77 years ago today, a war ended. The Good War. The war that saved the world. I was going to write something today about the end of World War II and the U.S. role in saving the world by winning that war, but looking at the news just today, it’s clear we have become the country where nearly half our fellow citizens are good with believing the lies of a criminal who the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs correctly described a few years ago as “being a supporter of the ideas we fought against” in that war.
TC, I knew a few of the men who fought in WWII. My husband, Mark, was one of them. After the war, he went to Company B's reunion every year, and when I entered his life, I went, too. During the war, Mark and another soldier created a library and drove it around, so all in their company had books to read. They were the Amos & Indy Library. What was one of the most outstanding things about Signal corps, company B? -- They absolutely loved each other for as long as they lived.
"My job is putting people from our wars into the history book, so my job is also remembering them."
You well live out your vocation as you put flesh and blood onto dates, timelines, battles. You made me think today of my Dad and Uncles and friends of theirs who served in "that War". But I also thought of my mother and grandmother who were nurses. My grandmother, Nan Cavanaugh, had travelled to France as a WWI nurse but both Mom and Nan served as nurses in defense plants here at home during WWII. I am sad too that they are all gone now. But my large family does keep them alive in memory and have recorded their stories for those who are only children now.
There is interest in the youngsters. One of the greatest fans of your books is my nephew Colin who is 26!! My youngest sister Mary was companion recently to a VietNam nurse, Fay Ferrington, on an Honor Flight to DC. So, we remember the men and women who served in all kinds of capacities during war.
I was born 77 years ago at Great Lakes Naval Base so my life, as yours, has unfolded out over these years to this point of time where we find things disturbingly upside down. But, as I look over my 40 nieces and nephews and almost 50 grand nieces and nephews as well as my own 3 young grandboys I can only hope we have passed along the values of our elders to them and that they will rise to the call to "fight" for what ultimately matters.
But I sincerely hope their generations find a way beyond armed conflicts and bloodshed. Suffering, though, will persist. What I see coming are cyber, probably biological, chemical and space"wars" . Cynically, there will always be those who grow their wealth in the business of destruction. But I also think we are on the cusp of a fuller grasp of who we are as earthlings within a cosmos beyond our current imagination. That could save us but no guarantees!!!
I can only hope this will begin changing consciousness.
Thank you, TC. You always make me think and reflect beyond my usual daily thoughts.
Excellent, as always TC. I note that the war which ended 77 years ago today was also the last war that we 'won' albeit at the price of 1/2 of Europe donated to a dictator's dreams.
Your closing comment on the "worth" of fighting a war depends on the value being sought. Every war we've fought has been worth it for the defense contractors who've built empires on the profits from badly written and even more poorly overseen supply agreements and for the politicians they've bought to ensure the continued flow of the gravy train. Gen. Eisenhower foresaw a military-industrial complex being a challenge to our system of governance but I doubt that he had any idea what we'd be dealing with 60 years later. One of the most dismaying and enlightening parts of your books on the war in Vietnam is the poor performance of the weapons systems provided by the most expensive Defense Department in the world to what are supposed to be the best trained and equipped fighters in that same world. The rate at which we sacrifice the second in the interests of the first should give rise to protests that would make the 60s and 70s look like college seminars.
You are right TC about the price to be paid for service. I have lived with it every day for over 50 years, and there has not been a single day in those 50+ years that I would have chosen not to have served in the way that I did. We all make choices every day, and for that matter every minute of our lives, each of those choices has consequences and leads another series of choices that we all navigate our way through, that results in a life well lived or one to be ashamed of. I am blessed to be living well, in a spiritual sense, as a result of choices I made over 50 years ago, the price I have paid is well worth it. We all have regrets, but about my service I have none.
A change in orders one day out of Danang kept me from a tour “in country “ for which I have felt guilt ever since. No guilt for not supporting our country but not supporting the Marines on the ground. By 1971 the goal of all troops was to protect their brothers and to get home alive. Screw Westmoreland and McNamara. Semper Fi brothers and Sisters.
I think I have a perspective similar to yours, TC, although I was never on an admiral's staff. I think the one bit you left out is that if you must go to war, prosecute it to the greatest extent possible. None of this gradual increasing of severity. If there's an enemy that must be killed, damnit, get it over with. That's the most humane way to conduct an inhumane act, and it's also the cheapest in terms of casualties. Oh, and nation building is a bad idea.
Thanks TC. I will not live to see the US fight another "good war." 👍 Your writing of these memories is a reminder that wars, good or ill-thought out, shape those who participated, in whatever roles, that, in turn, shape how a country will proceed toward the ideal that inspired them or for which they fought. Our warriors command the constant drum of their experiences with way more resonance than the ideas about nation that those who only read the news may hold and with which contemporary American policies are forged. I remember my father-in-law, Reverend Maurice Powers, pointing out in one our discussions of his experiences in WWII during the height of the Viet Nam protests that war determines the destinies of men and nations. Maurice was a Chaplain with SHAEF and served on Eisenhower's staff during Normandy and through the war in France.
Thank you TC for helping us remember this anniversary. Would that we could only learn good lessons from past experiences, however awful they might have been.
Bert Hellinger developed Systemic Constellations and applied it to working with problems of old conflicts between ethnic groups like Armenians and Turks, Germans and Russians, Germans and Jews. In some of these constellations there seemed to be a dynamic that the roles of perpetrators and victims had been switched over a couple of generations. The energy of the perpetrators had passed on to the grandchildren of the victims, and vice versa. He hinted at this as maybe a "godly justice" going on within humanity by itself.
beautiful piece, Tom. but I'm not completely sure that the people in the armed forces today really are exactly the same people who fought in WWII or Korea or Vietnam. I refer, of course, to the all-volunteer military, which results in a force that isn't the same kind of American Microcosm you have when there's a draft. I've always been in favor of some kind of mandated national service, since my education through my first graduate degree didn't cost me a penny. I just wish that this national service involved a whole bunch of other things besides the military. I would have been a miserable member of ANY military branch, but I would have been a terrific Vista Volunteer. I did have one close friend who joined the Army Reserves, and got a really good little book out of his Basic Training experience. and I notice that it took me, like, two sentences to drift, for which I apologize. and I'm actually going to mount a REAL search for that video of my father telling the undropped bomb story at his crew reunion....
TC, I knew a few of the men who fought in WWII. My husband, Mark, was one of them. After the war, he went to Company B's reunion every year, and when I entered his life, I went, too. During the war, Mark and another soldier created a library and drove it around, so all in their company had books to read. They were the Amos & Indy Library. What was one of the most outstanding things about Signal corps, company B? -- They absolutely loved each other for as long as they lived.
"My job is putting people from our wars into the history book, so my job is also remembering them."
You well live out your vocation as you put flesh and blood onto dates, timelines, battles. You made me think today of my Dad and Uncles and friends of theirs who served in "that War". But I also thought of my mother and grandmother who were nurses. My grandmother, Nan Cavanaugh, had travelled to France as a WWI nurse but both Mom and Nan served as nurses in defense plants here at home during WWII. I am sad too that they are all gone now. But my large family does keep them alive in memory and have recorded their stories for those who are only children now.
There is interest in the youngsters. One of the greatest fans of your books is my nephew Colin who is 26!! My youngest sister Mary was companion recently to a VietNam nurse, Fay Ferrington, on an Honor Flight to DC. So, we remember the men and women who served in all kinds of capacities during war.
I was born 77 years ago at Great Lakes Naval Base so my life, as yours, has unfolded out over these years to this point of time where we find things disturbingly upside down. But, as I look over my 40 nieces and nephews and almost 50 grand nieces and nephews as well as my own 3 young grandboys I can only hope we have passed along the values of our elders to them and that they will rise to the call to "fight" for what ultimately matters.
But I sincerely hope their generations find a way beyond armed conflicts and bloodshed. Suffering, though, will persist. What I see coming are cyber, probably biological, chemical and space"wars" . Cynically, there will always be those who grow their wealth in the business of destruction. But I also think we are on the cusp of a fuller grasp of who we are as earthlings within a cosmos beyond our current imagination. That could save us but no guarantees!!!
I can only hope this will begin changing consciousness.
Thank you, TC. You always make me think and reflect beyond my usual daily thoughts.
Excellent, as always TC. I note that the war which ended 77 years ago today was also the last war that we 'won' albeit at the price of 1/2 of Europe donated to a dictator's dreams.
Your closing comment on the "worth" of fighting a war depends on the value being sought. Every war we've fought has been worth it for the defense contractors who've built empires on the profits from badly written and even more poorly overseen supply agreements and for the politicians they've bought to ensure the continued flow of the gravy train. Gen. Eisenhower foresaw a military-industrial complex being a challenge to our system of governance but I doubt that he had any idea what we'd be dealing with 60 years later. One of the most dismaying and enlightening parts of your books on the war in Vietnam is the poor performance of the weapons systems provided by the most expensive Defense Department in the world to what are supposed to be the best trained and equipped fighters in that same world. The rate at which we sacrifice the second in the interests of the first should give rise to protests that would make the 60s and 70s look like college seminars.
You are right TC about the price to be paid for service. I have lived with it every day for over 50 years, and there has not been a single day in those 50+ years that I would have chosen not to have served in the way that I did. We all make choices every day, and for that matter every minute of our lives, each of those choices has consequences and leads another series of choices that we all navigate our way through, that results in a life well lived or one to be ashamed of. I am blessed to be living well, in a spiritual sense, as a result of choices I made over 50 years ago, the price I have paid is well worth it. We all have regrets, but about my service I have none.
A change in orders one day out of Danang kept me from a tour “in country “ for which I have felt guilt ever since. No guilt for not supporting our country but not supporting the Marines on the ground. By 1971 the goal of all troops was to protect their brothers and to get home alive. Screw Westmoreland and McNamara. Semper Fi brothers and Sisters.
I think I have a perspective similar to yours, TC, although I was never on an admiral's staff. I think the one bit you left out is that if you must go to war, prosecute it to the greatest extent possible. None of this gradual increasing of severity. If there's an enemy that must be killed, damnit, get it over with. That's the most humane way to conduct an inhumane act, and it's also the cheapest in terms of casualties. Oh, and nation building is a bad idea.
Thanks TC. I will not live to see the US fight another "good war." 👍 Your writing of these memories is a reminder that wars, good or ill-thought out, shape those who participated, in whatever roles, that, in turn, shape how a country will proceed toward the ideal that inspired them or for which they fought. Our warriors command the constant drum of their experiences with way more resonance than the ideas about nation that those who only read the news may hold and with which contemporary American policies are forged. I remember my father-in-law, Reverend Maurice Powers, pointing out in one our discussions of his experiences in WWII during the height of the Viet Nam protests that war determines the destinies of men and nations. Maurice was a Chaplain with SHAEF and served on Eisenhower's staff during Normandy and through the war in France.
Thank you TC for helping us remember this anniversary. Would that we could only learn good lessons from past experiences, however awful they might have been.
Bert Hellinger developed Systemic Constellations and applied it to working with problems of old conflicts between ethnic groups like Armenians and Turks, Germans and Russians, Germans and Jews. In some of these constellations there seemed to be a dynamic that the roles of perpetrators and victims had been switched over a couple of generations. The energy of the perpetrators had passed on to the grandchildren of the victims, and vice versa. He hinted at this as maybe a "godly justice" going on within humanity by itself.
Thank you TC for your meticulous work.
beautiful piece, Tom. but I'm not completely sure that the people in the armed forces today really are exactly the same people who fought in WWII or Korea or Vietnam. I refer, of course, to the all-volunteer military, which results in a force that isn't the same kind of American Microcosm you have when there's a draft. I've always been in favor of some kind of mandated national service, since my education through my first graduate degree didn't cost me a penny. I just wish that this national service involved a whole bunch of other things besides the military. I would have been a miserable member of ANY military branch, but I would have been a terrific Vista Volunteer. I did have one close friend who joined the Army Reserves, and got a really good little book out of his Basic Training experience. and I notice that it took me, like, two sentences to drift, for which I apologize. and I'm actually going to mount a REAL search for that video of my father telling the undropped bomb story at his crew reunion....