Prelude To Remembrance

Posted on | September 10, 2010 | 35 Comments

by Smitty

The 10th of September is a suitable day to take the readers on a heavy journey.

It’s not a cemetery, but, every time one goes into Memorial Hall at the US Naval Academy, one makes no effort whatsoever to hold back the tears. As you ascend the stairs, the words of Captain Lawrence,
emblazoned on a replica of the battle flag of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (original down Stribling Walk in the Museum) afford a standing contradiction to modern cheese-eating surrender monkeys of all stripes.
Zooming in a bit on the plaque below the flag, one reads:

One tears up even while writing this. Below the plaque, like a sort of miniature of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, is a list of fallen Alumni, arranged chronologically and grouped by conflict. Thus, in the lower right corner, one arrives at a tragically heavy end:

Three of the fourteen listed are classmates. LCDR Erik Kristensen, in particular, is of note, as he was the son of the commanding officer of my first ship.
As we remember the victims of the 9/11, let us recall that the struggle unfolds over time.
Positive statements of firmness, resolve, and commitment to principle are worth making.
The negative inputs of a Terry Jones or a Fred Phelps, not so much.
People join the military, I can say from experience, setting aside a portion of their individual liberty for a time so that the country’s liberty remain protected. The reason there is such a disproportionate (I say with no research to back me up) military Tea Party presence is that those who have served are having none of this nonsense espoused by the Left.

Category: Terrorism

Comments

35 Responses to “Prelude To Remembrance”

Joe
September 10th, 2010 @ 6:52 pm

R.I.P. and thank you.
Rob
September 10th, 2010 @ 7:21 pm

People join the military, I can say from experience, setting aside a portion of their individual liberty for a time so that the country’s liberty remain protected. The reason there is such a disproportionate (I say with no research to back me up) military Tea Party presence is that those who have served are having none of this nonsense espoused by the Left.

I hope more recruits kept that in mine instead of for just a steady paycheck.
Thomas L. Knapp
September 10th, 2010 @ 8:48 pm

“[T]hose who have served are having none of this nonsense espoused by the Left.”

Surely you know better than that, Smitty.
smitty
September 10th, 2010 @ 9:13 pm

@Kn@ppster,
Yeah, the scope of my thought was less than inclusive.
In fact, some uniformed types seem to think the military makes a good organizing model for the rest of society.
Jeff Weimer
September 10th, 2010 @ 9:13 pm

Actually, Thomas, he’s right, in the main.
Randy Rager
September 10th, 2010 @ 9:49 pm

Even when I served, majority of the enlisted folks were Republican, and the so too the officers, but with a higher percentage of Democrats among them.

Which just goes to show that you can have the brains educated right out of you.
Thomas L. Knapp
September 10th, 2010 @ 9:55 pm

Jeff,

John Kerry, US Navy, 1966-70
Al Gore, US Army, 1969-71
Jimmy Carter, US Naval Academy Class of 1946; US Navy, 1946-53
Walter Mondale, US Army, 1950-52
George McGovern, US Army Air Forces, 1943-45
Thomas Eagleton, US Navy, 1948-50
Sargent Shriver, US Navy, 1941-46
Hubert Humphrey, attempted to enlist twice in WWII, rejected on medical grounds
Lyndon Baines Johnson, US Navy, WWII
John F. Kennedy, US Navy, WWII
Adlai Stevenson, US Navy, WWI
John Sparkman, Students Army Training Corps, WWI
Harry S. Truman, Missouri National Guard, 1905-11, Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 60th Brigade, 35th Infantry Division, WWI

You were saying?
smitty
September 10th, 2010 @ 10:10 pm

@Kn@ppster
“military Tea Party presence”
Randy Rager
September 10th, 2010 @ 10:39 pm

Finding the exceptions to prove the rule you’re arguing against has got to be one of the more novel approaches I’ve yet seen.

You left out John Murtha, one of the very few ex-Marines.
Bob Belvedere
September 10th, 2010 @ 11:31 pm

Wonderfully put, Smitty.
Thomas L. Knapp
September 10th, 2010 @ 11:31 pm

Smitty,

Maybe I read you wrong.

I thought you were positing the military presence in the Tea Parties as evidence that the military rejects the left.

In point of fact, while there may be a slight statistical “right-wing” lean among military personnel and veterans, they are well-represented on the left as well.

As of a few years ago — last time I looked over US Senate bios for military histories pursuant to just this kind of discussion — a clear majority of military veterans serving in the US Senate at the time were Democrats.
Bob Belvedere
September 11th, 2010 @ 1:01 am

Thomas: You last point probably only proves that those former members of the military that are Leftists are the ones who make politics a career. I suspect that the majority of Right-leaning ones enter the Prvate Sector. If my theory is true, this would just show that these guys mirror our society as a whole.
Thomas L. Knapp
September 11th, 2010 @ 3:37 am

Bob,

Fair point.

Another fair point would be that if you were of military age for WWII and didn’t serve, there probably wasn’t much point in even trying to start a career as a politician afterward.

That certainly colored election outcomes for at least 40 years — of the seven presidents after Truman, six (Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan and Bush 41) were World War II veterans and the seventh (Carter) was a midshipman at the Naval Academy when the war ended.
Bob Belvedere
September 11th, 2010 @ 2:36 pm

Thomas: From my readings of the history of US Politics since WWII, I’d say you were spot-on.

Interestingly, just having served was enough. LBJ, Mr. Nixon, and The Raygun had very undistinguished military careers.
Thomas L. Knapp
September 11th, 2010 @ 3:47 pm

Bob,

I’m not sure what you mean by “undistinguished.”

I’m not the biggest Reagan fan in the world, but it pisses me off when people sneer that he just “put on a uniform and kept making movies.”

He joined the Army Reserve four years before the war began, when there was no earthly reason to do so except that maybe he thought he owed his country something. He enlisted as a private, and was later commissioned a lieutenant in the cavalry.

When the war started, he reported for duty, was immediately put to work on port inspections, was rejected for combat duty due to his eyesight, and yes, “put on a uniform and kept making movies” (about 400 of them) because when you’re in the army, you do what you’re fucking told to do.

I don’t fetishize military service, but neither do I think that it becomes “undistinguished” by lack of opportunity to get shot at in a direct manner.

My grandpa was in the Navy in 1944-45. He was drafted. My grandmother hated the military thereafter, but he was proud to have served.

He worked in a ship’s laundry. There are less important things one could do with one’s life than spend it giving men fresh, clean uniforms to fight, and perhaps die, in.
JoeBob
September 11th, 2010 @ 8:45 pm

I’m curious about Mr. Knapp’s statement that there “may be a slight statistical ‘right-wing’ lean among military personnel and veterans”. The polls that I recall seeing during the ’08 election indicated something like a 15-20 point difference among both active military and veterans between their support for McCain and the stats for the general population. I believe that in the polling industry the technical term for this level of difference is “ginormous”. (And that’s without normalizing the military data for the fact that African Americans are statistically overrepresented in the military vs. the general population, and had an unfortunate tendency to reflexively support Obama. If the data were adjusted to reflect the same ratios as the general population, the difference would probably have been 20-25 points in McCain’s favor)

Unless, of course, you were just using the word “slight” sarcastically, in which case, never mind.
Quote of the Day « Obi's Sister
September 11th, 2010 @ 9:03 pm

[…] 11, 2010 at 9:02 pm (America 101) Smitty of The Other McCain, on remembrance: As we remember the victims of the 9/11, let us recall that the struggle unfolds […]
Bob Belvedere
September 12th, 2010 @ 7:17 pm

Thomas: I should have chosen a better word to convey the essense of my thought. My point was that simply having put on the uniform in WWII and not being involved in battle, was enough to satisfy the requirment. I have no doubt that RR would have willingly gone to the front or have flown. Anyone who puts on the uniform deserves out gratitude. But, in the stricly neutral meaning of the word ‘undistinguished’ [oridnary, run of the mill], their service is properly described.