The Chaplain’s Assistant:God, Country, and Vietnam

Musings on the 4th of July

2009-07-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

I’m writing this on July 4th, one of the holidays that is most likely to induce patriotic feelings. Personally, the term “patriotism” gives me pause because it is so ill used, particularly in election years.

The word itself has roots that go back to Latin, and means a love of, literally, the fatherland. It seems to me that many folk who call themselves patriots love the idea of “America,” but not the people who populate the land. All too often, there is a negative, arrogant, nationalistic attitude that surrounds the concept of patriotism (“America is the greatest country in the world”), and a racial (white) and ethnic (Euro-centric) pride that squeezes between the words.

There is also a strange quasi-religious twist that has become attached to the concept of patriotism. This comes out strongly in recent political races, where one party believes it has the moral edge over the other. “I am a X, and therefore I am a better Christian than you,” as if one’s political beliefs qualifies that person for a higher place in Heaven. Combining a belief that God is a member of a particular political party is a sure-fire way to cause havoc to any society.

For these reasons, I don’t use the term “patriotic” to describe my love for this country and for the people who inhabit it. I do, however, believe that our Founding Fathers and Mothers gave us the moral and philosophical principles to create a society that had never-before existed. It was a society ruled by law, not by men, and the laws (in theory) were to come from the people. So far as is known, no other society has existed that was founded on these principles. It was a stunning achievement.

So on the 4th of July, this is what I celebrate and this is one reason that I love this country. I wish a happy and thoughtful July 4th to us all.

Memorial Day in Washington, D.C.

2009-05-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

I celebrated Memorial Day in D.C. this year, and found it to be a moving experience far beyond other Memorial Days in my life. As I stepped into the new World War II memorial, I was moved to tears by the bouquets of flowers that had been placed throughout the memorial. That simple gesture spoke volumes of the grief and gratitude of a nation that will not forget the sacrifices of “ The Greatest Generation.”

A week earlier, I had been vacationing in London, England, with my life-partner. Her father had been a doctor in the Army in Africa and Italy during the war, and because of this, he had missed the first three years of her life as he cared for the wounded and dying so far from home. We visited St. Paul’s Church where we came upon a chapel that had been created for American soldiers by a grateful England. The stained glass windows had images of sailors, airmen, and soldiers. The sun shone that day through these multicolored images onto a simple alter and peaceful area nestled near to where the legendary kings and queens of England were interred.

We both had headphones on that were attached to electronic guides for the church. As the man’s voice finished describing the memorial to the fallen Americans, a choir began singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic. You can imagine the emotions that passed through us; she, for her father, and me as a veteran of the war in Vietnam. To have an ally honor our veterans in such a way left me at a loss for words.

One week later, when we visited the WWII memorial, the Korean memorial, and finally the Vietnam memorial–where I, once again, read the names of some of my friends–all these sights and sounds from London and D.C. blended together to make those moments more vivid and meaningful and me more reflective. In the past, it has been easy to attend Memorial Day events, see the parades, hear elderly veterans stumble through formal phrases of remembrance, watch flags passing by, and then turn toward home and family activities. Not this year, however.

Why? Because statisticians tell us that Vietnam veterans are now dying at the rate of one a minute. Each day, 1,800 of us leave this life, these images of the war of our youth. There were almost half-a-million Vietnam veterans and friends on motorcycles rumbling around D.C. as part of the Rolling Thunder tradition. Chances are good that some of those riders will not be with us next year. They are trying to keep the memories of their comrades alive, to remind the country that for them the hostilities in Vietnam ended decades ago, but the battles continue for veterans and their families to bring some meaning to the lives that were lost or damaged.

Our country has a very short memory. People who were not in the war are quick to forget, and the generations of Americans who have been born since the war have little understanding of what it cost our society in lives and treasure.

But even as Vietnam veterans struggle to find meaning to their sacrifices, our country needs to awaken to the fact that our sons and daughters fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are giving us new reasons to mourn and laud their sacrifices for us. For this country, every day needs to be a Memorial Day to honor the fallen and care for the veterans and their families. Only then will we as a nation be able to say that we truly honor our veterans.

Rethinking Afghanistan

2009-04-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

The decision to send more troops into Afghanistan looks worse with each passing day. The country is distracted with the economic crisis at home, and not paying attention to the corruption that is raising the cost to the taxpayer and the lives of our troops.

Brave New Films has put together a number of interviews with economists, Afghanis, and troops on the ground. You can find it here.

Congress needs to pay attention!

The Afghanistan Foray

2009-04-15T04:49:00.000-07:00

While I was disappointed with Obama’s decision to beef up the military advisors in Afghanistan, I also think that he has several good points. My major concern is that, like Bush, he does not have a clear exist strategy.

When I was serving in Vietnam, my buddies and I would speculate on how to end the war. One of the more interesting suggestions was to cover the entire country of Vietnam (both North and South) in a couple of feet of asphalt and turn it into a parking lot for China.

What we thought would happen, happened. We predicted that President (Tricky Dick) Nixon would declare that he had won, and would then pull out all American troops. The puppet government that the U.S. had set up would collapse for lack of popular support (or even interest), and the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army would more or less walk in and take over the country. In the end, he did, and they did.

Now that Obama has announced that the majority of American troops would be withdrawn from Iraq, reports are filtering out of the country that the “insurgents” (if a foreign government had invaded the U.S., we would declare that American soldiers who were fighting to drive them out to be patriots) are laying low until the U.S. leaves, then they will really get to work dividing up the country. Why is anyone surprised by this? From the beginning, the war in Iraq has been a first cousin to the American war in Vietnam.

(And, by the way, I know that the original native fighters gave way to outside fighters several years ago. These are guys who have come from other Muslim countries to fight the American devil because they have nothing better to do back home.)

Now the new administration wants to change the nature of the war in Afghanistan, but the original goals of the war (defeating the Taliban and establishing a central government) remain unchanged. The U.S. and its allies had all but won the war before Bush, in yet another ill-advised move, pulled out the troops to invade Iraq.

When will we learn? When will we learn that attempting to impose western ideals on non-western nations does not work?

Military blogs

2008-06-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

Technology has changed how warfare is conducted, and how soldiers communicate with their families. In the Vietnam era, calling home meant getting your name on a waiting list for the MARS system, then having your calls monitored by several go-betweens. Now soldiers can literally “call home” via cell phones.

Blogs and email have replaced letters. A soldier can walk in from an operation, write about it, and have it on the Web in the blink of an eye. These are military blogs, “milblogs.” The writers are soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and support personnel such as nurses and doctors.

Slate.com indirectly hosts one of the best milblogs called “The Sandbox.” You can reach “The Sandbox” here . Anyone who has been in a war zone will recognize what the soldier/writers are talking about; if you’ve not been in the service, then this will be a good place to find out what it feels like.

Coach B checking in

2008-06-26T09:35:00.000-07:00

I am 62 just like JT . I am from Detroit and was drafted in to the army at FT Wayne . I also had a couple of yrs of college and went to Ft Knox for Basic & AIT. For 5 weeks I worked as a Chaplain’s Asst at Knox just doing a lot of polishing & paper shuffling. My mother thought that was a great Army job for me !! But then I was off to Germany and never made it into church in 18 months. This was a GREAT read , enjoyed every chapter. you did good with your first book. I would like for you to keep the theme going for your next book and I hope I don”t after wait 7 years.