The Memorial Day parade was Monday here. It came right by the place where I live. I was sitting and watching it from the window. When I saw the Cub Scouts and the Boy scouts and all of the old, fat bellied Vietnam veterans marching, all of the old sixties generation feelings started to rise. I was especially disgusted by all of the Mothers running alongside of the parade watching their sons march. Then a marching band went by, playing "Those caissons go rolling along". I felt stirrings of old feelings that I had forgotten. Pride at being a soldier, a feeling that surprised me. I was in the Infantry for a while and I remember the the feeling I had when I first heard the term "Infantry, Queen of the battlefield" and the peculiar pride in the color Infantry Blue. I did well in the Army because I had characteristics left over from school. Do what you are told, follow the rules, and don't question. If a soldier starts thinking about what he is doing or starts questioning orders, someone is going to get killed. In school, if you did everything that you were told, you would be awarded a Gold Star. I wasn't drafted, I enlisted. I enlisted because of a lifetime of John Wayne movies and books praising the courage and valor of heroes had told me what had to be done. Mothers, pay attention. Spartan Mothers told their sons "Come home with your shield or on it.". Society tells Mothers "Raise up your sons to defend the Motherland. Teach them to follow orders and never question orders. If you do this, you too will be awarded a Gold Star!". "Counter march, right about, hear those wagon soldiers shout, as those caissons go rolling along.". We have a president that has never witnessed war. Kennedy witnessed it and Harry Truman witnessed it. I remember thinking "How could anyone justify dropping an atomic bomb on human beings?". I read Truman's biography and found the answer. Truman was a captain of Artillery in the First World War. A war that saw one million men die in the battle of the Somme and another million die in the battle of Verdun. Truman , through his skill and knowledge, brought his company through that carnage without losing a single man. Estimates of the cost of invading the Japanese home islands were horrendous. When Truman authorized the dropping of the bomb, he specified that it only be dropped on military installations, not on civilians. We know how the military treated those specifications. It reminds me of how they treated the daisy cutter bomb in Vietnam. It would pulverize everything for five hundred yards and was supposed to be used only to clear landing zones. Once the generals got permission to use it, the first thing they did was to drop it on a village. Truman kept us out of a land war in Asia by the simple expedient of firing MacArthur. Mac Arthur wanted to drop A-bombs on Chinese cities. Truman had seen the devastation in Berlin and would not inflict such carnage on civilian populations. He was a man whose principles were not compromised by opinion polls. Like Putnam, he was a farmer that had seen war. I think that McCain is such a man. I think the first thing McCain will do as president is to close the Guantanamo detention center. We all know the right things to do, it is just that sometimes we allow expedience to sidetrack us. Mothers, never believe "Dulce et decorum est, pro patria morit.". The Gold Star is no compensation for an empty seat at the Thanksgiving table. "War, good God y'all, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!".Will the time ever come when we "Say it again!".
Hi, Dad - I wasn't sure if your email was working again, so I thought I'd send you a message here. We were thinking of coming down to visit on Sunday. Would that be okay?
oh, this makes me want to cry, because just this morning I was thinking"what if this war continues? can I break all the arches of their feet or prove somehow that they are homosexuals?". I read a book by the most wonderful author, Bailey White, who is I guess on NPR a lot, about reading Joan of Arc to her students, and then realizing that at the time it was written, it was intended to stimulate young men toward patriotism and fighting. And her regretting that she had instilled this in these young men. I don't care about honor, I don't care about patriotism. As ignorant as it seems, i would rather that my boys grow up to be cowardly old men and produce cowardly grandchildren that I can rock and cuddle than die with honor defending their country. Dad, your wisdom always astounds me, will there be a time, ever, where I think "I know better than him(other than the years from 13 to 17?)?"
3 comments:
The Memorial Day parade was Monday here. It came right by the place where I live. I was sitting and watching it from the window. When I saw the Cub Scouts and the Boy scouts and all of the old, fat bellied Vietnam veterans marching, all of the old sixties generation feelings started to rise. I was especially disgusted by all of the Mothers running alongside of the parade watching their sons march.
Then a marching band went by, playing "Those caissons go rolling along". I felt stirrings of old feelings that I had forgotten. Pride at being a soldier, a feeling that surprised me. I was in the Infantry for a while and I remember the the feeling I had when I first heard the term "Infantry, Queen of the battlefield" and the peculiar pride in the color Infantry Blue.
I did well in the Army because I had characteristics left over from school. Do what you are told, follow the rules, and don't question. If a soldier starts thinking about what he is doing or starts questioning orders, someone is going to get killed. In school, if you did everything that you were told, you would be awarded a Gold Star.
I wasn't drafted, I enlisted. I enlisted because of a lifetime of John Wayne movies and books praising the courage and valor of heroes had told me what had to be done.
Mothers, pay attention. Spartan Mothers told their sons "Come home with your shield or on it.". Society tells Mothers "Raise up your sons to defend the Motherland. Teach them to follow orders and never question orders. If you do this, you too will be awarded a Gold Star!".
"Counter march, right about, hear those wagon soldiers shout, as those caissons go rolling along.". We have a president that has never witnessed war. Kennedy witnessed it and Harry Truman witnessed it. I remember thinking "How could anyone justify dropping an atomic bomb on human beings?". I read Truman's biography and found the answer. Truman was a captain of Artillery in the First World War. A war that saw one million men die in the battle of the Somme and another million die in the battle of Verdun. Truman , through his skill and knowledge, brought his company through that carnage without losing a single man. Estimates of the cost of invading the Japanese home islands were horrendous. When Truman authorized the dropping of the bomb, he specified that it only be dropped on military installations, not on civilians. We know how the military treated those specifications. It reminds me of how they treated the daisy cutter bomb in Vietnam. It would pulverize everything for five hundred yards and was supposed to be used only to clear landing zones. Once the generals got permission to use it, the first thing they did was to drop it on a village.
Truman kept us out of a land war in Asia by the simple expedient of firing MacArthur. Mac Arthur wanted to drop A-bombs on Chinese cities. Truman had seen the devastation in Berlin and would not inflict such carnage on civilian populations. He was a man whose principles were not compromised by opinion polls. Like Putnam, he was a farmer that had seen war. I think that McCain is such a man. I think the first thing McCain will do as president is to close the Guantanamo detention center. We all know the right things to do, it is just that sometimes we allow expedience to sidetrack us.
Mothers, never believe "Dulce et decorum est, pro patria morit.". The Gold Star is no compensation for an empty seat at the Thanksgiving table. "War, good God y'all, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!".Will the time ever come when we "Say it again!".
Hi, Dad - I wasn't sure if your email was working again, so I thought I'd send you a message here. We were thinking of coming down to visit on Sunday. Would that be okay?
Love,
K
oh, this makes me want to cry, because just this morning I was thinking"what if this war continues? can I break all the arches of their feet or prove somehow that they are homosexuals?". I read a book by the most wonderful author, Bailey White, who is I guess on NPR a lot, about reading Joan of Arc to her students, and then realizing that at the time it was written, it was intended to stimulate young men toward patriotism and fighting. And her regretting that she had instilled this in these young men. I don't care about honor, I don't care about patriotism. As ignorant as it seems, i would rather that my boys grow up to be cowardly old men and produce cowardly grandchildren that I can rock and cuddle than die with honor defending their country. Dad, your wisdom always astounds me, will there be a time, ever, where I think "I know better than him(other than the years from 13 to 17?)?"
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