These are times that try mens souls. Thanks for making me think too.

Wish others (those that dont do things) thought about why the doers do the things that they do.

Semper Paratus

I am a 3rd generation “service member” who just finished a run of almost a century of active duty service. We have had someone in every conflict in our Nations history. Also, part of my lineage here started in steerage, Ireland to Brooklyn NY to work in a glue factory.

My motivation was not to define war from the shooters point of view. If you are getting shot at, you’re at war.

Instead, I was hoping to draw a contrast between the Nation and its shooters.

I am intimately familiar with all the nuances, terms, and degrees of conflict. You combine that with more entanglements, low and mid intensity conflict, more ambiguity, more mess, and more fighting with our National growing casualty aversion and I see a growing separation between those who do and do not.

Nations and their greatness are defined by putting something larger than themselves first. Call it selfless service or patriotism, or wanting to make a difference. Until we can over come our self absorbed motives, our insatiable appetite and consumption, I see our invariable decline. There has to be something larger than ourselves.

Are these the times that try men’s souls? Perhaps, But I see us at a tipping point between fear and anger, greatness or nadir, America or something else.

If this forum invokes or prevokes pause and challenges status quo, we are winning. If people read this and think about their points of view, great. If however, we’re pontificating to our own round table and just communicating amongst ourselves we lose.

As always, I choose us. Perhaps naive or short sided, but I believe we can do anything once we decide to act.

E pluribus unum.

Semper Fidelis and thanks for making me think.

But the only member of my father’s family (I am third-generation American)who has died in uniform was my great uncle George who was a Marine killed in the US occupation of Nicaragua (1912-1933). Prior to coming to America my great-grandfather was with the British Army in the First Boer War (South Africa). Another more distant relative, Sir Philip Palin, commanded the 14th Sikh Regiment at Peshawar (of all places) in 1912-1914. He was finally involved in one of your real wars when the 14th Sikh’s was deployed to Gallipoli and then to Palestine during WWI.

I share these personal stories mostly to highlight that great powers often deploy their military — and sacrifice lives — in pursuit of efforts less than your definition of war, for better and for worse.

From previous pieces, I can tell you are a student of history, so you know all of this. You probably also know the theories of war that differentiate between the wars, for example, fought by the Roman Republic and the wars fought by the Roman Imperium.

Military motivation, objectives, and means change as the state sponsor of the military evolves.

HBO’s presentation of The Pacific renewed my interest in World War II. The series brings to life so many lives engulfed in horror and deprivation. I recently had the opportunity to visit the World War II museum in New Orleans. The museum is two blocks from my hotel in the Warehouse district of NOLA. I am a reservist in the US Coast Guard and am part of the response team that is trying to fix and mitigate the Gulf oil spill.
The museum features two Higgins boats that facilitated the allied invasions of Normandy and elsewhere. Not known to many people outside the Coast Guard, is the fact that many Coast Guardsmen manned Navy vessels during World War II. In fact, Douglass Munroe, the only Coastguardsmen to receive the Medal of Honor, manned an early version of the Higgins Boat at Guadalcanal. Munroe is credited with putting himself and his vessel in harm’s way to facilitate the safe landing of 400 marines. His reported last words were: “Did they get off.”
The museum is something to see. Two of the guides were veterans of the War and brought back childhood memories. I was taught that World War II veterans made the world safe for me and democracy. Several of my grammar and high school teachers were veterans or spouses of World War II veterans. They sometimes, though not often, told stories of the war, the depression, rationing, and the home front. As a child I marched with my little league team in the annual Memorial Day parade behind the hallowed veterans. Afterward, we were invited into the American Legion hall for cokes and got a glimpse of the hero’s clubhouse decorated with battle streamers, photos, and plaques that provided a snapshot of the “Good War.”
I thanked them then and I thank them now. The United States had been very good to me and my second generation American family –both my mother and father emigrated from Ireland in the fifties. I know of no other place that I would rather be. I am prepared to serve and if necessary give my life for my country. My seventeen year old son tells me that he will join the Coast Guard next year. I am proud of him. I will thank him too.
In that same vein, Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation tells the story of a great generation that endured the depravations of the Great Depression and the horrors of World War II. But ….as complex as World War II was, it provided a dichotomy. The Axis powers were not only inherently evil, they were an existential threat.

Never mind that the Allies included communist Russia and other unsavory characters.
Never mind that the Allies knowingly carpet bombed Dresden and other cities ….and dropped Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Never mind that the Allies used interrogation techniques that would not withstand the prohibitions of the UN Charter.

I do not question those actions. War is hell and many other things.

I am not sure if we are at war or if I was engaged in war. As a policeman I responded to both the 1993 and 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center. In the former occasion, I got a good scare and buried and mourned some of my colleagues and friends.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks said of the day’s events:
On September 11, the nation suffered the largest loss of life—2,973—on its soil as a result of hostile attack in its history. The FDNY suffered 343 fatalities—the largest loss of life of any response agency in history. The NYPD suffered 23 fatalities—the second largest loss of life of any police force in history, exceeded only by [37] members of PAPD officers lost the same day.

One of those New York City Police Officers was Police Officer Vincent Gabriel Danz, Shield # 2166, New York City Police Department, Emergency Service Squad #7. Vincent was also a Port Security Officer, Second Class with the United States Coast Guard Reserve, Sector New York. Vincent and his fellow rescuers participated in the rescue of over 25,000 people in the World Trade Center on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Vincent called home that day at 0950 hours and left the following message:

Hon, its 9:50 and I’m at the World Trade Center. I’m up in the building. Say a prayer that we get some of these people out. I’m OK but say a prayer for me. I love you.

In 2003 I was activated by my Coast Guard unit and “guarded the coast.” During my activation I responded to threats to the homeland. I got a good scare during a vessel boarding when turbulent seas threatened to crush my legs.

Upon demobilization, I returned to my police duties and responded to several threats to the homeland including the failed May 1attack in Times Square.

I emphatically do not equate my actions with those of the Marines at Peleliu or elsewhere I salute them for their heroic actions. I was in the rear with the gear and most times close to my family and a warm meal and roof over my head.

Homeland security practitioners speak of the new normalcy wherein terrorist’s acts and Katrina-like disasters are the norm. Is the new normalcy simply an awakening to reality –a world rife with risks and threats?

Pericles’ famous funeral oration exhorts the mourners of the Greek war dead to honor the dead by living exemplary lives.

The 118,000 service members who lost their lives had plenty of reason to sacrifice their lives be it War or War by another name.

We honor them best by living exemplary lives.

The problem is those declarations yield little real new power to the Executive Branch but they do indicate the continuity of the failed policies of the last four Administrations.

This guilty plea described in the post is a victory but the perp in this case reflects a failure of the American dream.