THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS: PARALLELS IN HISTORY

The Cuban Missile Crisis: Parallels in History
Oct 20, 2003


Summary

The Cuban missile crisis under President John F. Kennedy holds some apt parallels to the challenges currently facing U.S. President George W. Bush.

Analysis

October always reminds us of the Cuban missile crisis. This is the 41st autumn since the defining moment that ended the first phase of the Cold War. In 2003, the memory of the missile crisis is, we believe, particularly apropos. Americans in general tend to think that everything the country is facing at a particular moment is unprecedented. Americans tend to think in extremes. Everything is either worse or better than ever before. Leaders are more corrupt, more perfect, more brilliant or more stupid than they have ever been. Americans lack nothing more than a sense of proportion. It is therefore interesting to look at what historian Barbara Tuchman called a distant mirror to compare the current situation with circumstances the United States faced in the past. This is not intended to either praise or condemn the current administration or the Kennedy administration. It is meant simply to gain some perspective on the current state of affairs.

The Cuban missile crisis started in a series of intelligence blunders that began under one administration and continued into the next. U.S. intelligence under Dwight
Eisenhower misunderstood the nature of Fidel Castro's insurgency and miscalculated the likelihood of his victory. Eisenhower responded by initiating a covert war against Castro that suffered from Eisenhower's desire that it not only work, but that the war be completely deniable.

The result was the Bay of Pigs plan, which had little chance of working in the first place and no chance of working once U.S. President John F. Kennedy tinkered with it. The entire plan was based on a misreading of the mood of the Cuban people. It was based on the assumption that Cubans would welcome an invasion and that, in addition, they would be in a position to rise up against Castro. Whatever the true reason for the failure of the Cubans to rise, U.S. intelligence was wrong: There was no rising.

Intelligence under Kennedy also miscalculated the Soviet Union's intentions toward Cuba. That was an intelligence failure, but it was also a failure on Kennedy's part to appreciate how Soviet leaders viewed him. Kennedy came to power in part over his persistent claim that the Soviets were ahead of the United States in strategic nuclear capability -- what was called the missile gap. In fact, the strategic balance heavily favored the United States, and Kennedy knew it. He hammered the issue because it was a strong plank in his electoral platform.

From Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's point of view, however, the victory of a man who did not seem to grasp the realities of the nuclear balance opened up interesting possibilities. Khrushchev's meeting with Kennedy in Vienna left him with the conclusion that Kennedy was inexperienced, poorly informed and timid. The Bay of Pigs fiasco simply confirmed to Khrushchev that Kennedy was out of his league. Indeed, years of hagiography notwithstanding, Kennedy had little grasp of the international reality when he took office or in the following year.

Khrushchev understood what he thought Kennedy did not, which was that the United States, with missiles in Germany and Turkey and a large intercontinental bomber fleet, could devastate the Soviet Union. The Soviets, on the other hand, could hardly touch the United States. Khrushchev's decision to put missiles into Cuba was a desperate attempt to rectify the balance of power. He assumed, based on Kennedy's abysmal performance to date, that U.S. intelligence might miss the missiles until after they were operational and that, even if they were detected, Kennedy would not have the nerve to take decisive action.

Three things led to the Cuban missile crisis:

1. Consistently poor U.S. intelligence.

2. A prior administration that failed to react to the threat in a timely fashion and in essence passed on the Cuban problem to its successor.

3. A new administration whose president struck his adversaries -- and allies -- as a deer frozen in the headlights.

We will allow our readers to draw the obvious parallels to the current situation.
In spite of these defects, Kennedy recognized that the Soviet move represented a fundamental challenge to U.S. security. He understood that it was much preferable, from the U.S. point of view, for American nuclear weapons to be menacing the Soviet Union rather than have Soviet missiles threatening the United States. While ethically shaky -- if we assume that the basis of ethics is equal treatment -- the view was practically sound for an American president. Thus, in spite of global criticism that he was threatening nuclear war, Kennedy understood that geopolitically he had no choice.
It is interesting to recall that Kennedy -- caught between those who wanted an invasion of Cuba and those who wanted to take no action that might trigger a nuclear war -- chose a compromise path in which the United States announced its commitment through a quarantine policy, without unleashing an invasion. It is also interesting to note that there was a tremendous global uproar over Kennedy's actions. Many allied governments, while publicly supportive, were privately appalled by what they saw as an overreaction. Crowds in European cities -- not to mention the communist world -- demonstrated against U.S. aggression and portrayed Kennedy as a simplistic cowboy, irresponsibly playing with the lives of millions.

Khrushchev's perception was quite different. Realizing that he had miscalculated, he sought a line of retreat. Khrushchev realized too late that however unsophisticated Kennedy might have appeared in Vienna and Berlin and during the Cuban missile crisis, there was no escaping the physical threat that Soviet missiles in Cuba posed to the United States. The physical danger to the United States, more than any other factor, focused Kennedy's mind. Kennedy knew that there was room for error on everything but the physical security of the country. He understood that, geopolitics aside, Khrushchev had crossed a threshold when he introduced the threat, and crossing that threshold changed the entire equation. That Europeans thought him a cowboy was immaterial once the direct security of the United States was at stake.

Kennedy's actions were seen as extreme and disproportionate to the threat. He struck many in the world as reckless and incautious. Countries worldwide pointed at the nuclear threat the United States posed to the Soviet Union and argued that the Soviets were simply balancing things. Kennedy didn't want the threat to be balanced. He wanted the Soviets to remain at risk and the Americans to be safe. As he famously said in connection to other matters, "Life is unfair." It wasn't great philosophy, but it made sense to Americans.

The United States threatened overwhelming force but actually used very little. In the end, Kennedy negotiated a settlement with Khrushchev and then lied about it. In a private deal with the Soviets, the United States agreed to exchange its missiles in Turkey for the Soviet missiles in Cuba. Kennedy's rationale for this was sound. The missiles were obsolete. However, he also understood that -- given his record of weakness in foreign affairs -- he needed to appear to win even if he only tied.

Therefore, holding open the possibility of invasion and even nuclear war as the threat, he extracted a concession from the Soviets that made the withdrawal of the Turkish missiles a secret part of the agreement, which would be void if it were publicly revealed.

In other words, Kennedy lied about the letter and nature of the agreement. He lied explicitly when he asserted that there had been no quid pro quo over the missiles. He then lied in spirit when he made it appear that the Soviets had capitulated in the face of his resolute courage. In fact, there had been a quid pro quo and -- though the United States certainly came out ahead in the immediate deal -- Washington had to give up its own missiles and guarantee that it would not support attempts to overthrow Castro. The United States stopped the missiles. The Soviets secured Cuban communism.

It is interesting to see these parallels:

1. Both Kennedy and current U.S. President George W. Bush were widely perceived as inexperienced in foreign affairs. Their foes perceived them both as bunglers.

2. Both focused intensely on anything that physically threatened the United States.

3. The rest of the world regarded both presidents as overreacting and as cowboys, risking world security on minor provocation.

4. Both were casual with the truth when it suited the national -- or their political -- interests.

It is not clear how much deeper these parallels run.

Kennedy's missile crisis ended in a temporary stalemate. It also triggered a massive Soviet commitment to increase its strategic nuclear capabilities and led to the construction of a massive ICBM force able to threaten the United States from within the Soviet Union. By the end of the decade, the Soviets achieved the strategic nuclear parity they had sought in Cuba. In that sense, Kennedy simply bought a few years -- which was not trivial, but not decisive.

However, Kennedy's next decision -- to increase the U.S. commitment to Vietnam while supporting the overthrow of the Diem government -- proved disastrous. Some claim that Kennedy wanted to withdraw from Vietnam. Perhaps, but we note two facts. No withdrawal took place while he was alive and, more important, it was Kennedy's foreign policy team (including Dean Rusk, Robert McNamara and McGeorge Bundy) who engineered the Vietnam War under former President Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy could have fired them all and built a new team, but we suspect he also would have retained them and followed their advice. They were the winning team in Cuba, after all.

At the decisive moment, Kennedy set the stage for the decline in the second phase of the Cold War. Cuba represented a push. It was a punctuation mark, not a definitive solution to anything. On the contrary, it was an intermediate peak to which the United States would not return until the end of the Cold War. Bush has not yet had his Cuban missile crisis. He has not yet been able to maneuver the war to its decisive moment. He is facing an adversary that is committed to avoiding any decisive moment.

However, the danger that a Cuban missile crisis poses is that of an illusory solution.
All of that is intended to be thoughtful and deep. The point of this essay is simpler however. Americans tend to think of each moment as extraordinarily unique and the present leaders as particularly incompetent. Those who opposed President Bill Clinton thought he was particularly venal, and those who oppose Bush think him uniquely incompetent. It is useful to look back on moments like the Cuban missile crisis, which we tend to see through the prism of time as a particular moment of U.S. courage and decisiveness. Like the current circumstance, it was a moment born of failure, ineptitude and dishonesty, and it ultimately gave rise to the things it was intended to prevent. The president that presided over the crisis is revered today. There are few who were alive in September 1962 who would have thought that Kennedy would be remembered for his strategic acumen. And there are many historians who still wonder what the shouting was about.

Bush's critics should take note of this. And Bush should remember that the kind of victory he gains -- if he gains one at all -- is as important as the victory itself.


Copyright 2003 Strategic Forecasting LLC. All rights reserved.


~~~~~
This is...
Gunny G's Marines
GLOBE and ANCHOR Sites & Forums
By R.W. "Dick" Gaines
GySgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-72
~~~~~

THE "OLD ONES"

Nothing Sweeter
Reflections on Veterans Day, 2002

By Mackubin Thomas Owens

Posted November 11, 2002
Print version
-----

Master Gunnery Sergeant Rogers was one of the most remarkable Marines with whom I ever had the honor to serve. He was a "Montford Point Marine," named after the base in North Carolina where African-Americans who enlisted during World War II and served in all-black units in the segregated Marine Corps of the era, mostly in combat service support jobs, were trained. One of his first assignments was to help transport the bodies of dead Marines back across the beaches of Okinawa during the ferocious battle for that island in 1945. As distasteful as his early experiences may have been, he persevered, the Marines were the first service to integrate in the early 1950s, and Master Gunny Rogers had a long and distinguished career in the Marine Corps, lasting well into the 1970s.

If Master Gunny Rogers was bitter about his early years in the Corps, he never said so. What he did say is pertinent to the observation of Veterans Day: "There is nothing sweeter than to be an old man who has fought for his country." Indeed, the original Latin meaning of "veteran" is the "old ones," the old soldier of long service. One thinks of the old Roman legionnaires, or Napoleon's Old Guard.

In the United States Veterans Day honors all who served — not just the long-term soldiers, but the two-year draftees of the Cold War era, not just those who died in wartime (Memorial Day), but those who served in peacetime or who fought and survived, not just the minority of servicemen who saw combat, but the vast majority of the armed forces who provided them with the support necessary for them to succeed.

Today when we think of veterans, we often have in mind the "greatest generation," the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who fought World War II and who now are passing rapidly from the scene. Their story has been told by historians like the late Stephen Ambrose and in innumerable films, from Guadalcanal Diary to Saving Private Ryan. They have, especially in recent times, been the object of particular affection.

Those who fought in Vietnam have not fared as well. This is largely because those who shape popular culture today are often those who avoided service in Vietnam, and transferred their loathing for the Vietnam War to those who fought it.

According to the conventional wisdom passed down from the anti-war left of the '60s and '70s and absorbed by the shapers of the popular culture, the Vietnam War was uniquely unjust and brutalized those who fought it. At first vilified by the anti-war left as a war criminal and a baby-killer, the Vietnam veteran soon evolved into a victim — victimized first by his country, which made him poor and then sent him off to fight an unjust war, then victimized by a military that dehumanized him and turned him into a killer.

James Webb, the best-selling novelist who was awarded a Navy Cross for valor in Vietnam as a Marine infantry officer and who served as Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration, has pointed out that the largely negative view of the Vietnam veteran comes from the same Baby Boomers who are big boosters of the "greatest generation." The irony is that those who fought in Vietnam did so because they looked to the World War II generation as, in Webb's words, "their heroes and role models. They honored their fathers' service by emulating it, and they largely agreed with their fathers' wisdom in attempting to stop Communism's reach in Southeast Asia."

As Mr. Webb points out, those who came of age during the Vietnam War differed from their parents in that they were not members of a unified generation but merely an age group. Despite the fact that nothing divided this age group more than the war, the media and the academy anointed those who opposed the war as spokesmen for the Baby-Boomers as a whole. But they never spoke for all. As Webb notes, "The sizeable portion of the Vietnam age group who declined to support the counter-culture agenda, and especially the men and women who opted to serve in the military during the Vietnam War, are quite different from their peers who for decades have claimed to speak for them."

The point of course is not to denigrate the unparalleled accomplishments of those who fought and won World War II. It is to remind Americans that Veterans Day is inclusive. It ought to honor all veterans. The fact remains that while different people join the service for different reasons, all are equally subject to long, arduous, and often hazardous duty.

American veterans would do well to remember the Saint Crispin's Day speech of Shakespeare's Henry V.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

And they should remember the timeless wisdom of Master Gunnery Sergeant Rogers.

Go to:
http://www.claremont.org/writings/021111owens.html
http://www.claremont.org/writings/021111owens.html

* Owens on Veterans' Day, from Precepts

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LONG AFTER FADING AWAY, A FORGOTTEN MARINE REEMERGES


Author(s): Benjamin Gedan,
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
Date: May 11, 2003
Page: 13 Section:
City Weekly

Omitted from the bronze Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington, uncelebrated in World War II history texts, and long unrecognized in his hometown, former US Marine Sergeant Henry O. Hansen will be memorialized this summer with the construction of a public garden, 58 years after he helped raise the first American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945.

A triangular vacant lot on Medford Street outside Somerville's Magoun Square will house a community garden, monument, and seating area to honor the unsung veteran, marking the end of eight years of sporadic lobbying. Hansen, who later died in the fighting, is the only original flag-raiser without a memorial in his hometown, city officials said.

"They never got recognition," James G. O'Connor, director of Somerville's Veterans' Services Department, said last week. "It's been overlooked."

Planning for the park is in the earliest stages, though further along than fund-raising for the $100,000 project.

The city's Conservation Commission has not yet designed the monument, received private donations, or identified possible grant funds.

City officials have pledged no public money to the project, and plans to post a temporary sign describing the initiative have been delayed, said Anne Phelps, Conservation Commission director.

A $10,000 pledge from CVS, however, has given organizers a renewed sense of mission, providing the "driving force" behind the long-promised memorial, said Michael Fager, who is coordinating the project for the Conservation Commission.

The funds will not be donated until a new CVS store opens in the fall, said Gerald Cohen, president of SF Properties Inc., which helped negotiate the gift as part of a CVS development project in Magoun Square.

Despite the slow start and sour economy, however, organizers said they were optimistic about the prospects for additional fund-raising.

The war in Iraq could spark renewed appreciation for veterans of World War II, Fager said, adding that local World War II veterans and their relatives need no reminder of soldiers' sacrifices in the European and Pacific campaigns.

"This particular event was, for the history of World War II, so important. People don't want to forget," he said of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. "We have just finished a war, and we are reflecting on what it means."

On Feb. 23, 1945, after intense fighting, Marines from Company E, 2d Battalion reached the summit of Mount Suribachi.

Under fire, six Marines, including Hansen, secured a small American flag to a 20-foot section of Japanese iron pipe and hoisted the Stars and Stripes, according to documents in the Marine Corps University Research Archives and the Naval Historical Center.

When resistance ceased, five other Marines replaced the original flag with a larger one, and the event was immortalized in a photograph by Joe Rosenthal, which served as the model for the Washington, D.C., monument.

The second flag-raisers achieved instant hero status, and have been celebrated on websites and in countless photographic reproductions of the event.

As Somerville officials outline plans to open the city's seventh public garden, with a wrought iron fence, irrigation pipes, and perennials, officials said the time to honor the local, original flag-raiser has finally arrived.

"If you say `the flag-raising,' you see the huge monument in Washington of the second flag-raising," O'Connor said, lamenting the lack of a city memorial. "Hopefully, something will happen."

Benjamin Gedan can be reached at gedan@globe.com.

Note:
See also...
Addendum from Free Republic

POOR SOLDIER RICHLY REMEMBERED

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Poor soldier richly remembered

By MONIFA THOMAS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Related:
� Photos from the funeral

Sixty years after surviving the mud and blood of Guadalcanal, Sgt. Robert Cochran died a nearly forgotten solider.

The World War II veteran, alone and poor, was living in a state-funded nursing home in Marietta. Since his death April 5, he lay unmourned and unclaimed in the Cobb County morgue, awaiting a pauper's burial.

Dell Whitaker, who met Cochran last year while visiting the nursing home, could not let the passing of a decorated member of "The Greatest Generation" be treated with so little respect.

On Wednesday, as bagpipes keened and rifle fire cracked the air, people who had never met the former Marine in life came to Mountain View cemetery in Marietta to honor him.

As the plaintive notes of taps sounded from a trumpet, several people, including a young boy in a Cub Scout uniform, snapped to attention and saluted the flag-draped coffin.

"The story just touched my heart, and I wanted to give this man honor for his service," said Tony Perez, who didn't know Cochran but has a son who is a Marine pilot recently returned from the war in Iraq.

Cochran served in the 3rd Marine Division during World War II, fighting in several skirmishes.

A Cobb County resident since 1950, he was a car salesman at Tidwell Ford before his retirement.

Shortly after his wife of 16 years, Barbara, died in 2000, Cochran moved into the Marietta Rehabilitation Center.

That's where Whitaker met him. She says she basically wandered into the center last Christmas, looking for a good deed to do.

"Last Christmas, instead of exchanging presents, I decided to do something for the veterans," said Whitaker, who works for the Cobb County government. "I called DFACS, and they told me about Mr. Cochran."

She started visiting Cochran regularly, and the two became friends. "He was very sweet and all Marine," Whitaker recalled. "I used to bring him books about WWII, and he enjoyed that."

After Cochran died and his body went unclaimed, Whitaker went into action.

"I stayed on the phone for about three days with the Marine Corps," she said. "I asked if it was possible to get Mr. Cochran a military burial, and they just bent over backwards. They were wonderful."

Meanwhile, Cliff Hicks, a friend and former co-worker of Cochran's, tried to contact his son, who lives in Illinois.

"After three or four days of calling him after his father died, he told me that he had given the county permission to cremate the body," Hicks said.

"But I knew that wasn't what he wanted."

So Hicks contacted Cochran's stepdaughter, Lorena Elsey, who lives in Marietta, and the two of them got the son's permission to have a military funeral for Cochran. People who knew Cochran said Wednesday's ceremony was exactly how it should have been.

"Bob was very military minded, and his life revolved around the Marines," said Hicks, who had helped take care of him for the last 18 years. "I sort of adopted Bob and his wife in the late 1980s. Both of them had poor health. . . . When she passed, I continued to take care of Bob after he moved from his apartment to the rehabilitation center.

"I know this is what he wanted," Hicks said of the military funeral.

As the echoes of the 21-gun salute faded, Marines folded the American flag from the coffin and handed it to Cochran's stepdaughter.

The small knot of people began dispersing, Whitaker among them.

"These vets deserve everything," she said. "They have made supreme sacrifices for this country."



Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/cobb/0603/05funeral.html

MARINE RECALLED AS A GUARDIAN ANGEL

July 12, 2003
Marine Recalled as a Guardian Angel

By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer

ABOARD THE USS TARAWA — In the 3 1/2 months since he died in Iraq, Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez has become a symbol for pundits and the press. The Guatemalan native came to represent thousands of soldiers, sailors and Marines from other lands, fighting their way to citizenship through the U.S. military.

His fellow Marines with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit steamed home this week, however, remembering Gutierrez as a buddy, a can-do Marine and a guardian angel who they believed watched over the rest of their mission. They also recalled in detail how a bullet from one of their own killed the 28-year-old they called "Gutti" on the first day of the war.

"God must have needed him for a good reason, because he was a good person and there is no other reason for him to go so soon," said Lance Cpl. Dominic Masters, 20, of St. Louis, one of 2,000 Marines set to return today and Sunday to Camp Pendleton to a cheering, flag-waving crowd of family members and other well-wishers.

Gutierrez, a rifleman in Echo Company, was killed March 21, hours after Marines stormed into Iraq to secure the port city of Umm al Qasr. As Marines who knew Gutierrez and fought beside him recalled this week, it was a day of fear and confusion.

The Iraqi army was fighting back more vigorously than the Marines had expected. Paramilitary fighters, most dressed in civilian clothing, were firing on Marines from ambush, sometimes using civilians as shields. For the Marines, it was difficult to tell friend from enemy.

The Iraqi strategy of asymmetrical warfare that became common as U.S. forces swept toward Baghdad was being displayed in the streets of Umm al Qasr, a city of strategic importance near the Kuwaiti border and a United Nations outpost.

"We were the first [U.S. forces] to see, 'Hey, they're not doing what we anticipated,' " said Col. Thomas Waldhauser, commanding officer of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Gutierrez was the unit's only fatality during the war.

Marines from Echo Company were ordered to search dozens of buildings spread over a wide area to make sure they were not being used by Iraqi troops or paramilitary snipers. As artillery hit targets throughout the city and helicopters buzzed overhead, Marines spread out rapidly to conduct a search building by building.

Sgt. Richard Cornell, Gutierrez's squad leader, remembers Gutierrez's calm mood changing quickly as he and other Marines reached the sprawling city in their heavily armed vehicles.

"He was very quiet, not a sound, as a matter of fact. He was so calm, it looked like he was asleep," said Cornell, 22, of Mission Viejo. "But when we first touched ground his eyes opened wide with enthusiasm as to what was going on, and fear as to what was to come."

As Marines fanned out to search the buildings, Gutierrez became separated from other members of his squad, a common occurrence.

He had been trained to operate independently if necessary, to take the initiative even when he was separated from his officers.

Gutierrez had just searched a building and found it empty: no snipers, no Iraqi soldiers and no weapons caches. He left quickly to make his way to the next building. Speed was important.

From 400 meters away, he was seen by another Marine and mistaken for a possible enemy. Gutierrez carried an AT-4, a shoulder-launched, anti-tank weapon on his back.

The Marine who saw him thought it looked like a rocket-propelled grenade launcher like those being used by Iraqis to fire on Marine vehicles and helicopters.

The Marine fired a warning shot to tell Gutierrez to stop. Gutierrez, dressed in a forest-green camouflage uniform, continued to advance. The Marine fired a burst from his M-16, and Gutierrez fell dead.

Within hours, the Marines realized the awful truth: They had killed one of their own.

"It brought the seriousness of the war home to us in a very personal way," said Capt. Pete McAleer, 30, of San Diego. "We had a lot of missions to accomplish within the first few hours and days. There really wasn't much time to dwell on it. [But] during the quiet times, he was never far from our thoughts."

McAleer added, "The rest of the Marines felt as though he was still with us, watching."

Waldhauser, who also commanded combat troops in Afghanistan, later wrote a letter of regret to Gutierrez's sister. Waldhauser said the death was a friendly fire incident. But he opted not to put in the grisly details.

"If she keeps the letter five or 10 years," he said, "I don't want her to have to see those details every time she opens it."

Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit — returning on this amphibious assault ship and two smaller vessels, the Rushmore and the Duluth — have invited Gutierrez's family from Southern California to Camp Pendleton for a parade and change-of-command ceremony. "He's part of our family and so is his family," Cornell said. "Many of the Marines will remain in contact with those who cared about him outside the Marine Corps."

Among his fellow Marines, Gutierrez was known for his artistry and his helpfulness. He kept a scrapbook of his work and helped draw a birthday card for a friend's mother. He was so good at fixing things he was nicknamed "MacGyver," after the TV show with the handy hero.

"He was quick with a smile and always seemed to be in high spirits," said Staff Sgt. Isaul Montez, 28, of Midland, Texas. "There's a strong belief within the entire platoon that 'Gutti' is the reason we made it back. He was the angel that looked out for us."

McAleer said Gutierrez "was one of those quiet men who let his actions speak louder than his words His face [will be] burned into my memory for a long time to come."

Lance Cpl. Brad Shuder, 21, of El Dorado Hills said he would always remember the night before the war began, the anxious hours as Marines waited in Kuwait to cross the line of departure into combat.

Their nervousness had taken the talkativeness out of the normally gabby Marines. "It was dark and the stars were out and we were all looking for that last smoke," Shuder said.

"I remember Gutierrez coming up to me and asking for a smoke. We didn't say much. We just stood there looking at the sky, not knowing what was to come, but we knew it was going to be OK.

"All he did was smile before he put out his smoke."

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ON MARINE GENERALS...

Los Angeles Times

August 1, 2003

'Marine General' Held After Loaded Gun Found

Uniformed man seeks a weapons permit at the San Bernardino sheriff's
headquarters.

By Hector Becerra, Times Staff Writer

A Hesperia man who walked into a sheriff's station in full Marine dress
uniform to apply for a concealed-weapon permit was arrested Thursday on
suspicion of impersonating a veteran of a foreign war and having a loaded
handgun in his Mercedes-Benz, authorities said.

Lawrence Murphy Jr., 62, was dressed as a decorated two-star U.S. Marine
Corps general when he walked into the San Bernardino County Sheriff's
headquarters, said Sgt. Jack Phillips.

"He was wearing ribbons that identified him as having served in Vietnam,"
Phillips said.

"A person that age, I don't know why they would come in wearing a full
Marine uniform under those circumstances.

"It raised a bunch of red flags."

Murphy never served in the military, Phillips said. With Murphy's
permission, investigators checked his 1992 Mercedes-Benz bearing a
personalized license plate "GEN 2" and found the loaded gun, which led to
the weapon charge.

Investigators serving a search warrant at Murphy's home found an assortment
of U.S. Marine Corps uniforms and military ribbons, Phillips said.

A Marine flag and a prisoner of war flag hung outside his home, Phillips
said.

"Maybe he thought the uniform would help him get the license," Phillips
said.

Military duty, however, has no bearing on getting a license for a concealed
weapon, the sergeant said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5 August

MILINET: A Sea Story

By: SSgt Clyde Queen, USMCR (HD)

==============================

Speaking of people who pass themselves off as Generals, let me tell you something that happened to me. Back in 1955, I was sitting at the counter of a "greasy spoon cafe" which was half of the building that housed the Greyhound bus terminal in Santa Ana, CA. One afternoon, while having a hamburger and cup of coffee (On a Marine Corps buck Sergeant's pay, it was about all I could afford at the time.) A old scraggly looking fellow came in and took a seat about three stools down from me.

He wore an old khaki shirt & pants, and a pair of old brown shoes that were paint splattered. He had about a four day growth of beard, and was badly in need of a haircut. He ordered a cup of coffee, and sat there glancing over at me.

This stranger kept staring at me, and I kept expecting to hear the old song, "I was in the Corps back in 'whenever,' can you spare me a dollar for another glass of wine?"

Finally he spoke. He had a deep southern accent. "Sarge, you from out there in El Toro?" he asked. "Yep, I'm from El Toro," I replied, and kept eating my hamburger, trying to avoid looking at him. "What do you do out at El Toro Sarge?" I replied, "Oh a little bit of everything, and not a hell of a lot of anything." (I kept on eating.) Finally it comes! "I was in the Marine Corps he says. I retired after (32 years ??) in the Corps." (I thought to myself, "Good grief! How in the hell do they always find me?")

He kept taking about the Marine Corps, so I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. I asked him, "Hey Buddy, what was your last duty station when you retired from the Corps?" He said, "My last Duty Station was Cherry Point, North Carolina. But, I was also out at El Toro, and the Commanding General there now, is a good friend of mine."

Figuring I'd trip him up real good, I said, "Oh yeah! That's that big Marine Corps infantry base back there." To which he immediately replied, "Oh no Sarge, there ain't no Infantry at Cherry Point, that's a Marine Corps Air Base!" (I thought to myself, "Well, by God he got that right, maybe he was in the Corps after all.") So, I asked him what his rank was when he retired. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I sort of figured that maybe (just maybe) he was perhaps a Staff Sergeant when he retired.

He replied, "Well Sarge, I was a Major (and I damn near spit my coffee out) and then he went on to say "General." To which I immediately replied, "Now look you old fart, if you were in the Corps, and you retired as a Staff NCO, be proud of it. The Staff NCOs are the backbone of the Corps. Don't try to blow smoke up my ass by telling me that your were a Major General."

He then wanted to know why I thought he was trying to "Blow smoke up my ass," and asked me why I didn't believe he was a MAJGEN. I pointed out his physical appearance, and told him if he was a MAJGEN that he certainly would not be in a "greasy spoon" coffee shop, drinking coffee with a buck Sergeant.

He said, "Well Sergeant, just so you won't think I'm blowing smoke up your ass, I want to show you something. He reached into his wallet, and pulled out a Marine Corps I.D. Card. It had his photo in a Marine Corps uniform with three stars on the collar, and identified him as "R.E. Sanderson, LTGEN USMC Ret. (He explained that they gave him the 3rd star upon retirement.) I just about choked on my coffee, and hamburger, and broke out into a sweat. Stuttering, and trying to find the right thing to say, I started trying to apologize. He said, "No, no, Sarge you don't need to apologize, you said what was on your mind, and I respect that."

About 8 or 9 months later, I was transferred to 12th Marine Corps Reserve and Recruitment District, 100 Harrison Street, San Francisco. I was assigned for a while to the Public Relations Section with Captain T. J. Caulkin, the PIO. That office had a bio on every retired Marine Corps general in the 12th MC District. I went to the file, and I'll be damned! There was an 8 X 10 black & white photo of the General I had been talking to in the "greasy spoon cafe" It was no other than, Maj Gen R. E. Sanderson, USMC Ret. He WAS NOT a phony!

As it turned out, the General loved working around his house and in his garden, and he didn't bother trying to "Look like a General," when he was doing hard work around his house. He had extended an invitation to me and my young wife to visit him someday at his home, but unfortunately, I never got a chance to take him up on it.

Ever since that time, if someone tells me that they are a General, or a Colonel, or whatever, I take them for their word. Someone else will have to prove that they are not who they say they are. One experience of calling a general officer an "Old Fart," and telling him that he looked like a frigging bum, and damn near calling him a liar. . .and not ending up losing my stripes and spending some brig time, is something I never want to experience again..

Semper Fi,

Clyde H. Queen, Sr.
Formerly H&MS 15, MAG 15
Squadron Training NCO
MCAS, El Toro (Santa Ana) CA

DAN DALY PARADE

From the Halls of the Firehouse,
Marines Parade for Dan Daly
The US Marine Corps Band came from Quanitco, Virginia to participate in the Dan Daly Memorial Parade. Photo by D.E. Russell
By Jack Mancusi
http://www.antonnews.com/glencoverecordpilot/2003/08/15/news/
http://www.antonnews.com/glencoverecordpilot/2003/08/15/news/

Dwight Eisenhower once remarked, "What counts is not the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog." Truer words could not be spoken of Glen Cove's own Daniel Daly, a two-time Congressional Medal of Honor winner. Measured by stature (5'6" tall and 135 pounds), Daly was not a big man. Measured by his accomplishments, the United States Marine was larger than life. Daly earned his first Medal of Honor in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion when he single-handedly manned a defensive barricade in Peking, China. Attacked by the Chinese throughout the night, Daly repulsed all advances on his position until reinforced.

Daly's second Medal of Honor came in 1915, during the insurrection in Haiti. On patrol with approximately 35 Marines, Daly's group was ambushed and pinned down by more than 400 Cacos rebels. Daly maintained defenses throughout the night and was dangerously close to being overrun. At daybreak, Daly organized and led a three-pronged attack on the rebels. This fierce counter-attack so surprised the Cacos, they scattered in all directions and allowed the beleaguered Marines to reach the safety of their fort.

During its 140 year history, only 3,439 men out of literally millions who served in our armed forces have ever been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (Mary Walker, a Civil War nurse, is the only female recipient). Of the 3,439 men to be so honored, only 19 won a second Medal of Honor. In 1957, to commemorate Daniel Daly's heroic actions and two Medals of Honor, the Glen Cove Housing Authority on Glen Cove Avenue named their facility after him. Most recently, the Sunrise Detachment of the Marine Corps League from Massapequa approached the City of Glen Cove and suggested that the city have a parade to once again honor Daly in his hometown.
A Parade of Heroes

In commemorating the past, we celebrate the present. Daniel Daly is the most decorated son of Glen Cove, but he is not the city's first hero, and he certainly won't be the last. On Sunday Aug. 10, the City of Glen Cove hosted a parade in honor of all Long Island's heroes, both past and present. The first annual Daniel Daly Parade not only stretched along School Street from the firehouse to Monument Park, the parade stretched the boundaries of time.

There were three Marshals in this year's parade: Vice Admiral Joseph Stewart, Colonel Warren Foersch, and Lt. Commander William Kempner. In addition to the Sunrise Detachment, marchers included the Garden City-based 2nd Battalion 225th Marines, just back from recent service in Iraq. Although the New York weather was a bit warm and humid, the Marines remarked that compared to Iraq, where the temperature approached 130 degrees, they felt like they were in air conditioning. Glen Cove's own Carlos Shimabukuro, a 1994 graduate of Glen Cove High School, was among the 225th Marines. Shimabukuro was stationed in Nasiriyah, the southeastern city in Iraq which was the scene of heavy fighting. Due to national security issues and the sensitive nature of Shimabukuro's duty as a scout/sniper, Carlos was unable to speak on the record of his combat experience. It shall suffice to say that Carlos served his country proudly.

Another representative of Glen Cove High School, Principal Joseph Hinton, a Marine who served in the first Gulf War, was also present and marching. Hinton looked sharp in his dress uniform, still fit with no signs of "button pull" across the front of his shirt.

Many Glen Cove organizations marched in the parade including the VFW James Donahue Post 347, American Legion Post 76, Glen Cove Police Department, Glen Cove Fire Department, Glen Cove Harbor Patrol, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians Division 8. From neighboring towns came the American Legion Post 336, Glenwood Landing; American Legion Howard Van Wagner Post 962, Locust Valley; and the James Brengel Post 456, Sea Cliff.
Post Parade Ceremony

At the end of the parade route at Monument Park there was a short ceremony accompanied by music from the Marine Corps Band, which had made the trip up from Quantico, VA. Colonel Warren Foersch gave a brief summary of Daniel Daly's war record and quizzed the crowd. People in the audience learned that in addition to winning two Medals of Honor, Daly had also won a Navy Cross for heroic action in the Belleau Wood, France during WWI.

Mayor Mary Ann Holzkamp added, "The City of Glen Cove is proud to support our nation's troops. This first-ever Dan Daly parade honoring our city's double Medal of Honor recipient was a fitting tribute to a local Marine hero. I want to thank the Sunrise Detachment Marine Corps League for coordinating this event. We look forward to next year's parade."

Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi was also on hand. Suozzi remarked that the accomplishments of Dan Daly are a part of Glen Cove's history of which few people are aware. Suozzi was pleased to see that groups from all over Long Island were present to celebrate Daly's great accomplishments in history. He went on to say that by honoring Dan Daly, we were honoring all veterans, whether they be front line combatants or support personnel.
Somber Reminder

As the ceremonies drew to a close and the crowd began to depart, all present came away knowing they had just taken part in something very special. The recounting of Daly's war record and the welcoming home of Marines from Iraq left everyone with a great sense of patriotism, joy and pride in our country. This sense of joy and pride was somewhat tempered by an underlying sense of great sacrifice. The only "float" in the parade was near the end. Trailing behind the marching bands, bagpipers, and impressive young Marine warriors was a small, empty, Vietnam-era "monkey cage." The monkey cage was fashioned from bamboo and was typical of the confines used by the North Vietnamese to imprison U.S. servicemen. This small, unassuming display spoke volumes. Not all of our heroes receive medals. Not all of our heroes come home uninjured. Not all of our heroes come home at all.

Semper Fi!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MOVIES: CHESTY PULLER and LOU DIAMOND...by Dick Gaines

I'll repeat a story I've told many times on a Chesty Puller movie.
It was in the late 70s, maybe early 80s, I was watching an afternoon TV talk show--it was likely The Merv Griffin Show, but it could have been The Mike Douglas Show, both of them had afternoon shows about that time.

The guest star that day was Glenn Ford, who sat down and eventually got around to stating that he had just recently finished filming a movie titled "Chesty"! He elaborated that it was on the life of the famous Marine, LtGen Lewis B. Puller USMC (deceased). They discussed Chesty some more, and....

Ford was irritated that for no apparent reason that he could find, that the movie had abuptly been "shelved," as he put it, and he had no idea when and if it would be released. He was told nothing, and could find out nothing. There was further discussion, and at one point it was suggested that Chesty had been a controversial character, and perhaps someone big didn't want it shown--Ford, as I recall, nodded in agreement.

Through the years, I have expected that eventually the movie "Chesty" would end up being released; quite to the contrary I cannot find anyone who will even admit that the movie was ever a fact and/or that the Glenn Ford appearance on afternoon TV ever occurred. One noted Marine Corps historian suggested to me that I had confused the biography of Puller (the one narrated by John Wayne) with the one I am speaking/writing of here. No way!

In regard to Lou Diamond, and a film about him...

It was during my tour at CPNC (1958-59) in SNCO Leadership School, that we were shown a film on the famed Lou Diamond. It was in B&W, short (maybe 30+ minutes) and, at that time, I took it to be a training-like film--many stars made training films for the Army and Navy during WW II, although this one may have been of later vintage. This one starred Ward Bond as Lou Diamond. You old timers can fill the boots in as to who Ward Bond was--any who have seen the old John Wayne movies will remember the Duke's buddy, who made many movies w/him.

This film centered on old Lou and his time at Guadalcanal. It emphasises that he had gone AWOL from a hospital in Australia, and aboard a merchant ship, made his way back to Guadalcanal to rejoin 1st Marine Division. One scene shows Diamond walking through the bush w/ a trail of empty beer bottles scattered in his wake.

I have never seen the above flik on TV or anywhere else. It is listed, however, in Col Rich Hemenez's book--wish I had it handy (my books are packed up) as I do not recall the title of it.

Never can tell, perhaps someone w/knowledge of these things will see this and have some answers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
R.W. "Dick" Gaines
GySgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-72
Gunny G's GLOBE and ANCHOR Sites & Forums
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/dickg/gunny.html
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FORMER MARINE PILOT MADE IT THROUGH HELL OF IWO JIMA

Former Marine, pilot made it through living hell of Iwo Jima

By DORINE GOSS
The Daily Courier
On Feb. 19, 1945, Lee Dortsch landed with the 5th Marine Division on an Iwo Jima beach that he called “murderous.”

“It was tough. Real, real tough,” he said. “Our landing beaches were dominated by high ground. The Japanese had their heavy artillery up in Mount Suribachi, an inactive volcano, and could fire right down on us as we were going ashore.

Lee Dortsch, World War II Marine and later an Air Force pilot, relaxes at the VA hospital’s Extended Care and Rehabilitation Center.



Courier/Dorine Goss

“Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone got it there that first morning on the beach. And he didn’t even have to be there. He was in my company on Guadalcanal when he got the Medal of Honor and went on bond tours.

“But he got tired of the hoopla,” Dortsch continued, “and he wanted to go back with the guys. He got the Navy Cross posthumously for Iwo Jima.

“It makes me sad to think about all the guys. I lost more than a thousand friends on Iwo Jima. I knew every man in the battalion by name. Our casualties were very high.”

It was on Iwo Jima that Dortsch suffered “quite a few bayonet wounds” during hand-to-hand combat and almost lost his left arm.

When Marines raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, he was on a Coast Guard hospital ship.

“We heard all the ships’ whistles going off and someone told me they just raised the flag. The doc took me up to the fantail and held up binoculars so I could see. But I couldn’t see. I couldn’t focus. But I knew they’d raised the flag. All the ships in the fleet were blowing their whistles and shooting off their guns.”

Doctors were treating Dortsch for bayonet wounds in both arms, his shoulder and his chest.

“I could smoke a cigarette and smoke would come out of the holes in my chest,” he said laughing. “The boys would laugh and come around me. They called me ‘Old Vesuvius’. The nurses would get mad and threaten to take away my cigarettes.

“Laughing – that’s all that keeps you going in tough times.”

He went from the ship to an Army hospital in Saipan and finally to a California Navy hospital to recover.

Yet, if he had to do it again, he “would rather go through another Iwo Jima than a Guadalcanal.”

Guadalcanal, he related, “was the most difficult experience of my life. We were without food and medical supplies, and often all out of ammunition.

“At Guadalcanal, most of our casualties were from disease, malaria, malnutrition. A breakdown physically. A breakdown from malnutrition. The Japanese called it Starvation Island. They were in as bad a shape as we were.”

Dortsch, who is 80 and living at the VA Extended Care and Rehabilitation Center in Prescott, joined the Marines when he was 19 and fresh out of high school.

After boot camp, he went through scout sniper school in Samoa and joined “Chesty Puller’s exciting Marine infantry when I heard they were going into combat into Guadalcanal.

“Puller was a Marine’s Marine,” Dortsch said grinning. “He had five Navy Crosses and was the most decorated man in the Marine Corps.”

In the heavy jungles of Guadalcanal, the Marines fought successfully to keep the high ground around an airfield “where we kept our fighter boys who kept the sea lanes open.”

One day the sick, hungry Marines learned that the Air Corps had bombed a Japanese transport convoy bringing Japanese army reinforcements to Guadalcanal.

“Most of the men got ashore with their heavy artillery so we knew we had a fight coming,” Dortsch said. “Those Japanese were dedicated guys. They carried their heavy artillery 50 miles through the jungle to attack our airfield.”

The Marines were spread out so thinly around the airfield that all Dortsch thought about that first night was going home to his family. He wasn’t sure he’d get the chance.

But the Marines prevailed. They killed about 1,000 Japanese troops during the first night of battle, then killed about 2,000 men the following night.

“They were starving,” the Marine said. “They were in as bad a shape as we were.”

In the tropical heat, dead bodies started rotting in about an hour, so the Marines used ammunition to blow holes in the ground and buried the Japanese in mass graves, he said.

“The smell of death is awful,” Dortsch said he remembers.

But the United States had to hold Guadalcanal to protect Australia from the Japanese.

“Guadalcanal was Australia’s life line,” the Marine said.

Dortsch spent five months on the Pacific island – from September 1942 until January 1943. Because the unit suffered so many casualties and so many men were sick, they went to Australia to regroup – get back into physical shape and get some new weapons. The malaria that he caught on Guadalcanal plagued him for three years.

Dortsch went to the Navy hospital in San Diego so doctors could treat a shoulder wound that wouldn’t heal.

After he healed, he went back into the Fleet Marine Force for more training.

“They filled the division as much as they could with combat veterans from all the Marine combats in the Pacific,” he said. “We had them from Tarawa and all of the places where the Marines had fought in the Pacific because they knew that Iwo Jima was going to be a tough nut to crack and they wanted experienced people.”

On the Coast Guard ship just off Iwo Jima, doctors at first thought that they should amputate his left arm, which was infected with gas gangrene.

“An Irish doctor named Murphy saved my left arm from amputation. It was real fine surgery. He had sewed the arteries, cleaned the veins and arteries and the arm came back. It was coal-black when I went to sleep and in the next three months it turned pink again and life came back into it.”

In a California hospital, doctors performed more surgery and Dortsch started a physical therapy regimen.

“I was able to start working my fingers and work my thumb so I could pull things with it. I loved Sally, the physical therapist, because she was such a good, dedicated person and if it hadn’t been for her, I never could have become a fighter pilot.”

Dortsch wanted to stay in the Marine Corps, but because of his disabilities they discharged him in 1946 when the war ended.

He went to work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a fingerprint analyst.

“That is a great organization,” he said. “When I see bad press, it makes me feel bad. I know what dedicated people are there.”

While he worked for the FBI, Dortsch went to school and earned credits for three years of college.

He needed those college credits to qualify for pilot training. The Marines weren’t looking for pilots, so he joined the Air Force in 1949 and served through 1966.

In Korea, he served as a test pilot for Northrop Aviation and later trained fighter pilots in the Air Training Command. He flew combat missions early in the Vietnam War.

After his military service, Dortsch flew for Apache Airlines and for an aerial photography company.

“I tried to stay with aviation. That’s all I knew to make a living, And I loved it.”
Contact the reporter at dgoss@prescottaz.com
Back To Prescott Newspapers, Inc. Home Page

FRONT AND CENTER UNSUNG HEROES

http://www.hackworth.com/20jun95.html
http://www.hackworth.com/20jun95.html

"I looked up and saw one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen in my life - a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter coming to rescue me," he said, fighting back tears.
-Captain Scott O'Grady USAF

DEFENDING AMERICA
David H. Hackworth
June 20, 1995

FRONT AND CENTER UNSUNG HEROES

Missing last week at the White House event honoring Scott O'Grady were the Marines who snatched the Air Force captain out of the jaws of the Serbian dogs of war. As I watched on CNN, I kept thinking any minute now Bill Clinton would do one of his aw-shucks-folks numbers and say to the American people, "Now ah'd like ya'll to meet Captain O'Grady's heroes," and before you could comb George Stephanopolis' hair, out would march the 57 Marines and Navy corpsmen who made Mission Impossible possible.

An Army sergeant summed up the 8 June rescue: "O'Grady did what he had to do to stay alive. The Marines went in to do what they're trained to do, but the risks they took were life and death high."

It was dark when the rescue force's choppers lifted off the deck of the USS Kearsarge and headed for the Bosnian badlands. Enroute to where O'Grady's location had been fixed, they joined an awesome NATO air armada.

Forty-two warriors, faces camouflaged, weapons locked and loaded and guts churning, sat aboard two choppers flying at treetop level. Here were the cutting edge of America's ultimate 911. Their protection from the thousands of automatic weapons and missiles held by brutal Serbs below was the dime-thin skin of the chopper's belly.

Service to Country and Corps, pride, spirit and iron discipline are what cause these Marines to do what they do. It's certainly not the pay. The lowest ranking Marine's wages on this adventure was less per hour than he could have made serving burgers at McDonalds, and if he had a wife back home, chances are she'd be making it through the month on food stamps.

Escorting the choppers were three Marine Cobra gun ships and four Marine Harrier jet fighters. The Cobra pilots made radio contact with O'Grady, and guided the choppers into a fog covered field, cluttered with trees and stumps. Grunts bolted out of the first chopper and secured the perimeter. As the second chopper landed, O'Grady hightailed it from the edge of the woods and climbed aboard.

With parade ground precision, the Marines withdrew from their security positions, reboarded their chopper and then lifted off. Not a shot had been fired and the flawless ballet of arms was executed in less time than it takes to lace up a pair of boots the morning after payday.

Twenty minutes out of the landing zone the proverbial stuff hit the fan. The Marines had kicked an ant hill hard and the nasties were in a stinging frenzy. Serb missiles corkscrewed through the sky and automatic weapons fire pinged off the choppers' rotary blades, slamming into both troop carriers.

Sgt. Maj. Angel Castro took a slug in the back; being a hard warrior, he didn't flinch, but continued to look after O'Grady and his Marines as they got the hell out of a very hot spot in the Serb sky. Fortunately, Castro's canteen stopped the bullet, and the only vital fluid he lost, so I'm told, was his water supply.

Commander-in-Chief Clinton and much of the press ignored these gallant men, concentrating instead on modest, Will Rogers-likable O'Grady, who, I'm sure, would want you to know their names:

Martin Berndt, Chris Gunther, Angel Castro, Anthony Barber, Gregory Hare, Zbigniew Wierzel, Derek Brown, Nicholas Hall, James Jenkins, Glenn Kirst, Dwayne Koceja, Todd Moulder, Scott Mykleby, Paul Oldenburg, Scott Pfister, William Tarbutton, Ian Walsh, Paul Fortunato, Chris Cottrill, Rashon Bennett, John Brokos, Robert Brooks, Paul Bruce, Michael Coats, Frederick Dasse, C.S. Faircloth, Bart Forry, Andrzej Gawrys, Jackie Hunt, Ernest Johnston, Justin Lewis, Justin Lindsey, Daniel Loven, Ryan Maher, Travis Miller, Robert Mooney, Anthony Parham, Michael Pevear, Terry Runyan, Martin Wetterauer, Christopher White, Shawn Williams, Eric Yoerk, Dong Yoo, James Adams, John Evans, Douglas Flanagan, Glenn Miller, Timothy Oberst, G.E. Coleman, Thomas Hillesheim, Andrew Sagarius, John Sprague, Steven Smith, Aaron Kahler, Michael Ogden, Harold Blot, John Sisson, Ronald Walkerwicz, James Wright, Howard Hiatt.

A patriotic reader of this column in South Florida is sending each of these heroes a choice steak. If you want to join the celebration, here's the address of these special men: 3/8th Marines, 24th MEU, Unit 82219, FPO AE 09502.

and....

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_40257.asp
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_40257.asp

Scott O’Grady: Remember The Sacrifices
by Christina Siebold
posted August 27, 2003


Photo by Donnie Beauchamp
Captain Scott O'Grady shares his experiences behind enemy lines in Bosnia with veterans at Celebrate Freedom in Pigeon Forge. Click to enlarge all our photos.
Eight years and hundreds of speeches after returning from behind enemy lines, retired Air Force Captain Scott O’Grady still gets emotional when describing his rescue.

Following a week of evading capture by hostile forces in the Bosnian countryside, Captain O’Grady witnessed something he says he will never forget.

“I looked up and saw one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen in my life - a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter coming to rescue me,” he said, fighting back tears.

Captain O’Grady was in Tennessee last week speaking at the annual Celebrate Freedom event in Pigeon Forge. He relayed his harrowing experience to hundreds of veterans gathered at the Veterans Memorial Museum.

While patrolling NATO’s no-fly zone over Bosnia in June of 1995, Captain O’Grady’s F-16 fighter was hit by a Serbian surface-to-air missile, forcing him to eject five miles above the earth. Upon landing, this 29-year-old pilot spent the next six days evading capture and attempting radio contact with the search and rescue aircraft above him.

Despite painfully slow movements to prevent being captured - rolling over took 30 minutes, a three-foot walk took two hours - and feasting on meals certified by the Scott O’Grady Escape and Evasion diet - ants, grass and leaves - Captain O’Grady said his six days in Bosnia were “the most positive six days of my life.”

During particularly difficult times, he said he thought of the POWs in Vietnam who survived up to seven years in solitary confinement being tortured every day. “I knew that my worst day out there was better than their best day in captivity.”

He credits faith in God and love for his family and country for giving him the will to survive the ordeal. “I didn’t have any revelations out there, and I didn’t learn any new lessons. But it refortified everything I was taught growing up about finding a relationship with God and the things that matter in life.”

And those “things that matter,” he assured the crowd, aren’t material. “Do you think when I was laying under the branches of that tree with the enemy searching three feet from my head that I was thinking about making it home to hug my car? No. I was thinking about getting home to hug my mom.”

Captain O’Grady made it home to hug his mom, and is now living in Texas and studying for his masters degree at Dallas Theological Seminary. While criss-crossing the country speaking about his experience in Bosnia, Captain O’Grady said he has seen the best of American patriotism living in its citizens.

“I have traveled from California to New York and everywhere in between and I’ve found really good, down-to-earth people who love their country and the individuals who are sacrificing for it.”

While he said patriotism has always found a home in the hearts of Americans, love of country has been especially fervent since September 11, 2001. “9-11 was a big reminder to all of us about how precious our freedom is and how we often take for granted what we have until we lose it.”

This former military man said he is amazed by the progress of the Armed Forces in the war on terror. From Afghanistan to Iraq, the last two years have shown the might of the U. S. military. “I’m pretty amazed at the progress we have made. The military, national security agencies and the Homeland Defense Department are doing a good job.”

As a serviceman who has seen combat, Captain O’Grady said those serving in the war on terror need their nation’s full support. Protests during wartime, he said, are a slap in the face to the military. “Protesting when troops are in combat is almost treasonous as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “I know it would have affected me to know that people back home were protesting a war I was still fighting.”

Captain O’Grady insisted that the time for disagreement comes before a war begins. “That’s what our whole process of government is for.”

He said he found it especially disheartening to see war protests turn political. “I saw people championing their own political causes, not caring about the men and women who were overseas, away from their homes and families and ready to lay down their lives for their country. The protestors didn’t care about their sacrifices.”

Although the sacrifices may not come in the overwhelming numbers the nation experienced during Vietnam, Korea or WWII, Captain O’Grady says those fighting today still pay a price. “The conflicts since Vietnam have been limited in scale, and that has been a blessing,” he said. “But there are still sacrifices being made.”

“This isn’t Hollywood and we’re not in the movies. People in the military are real people with real emotions living in the real world. We’re asked to give our lives if necessary and we are willing to do that - to trade our lives for our country’s freedom.”

Captain O'Grady said his years in the military gave him a deep appreciation for his country, and for all those who came before him to secure its continued success. “I have seen poor nations and I have seen wealthy nations,” he told the assembled veterans, “but I have never seen another nation that affords its citizens more rights, freedoms or privileges than the United States of America.”

“We should never fail to appreciate the sacrifices of those that gave us that freedom.”

Photo by Donnie Beauchamp
Captain Scott O'Grady chats with a veteran at a book signing during Celebrate Freedom in Pigeon Forge. Click to enlarge all our photos.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MILITARY GENERALS: CaptGen/MajGen/SgtMajGen, etc.

NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
WASHINGTON NAVY YARD -- 805 KIDDER BREESE SE
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Why is the Colonel Called "Kernal"?
The Origin of the Ranks and Rank Insignia Now Used by the United States Armed Forces

Officers: General
A General usually has overall command of a whole army. His title comes from the Latin word generalis that meant something pertaining to a whole unit of anything rather than just to a part. As a military term General started as an adjective, as in Captain General indicating the Captain who had overall or "general" command of the army.

Before the Sixteenth Century armies were usually formed only when needed for a war or campaign. The king would be the commander but he might appoint a Captain General to command in his name. Later, when the title of Colonel became popular some kings called their commanders Colonel General. The British Army stopped using the Captain part of the title by the Eighteenth Century leaving just General as-the top commander. Some nations still use the Colonel General rank, among them the Soviet Union and East Germany. The king or his Captain General would often be away from the army since they had interests elsewhere so the job of actually running the army fell to the Captain General's assistant--his lieutenant--the Lieutenant General. This was not a permanent rank until the Seventeenth Century. One of the Colonels might be appointed Lieutenant General for a particular campaign or war but he would still command his own regiment. Since he might also be Captain of a company in his regiment, it was possible for one man to serve as Captain, Colonel and General simultaneously.

The army's chief administrative officer was the Sergeant Major General who was also appointed for the particular campaign or war. He would be an experienced soldier, possibly a commoner, who served as chief of staff. For much of his administrative work he dealt with the regimental Sergeant Majors, thus his title meant "overall" or "chief" Sergeant Major. His duties included such things as supply, organization, and forming the army for battle or march. Here again, as with the regimental Sergeant Major, a loud, commanding voice was a key requirement. As the General ranks became fixed during the Seventeenth Century the Sergeant portion fell away leaving the title as Major General. We can see this trend in England where in 1655 Oliver Cromwell, who ruled that nation temporarily as Lord Protector, organized the country into eleven military districts each commanded by a Major General.

The Lieutenant General and Sergeant Major General dealt directly with the Colonels who lead the regiments making up the army. When there got to be too many regiments for the two generals to handle effectively they organized battle groups or brigades, usually composed of three or more regiments. Brigade comes from the Florentine word brigare that in turn came from the Latin briga, both of which referred to fighting or strife. The brigade's commander was the Brigadier, who in some armies later became Brigadier General.

When our Army started in 1775 the Continental Congress commissioned George Washington General and Commander-in-Chief. He and his Major and Brigadier Generals wore various colored ribbons to show their ranks. There were no Lieutenant Generals in that army. In June 1780 General Washington ordered the Major Generals to wear a uniform that included two gold epaulettes with two silver stars on each epaulette. Brigadier Generals were to wear gold epaulettes with one silver star on each. General Washington might have chosen the stars because the generals and admirals of the French forces serving in that war wore stars. Another story has it that he was inspired by the stars in our new flag. The General's stars, then, are the oldest rank insignia still in use by our armed forces.

General Washington was the first to wear three stars when he became the nation's first Lieutenant General in 1798. After he died in 1799 there was not another Lieutenant General until 1855. The three stars appeared again, however, by 1832 as the insignia of the Major General who commanded the Army. In 1855 Congress honored Winfield Scott for his service as commanding general since 1841 and for his accomplishments in 1847 during the war with Mexico by making him a Brevet Lieutenant General. He held that rank until he retired in 1861. The next Lieutenant General was Ulysses S. Grant in 1864. Two years later he became the first General of the Army of the United States and chose four stars as his rank insignia. When Grant became President in 1869 he appointed William T. Sherman General of the Army and Phillip H. Sheridan Lieutenant General. Sherman changed the rank insignia in 1872 to a gold embroidered coat of arms of the United States between two silver stars. After Sherman retired in
1884 there was not supposed to be another General of the Army but in 1888 Congress relented and permitted the President to promote Sheridan who died two months later. Congress allowed another Lieutenant General promotion in 1895, one in 1900, five between 1903 and 1906, two in 1918 during World War I, one in 1929 and then no more until 1939. Our Army has been supplied with Lieutenant Generals since, as has the Marine Corps since 1942 and the Air Force since 1947.

There were no more full Generals after Sheridan died in 1884 until 1917 when Tasker H. Bliss, the Army Chief of Staff, and John J. Pershing, the commander of the U.S. forces in France during World War I, went from Major General to General (emergency) so they could have ranks equal to the allied commanders with whom they dealt. They changed the rank insignia back to four stars. In 1918, Peyton C. March also became a General.

In 1919 Congress honored Pershing for his wartime service by permitting the President to promote him to General of the Armies of the United States, which he held until he retired in 1924. He chose his own insignia, which was four stars. Nobody else has received that rank during his lifetime. In 1976 Congress authorized the President to posthumously appoint George Washington General of the Armies of the United States and specified that he would rank first among all officers, of the Army, past or present.

Congress did not allow the promotion of any more full Generals from 1918 to 1929 when the Major General chosen to be Chief of Staff also became a General so he could have a rank equal to the Chief of Naval Operations. Promotions for other Generals did not come until World War II, with the exception of a permanent promotion to General for Generals Bliss and March in June 1930. The Army still has several Generals, the Marines have had at least one General since 1945 and the Air Force, which started with three in 1947, also has several.

During World War II our Army got so big that even full Generals were not enough so in 1944 Congress created the new rank of General of the Army and specified five stars as its insignia. Congress did not revive the General of the Army rank held by Grant, Sherman and Sheridan. The World War II Generals of the Army were in a separate category from the Civil War Generals of the Army. In December 1944 the President appointed George C. Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Henry H. Arnold Generals of the Army. In 1949 Arnold's title became General of the Air Force. Omar N. Bradley got his fifth star in 1950.

As to the question of Pershing being a six-star general, there can be no answer unless Congress creates the General of the Armies rank again and specifies the insignia. Pershing does rank ahead of the Five-star Generals, he comes right after Washington, but he chose his own insignia and he never wore more than four stars.

6 January 1998
HISTORY OF MILITARY RANK....

http://gunnyg.blogspot.com/2003_08_24_gunnyg_archive.html#106220243400199369
http://gunnyg.blogspot.com/2003_08_24_gunnyg_archive.html#106220243400199369
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DO MARINES SURRENDER? ...by Dick Gaines

Do Marines Surrender? A controversial subject.

Now and then this question comes up, but usually Marines seem to have little in the way of facts for their assumptions and their assertions that "Marines Don't Surrender" --but the fact is Marines have surrendered. Nor is there a complete summing up of the subject in any one book under one title; but the info is out there, though somewhat piecemeal. George Smith's book, "Carlson's Raid," devotes an entire chapter, for instance, to the surrender note controversy regarding Carlson's alleged attempted surrender during the Makin Raid of 17-18 August 1942.

Yes, Marines have surrendered. It's just one more reality, for some, in the profession of arms.

Most notably, there have been occurances of surenders for the Marine Corps in the opening days of World War Two's Pacific war at Guam, the Phillipines, Wake Island, and China. And then there was the little-known, for many years, alleged surrender attempt during the Makin Island Raid, already mentioned above.

Later, in Korea, 1950 there was a surrender that occurred at Hell Fire Valley during the Chosin Reservoir operation.

There were also Marine surrenders that occurred even further back through Marine Corps history during the 1700s and civil war times. (See Nofi's Book of Lists.)

Most Marines prefer not to discuss Marine surrenders nor to admit that there have ever been such.

Here is one remark from LtCol Evans F. Carlson himself, famed leader of Carlson's Raiders, as found in Gen. Peatross's book, "Bless 'Em All."

"...While discussing the various aspects of the raid,the only critique of the operation there would ever be Carlson suddenly had paused and, almost self critically and apropos of nothing, interjected: No commander ever expects to fail in an operation, but he should have a plan ready, ...."

Is it dishonorable for a Marine to surrender under extreme conditions when they no longer have the means to resist? It would appear it might well be dishonorable if he were not prepared to consider surrender, under some conditions.

In addition to the above topic, there are various other points of usually accepted Marine Corps history that people are either entirely ignorant of, and/or prefer to disregard or deny entirely. For instance, the phony red NCO/Officer stripe story regarding Chapultapec; Tun Tavern vs. Conestoga Wagon as the birthplace of the Corps, etc. Gen Simmons goes so far as to write that July 11, 1798 is the true birthday of the Corps.

Marine Corps historians, including BGen Edwin Simmons, have brought examples of these things out in their published writings, yet erroneous teachings continue. Why? As I've now come to mention often, I, not too long ago received an e-mail from a Marine colonel (retired), in response to his reading of some of my writings on topics like these, suggesting he didn't give a rat's ass about facts, tradition was all that counted w/him. People just don't want to hear what they don't want to hear.

Well, we all choose our own medicine--myself, I have a lousy memory, and I find it easier to believe and pass on the available facts that are not difficult to remember. Facts don't change, but opinions, stories, and perceptions do.

Semper Fidelis
Dick Gaines
GySgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-72
Gunny G's Marines Sites & Forums
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/dickg/gunny.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WHAT ARE CHEVRONS?

Chevrons

Chevron is a French word meaning rafter or roof, which is what a chevron looks like; two straight lines meeting at an angle just as rafters do in a roof. It has been an honourable ordinarie in heraldry since at least the Twelfth Century. Ordinaries are simple straight line forms that seem to have originated in the wood or iron bars used to fasten together or strengthen portions of shields. Other ordinaries include the cross, the diagonal cross or "x," the triangle, the "y," and horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. The chevron was a basic part of the colorful and complicated science of heraldry. It appeared on the shields and coats-of-arms of knights, barons and kings.

Chevrons were thus easily recognized symbols of honor. That might by why French soldiers started wearing cloth chevrons with the points up on their coat sleeves in 1777 as length of service and good conduct badges. Some British units also used them to show length of service. In 1803 the British began using chevrons with the points down as rank insignia. Sergeants wore three and Corporals two. Perhaps they wore them with the points down to avoid confusion with the earlier length of service chevrons worn with the points up. Some British units also used chevrons of gold lace as officers' rank insignia. British and French soldiers who served in our Revolutionary War wore chevrons as did some American soldiers. In 1782 General George Washington ordered that enlisted men who had served for three years "with bravery, fidelity and good conduct" wear as a badge of honor "a narrow piece of white cloth, of angular form" on the left sleeve of the uniform coat.

In 1817 Sylvanus Thayer, the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, used chevrons to show cadet rank. From there they spread to the rest of the Army and Marine Corps. From 1820 to 1830 Marine Captains wore three chevrons of gold lace with points down on each sleeve above the elbows of their dress uniforms. Lieutenants wore one or two gold lace chevrons depending on whether they were staff or command officers. Marine Noncommissioned Officers started wearing cloth chevrons with the points up as rank insignia in 1836. They had been wearing them for three years as length of service badges. In 1859 they began wearing chevrons in about the same patterns they do today.

Starting in 1820 Army company grade officers and Sergeants wore one chevron with the point up on each arm. The officers' chevrons were of gold or silver lace, depending on the wearer's branch of service. Captains wore their chevrons above the elbow while Lieutenants wore theirs below. Sergeant Majors and Quartermaster Sergeants wore worsted braid chevrons above the elbow while other Sergeants and Senior Musicians wore theirs below. Corporals wore one chevron on the right sleeve above the elbow. By 1833 the Army and Marine company grade officers had stopped wearing chevrons and returned to epaulettes as rank insignia. Sergeants of the Army dragoons then began wearing three chevrons with points down and Corporals two. All other NCOs wore cloth epaulettes to show their rank. From 1847 to 1851 some Army NCOs wore chevrons with the points up on their fatigue uniform jackets but still used cloth epaulettes on their dress uniforms. After 1851 all Army NCOs wore chevrons with points down until 1902 when the Army turned the points up and adopted the patterns used today, two chevrons for Corporals, three for Sergeants and combinations of arcs and other devices beneath the chevrons for higher grades of Sergeants.

The stripes worn by Air Force members date from 1948. The basic design was one of several presented to 150 NCOs at Bolling Air Force Base, Washington D.C., in late 1947 or early 1948. Some 55 percent of the NCOs preferred that design so on March 9, 1948, General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, then the Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, accepted their choice and approved the design. Naturally, it took some time to obtain and distribute the new stripes so it could have been a year or more before all Air Force members got them.

Whoever designed the stripes might have been trying to combine the shoulder patch worn by members of the Army Air Forces during World War II and the insignia used on aircraft. The patch featured wings with a pierced star in the center while the aircraft insignia was a star with two bars. The stripes might be the bars from the aircraft insignia slanted gracefully upward to suggest wings. The silver grey color contrasts with the blue uniform and might suggest clouds against blue sky.

Most enlisted service members wear chevrons or stripes to show their ranks. The exceptions are the lowest three grades of Navy and Coast Guard Seamen and the Army Specialists. The Seamen wear one, two or three diagonal stripes or "hashmarks" on their sleeves. These stripes first appeared on the cuffs of sailors' jumpers in 1886. Petty Officers and Seamen First Class wore three stripes, Seamen Second Class two stripes and Seamen Third Class one stripe. Shortly after World War II the Navy moved the stripes to its Seamen's upper arms, as did the Coast Guard. Army Specialists wear an insignia that combines a spread eagle and, depending on the pay grade, arcs--sometimes called "bird umbrellas." The eagle and arcs are mounted on a patch that suggests inverted chevrons. The badge appeared in 1955 as part of an effort to differentiate between the Army's technical or support specialists who were not NCOs and the NCOs.

NOTE:
Why is the Colonel Called "Kernal"?
The Origin of the Ranks and Rank Insignia Now Used by the United States Armed Forces

by Raymond Oliver, Museum Curator for McClellan Aviation Museum
Published by the Office of History, Sacramento Air Logistics Center, McClellan AFB CA 95652, August 1983 [This hard to find publication is an excellent introduction to origins of naval and military ranks.]


http://www.history.navy.mil/trivia/trivia04.htm


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"BEFORE THE GODDAMNED MARINES GET ALL THE CREDIT"

("Before The Goddamned Marines Get All The Credit")
~~~~~~~~~~

General Patton's Address to the Troops

Part I

The Background Research



Anyone who has ever viewed the motion picture PATTON will never forget the opening. George Campbell Scott, portraying Patton, standing in front of an immensely huge American flag, delivers his version of Patton's "Speech to the Third Army" on June 5th, 1944, the eve of the Allied invasion of France, code-named "Overlord".


Scott's rendition of the speech was highly sanitized so as not to offend too many fainthearted Americans. Luckily, the soldiers of the American Army who fought World War II were not so fainthearted.

After one of my lectures on the subject of General Patton, I spoke with a retired Major-General who was a close friend of Patton and who had been stationed with him in the 1930's in the Cavalry. He explained to me that the movie was a very good portrayal of Patton in that it was the way he wanted his men and the public to see him, as a rugged, colorful commander. There was one exception, however, according to the Major General. In reality, Patton was a much more profane speaker than the movie dared to exhibit.

Patton had a unique ability regarding profanity. During a normal conversation, he could liberally sprinkle four letter words into what he was saying and the listeners would hardly take notice of it. He spoke so easily and used those words in such a way that it just seemed natural for him to talk that way.

He could, when necessary, open up with both barrels and let forth such blue-flamed phrases that they seemed almost eloquent in their delivery. When asked by his nephew about his profanity, Patton remarked, "When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can't run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An army without profanity couldn't fight it's way out of a piss-soaked paper bag."

"As for the types of comments I make", he continued with a wry smile, "Sometimes I just, By God, get carried away with my own eloquence."

When I appeared on a local San Diego television show to discuss my Patton Collection a viewer living in a suburb of San Diego, was very interested for personal reasons. Her husband had been a lieutenant assigned to General Patton's Third Army Headquarters, code named "Lucky Forward" and he had known General Patton quite well.

He had recently died and had left to his wife a box that he had brought home with him from the European Theater of Operations.

The lady invited me to her home to inspect the box to see if there was anything in it that might be useful to me in my search for "collectibles".

Opening the box, I immediately thanked her. Inside was one of only a couple hundred copies printed of the Official United States Third Army After-Action Reports. It is a huge two volume history of the Third Army throughout their 281 days of combat in Europe. She said that she had no use for it and that I could have it. I left with my new treasure.

When I arrived at my office and removed the foot-thick, oversized books from the box, I had an even greater surprise. Under the Reports lay a small stack of original Third Army memos, orders, AND a carbon copy of the original speech that had been typed by some unknown clerk at Lucky Forward and had been widely distributed throughout Third Army.

A few years earlier, I had discovered an almost illegible xerox of a carbon copy of a similar speech. This one came from the Army War College and was donated to their Historical Library Section in 1957.

I decided to do some research on the speech to obtain the best one possible and to make an attempt to locate the identity of the "unknown soldier" who had clandestinely typed and distributed the famous document. I began by looking in my collection of old magazines, newspapers, books that have been written about Patton since his death, and dozens of other books which had references to Patton and his speech.

I discovered some interesting facts. The most interesting probably being that George C. Scott was not the first actor to perform the speech.

In 1951, the New American Mercury Magazine had printed a version of the speech which was almost exactly the same version printed by John O'Donnell in his "Capitol Stuff" column for the New York Daily News on May 31, 1945. According to the editors of the New American Mercury, their copy was obtained from Congressman Joseph Clark Baldwin who had returned from a visit to Patton's Headquarters in Czechoslovakia.

After publication, the magazine received such a large reader response asking for reprints of the speech that the editors decided to go one step further.

They hired a "famous" actor to make an "unexpurgated" recording of the Patton speech. This recording was to be made available to veterans of Third Army and anyone else who would like to have one. The term "famous" was the only reference made by the editors about the actor who recorded the speech. In a later column they explained, "We hired an excellent actor whose voice, on records, is almost indistinguishable from Patton's, and with RCA's best equipment we made two recordings; one just as Patton delivered it, with all the pungent language of a cavalryman, and in the other we toned down a few of the more offensive words. Our plan was to offer our readers, at cost, either recording."

Unfortunately, a few years ago, their was a fire in the editorial offices of the magazine which destroyed almost all of their old records. The name of the actor was lost in that accident.

Only one master recording of the speech was made. The magazine Editors, not wanting to offend either Mrs. Patton or her family, asked for her sanction of the project. The Editors explained the situation thusly, "While we had only the master recordings, we submitted them to our friend, Mrs. Patton, and asked her to approve our plan. It was not a commercial venture and no profits were involved. We just wanted to preserve what to us seems a worthwhile bit of memorabilia of the Second World War. Our attorneys advised us that legally we did not need Mrs. Patton's approval, but we wanted it."

"Mrs. Patton considered the matter graciously and thoroughly, and gave us a disappointing decision. She took the position that this speeches was made by the General only to the men who were going to fight and die with him; it was, therefore, not a speech for the public or for posterity."

"We think Mrs. Patton is wrong; we think that what is great and worth preserving about General Patton was expressed in that invasion speech. The fact that he employed four letter words was proper; four letter words are the language of war; without them wars would be quite impossible."

When Mrs. Patton's approval was not forthcoming, the entire project was then scrapped, and the master recordings were destroyed.

Patton always knew exactly what he wanted to say to his soldiers and he never needed notes. He always spoke to his troops extemporaneously. As a general rule of thumb, it is safe to say that Patton usually told his men some of his basic thoughts and concepts regarding his ideas of war and tactics. Instead of the empty, generalized rhetoric of no substance often used by Eisenhower, Patton spoke to his men in simple, down to earth language that they understood. He told them truthful lessons he had learned that would keep them alive.


As he traveled throughout battle areas, he always took the time to speak to individual soldiers, squads, platoons, companies, regiments, divisions or whatever size group could be collected. About the only difference in the context of these talks was that the smaller the unit, the more "tactical" the talk would be. Often he would just give his men some sound, common sense advice that they could follow in order to keep from being killed or maimed.

The speech which follows is a third person narrative. From innumerable sources; magazine articles, newspaper clippings, motion picture biographies and newsreels, and books, I have put together the most complete version possible that encompasses all of the material that is available to date.

Part II

The Speech

Somewhere in England

June 5th, 1944

The big camp buzzed with a tension. For hundreds of eager rookies, newly arrived from the states, it was a great day in their lives. This day marked their first taste of the "real thing". Now they were not merely puppets in brown uniforms. They were not going through the motions of soldiering with three thousand miles of ocean between them and English soil. They were actually in the heart of England itself. They were waiting for the arrival of that legendary figure, Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr. Old "Blood and Guts" himself, about whom many a colorful chapter would be written for the school boys of tomorrow. Patton of the brisk, purposeful stride. Patton of the harsh, compelling voice, the lurid vocabulary, the grim and indomitable spirit that carried him and his Army to glory in Africa and Sicily. They called him "America's Fightingest General". He was no desk commando. He was the man who was sent for when the going got rough and a fighter was needed. He was the most hated and feared American of all on the part of the German Army.

Patton was coming and the stage was being set. He would address a move which might have a far reaching effect on the global war that, at the moment, was a TOP-SECRET in the files in Washington, D.C.

The men saw the camp turn out "en masse" for the first time and in full uniform, too. Today their marching was not lackadaisical. It was serious and the men felt the difference. From the lieutenants in charge of the companies on down in rank they felt the difference.

In long columns they marched down the hill from the barracks. They counted cadence while marching. They turned off to the left, up the rise and so on down into the roped off field where the General was to speak. Gold braid and stripes were everywhere. Soon, company by company, the hillside was a solid mass of brown. It was a beautiful fresh English morning. The tall trees lined the road and swayed gently in the breeze. Across the field, a British farmer calmly tilled his soil. High upon a nearby hill a group of British soldiers huddled together, waiting for the coming of the General. Military Police were everywhere wearing their white leggings, belts, and helmets. They were brisk and grim. The twittering of the birds in the trees could be heard above the dull murmur of the crowd and soft, white clouds floated lazily overhead as the men settled themselves and lit cigarettes.

On the special platform near the speakers stand, Colonels and Majors were a dime a dozen. Behind the platform stood General Patton's "Guard of Honor"; all specially chosen men. At their right was a band playing rousing marches while the crowd waited and on the platform a nervous sergeant repeatedly tested the loudspeaker. The moment grew near and the necks began to crane to view the tiny winding road that led to Stourport-on-Severn. A captain stepped to the microphone. "When the General arrives," he said sonorously, "the band will play the Generals March and you will all stand at attention."

By now the rumor had gotten around that Lieutenant General Simpson, Commanding General of the Fourth Army, was to be with General Patton. The men stirred expectantly. Two of the big boys in one day!

At last, the long black car, shining resplendently in the bright sun, roared up the road, preceded by a jeep full of Military Police. A dead hush fell over the hillside. There he was! Impeccably dressed. With knee high, brown, gleaming boots, shiny helmet, and his Colt .45 Peacemaker swinging in its holster on his right side.

Patton strode down the incline and then straight to the stiff backed "Guard of Honor". He looked them up and down. He peered intently into their faces and surveyed their backs. He moved through the ranks of the statuesque band like an avenging wraith and, apparently satisfied, mounted the platform with Lieutenant General Simpson and Major General Cook, the Corps Commander, at his side.

Major General Cook then introduced Lieutenant General Simpson, whose Army was still in America, preparing for their part in the war.

"We are here", said General Simpson, "to listen to the words of a great man. A man who will lead you all into whatever you may face with heroism, ability, and foresight. A man who has proven himself amid shot and shell. My greatest hope is that some day soon, I will have my own Army fighting with his, side by side."

General Patton arose and strode swiftly to the microphone. The men snapped to their feet and stood silently. Patton surveyed the sea of brown with a grim look. "Be seated", he said. The words were not a request, but a command. The General's voice rose high and clear.

"Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American."

The General paused and looked over the crowd. "You are not all going to die," he said slowly. "Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen."

"All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling". That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!" The men roared in agreement.

Patton's grim expression did not change. "There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily", he roared into the microphone, "All because one man went to sleep on the job". He paused and the men grew silent. "But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did". The General clutched the microphone tightly, his jaw out-thrust, and he continued, "An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!"

The men slapped their legs and rolled in glee. This was Patton as the men had imagined him to be, and in rare form, too. He hadn't let them down. He was all that he was cracked up to be, and more. He had IT!

"We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world", Patton bellowed. He lowered his head and shook it pensively. Suddenly he snapped erect, faced the men belligerently and thundered, "Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do". The men clapped and howled delightedly. There would be many a barracks tale about the "Old Man's" choice phrases. They would become part and parcel of Third Army's history and they would become the bible of their slang.

"My men don't surrender", Patton continued, "I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!"

Patton stopped and the crowd waited. He continued more quietly, "All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, "Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands". But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits'."

Patton paused, took a deep breath, and continued, "Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, "Fixing the wire, Sir". I asked, "Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?" He answered, "Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed". I asked, "Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?" And he answered, "No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!" Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the rode to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable."

The General paused and stared challengingly over the silent ocean of men. One could have heard a pin drop anywhere on that vast hillside. The only sound was the stirring of the breeze in the leaves of the bordering trees and the busy chirping of the birds in the branches of the trees at the General's left.

"Don't forget," Patton barked, "you men don't know that I'm here. No mention of that fact is to be made in any letters. The world is not supposed to know what the hell happened to me. I'm not supposed to be commanding this Army. I'm not even supposed to be here in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddamned Germans. Some day I want to see them raise up on their piss-soaked hind legs and howl, 'Jesus Christ, it's the Goddamned Third Army again and that son-of-a-fucking-bitch Patton'."

"We want to get the hell over there", Patton continued, "The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit."

The men roared approval and cheered delightedly. This statement had real significance behind it. Much more than met the eye and the men instinctively sensed the fact. They knew that they themselves were going to play a very great part in the making of world history. They were being told as much right now. Deep sincerity and seriousness lay behind the General's colorful words. The men knew and understood it. They loved the way he put it, too, as only he could.

Patton continued quietly, "Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin", he yelled, "I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!"

"When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket. War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it's the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you'll know what to do!"

"I don't want to get any messages saying, "I am holding my position." We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!"

"From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don't give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that."

The General paused. His eagle like eyes swept over the hillside. He said with pride, "There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana." No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, "Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!"

Return to Headquarters
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Note:
For Other Writings On Patton...
SEE ALSO: Memories Of George C. Scott, Sgt USMCR

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This is...
Gunny G's...
GLOBE and ANCHOR
Marines Sites & Forums
By R.W. "Dick" Gaines
GySgt USMC (Ret.)
1952-72
Semper Fidelis
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