Gerald Maclennon's Blog - Posts Tagged "war"
D-Day the 6th of June - 75th Anniversary
Today, classrooms of school children are encouraged to thank active duty military and war veterans in letters, cards, art projects usually sent to VA Medical Centers and Clinics. It wasn't always that way especially for Vietnam Vets.
Up until 2005 there was virtually no gratitude... but then something changed for the better. Maybe the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center precipitated the change. I'd like to think it was the grandchildren, grandnieces, grandnephews (thanks in many ways to their teachers) who are at the vanguard of a new awareness of the Vietnam-era conflicts overseas and at home. Our country was in turmoil. I don't have to remind those who lived it.
For Veterans' Day 2008, out of the blue, I was treated to a 'card shower' from 35 junior high students. I tell you... there were a few of my tears shed. In response, I wrote the following letter.
VETERANS’ DAY 2008 RESPONSE
To the students of Mrs. Perez:
Thank you, my young friends, for the Veterans’ Day letters of appreciation. You have no idea how much these tokens of gratitude mean to any person who now serves or previously served as a member of the United States Armed Forces.
From the time I served in the Vietnam War in 1966-68 until now – 40 years later – only six people have taken the time to shake my hand and thank me for protecting and defending our United States of America. Sad but true.
If you take away nothing else from this message, here is one important point: real war is not a game... it is hell on earth.
Many of the warriors who were in the heat of combat, having to meet their so-called enemies face-to-face can never put that horror behind them. Keep in mind also that combat can be so confusing that soldiers often kill innocent people by mistake. I’m talking about victims such as the elderly, mothers, children and little babies. The military leadership calls those mistakes collateral damage. Call it what you will, those horrible mistakes create tremendous feelings of guilt in most of the soldiers... those that still have hearts and souls.
Many of those combat veterans who accidentally slaughtered innocents do everything possible to stop the bad memories: some turn to religious fervor but others lose themselves in illegal drugs, alcohol, self-destruction and abusive behavior. Many have ended up as patients in mental hospitals or in prison. Many have committed suicide.
In our own family, I remember we had 'the drunks'... Uncle Art, Uncle Wayne, Uncle Ed, Uncle Martin, Grandpa Joe, Grandpa Harry...veterans of World War II and Korea. As a kid, I didn't understand they were suffering what came to be known as PTSD. We just made fun of them. There were the butt of family jokes. Only many years later did I realize when they came home there was no psychiatric help for them... only 'self-medication' with alcohol and/or illicit drugs.
Remembering what I said about expressing gratitude to veterans, I would suggest that anytime you are in a public place and you see a man or woman wearing the uniform of our Armed Forces, take just 15 seconds and simply say to that person: “Thank you for serving our country.”
You will, most likely, receive a grateful smile and a “Thanks” in return – maybe even a small tear in his or her eye. They appreciate your kindness for acknowledging their service and sacrifice. The same goes for the old veterans of previous wars who also served when they were young – many of them fresh out of high school.
So, I reiterate, war is not a game – not virtual reality. It is not a computer, digital, X-box or Playstation game. Here in the real world, millions of Americans have answered the call to defend our nation from those who sought to destroy us. Hundreds of thousands have suffered permanent injury and early death since the birth of our great country in 1776. To honor them is only right and good.
Some dissidents criticize and ridicule those of us who have served in the military without realizing that they would not have the right to free speech if we had not preserved it for them – if we had not chosen to stand up and fight for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Our Armed Forces have secured that which we call The American Way of Life and they did it with rivers of blood. Yes, I repeat. It is only right to honor them on November 11, their special day. Thank you, kids.
Gerald Edward Logan
Donna, Texas
11 November 2008
Up until 2005 there was virtually no gratitude... but then something changed for the better. Maybe the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center precipitated the change. I'd like to think it was the grandchildren, grandnieces, grandnephews (thanks in many ways to their teachers) who are at the vanguard of a new awareness of the Vietnam-era conflicts overseas and at home. Our country was in turmoil. I don't have to remind those who lived it.
For Veterans' Day 2008, out of the blue, I was treated to a 'card shower' from 35 junior high students. I tell you... there were a few of my tears shed. In response, I wrote the following letter.
VETERANS’ DAY 2008 RESPONSE
To the students of Mrs. Perez:
Thank you, my young friends, for the Veterans’ Day letters of appreciation. You have no idea how much these tokens of gratitude mean to any person who now serves or previously served as a member of the United States Armed Forces.
From the time I served in the Vietnam War in 1966-68 until now – 40 years later – only six people have taken the time to shake my hand and thank me for protecting and defending our United States of America. Sad but true.
If you take away nothing else from this message, here is one important point: real war is not a game... it is hell on earth.
Many of the warriors who were in the heat of combat, having to meet their so-called enemies face-to-face can never put that horror behind them. Keep in mind also that combat can be so confusing that soldiers often kill innocent people by mistake. I’m talking about victims such as the elderly, mothers, children and little babies. The military leadership calls those mistakes collateral damage. Call it what you will, those horrible mistakes create tremendous feelings of guilt in most of the soldiers... those that still have hearts and souls.
Many of those combat veterans who accidentally slaughtered innocents do everything possible to stop the bad memories: some turn to religious fervor but others lose themselves in illegal drugs, alcohol, self-destruction and abusive behavior. Many have ended up as patients in mental hospitals or in prison. Many have committed suicide.
In our own family, I remember we had 'the drunks'... Uncle Art, Uncle Wayne, Uncle Ed, Uncle Martin, Grandpa Joe, Grandpa Harry...veterans of World War II and Korea. As a kid, I didn't understand they were suffering what came to be known as PTSD. We just made fun of them. There were the butt of family jokes. Only many years later did I realize when they came home there was no psychiatric help for them... only 'self-medication' with alcohol and/or illicit drugs.
Remembering what I said about expressing gratitude to veterans, I would suggest that anytime you are in a public place and you see a man or woman wearing the uniform of our Armed Forces, take just 15 seconds and simply say to that person: “Thank you for serving our country.”
You will, most likely, receive a grateful smile and a “Thanks” in return – maybe even a small tear in his or her eye. They appreciate your kindness for acknowledging their service and sacrifice. The same goes for the old veterans of previous wars who also served when they were young – many of them fresh out of high school.
So, I reiterate, war is not a game – not virtual reality. It is not a computer, digital, X-box or Playstation game. Here in the real world, millions of Americans have answered the call to defend our nation from those who sought to destroy us. Hundreds of thousands have suffered permanent injury and early death since the birth of our great country in 1776. To honor them is only right and good.
Some dissidents criticize and ridicule those of us who have served in the military without realizing that they would not have the right to free speech if we had not preserved it for them – if we had not chosen to stand up and fight for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Our Armed Forces have secured that which we call The American Way of Life and they did it with rivers of blood. Yes, I repeat. It is only right to honor them on November 11, their special day. Thank you, kids.
Gerald Edward Logan
Donna, Texas
11 November 2008
Troubled Water: Race, Mutiny & Bravery on the USS Kitty Hawk
Author Greg Freeman's account begins with, "...in 1972, the USS Kitty Hawk was going through the same social upheaval that was troubling the rest of America. The stresses were especially difficult for some of the young Black sailors, many of whom were recruited under a new Navy initiative called Project 100,000."
Men recruited through this initiative were called New Standards Men or simply NSM's. One retired Navy Commander and pilot during the Vietnam Air War said to me, "If there's anything RSM (Robert S McNamara) should rot in hell for, that's on top of my list."
Designed to increase the ranks and open up more positions, Project 100,000 eased requirements for test scores, intelligence, and criminal histories. Many coming onboard were inner city youths whose attitude and worldviews were formed by their experience on the streets of Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.
Having enlisted October 1964 with release from active duty February 1968, I guess you could say I was "Old School Navy" because what happened in the five years between '68 and '72 absolutely blows me away. I suppose it makes sense that all the hippie and black power movements in civilian life were also infiltrating sailors of the Navy.
The pervasive illegal drug use should not surprise me. I think I was a very naïve 20-year-old Lutheran boy from Nebraska with absolutely no big city, inner city smarts. Still on my ship, USS Oriskany, CVA-34, 1967, I wasn't aware of anyone smoking pot onboard either. More of my naiveite?
In Stephen Coont's Flight of the Intruder, I was surprised to know Officers/Pilots kept liquor in their state rooms for occasional sedation after especially harrowing missions over North Vietnam. We enlisted boys did not... as far as I know. For us, being caught with booze would have meant a Captain's Mast.
With Project 100,000 came relaxed discipline and liberalization of policy. Freeman tells of the sloppiness, beards, long hair, non-regulation clothing, berthing areas off-limits to officers, no inspections, racial segregation of berthing areas and then high-ranking officers relaxing the enlistment standards. Dumbing down the Navy. Just like civilian grade schools... dumbing down. I've heard about Admiral Zumwalt's Navy and changes he instituted after becoming Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) in 1970... some for the better, some for the worse.
In my Standby Reserve, G.I. Bill years between '68 and '72, I was busy being educated, taking a wife, making a baby. Thus, I wasn't paying attention to all the racial strife within bases of all the Armed Forces. Yeah, I heard about inequitable percentage of the Army's Black Infantry on the front lines of combat down in-country in South Vietnam but not racial strife at Ft. Bragg, Camp Lejeune and other homeland installations.
After I finished reading Troubled Water, I found myself thinking, surely the Navy got its act together after the Vietnam War ended. It couldn't have remained screwed up forever. I asked Commander Peter Fey, USN-retired who got his commission in the early 1990's. He told me, "I'll admit that the military I knew was 100% different... thanks largely to the fact that its now voluntary. That got rid of most of the issues... and now its truly a professional service. Duty first, and frankly woe betide someone that isn't a good shipmate."
Troubled Water: Race, Mutiny, and Bravery on the USS Kitty Hawk
Bloody Sixteen: The USS Oriskany and Air Wing 16 during the Vietnam War
Flight of the Intruder
Men recruited through this initiative were called New Standards Men or simply NSM's. One retired Navy Commander and pilot during the Vietnam Air War said to me, "If there's anything RSM (Robert S McNamara) should rot in hell for, that's on top of my list."
Designed to increase the ranks and open up more positions, Project 100,000 eased requirements for test scores, intelligence, and criminal histories. Many coming onboard were inner city youths whose attitude and worldviews were formed by their experience on the streets of Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.
Having enlisted October 1964 with release from active duty February 1968, I guess you could say I was "Old School Navy" because what happened in the five years between '68 and '72 absolutely blows me away. I suppose it makes sense that all the hippie and black power movements in civilian life were also infiltrating sailors of the Navy.
The pervasive illegal drug use should not surprise me. I think I was a very naïve 20-year-old Lutheran boy from Nebraska with absolutely no big city, inner city smarts. Still on my ship, USS Oriskany, CVA-34, 1967, I wasn't aware of anyone smoking pot onboard either. More of my naiveite?
In Stephen Coont's Flight of the Intruder, I was surprised to know Officers/Pilots kept liquor in their state rooms for occasional sedation after especially harrowing missions over North Vietnam. We enlisted boys did not... as far as I know. For us, being caught with booze would have meant a Captain's Mast.
With Project 100,000 came relaxed discipline and liberalization of policy. Freeman tells of the sloppiness, beards, long hair, non-regulation clothing, berthing areas off-limits to officers, no inspections, racial segregation of berthing areas and then high-ranking officers relaxing the enlistment standards. Dumbing down the Navy. Just like civilian grade schools... dumbing down. I've heard about Admiral Zumwalt's Navy and changes he instituted after becoming Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) in 1970... some for the better, some for the worse.
In my Standby Reserve, G.I. Bill years between '68 and '72, I was busy being educated, taking a wife, making a baby. Thus, I wasn't paying attention to all the racial strife within bases of all the Armed Forces. Yeah, I heard about inequitable percentage of the Army's Black Infantry on the front lines of combat down in-country in South Vietnam but not racial strife at Ft. Bragg, Camp Lejeune and other homeland installations.
After I finished reading Troubled Water, I found myself thinking, surely the Navy got its act together after the Vietnam War ended. It couldn't have remained screwed up forever. I asked Commander Peter Fey, USN-retired who got his commission in the early 1990's. He told me, "I'll admit that the military I knew was 100% different... thanks largely to the fact that its now voluntary. That got rid of most of the issues... and now its truly a professional service. Duty first, and frankly woe betide someone that isn't a good shipmate."
Troubled Water: Race, Mutiny, and Bravery on the USS Kitty Hawk
Bloody Sixteen: The USS Oriskany and Air Wing 16 during the Vietnam War
Flight of the Intruder
