D Day Plus Seventy

D- DAY PLUS SEVENTY  --   FROM LINCOLN TO BERGDAHL 

FRI 6 June 14, 2014 1724  

Today is D Day plus 70.  As one who was born in the late 1930s it is interesting to contrast the world today as compared with seventy years ago.  I don’t pretend to have a special insightful view of the changes in our daily lives, but I was struck on some observations reading the Washington Post over the last few days.

On the day allied forces landed in the beaches of Normandy, our nation was engaged in one of the most vociferous and costly wars this young nation had ever faced.  At the time it seemed that the whole fabric of Western civilization hung in the balance.  As a small child growing up on southern Long Island I certainly didn't realize the significance of the battles beyond my family’s fears as spelled out in the daily newspapers.  But I do remember the air raids then when I hid under a table in my home as my parents turned out all the lights.  The air raid warden was making her rounds to underscore the necessity of our responses as there were German submarines lurking just off the coast of New York.  Guess it was true.

Korea came and went.  I did not have a dog in that fight and maybe being a teenager I thought I had more important things to do, like fitting in, girls and may be college?

Viet Nam was different.  It was personal.  I had been in the Navy and flew off of Atlantic Fleet aircraft carriers, I believed in the mission.  My brother was serving two tours of in-county Vietnam and saw combat as a helicopter pilot and was wounded.  He received multiple awards and ribbons, but also saw the terrible consequences of a combat culture.  He and his unit had confronted Lieutenant Calley when the young Infantry lieutenant took the hostilities into his own hands and seemed hell bent on exterminating the North Vietnamese and civilians he encountered.  This was My Lai and photographers recorded the senseless slaughter.   Hundreds were reported killed.  A confrontation ensued between Calley and the pilot in my brother’s unit who landed and tied to stop Calley.  Several Vietnamese were rescued and a report was forwarded up the chain of command of this atrocity.  Somehow this report was lost, but the pilot who had this dust off with Calley and others on the ground were heard and a commission headed by General William Peers did investigate this debacle.  Pulitzer Prize award winning journalist Seymour Hersh chronicled this sad chapter of our history in dispatches on the war.

Today I remembered another chapter in this saga.  A good friend and my late son’s Godfather also perished in Vietnam.  He was flying when he was picked off by a chance shot by a ground fighter.  He was one of the good guys right?  We both were loyal Americans serving our country’s and our best interests.  Correct?  It just didn't seem fair.  I cried long and hard when his brother called me and told me the horrible news.  It was a just war, wasn't it?

Iraq came and we committed troops for another fight.  It was followed by conflict in Afghanistan.   We are told that we will be out of Afghanistan and turning the hostilities over to the Afghans by the end of this year.  We will see.   Late journalist Michael Hastings wrote a great book on the generals in these wars (The Operators).   He was as a gifted young journalist who tragically died in an auto accident about a year ago.  His tome is thought provoking and a good read.

Now we have Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl who was traded for five Taliban warriors a few days ago.   He had been held by the Taliban for over five years during these late days of American involvement in a place nearly a half a world away.  It is very controversial to the American public, especially the military.  Was Bergdahl a deserter and a traitor?  It seems clear that he left his post on possibly multiple occasions and had views on the war that did not support our role.  We do not have a lot of facts except he apparently was very ill and the Obama Administration felt that it was best to get him home.  In an iconic photo in today’s Washington Post, the President is shown from the back with his arms around Bowe Bergdahl’s parents.  Remember that he is a sitting US President who brought home a controversial soldier who left his post and was captured in this controversial war.

We have covered a lot of ground of American wars over the past seventy years.  Why am I interested?  Partly genes, partly because of the lessons we have to learn about man’s insatiable need to war within our species.  According to presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin President Abraham Lincoln put his cabinet together from his rivals in the 1860 Republican primary (Team of Rivals).  Lincoln’s primary rival was his future Secretary of State, William Henry Seward who he finally beat on the last ballot.  The two men were close and author John M. Taylor highlighted this kinship in a well-researched and annotated book, (William Henry Seward - Lincoln’s Right Hand).  I owe my middle name to my progenitor, aka Uncle Henry.  So said my mother.  What do I know?  The things you learn at the dinner table.

Lincoln had his share of problems with his generals in the Civil War.  The lines of communication were simpler, but subject to individual reporting through the press which was very controlled.

As a nation, which had suffered Pearl Harbor and the threat of Hitler, we were much more united by D Day.   Electronic and print journalist Tom Brokaw (The Greatest Generation) looked back on D Day in 1984 and proffered that the World War Two generation’s perseverance through difficult times set the tone for the greatest generation.  Yes, this was before television and the Internet.  Opinion makers were fewer and more concentrated in our country’s population centers and Big Media. 

Still there were some doubts.  CBS brought General and past President Dwight Eisenhower back to Normandy in 1964.  The former Allied Commander on that fateful June 6, 1944 day viewed the crosses in the US cemetery at Saint Laurent and reportedly said, “We must find some way…to gain an eternal peace for this world.”

We are now fifty years after our entry into Southeast Asia and Viet Nam.  As my generation’s war, we were committed to the mission, but I know few, who served in the military during that time who were born in the 1930s and 1940s, who do not now have misgivings about our involvement in that faraway place whose culture we never did really understand.  Are we the confused generation?

Iraq and Afghanistan occurred for us in the Internet generation.  The public which was interested had an unfettered access to facts and opinions on the wars.    As Michael Hastings reported President Obama fired General Stanley McCrystal and effectively ended the careers of several other four star officers.  

But now, the press is embedded in combat units and can report instantaneously on the activities of the troops during fighting and even during liberty.  Anything is grist for the mill.

Which brings to Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.  Michael Hastings first reported on him several years ago in the Rolling Stone.  According to Hastings, the sergeant was emailing his parents with his disillusionment with the war.  Imagine that.  Instant communications.  Sure changes the calculus.

Lincoln and Eisenhower did not have to contend with the hyper-connected world that Obama has to.  Still civilian control of the military is of paramount importance, as is an open and unfettered press.  The press will have increased pressure to report only those things that are in the public interest.  That will continue to be a difficult call and challenge to the government to constantly assess what needs to be kept from the public currently.  We will hopefully be a power for good in an increasingly conflicted world.

The Bergdahl saga has many more news cycles to go.  We should be patient for ultimately only careful review by the powers that be will tell us more details.  History will provide a more balanced view of this enigma in an Internet era.

Why am I interested?  I was born in 1939 and a world away from current technology and its implications.  As the first father and leading prophet of the electronic age Marshall McLuhan said in 1977 “The Medium is the Message.”  Think about it. 

-ooo-

Douglas Seward Lloyd was in the military from 1961 to 1999 first as a Naval Flight Officer and later as a Medical Officer. He served in the active duty and reserve Navy and retired in 1999 as a Navy Captain.

He was trained as a physician and spent most of his forty year career in government public service at the state and national level in addition to his time in the military.  He lives in Columbia, Maryland where he is semi-retired.  He likes to blog, a new found interest.

UPDATE on Thursday 31 July 2014 - As I was retyping this today and correcting some grammatical errors, I checked the Web and saw the US House Armed Services Committee passed a non-binding resolution two days ago condemning the President for the swap of Bergdahl for the five Taliban prisoners.  It will be considered by the full House and Senate just before the fall Congressional elections.  Still haven't heard from the US Army except that he has been returned to full active duty.

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A Great American is Laid to Rest in Arlington National Cemetary

Bugles sounded once again at Arlington National Cemetery yesterday as a great American was laid to rest. Jeremiah Denton joined his brothers and sisters at arms in a solemn ceremony at our premier national resting place for Americans who are true heroes.  He has served his country and served well.  I did not know him but I wish I had. He was an Rear Admiral, US Senator, Naval Aviator, Gentleman, and not necessarily in that order.  He was also a Father, Son, Brother, Grandfather, and Patriot.

Our paths never crossed but they might have.  I only remember him as a member of our club, Navy fliers. And we had served in our squadron VC/VAW-12 but at different times. We were the eyes of the fleet.

He had an illustrious career and lived in Virginia Beach until his death at age 89 on March 28th of this year. Like many other Navy fliers he epitomized the values of our country and retired to a community where many of our shipmates settled after duty.   It was a friendly community where former and retired military folks could feel at home.

He's the one who served his country in battle and as a POW at the Hanoi Hilton  He is remembered famously for blinking T-O-R-T-U-R-E during an interview with a Japanese television reporter while at that infamous abode during his imprisonment.  Other prominent Naval Aviators there included late Vice Admiral and Naval Aviator James Stockdale who ran for Vice-President and John McCain who also became a US Senator.  Admiral Stockdale who spent a incredible four years in solitary and 7 1/2 years as a POW received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his exploits. Senator John keeps watch over the veterans interests now.  A daunting task.  For that he deserves another medal.

So much is happening in our county now, that we must not forget those who fought for us.

Admiral Denton:  Jeremiah Andrew Denton, Jr.  was born 15 July 1924 in Mobile to Irene Steele Denton and Jeremiah Andrew Denton Senior.  He was the oldest of three boys and I am embarrassed to say I never read his book or know about his parents.  They must have been a strongly positive influence in his life.  He attended McGill Institute and Spring Hill College in Mobile. It was war time  probably the last great one for us, when he went to our Canoe Club, the US Naval Academy.  Due to the need for recruits for WW II he had entered the USNA in 1943 and graduated in the accelerated class in 1947.  He didn't make that one but did qualify as a blimp and fixed wing pilot.  He served in a variety of aircraft including one of the predecessor aircraft to the WF-2 or E-1B where I spent many a hour on aircraft carriers and in the air.  He was also a test pilot, flight instructor and commanding officer of an attack squadron and was in his plane, the A-6 Intruder when he was shot down. His area of specialty was Naval Operations and Strategy in the era of the big aircraft carrier.  While he was a giant in Naval lore and tactics during the mid fifties, his value today is that he is a patriot and a role model for future Naval Officers.  For his service he received the Navy Cross, two Distinguished Service Medals, three Silver Stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross, a Bronze Star for Valor and the Purple Heart.  He had other accolades and you can search the web for that as I did.

He wrote a book titled, When Hell Was in Session.  It was made into a movie in 1979 with actor Hal Holbrook playing the leading role as the admiral.  I intend to find it.

Now, it is not my intent to use this blog to proselytize for any particular point of view or political philosophy, but it just strikes me that a lot is happening in our world around the clock that is interesting to reflect on.  Maybe I can get a dialogue on our great land and what we stand for as it is clear the times are a changing.

First of all we must honor those patriots who served so we can enjoy the best quality of life in we have ever seen. Thankfully we won't see another war like the Second World one unless we decided to exterminate life as we know it.  Personalty I don't think we will see another Vietnam, but we did see incursions in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Those who actually served in those wars that I know, don't feel about them like noted TV journalist Tom Brokaw --who who wrote about the greatest generation-- has observed about that generation.

Now we have Bowe Bergdahl and terrorists who blow- up airliners if even a mistake and a horrible one if it was.  Sergeant Bergdahl was sick and may still be sick, I don't know and don't intend to use this blog to ply my clinical training as a doctor.  I know as a military man, and I still consider myself as one but not a combat veteran, the US Army needs to investigate that debacle and let the public know what happened when he left his post.  From this side of the pond, it seems like the US Army had its share of problems in-country Afghanistan, no too dissimilar to those reported out of Vietnam.  But then again, we sailors spend most of our time off shore where the conditions are better than in a foxhole or where ever one is bivouacked in these "police actions."  We used that term in Korea and it probably applies to the next three or so combat actions.our nation was involved in.

Then we had terrorists killing in cold blood 289 innocent civilians who did nothing more than be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our sometimes friend and former cold war adversary says, "Who me ?" But social media caught his armored missile carriers slinking back to home.  Can't hide anymore.

How about our allies who wage war by shelling the homes of their enemy.  Don't know about you, but I feel very uncomfortable about that.  Hope Secretary Kerry can broker a cease-fire there, but the whole area is a snake pit.  I think ISIS is another word for viper.

Courage, conviction in a set of positive values, an ethical framework, good health practices which leads to resilience and honor to our fore-bearers are paramount to all of us.  In a former life I was a Boy Scout and we were taught that we were to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. The Boy Scouts are not as popular as they were forty years ago, but the world is changed.  And we need to change with it.  Our values shouldn't.

To Admiral Denton.  BRAVO ZULU.  You have served us well.  I for one will tip one for you in a few months at our squadron reunion.  I know you will be there in spirit.
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