In all the news about the passing of Leonard Nemoy, take a moment to remember a real hero. Stephen emails to point out the passing of another World War II hero - one who flew P-51 Mustangs over enemy airspace:
Green got his chance after he was drafted into the Army and sent to [redacted - Borepatch], for pilot training. Green flew 25 combat missions with the 99th Fighter Squadron in Italy, escorting bombers.
I've posted frequently on the Greatest Generation who left home and hearth to fight the Nazi and Imperial Japanese menace. But this one is different. This one left a society that despised Black Americans, to fight that same fight. The story starts out with this:
HIGHLAND, Calif. – Col. Paul L. Green, one of the Tuskegee Airmen — the legendary black pilots who escorted U.S. aircraft during World War II — has died in a Southern California senior care home. He was 91.
Col. Green flew 25 sorties against the Nazi ubermensch. Then he came home to 1945 America, as a Black War Veteran. And he continued his career in the Air Force, for 30 more years, serving in Vietnam. He saw the change in Europe, and elsewhere in the world. But most especially here.
God speed, Colonel. You saw this Republic with its warts and you stepped up anyway. That's something worth of respect in itself
Ronald Reagan looked back on our Armed Forces, and asked the question Where do we find these men? He then answered it: Where we've always found them in this country: In the farms, the shops, the stores and the offices. The American Armed Forces have always been made from the stuff that makes up this Republic.
But there's a difference between them and the rest of the Citizenry, a difference summed up by the (original) Code of Military Conduct:
I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense.
Both the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese looked with contempt at the American Fighting Man. Both of their cultures valued racial purity, reinforced with a psychology of the ubermensch. Both viewed America - correctly - as a mongrel race. We were the natural enemy, because our success wasn't just a challenge to their ideology, it was a rebuke to it.
Today we face a different adversary, one who fights from the shadows instead of in Panzer Divisions, but who is no less lethal for that. This enemy too sees us as corrupt, inferior to his "higher" philosophy. A rebuke, even.
Both then and now we have had fighting men and women who have shown our enemies that the situation is more complicated, and painful for them. Men and women who have seen this Republic through some very dark days, but saw that we came out right side up. A lot of those men and women never saw the conclusion to the conflict, finding instead whatever small comfort in knowing that they lived up to that third sentence in the Code of Military Conduct.
This day, we remember them.
I would say something profound, except it's already been said.
The emphasis here is that the Military and the People are one. May it ever be so. And yet there is that sentence, terrible in its import, that separates the People from the Military - especially those who die in the Republic's service:
I am prepared to give my life in their defense.
Again, I think I should say something profound about that sacrifice, but once again it has been said:
Where do we find such men? Where we've always found them in this country: In the farms, the shops, the stores and the offices. They just are the product of the freest society the world has ever known.
And they promised that they'd die for us, if that must be their fate.
May this Republic be worthy of their sacrifice, and that of their families.
The last US veteran of World War I reports for the final roll call. You - and your comrades - may be gone, but you are not forgotten.
When I was a boy growing up in the 1960s, the old veterans at the Memorial Day parades were the World War I vets. There were quite a lot, even back then. Now the Vietnam vets are almost as old as those old soldiers were then.
This is a lovely song, and a truly bitter-sweet memorial, but the Borepatch clan does not ask "What are they marching for?" #1 Son and #2 Son know, and stand when the old veterans march by. If I'm lucky, I'll inherit the flag that draped Grandpa's coffin, as a WWI veteran.
"He was one hell of a guy, one of the greatest soldiers I was ever under," said Heffron, who had the nickname "Babe" in the company. "He was a wonderful officer, a wonderful leader. He had what you needed, guts and brains."
Winters, of course, was the leader of E Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in World War II highlighted in Stephen Ambrose's Band Of Brothers, and the H.B.O. series of the same name.
What is most remarkable about his memoir Beyond Band Of Brothers is his repeated expressions of regret that when he had a particularly tough mission, he would rely on First Platoon for the toughest fighting. They were his most experienced men, but he said over and over again that too many of them lost their lives because of his decision to do that.
Winters always seemed uncomfortable with the public spotlight from Ambrose's book and the HBO series. He was matter of fact, and always careful to give credit to his men; he stepped out of the public eye five years ago. I was particularly touched by this from his obituary:
An intensely private and humble man, Winters had asked that news of his death be withheld until after his funeral, Jackson said.
He expressed a concern for family and friends around him until the very end. Humble indeed, and leading by example, from the front.
A brave captain is as a root, out of which, as branches, the courage of his soldiers doth spring.
What stands out the most to me about Bob Feller, the great pitcher who just died at 92, is how like Ted Williams he was. Consider:
Williams is arguable the greatest hitter who ever played Baseball; Feller is arguably the greatest pitcher olf all time.
Feller played his entire career in Cleveland, and then remained in the city as a pillar of the Indians organization. Williams played his entire career in Boston, and then remained in New England as a pillar of the Red Sox organization.
Feller won "only" 266 games because he enlisted in the Navy after Pearl Harbor. Rather than a cushy morale boosting post playing baseball, he insisted on a combat posting, and served as a Gunnery Mate on the battleship Alabama. Williams hit "only" 521 home runs because he enlisted in the Navy after Pearl Harbor. While he spent World War II training Marine fighter pilots, he returned to service in the Korean War, this time flying combat sorties.
In New England, one of the perennial subjects for chewing the fat is how many home runs Williams would have hit had war not taken his greatest years. The same question can be asked on Bob Feller - just how many games would he have won had war not taken his prime years?
We don't see this type any more. God speed, Mr. Feller. I hope that the good Lord lets you pitch to Teddy Ballgame once again.
Dad emails to tell me that Alex Anderson - the cartoonist who created Rocky and Bullwinkle - is dead at the age of 90.
It took a long time to realize just how sophisticated the humor was on the show. From the NYT obituary:
Steven Spielberg told The New York Times in 1989, “It was the first time that I can recall my parents watching a cartoon show over my shoulder and laughing in places I couldn’t comprehend.”
Boris Badinov? I was probably in my teens before I realized just how funny that was. And the WABAC ("Wayback") machine was a spoof of UNIVAC.
God Speed, Mr. Anderson, and thank you for many happy hours as a child.
Melvin Burke was one of my Economics professors, back at State U. I took Marxist Theory from him, and thoroughly enjoyed it. He was a great teacher, with an infectious enthusiasm that fired in me a desire to delve deeply into the material - despite the fact that I wasn't inclined then to subscribe to the belief. He made me think about first premises, and consequently had a deep influence on my intellectual growth. He also showed by his example that you don't have to agree with everything or everyone to have a respect for people's opinions and arguments. I don't think you could say anything more complementary of a professor.
Mel Burke passed away on August 30. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He was a man of deeply held beliefs, will be sadly missed.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want rain without thunder & lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters.
In all the excitement of the current political race, life still speaks - sometimes in its Outdoors Voice. Judi Chamberlin blogged her last struggle, at Life As A Hospice. Her last post is here.
It's so easy to get caught up in the here and now, and forget what's here and now. Requiescet in Pace, Judi. Everyone else, go hug your family.
Wake up to the sunlight With your windows open Don't hold in your anger or leave things unspoken Wear your red dress Use your good dishes Make a big mess and make lots of wishes Have what you want But want what you have And don't spend your life lookin' back
Turn up the music Turn it up loud Take a few chances Let it all out You won't regret it Lookin' back from where you have been Cuz it's not who you knew And it's not what you did It's how you live
So go to the ballgames And go to the ballet And go see your folks more than just on the holidays Kiss all your children Dance with your wife Tell your husband you love him every night Don't run from the truth 'Cause you can't get away Just face it and you'll be okay
Turn up the music Turn it up loud Take a few chances Let it all out You won't regret it Lookin' back from where you have been 'Cause it's not who you knew And it's not what you did It's how you live
Oh wherever you are and wherever you've been Now is the time to begin
So give to the needy And pray for the grieving E'en when you don't think that you can 'Cause all that you do is bound to come back to you So think of your fellow man Make peace with God and make peace with yourself 'Cause in the end there's nobody else
Turn up the music Turn it up loud Take a few chances Let it all out 'Cause you won't regret it Lookin' back from where you have been 'Cause it's not who you knew And it's not what you did It's how you live
'Cause it's not who you knew And it's not what you did It's how you live
I've posted frequently on the Greatest Generation who left home and hearth to fight the Nazi and Imperial Japanese menace. But this one is different. This one left a society that despised Black Americans, to fight that same fight. The story starts out with this:
