As I reminded Lucian a while back, if you wanted to know ( in ‘63 to ‘67 at least) what West Point really thought of leadership and war, you just needed to notice the first thing a visitor saw when he or she entered the visitor’s center in Grant Hall. Hanging above the desk of the immaculately groomed cadet guard was an oil portrait of General Truscott - an outsider with a year of high school. His portrait may have been the only non- graduate in that immaculately maintained and plushly furnished building. George Marshall may have been in there but I never noticed.
A Grand Old Man, Lucian. Good to remember them all today. We owe so much.
My Dad was a Bataan “survivor.” Almost four years in a succession of brutal POW camps - from Cabanatuan to Fukuoka #7. He made it. Life from that point on was a miraculous gift. As a kid I was never allowed to complain about ANYTHING! Not cold, heat, hunger, or pain. I was alive and that should be enough. It turned out to be a lot to overcome. We’re not meant to be stoics in civilian life.
My sister-in-law’s father was a Japanese POW. He never held any ill will against the Japanese people. He worked as a civilian employee for the government and was sent to Japan. He took his wife and daughter and for two years they’ve enjoyed its people and sights. Funny what war does to those who went through hell and back.
The empathy and compassion shown by your grandfather definitely was passed on to you. Here’s to our grandfathers, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, sons and daughters who have given their lives for the greater good. If we want the freedom that all of their efforts gave to us, we need to do our part: VOTE and VOTE BLUE!
My father fought on the Anzio beachhead and, unknown to me until now, under Gen. Truscott. He didn't speak much about the war. He contracted hepatitis just before the Battle of the Bulge and was in a hospital during that battle. He rejoined his unit and participated in the liberation of Dachau. When I was in junior high school in the mid 70's, he agreed to give a presentation to an assembly of history classes at my school. He carried a camera through the war and documented his experiences. This was the first and one of the few times I heard him truly open up about the war. He shared his pics to the audience using an overhead protector. He talked about how the German defenses at Anzio lobbed shells from the mountains down onto the invading troops for nearly a month. His pictures captured the explosions and hell of the war. He also shared his pictures of the horrors of Dachau. It was a sobering presentation but I think an important history lesson for us kids to get an idea of what the war was like for the average g.i.'s. He used to say that hepatitis may have saved his life since he missed the Battle of the Bulge in that hospital. How he made it out of Anzio and the rest of the war alive, I don't know. Blind luck, fate, who knows? He died at the young age of 60 due to cancer. I was only 24 at the time of his death and wish I had been mature enough before his death to engage him on the topic and learn more. Who knows, though. A lot of soldiers in the Greatest Generation kept their memories and the associated horrors to themselves.
My Uncle Ed was in the Battle of the Bulge and taken prisoner. Luckily he and his platoon were rescued not long after they were in a POW camp.
His name was Edward Shays and, yes, related to the Shays of the Shays Rebellion of the Revolutionary War. He never spoke of his ordeal. But his one child my cousin BarbaraAnn and like a sister to me told me he collapsed at the start of the march to the POW camp and his partner picked him up and carried him unconscious the whole way which in that snow was a long haul! A day or two later they were rescued by our troops and freed! I thank that unknown soldier and his partner for bearing the weight of my beloved Uncle Ed so I would be able to know him!
"...kept their memories and the associated horrors to themselves."
On his day of reflection keep in mind war is horror. All of them. Those who romanticize war in literature (fiction and non-fiction) perpetrate war by painting over the horror including with sweet sounding words, valor, bravery, duty, country, sky guys, heroes, brotherhood, blah, blah, blah.
FTR: Tom Brokaw did not live to know may GENS, prolly 5 at most. Nor was he given authority to name any GEN best. He too contributes to the romancing of war.
My nod and respect to your late Grandfather. Those who have experienced the horrors of war find no solace in speaking or writing about them. And know well for those listening or reading the term can't imagine applies.
One of the best General Truscott stories was reported in one of Ernie Pyle’s books. General Truscott commanded the Third Infantry Division in Sicily. At one point he was in his command car and came across a group of Army engineers who were working on a very difficult and dangerous bridging activity over a large and deep ravine. The general and his driver got out of the car and sat and watched the engineers at work. When the bridge was complete, the engineers looked around for a vehicle that they could use to test the bridge’s safety. Without another word to the engineers, General Truscott and his driver simply got back in the car and drove across the newly-completed bridge. Pyle reports that the engineers talked about that for months.
Great story! BTW, the Combat Engineers near me in Vietnam used to replace in hours two small bridges by us that got blown up a few times each. I was not surprised to see they re-opened the Baltimore channel "sooner than expected." They were great then and now.
If the men came from a matriarchal society or family, yes. Having that experience they would prefer wimmin and 2spirit people to take the top roles while they feel honored in supportive roles.
My larger point is men will benefit from observing, absorbing, and serving wimmin and 2spirit people. Will take generations because as it stands today men (general sense or as wimmin around the world say "MEN" and leave it at that) have long been stuck in a rut whereas wimmin and 2spirit people continued to learn and unlearn.
Have men learned and unlearned what Memorial Day is truly about? It is a day recognizing man's failure to strive and achieve a polite and peaceful society. Rather than recognize what is, it's twisted into something entirely different.
In the natural world, including in the home, it's the female who will step forward to protect her family from males. The female's innateness to protect rather than attack defies the male's contrived flight or fight which fails to recognize the first element freeze nor what acknowledging protect. And the word flight sounds good however the better word is flee.
My father was a concentration camp survivor. He was liberated on May 5, 1945 from Gusen II, a sub camp of Mauthausen by the 41st Tank Battalion of the 11th Armed Division. He was forever grateful to his liberators, to the USA.
Not the Mauldin I knew. He was a very sweet friend to both my mother and me. (They were both Sun Times propties. Maybe different syndicates. Don't remember.
Thank you, Lucian. Your Grandpa was an extraordinary man, and it is good to be reminded of him at least once a year. I am also reminded of my Grandfather, Gen. Thomas Betts, who knew your Grandpa, and of my Grandpa, the admiral, who made the care of the sailors under his command the highest priority. All of these grandpas, yours and mine, have been models of leadership for me.
Thanks Lucian - for those who have never seen this film, it shows what messaging - or propaganda, if you prefer - the War Department found extremely important to help supply a wider context, especially in light of the justifiable reticence General Truscott recognized in the troops he commanded.
Five Came Back, by Mark Harris, is a wonderful book about five Hollywood directors during WWII, and a nice companion piece. It's still in print in paperback. And everyone should read Up Front and The Brass Ring by the incomparable Bill Mauldin. Not sure if they are still in print but are available through abebooks.com.
Thank you Lucian for the beautiful and touching essay. And thank you Mr. Trumbull for the WWII “Why We Fight” link. I am reminded that in 1968 my generation’s soldiers only had the John Wayne “Green Berets” Hollywood government endorsed, pro-war propaganda movie that we were forced to watch in basic training. It was as sickening then as it is now. Today I mourn the loss of 60,000 of our young men and women in the Vietnam War(and untold wounded). I wish I could believe that they did not die in vain but I can’t. Wishing a peaceful Memorial Day to all.
Yeah, the recitation of Japanese, Italian, and German invasions of nation after nation, along with the filmed marches and speeches explicitly declaring fascist ideology, mark a vast gulf between that era and the wars in Indochina.
I just finished watching "Prelude to War" for about the fifth time over the last ten years, and the similarities with Donald "Deny, Denounce, Delay" Trump and the three dictatorship's leaders is blatantly obvious.
Scope & Content: This motion picture film focuses on the German military offensive, 1939-1940. In Reel 1, Adolf Hitler, in the Reichstag, pledges peace on Oct. 6, 1939; Panzer units roll across Denmark; armored, naval, and air power strikes Norway and Germans parade in Oslo. In Reel 2, British troops land in Norway, German planes attack ships evacuating the British, Ferdinand Foch inspects French troops in 1917 and Paris is defended by the "taxicab" army. In Reel 3, French troops man the Maginot Line in 1940, there is an analysis of the weakness of French morale and a dramatization of German propaganda. Footage also shows the French defensive strategy, Nazi airborne troops landing at Rotterdam, and armored columns racing across Holland. Reel 4 chronicles the Dutch surrender, but Rotterdam is reduced to ruins by bombing. Footage shows Panzer units invading Belgium and taking an Albert Canal fort, and advancing Allied columns are impeded by fleeing refugees. Reel 5 shows Panzer units, preceded by engineers, breaking through the Ardennes Forest, crossing the Meuse River, and taking the Sedan. Also included in an analysis of the operation. In Reel 6, Allied troops are evacuated at Dunkirk, Winston Churchill inspects the survivors, Italian troops invade France, President Franklin Roosevelt deplores the action, and Benito Mussolini speaks. General Henri Philippe Petain, Pierre Laval, Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goring are shown as the French surrender is signed. Hitler tours Paris and Generals Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud inspect free French units in North Africa.
You, Lucian Truscott,the fourth of that name, are indeed a fitting testament to those who came before you. Keep on keeping on.
As I reminded Lucian a while back, if you wanted to know ( in ‘63 to ‘67 at least) what West Point really thought of leadership and war, you just needed to notice the first thing a visitor saw when he or she entered the visitor’s center in Grant Hall. Hanging above the desk of the immaculately groomed cadet guard was an oil portrait of General Truscott - an outsider with a year of high school. His portrait may have been the only non- graduate in that immaculately maintained and plushly furnished building. George Marshall may have been in there but I never noticed.
Beautifully said, beautifully written -- and much appreciated by this member of the Silent Generation.
Thank you for this post.
Today at 1500 local, I will play “Taps” on my very big bugle (my tuba) and then play a short recital.
My Dad survived WWII. So many didn’t.
Well done. At our house the instrument of choice for TAPS at 3:00 on Memorial Day is YouTube in B flat.
Perfect!
A Grand Old Man, Lucian. Good to remember them all today. We owe so much.
My Dad was a Bataan “survivor.” Almost four years in a succession of brutal POW camps - from Cabanatuan to Fukuoka #7. He made it. Life from that point on was a miraculous gift. As a kid I was never allowed to complain about ANYTHING! Not cold, heat, hunger, or pain. I was alive and that should be enough. It turned out to be a lot to overcome. We’re not meant to be stoics in civilian life.
I heard from my son recently what sounds like a Bushido teaching, “It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.”
Understood, Jack Haynes.
My sister-in-law’s father was a Japanese POW. He never held any ill will against the Japanese people. He worked as a civilian employee for the government and was sent to Japan. He took his wife and daughter and for two years they’ve enjoyed its people and sights. Funny what war does to those who went through hell and back.
The empathy and compassion shown by your grandfather definitely was passed on to you. Here’s to our grandfathers, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, sons and daughters who have given their lives for the greater good. If we want the freedom that all of their efforts gave to us, we need to do our part: VOTE and VOTE BLUE!
Blue all the way
Well said, Christina.
Thank you. It was simply the truth. Something TFG just can never seem to tell!
My father fought on the Anzio beachhead and, unknown to me until now, under Gen. Truscott. He didn't speak much about the war. He contracted hepatitis just before the Battle of the Bulge and was in a hospital during that battle. He rejoined his unit and participated in the liberation of Dachau. When I was in junior high school in the mid 70's, he agreed to give a presentation to an assembly of history classes at my school. He carried a camera through the war and documented his experiences. This was the first and one of the few times I heard him truly open up about the war. He shared his pics to the audience using an overhead protector. He talked about how the German defenses at Anzio lobbed shells from the mountains down onto the invading troops for nearly a month. His pictures captured the explosions and hell of the war. He also shared his pictures of the horrors of Dachau. It was a sobering presentation but I think an important history lesson for us kids to get an idea of what the war was like for the average g.i.'s. He used to say that hepatitis may have saved his life since he missed the Battle of the Bulge in that hospital. How he made it out of Anzio and the rest of the war alive, I don't know. Blind luck, fate, who knows? He died at the young age of 60 due to cancer. I was only 24 at the time of his death and wish I had been mature enough before his death to engage him on the topic and learn more. Who knows, though. A lot of soldiers in the Greatest Generation kept their memories and the associated horrors to themselves.
My Uncle Ed was in the Battle of the Bulge and taken prisoner. Luckily he and his platoon were rescued not long after they were in a POW camp.
His name was Edward Shays and, yes, related to the Shays of the Shays Rebellion of the Revolutionary War. He never spoke of his ordeal. But his one child my cousin BarbaraAnn and like a sister to me told me he collapsed at the start of the march to the POW camp and his partner picked him up and carried him unconscious the whole way which in that snow was a long haul! A day or two later they were rescued by our troops and freed! I thank that unknown soldier and his partner for bearing the weight of my beloved Uncle Ed so I would be able to know him!
"...kept their memories and the associated horrors to themselves."
On his day of reflection keep in mind war is horror. All of them. Those who romanticize war in literature (fiction and non-fiction) perpetrate war by painting over the horror including with sweet sounding words, valor, bravery, duty, country, sky guys, heroes, brotherhood, blah, blah, blah.
FTR: Tom Brokaw did not live to know may GENS, prolly 5 at most. Nor was he given authority to name any GEN best. He too contributes to the romancing of war.
My nod and respect to your late Grandfather. Those who have experienced the horrors of war find no solace in speaking or writing about them. And know well for those listening or reading the term can't imagine applies.
Thank you for sharing this story. Your fathers' presentation has probably stayed in the minds of those who were listening.
One of the best General Truscott stories was reported in one of Ernie Pyle’s books. General Truscott commanded the Third Infantry Division in Sicily. At one point he was in his command car and came across a group of Army engineers who were working on a very difficult and dangerous bridging activity over a large and deep ravine. The general and his driver got out of the car and sat and watched the engineers at work. When the bridge was complete, the engineers looked around for a vehicle that they could use to test the bridge’s safety. Without another word to the engineers, General Truscott and his driver simply got back in the car and drove across the newly-completed bridge. Pyle reports that the engineers talked about that for months.
Great story! BTW, the Combat Engineers near me in Vietnam used to replace in hours two small bridges by us that got blown up a few times each. I was not surprised to see they re-opened the Baltimore channel "sooner than expected." They were great then and now.
Wow!
Thank you. Now, if we could only find a way for humans to avoid war, that would be a true ‘win’.
In leadership positions replace men w/wimmin and 2spirt people.
Without that change, the cycle will continue indefinitely.
Signed: a male merciless indian savage
How about replace them with women or all races?
If the men came from a matriarchal society or family, yes. Having that experience they would prefer wimmin and 2spirit people to take the top roles while they feel honored in supportive roles.
My larger point is men will benefit from observing, absorbing, and serving wimmin and 2spirit people. Will take generations because as it stands today men (general sense or as wimmin around the world say "MEN" and leave it at that) have long been stuck in a rut whereas wimmin and 2spirit people continued to learn and unlearn.
Have men learned and unlearned what Memorial Day is truly about? It is a day recognizing man's failure to strive and achieve a polite and peaceful society. Rather than recognize what is, it's twisted into something entirely different.
In the natural world, including in the home, it's the female who will step forward to protect her family from males. The female's innateness to protect rather than attack defies the male's contrived flight or fight which fails to recognize the first element freeze nor what acknowledging protect. And the word flight sounds good however the better word is flee.
Thank You LT IV. Your Grandfather's Act of Deep Respect (LT Jr.) to those fallen soldiers was Heartfelt and Honorable.
Yes, never forget the fallen, the dead.
Alan South of Boston
My father was a concentration camp survivor. He was liberated on May 5, 1945 from Gusen II, a sub camp of Mauthausen by the 41st Tank Battalion of the 11th Armed Division. He was forever grateful to his liberators, to the USA.
Lucian, you are a wonderful wordsmith. Thank you.
War is hell.
I have no direct ties to the military, or military dead, but I salute yours with a grateful heart.
And to read of "Mr. Muldoon," all these years later ... oh, my.
I bet you remember that in Chicago he was one ornery....Bill Mauldin was perpetually pissed off!
My like button doesn't work. Ilike your comment.
Not the Mauldin I knew. He was a very sweet friend to both my mother and me. (They were both Sun Times propties. Maybe different syndicates. Don't remember.
My dad, Sgt. Johnny Gillen, Pacific AND Europe 41-45. He never really spoke about it. God bless them all.
Thank you, Lucian. Your Grandpa was an extraordinary man, and it is good to be reminded of him at least once a year. I am also reminded of my Grandfather, Gen. Thomas Betts, who knew your Grandpa, and of my Grandpa, the admiral, who made the care of the sailors under his command the highest priority. All of these grandpas, yours and mine, have been models of leadership for me.
Why We Fight: Prelude to War (Frank Capra)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm3GsSWKyso
Thanks Lucian - for those who have never seen this film, it shows what messaging - or propaganda, if you prefer - the War Department found extremely important to help supply a wider context, especially in light of the justifiable reticence General Truscott recognized in the troops he commanded.
Narrated by Walter Huston.
Five Came Back, by Mark Harris, is a wonderful book about five Hollywood directors during WWII, and a nice companion piece. It's still in print in paperback. And everyone should read Up Front and The Brass Ring by the incomparable Bill Mauldin. Not sure if they are still in print but are available through abebooks.com.
Thank you Lucian for the beautiful and touching essay. And thank you Mr. Trumbull for the WWII “Why We Fight” link. I am reminded that in 1968 my generation’s soldiers only had the John Wayne “Green Berets” Hollywood government endorsed, pro-war propaganda movie that we were forced to watch in basic training. It was as sickening then as it is now. Today I mourn the loss of 60,000 of our young men and women in the Vietnam War(and untold wounded). I wish I could believe that they did not die in vain but I can’t. Wishing a peaceful Memorial Day to all.
Yeah, the recitation of Japanese, Italian, and German invasions of nation after nation, along with the filmed marches and speeches explicitly declaring fascist ideology, mark a vast gulf between that era and the wars in Indochina.
I just finished watching "Prelude to War" for about the fifth time over the last ten years, and the similarities with Donald "Deny, Denounce, Delay" Trump and the three dictatorship's leaders is blatantly obvious.
Parts 2, 3, 4 of Why We Fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-y_oz06_cQ
Why We Fight: The Nazis Strike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx_y9zk-N90
Why We Fight: The Battle of Britain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXP0e7vPnx8
Why We Fight: War Comes to America
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR1fP8TvM-k And this:
Why We Fight: Divide and Conquer
Scope & Content: This motion picture film focuses on the German military offensive, 1939-1940. In Reel 1, Adolf Hitler, in the Reichstag, pledges peace on Oct. 6, 1939; Panzer units roll across Denmark; armored, naval, and air power strikes Norway and Germans parade in Oslo. In Reel 2, British troops land in Norway, German planes attack ships evacuating the British, Ferdinand Foch inspects French troops in 1917 and Paris is defended by the "taxicab" army. In Reel 3, French troops man the Maginot Line in 1940, there is an analysis of the weakness of French morale and a dramatization of German propaganda. Footage also shows the French defensive strategy, Nazi airborne troops landing at Rotterdam, and armored columns racing across Holland. Reel 4 chronicles the Dutch surrender, but Rotterdam is reduced to ruins by bombing. Footage shows Panzer units invading Belgium and taking an Albert Canal fort, and advancing Allied columns are impeded by fleeing refugees. Reel 5 shows Panzer units, preceded by engineers, breaking through the Ardennes Forest, crossing the Meuse River, and taking the Sedan. Also included in an analysis of the operation. In Reel 6, Allied troops are evacuated at Dunkirk, Winston Churchill inspects the survivors, Italian troops invade France, President Franklin Roosevelt deplores the action, and Benito Mussolini speaks. General Henri Philippe Petain, Pierre Laval, Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goring are shown as the French surrender is signed. Hitler tours Paris and Generals Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud inspect free French units in North Africa.
Thank you