver for the US Army was one of the most dangerous professions.

Of course, every war has its own characteristics; sometimes there isn’t even a frontline.

When I remember my time in Bosnia, I can point out three things that were far more deadly for a soldier than being on the frontline:

1. A lot of my comrades died from car accidents. Everybody there drove like crazy. Sometimes you had to floor the pedal to get away from sniper fire, but most of the time it was this “I don’t care” mentality which led people to ignore even the most basic safety rules.
2. Bar fights. Coming back from the frontline, many soldiers got immediately drunk. Then they went to the bars and night clubs in the city, their assault rifles still with them. It was therefore common practice that if you entered a bar, you would check it out first and look for a safe place to hide, in case a shooting started or somebody threw a grenade.
3. Living in cities near the frontline. A lot of people, soldiers and civilians, died or got injured by occassional artillery and rocket attacks on civilian targets. On the frontline you expect something to happen every moment and so you are prepared. In the cities however, people were more relaxed and if something happened, they were unprotected and helpless. The Serbs sometimes shelled market places on purpose. They knew there would be a lot of desperate civilians on the streets looking for something to eat for them and their families. So, all they had to do was to wait for the right time and shell the city center. These market bombings caused a lot of casualties, not only in Bosnia, but in Kosovo as well.

The frontline is a scary place to be. Still, you have a decent chance to survive: If you protect yourself well, have good leadership and some luck, you probably won't be the first person to die.

So how does it feel? Not too bad. You know what to expect and you are prepared.

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Roland Bartetzko on Quora:

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