IT'S TIME TO CREATE 'THE FATHER OF MODERN NORTH KOREA'

On this 66^th anniversary of North Korea’s ignominious invasion of South Korea, June 25^th 1950, I’m suggesting a political solution for the intractable conflict between North Korea and the rest of the world. My solution taps into an aspect of pan-Asian culture that is little known and less understood in the Western World.

For shear volatility, nothing, even Radical Islamic Terrorism, can compare with a lunatic leader, Kim Jong-un, flaunting his missiles and nuclear weapons in the face of the civilized world. Something new and different needs to be tried before an error in his technology or judgement triggers another war on that peninsula.

I’ve never heard or read anything about a negotiation approach being employed in dealing with Kim that, to me, seems simple and guaranteed to be successful in at least reducing tensions in the short run, and perhaps changing the entire course of history in that part of the world. It starts with Air Force One landing in Pyongyang bringing a new US President on an official visit to the world’s most unfathomable leader. The President will be bringing along an outline for a paradigm shift in North Korean history that requires presentation by the World’s most powerful leader in order to force Kim to take it seriously. Once the doors to Kim’s conference room are closed, the President stands up and says:

“Mr. Chairman, we are here to offer you an opportunity to cement your place in history.  We wish to make you the Father of Modern North Korea. The operative word is ‘Modern’, and here’s what we propose……….”

Those who study the history of International Communism and the nations and leaders who’ve succumbed to that palsied ideology can agree on one commonality, and that is the wish of each leader to be venerated, often to god-like levels. Note the massive portrait of Mao Zedong that looms over crowds at Tiananmen Square in Beijing with (best guess) dimensions of 50’ by 30’ and a weight of 1.5 tons. Go back to early 20^th Century Russia and one will see giant portraits of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin and Stalin paraded through Red Square on May Day. Though Marx and Engels would have been appalled at such displays, Lenin and Stalin reveled in such egotistical ostentation. The portraits are paraded in Pyongyang as well, but add to that the mausoleum for Kim IL-sung and his son Kim Jong-il which was built while their people starved.

Time takes a toll on the reputations of such leaders, e.g. Stalin’s body was removed from its place of honor in the Kremlin Wall, Lenin’s Tomb no longer has an honor guard, and their name-sake cities have long-since been renamed. Leaders of other Soviet-era Warsaw Pact regimes demanded demigod status and have similarly been dumped in history’s trash bin. The President’s strategy with Kim Jung-un is to plant the seed that the Pyongyang mausoleum will one day be Kim’s alone and, most importantly, that his place in North Korean history will not be fleeting.

The 1945 Yalta Conference of the soon-to-be-victorious Allies divided the Korean Peninsula at the 38^th Parallel, presenting the Soviets control of the North as a reward for belatedly going to war with Japan. A puppet dictator, Kim IL-sung, was soon installed. The South was under American protection, and we all know the tragedy that soon followed in 1950 through 1953. Kim IL-sung remained dictator until his death in 1994, when his son Kim Jong-il took over. By then, it had to be obvious to the new dictator that the two Korean societies were progressing at diametrically opposite rates. He had to be aware of the prosperity and economic power that was flowering below the Parallel. Yet he dug in his heels and set the stage for the North’s societal atrophy. He and his cronies lived comfortable lives, and for the millions in his charge he cared not at all.

The point is, the negotiation strategy I envision would not have worked with either of the first two Kims. I suspect neither was a deep thinker; indeed, both may have been functional illiterates. They each in turn ate, drank, conspired and murdered until their bodies and brains wore out and they died. Too harsh? We can only look at the results of their governance and guess where their energies were focused.

Kim Jong-un may not yet be beyond reach and repair. He is young, ruthless and, by virtue of his apparent success at consolidating power, of at least average intelligence. One must assume he spends hours on the Web marveling at what goes on in the ‘real’ world while he floats in the cesspool of human despair and decay created by his predecessors. But what can he do? He is a prisoner of his own dictatorship. Weakness will get him overthrown and killed by one of his scheming generals. However, he and those scheming generals all have a few ‘wants’ in common. First is their own personal safety, life itself. Second is their own personal power, the basis of their safety. But there’s something else that each wants, indeed needs, desperately, and that’s to be revered and remembered as great men.

Kim has the unprecedented opportunity to take his place in history in general and Korean history in particular as the ‘Father of Modern North Korea’. In a society that venerates its ancestors, he’d be at the pinnacle of veneration. Imagine how that exalted status would resonate with such a young man who has always lived in his grandfather’s and father’s collective shadows. That will not change unless he finds a way to transcend those mythic figures, at least in the muddled minds of his captive population. So far, he seems fixated on establishing his bona-fides by building a nuclear capability with which to threaten the rest of the world. Even his one ally, China, is disturbed by this activity. To invade South Korea would generate a monumental blood bath that he knows he won’t survive. Not much of a legacy, to be sure.

Now is the time for the American President to approach Kim and offer him, literally, the adoration of millions of people. His enslaved citizens could immediately see substantive improvements in their daily lives. Kim can set the stage, start the process and begin reaping the worldly rewards as a proverbial prophet/savior without having to be martyred beforehand.

A Consortium of established democracies and Mideast Oil oligarchs will be his negotiating partner after the President breaks the ice. In the first official visit, the Consortium will offer a stunning array of financial incentives for both Kim and his cronies. Assuming the negotiations move steadily forward, they’ll be given periodic rewards with more to follow as progress continues.

De-militarization and de-nuclearization are the first and foremost negotiation items. So, first on the agenda would be a methodical draw-down of his huge Army. After setting a size for a standing army at parity with that of South Korea, the rest of his soldiers would go home until they are presented with and allowed to select from a myriad of paths for future labor. A further quid pro quo to build trust would be a withdrawal of US troops from the South.

What would his hundreds of thousands of former-soldiers do without their constant preparations for war? Initially, they’ll be able to build or improve their family homes with basic construction materials provided by the Consortium. Next, they’ll have an entire country to rebuild to include construction and upgrade of roads, bridges, ports, farms, an electrical grid, hospitals and clinics and, very importantly, a cellular and wireless network. A new banking system with the ability to finance consumer debt and home loans would need to come on line as the population begins to enter the workforce. Motorola and Apple will be happy to provide dirt cheap smart phones for these new consumers. Electric cars and scooters sold by Kia and powered up on the new electrical grid will fill the new roads, driven by the former soldiers now joy riding with their wives or girlfriends. Immediate cross-border social and commercial intercourse with the South would be encouraged. Women will be emancipated and educated as a national priority since their energy and enterprise will ensure that the men remain family focused.

Kim would evolve into a consummate politician, traveling around his beleaguered countryside as it begins to emerge from the Middle-ages. He’d cut ribbons for new roads, attend harvest festivals for newly productive farms, flip the switch on new cell systems, and on and on. He’d be welcomed with true warmth and gratitude for the first time in his life. Hopefully he’d be ashamed of his previous visits where his sycophants and ordinary citizens were beaten and threatened into perfunctory shows of love and respect.

Where’s the money come from for all this? Consortium member countries will provide grants, loans and foreign aid in return for exclusive ‘Pay to Play’ trade access to 25 million consumers for decades to come. That’s 25 million people who have never experienced a single quality consumer good from toilet paper to televisions. In other words, the participating Consortium countries would sell into the one remaining economic blank slate left in the world. The UN could be utilized to monitor the trade agreements and make sure non-contributors are kept away from the North Korean marketplace.

I will end this posting now since the topic simply begs for more and more detail and elaboration that is inappropriate in such a forum. I maintain, however, that no representative of any nation has approached Kim Jong-un since he’s gained power and asked him about what his legacy might be and what he would think of the title, ‘Father of Modern North Korea’.

Bill Gritzbaugh

June 25, 2016

AMERICA'S LOSS: PRICELESS HISTORY THAT DIES WITH THE OLD SOLDIER

Last Saturday was Armed Forces Day, a non-Federal holiday that generally has the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard opening up their various posts and bases for visits by the general public. I’d not have known about it except for an email reminder from the Veterans Administration. This Day is, of course, overshadowed by next week’s Memorial Day and November’s Veterans Day.

As a veteran and lover of history in general and American history in particular, each of these military-oriented holidays serves as a reminder of the thousands of stories that are held in the memories of current and former military members, and that these stories are gone forever each time one of these guys or gals passes away.

I’ve been a volunteer driver at our local VA Hospital for several years now, and can personally attest not only to the volume of stories that go untold, but also of the sheer pricelessness of many of them. My morning routine is to pick up the vets at home and take them to the hospital or one of the VA’s outpatient clinics. Then in the afternoon, take them back home. Some we see only once, but many are what we call ‘frequent flyers’ who we see repeatedly for trips into clinics for chemo, psych-treatments or a variety of chronic illnesses.

Generally, I break the ice with new riders by asking what military branch they served in, what time-frame, then maybe, “Did you get to go anywhere fun?” Almost without fail, my passengers, male and female, will provide me with enough general information from which I can start a conversation, get them talking and, typically, make a long rush-hour drive an entertaining and enlightening experience. Some have direct and hair-raising combat experiences, others didn’t see combat or even leave the US. But the stories can run the gamut from terrifying, to heartbreaking, to hysterically funny, to dull as watching paint dry. Regardless, I take pride in my ‘skill’ at bringing stories out of people who, quite often, would not share such information with anyone else, except maybe those who went through the experience with them. I’ve asked, “Does your wife know about that?” Answer: “No, she already thinks I’m crazy.” Or, “Have you told your (adult) kids about what happened to you?” Answer: “No, they don’t care about those old stories.”

Sometimes I encourage them to write their stories down for family or posterity. But few are motivated to do so. However, one old gentleman told me of witnessing the World War II episode where American and Russian troops first linked up at the Elbe River, having thus cut Nazi Germany in half. I asked if he’d written down the story. “Yes.” he said. “Would you like to read it?” I did and, with his permission, I forwarded that story and some others he’d provided to the Army Heritage Center Foundation where they are catalogued and entered into a database.

Here’s an example of the stories I’ve heard:

·        A paratrooper who got hung up outside the door of the aircraft he just jumped from. Dangling from his static line and barely conscious, he’s unaware that the pilot has decided to have the runway ‘foamed’ with fire retardant so, at touchdown, the paratrooper will have a ‘lubricated’ landing. He survived being dragged down the runway at 100 mph until the plane could brake to a stop.

·        An Army cook whose small unit was captured by North Koreans. As that cook and his buddies were being herded together for execution, they were rescued by American troops who had landed days before at Inchon.

·        An Air Force ‘PJ’ whose helicopter was shot down while landing to rescue a downed pilot in North Vietnam. He was captured and put in a bamboo cage by the North Vietnamese and used as bait to attract more American rescuers. The pilot they’d originally come to rescue remained in hiding and in communication with another PJ team. That team came in with guns blazing, destroyed the North Vietnamese captors, and rescued both the downed pilot and the captured PJ. Unfortunately, the PJ was wounded by the attacking American rescuers but survived to tell me the story.

·        A 1950s Army enlistee whose entire company (180 men) was given LSD via a Kool Aid-style beverage, then monitored for several months to see how they reacted. He continues to suffer episodic flashbacks 50 years later.

·        A Special Forces officer escorting two Air Force officers that were assessing the repairability of an air strip near a remote Vietnam mountain camp. Since the washed out strip was unusable for aircraft landings, it became a resupply drop zone for pallets of rice, pumpkins and even cows and pigs that were parachuted from cargo planes. While the three men were inspecting the air strip, an Air Force C-7A ‘Caribou’ cargo plane began its approach to drop several pallets stacked with 100 pound bags of rice. As the men watched, the plane raised its nose and the pallets of rice slid out the rear of the plane. Unfortunately, none of the parachutes that were rigged to deploy as the pallets exited the plane did so, and thousands of pounds of rice now hurtled towards the ground and the three transfixed Americans. Each man separately gauged the trajectory of the pallets and his own direction of escape. With seconds to spare, the men bolted out of the way. The pallets and rice bags exploded on impact only feet away from the men and sent gravel, wood fragments and thousands of high velocity rice grains in every direction. Many hit the men with enough force to draw blood.

OK, that last true story was mine. But you get the point. You can’t make this stuff up, and if it isn’t recorded, it’s lost forever.

So, for those readers who have relatives or friends that served in the military, next time there’s an opportunity, please ask them to tell you a story, any story that was particularly memorable during their service. If it’s an amazing story, ask them if they’d write it down or if you can take notes so it can be shared someday. They’ll probably be reluctant because that’s human nature. But tell them it’s just another chance for them to serve their country. And if you’re a former service member, give it some thought and record your own stories. It’s surprisingly fulfilling and even therapeutic in some cases. You never know. One anecdote just might lead to the next Great American Novel.

Bill Gritzbaugh

May 24, 2016

BERNIE SANDERS AND THE BIRD

FEEL THE 'BIRD'

A week or so ago, Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders visited Portland, Oregon and spoke to a large crowd of enthusiastic supporters at the ‘Moda Center’, home of the Portland Trailblazers basketball team. As Bernie addressed his thousands of fans, a tiny bird zoomed through the vast stadium, then dive-bombed down and landed on some equipment near Bernie’s podium, of course drawing the Candidate’s and the crowd’s attention. A few seconds later it flew up and perched right on the podium. For several entertaining moments, a grinning Bernie and the bird eyeballed each other to the delight of the crowd. Finally, the bird departed into the cavernous stadium, and Bernie, obviously enjoying the comical distraction, expressed that the event could be considered symbolic; indeed, that the wren or sparrow was actually a dove in search of world peace. The crowd roared its approval. Who knows? Maybe it was.

It brought to mind a funny experience of a few years ago at Denver International Airport. I’d been in Denver on business and was sitting in the boarding area of my flight home pounding on my laptop. A minor commotion had broken out at the ticket counter that was causing laughter, squeals and people ducking and dodging. As I watched, a tiny bird could be seen flying around the airline staff and customers near the counter. The bird was confused, if not panic-stricken, and seemed incapable of simply leaving the area. For some reason, I had an odd feeling of connectedness with that bird. I cannot explain it other than that I had an urge to intervene on the bird’s behalf. I closed my laptop and stood up, intending to head to the counter to see what assistance I could offer. However, the bird had found a perch well above the heads of the gathered travelers and I assumed the episode was over.

Twenty minutes later boarding began, and I soon took my window seat about midway down on the right side. After, I’d guess, a third of the passengers had filed in and found their seats, yet another commotion broke out at the front of the aircraft. As had happened earlier at the ticket counter, people were squealing and dodging as a bird fluttered around their heads. The same critter had stayed in the area near the ticket counter and then actually flew down the jet way and into the plane. After a few moments things seemed to calm down, but then a flight attendant got on the PA system to announce that 1. our plane had an unwelcome invader, and 2. our plane could not take off for Portland until said invader was caught and dispensed with. Groans arose from the travelers, not in sympathy for the bird, but because Flight Attendant ‘Ratched’ (recall the nurse of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’) said our flight might be delayed.

I fully expected the drama to be concluded at the front of the plane quickly, but decided to unbuckle my seat belt, stand up and stretch in the aisle. Suddenly there were more squeals and dipping heads up front as the fugitive critter once again took flight. However, this time it was flying right down the middle of the aisle towards the rear of the plane. In three or four seconds, the bird arrived at my seat row and I reached out with my right hand and snagged it into my fist. You’d have had to be there to believe it, but I got a cheer and ovation from the other passengers who now knew their flight would depart on time.

Being careful not to injure the bird, I opened my fist to see how it was doing. Obviously, the poor thing was terrified, but it was alive and squirming for its freedom. But now, Flight Attendant ‘Ratched’ was coming down the aisle towards me and holding open one of those flimsy airline blankets. She instructed me to put my hand with the bird into a pouch she’d created in the fabric and deposit the bird inside. I followed her instructions and withdrew my bird-free hand. I said something like, “Don’t smash him.”, but she did an about-face and headed back towards the jet way with her captive. I hoped that she opened the jet way door, shook the blanket and freed the bird, but I’ll never know. Her level of irritation with the bird was probably the result of an exhausting work day now made preposterous by something that, under less stressful circumstances, would qualify as slap-stick comedy.

But that still leaves my aforementioned feeling of connectedness with the bird at the beginning of its sojourn into Southwest Airlines history. In a matter of 30 minutes, a human sees (or feels) a small critter’s distress, is then separated by several hundred feet of jet way and aircraft, and then ends up with the critter flying into his outstretched hand. Unlike Bernie’s friend, my bird wasn’t conveying a desire for world peace, but maybe somehow it did have the innate ability to scan a crowd of other ‘critters’ and determine that one of those was its best chance to escape from the terrors of DIA. Anyway, someday I’d like to have a beer with Bernie and get his thoughts on it. If he gets elected, I think that discussion is worthy of the Oval Office, and Flight Attendant ‘Ratched’ ain’t invited.

Bill Gritzbaugh

March 31, 2016

A PLAN TO ASSIST NATIVE AMERICAN YOUTH

AMERICAN 'GURKHAS'?

There have been, lately, numerous examinations of and articles about the suicide epidemic among Native American (NA) young people on their Reservations. The hopelessness created by Reservation poverty and its accompanying drug and alcohol abuse are the root cause of these deaths. Efforts to deal with the crisis have met with limited success, and something drastic, new and different needs to be tried.

In a previous Blog post (An American ‘Foreign Legion’?), I suggested a military-related partial remedy for urban gun deaths growing out of the drug/gang/gun culture so prevalent in large cities. I have another ‘military’ option to suggest as a partial remedy for the NA suicide problem. This program (let’s call it FA for ‘First Americans’), like the ‘Legion’, would physically remove the young people at risk from the environment generating their despair. But, unlike the color-blind ‘Legion’, this one would be purely for Native American youth, male and female. Why? Because NAs have chosen to retain their Reservations and resist amalgamation into greater American society and culture. They have voluntarily chosen to maintain tribal separation and cohesion, regardless of the social, cultural and financial costs. The ‘First Americans’ program merely builds upon the NA’s wish to maintain unique identity.

The suggestion borrows from a time-honored program of the British Army; that being its inclusion for over 100 years of a Regiment of Nepalese soldiers known as ‘Gurkhas’. While the story of the Gurkhas is fascinating, for the sake of brevity, suffice it to say that a racial and cultural subgroup can work with great effectiveness in concert with a more traditional organization.

So, I propose forming a modified US Army Infantry ‘Brigade’ of around 3500 members made up solely of NA men from established tribes, most of whom reside on Reservations. Non-combat support functions would be performed by both male and female NAs, thus giving women a place in the extended unit. Forget how Politically Incorrect this concept is (at this writing, February 2016, ‘PC’ may be losing its grip on our society), and remember that the foundation of such a unit is the NA’s own wish to retain separate cultural identity. Any NA wishing to join the US military as a regular recruit would still be able to do so.

Initially, a special training facility would be established to deal with the special needs of the first batches of recruits, e.g. to assess deficits in physical ability, overall health and learning skills and identify cultural stresses that require special focus in the training regimen. Over time, however, the NAs would, as they do now, train as usual with non-NA enlistees, at Ft. Benning, Georgia’s Infantry training facility. Upon completion, they’d head to the ‘First Americans’ Brigade.

‘Warrior Societies’ have been part of NA culture at least as far back as their tribal oral traditions go. Such societies truly flourished when the plains tribes became horse-mounted in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. The Cheyenne had ‘Dog Soldiers’, the Sioux their ‘Strong Hearts’, etc. and membership in such ‘fraternities’ was hugely important to the tribe’s young men, giving them status and a pathway to tribal leadership. Fast forward to our 21st Century crisis on Native American reservations where a sense of ‘belonging’ is sadly lacking and nothing seems to be on the horizon to reduce the scale of the tragedy.

NA populations are as diverse as their histories, and blending, for instance, Sioux and Crow, Navaho and Hopi, etc. might not be good for unit cohesion. That’s where the ‘Brigade’ structure would be utilized internally to enhance its effectiveness and ‘esprit de corps’. The Brigade would be made up of, say, three or four Battalions, and each Battalion would include three or four Companies. So, depending on the available recruits from the various tribes, the Army could build a Battalion with, for example, one Company of Sioux, another of Crow, yet another of Arapaho, etc. Another Battalion might be three Companies of Cherokee. The combinations are countless. But imagine these various units competing with each other for effectiveness in the usual Army skills of marksmanship, physical endurance tests, training exercises, etc. All soldiers benefit from this competition, but tribal pride could add a degree of intensity that their leaders would marvel at.

Who would be the leaders? Taking a step back, a Brigade is typically attached to an existing Infantry Division, for instance, 10^th Mountain, 101^st Airborne, etc., and a Division could include three or more Brigades. So, initially, the ‘First Americans’ leadership would be Field and Company-grade officers from the Division. Eventually, NA officers who’ve graduated from West Point, Officer Candidate School, or an ROTC program from a university would meld in. This would take time, but in five or six years from inception, the FAs would have 100% NA leadership.

How would the Army utilize the FAs? Just the same as any other highly trained Infantry Brigade. The only difference would be that the members are all Native American. No special treatment, no special considerations. Nothing complicated or tricky. How they perform as a unit within that Army structure would be the basis for the ‘story’ and traditions that grow from their service to their country.

Now, imagine an annual event where recruiters from the ‘First Americans’ Brigade arrive on a given Reservation to interview, test, assess, etc., local candidates to fill vacancies in the elite Army unit. Imagine that kids, both boys and girls, have been dreaming of joining FA as long as they’ve been aware of it, know many tribal members who have served in the unit and, further, witness the respect the tribe bestows on those current and former members. Consider how these kids have been preparing for this day by staying in school, staying in shape, abstaining from alcohol and drugs, avoiding pregnancies, volunteering in their community, all in hopes of ‘making the cut’ and winning a slot in the FA. Those coveted slots mean that the recruit has joined a Warrior Society that will eventually become an integral part of tribal custom and history. How could any job on a Reservation compete for prestige with being a member of the ‘First Americans’, much less languishing without job or other prospects?

A ‘First Americans’ Brigade suggestion is way outside-the-box, and, to some, it might bring comparisons to segregated African-American units such as the ‘Triple Nickles’ Parachute Infantry Battalion of the 1940s and 50s, or even the ‘Tuskegee Airmen’ of WWII. But, those units were outgrowths of our segregated military, and the members had no option to serve in similar capacities outside those organizations. The FA would be an option available only to Native Americans if they found a normal enlistment less appealing; nothing more or less.

Somehow, America needs to break through the cloud of despair and dysfunction that hangs over many Native American Reservations. The ‘First Americans’ Brigade will give many NAs a way out and off those Reservations via a new opportunity that harkens back to their storied warrior history. When their enlistments are up, they’d return (if they wish) and infuse their discipline, organizational skills and experience to their communities. Positive improvements in overall Reservation life and governance are all but assured.

What’s the first step? I suggest a simple series of focus groups of young NAs at problematic Reservations. I’ve no doubt the results would be positive and the enthusiasm exceptional. Then it’s just a matter of the next President calling in the Army Chief of Staff and saying, “General, thanks for coming. I’ve got an idea I want to run by you. Have a seat. Coffee? OK, now what would you say if……..?”

Bill Gritzbaugh

February 20, 2016

THOUGHTS ON VETERANS DAY, 2015

Thoughts on Veterans Day, 2015

Veterans Day generated conflicting emotions for me for decades, no doubt due to the residual effects of my Vietnam service. I worked many jobs, both before and after graduating from college, and I don’t recall even one offering employees, let alone those who were veterans, a day off. So the day just came and went for me. Although hard to imagine now, Vietnam vets were considered pariahs by a small segment of American society long after the war ended for the US in 1973. In time, more successful conflicts in Grenada, Panama and the First Gulf War lifted the pall that had hung over the image of the Vietnam veteran. ‘Welcome Home’ parades were held in large cities, the ‘Wall’ was opened in 1982, and a lot of vets were able to come out, open up and move forward. Still, Veterans Day seemed to be for the World Wars I and II and Korea guys, not for us.

Such ambivalence was not uncommon among my generation of vets, and I’m pleased to see that attitude take a 180 degree turn. Vietnam vets are getting old, and the raw emotions of the 1960s and 70s have been soothed. The country has changed and so has Veterans Day.  Indeed, the day is now awash in events, parades and free meal offers that can be, well, embarrassing; not that it stops me from heading to McCormick & Schmick’s every year for my free entree.

Any society that distains its military is in big trouble, and you don’t have to go back to ancient Rome for the proof. France’s failed battles (Indochina, Algeria) to retain its colonial empire resulted in finger-pointing at its soldiers--a contributing factor of the right-left political rift in that society that is even more pronounced than in the US. Soviet abuse of its military in Afghanistan was part of a downward spiral that helped destroy the USSR. British soldiers were “scum” to the Duke of Wellington, even as they, under his command, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. A society that inspired Kipling to pen, “and it’s ‘Tommy this’ and ‘Tommy that’, and ‘chuck him out, the brute’. But it’s ‘savior of his country’ when the guns begin to shoot.”, came to its senses in time to save itself from the Kaiser and, later, Hitler.

Most ‘civilians’ can’t fathom the emotional baggage that many vets haul around, especially those who served ‘in harm’s way’. Those vets never quite meld completely back into polite society, preferring to keep a discrete mental separation between themselves and those who can’t imagine such experience. Perhaps it’s an overt reaction, perhaps a subconscious one. But I believe the reaction is, partly at least, a vet’s belief that society is always ready to pounce on the soldier when the nation’s foreign endeavors go awry. No one signs up to be a scapegoat. As a result, many vets (not to mention active duty soldiers) prefer each other’s company, if they have a choice. Civilian/business life categorically does not provide that choice, so vets compartmentalize and store away that part of their lives to ‘fit in’. In some cases, vets can drive their military experiences so far down into their subconscious that it becomes almost a shock to have them reemerge decades later.

My dad was like that. Only when I returned from active duty and he felt a camaraderie with me was I (and no one else I’m aware of) told details of his World War II experience. Ed Gritzbaugh took part in the Normandy (D-Day) invasion and nearly died in the crash of his 101^st Airborne Division glider near St. Mere Eglise, France in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944. One of his recollections was of his stretcher being carried by German POWs. Another was being strafed and bombed by German planes while lying on that same stretcher on Utah Beach. He didn’t share those details with me until I was also a ‘vet’. Vets talk to each other because they know what to ask, they know they’ll be understood and they know they won’t be judged.

Both our sons served in the Army after their respective high school graduations; Andrew, with the 101^st Airborne in the Balkans, then with the Oregon National Guard in Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia; Jack, two tours in Iraq with the 101^st. My Army service in Vietnam allows us to enjoy a camaraderie that can be, at times, (per my wife) far too loud and profane. She’s right, of course, but she does not yet realize that such loud, profane interactions are a celebration amongst peers of (literally) simple survival. It’s tantamount to shouting from the rooftops; an act that surely would be even less acceptable.

That, to me, is what Veterans Day is about, that vets are ‘different’ and need to wear that ‘difference’ as a badge of honor, not as a blemish to be hidden. My sons have joined a ‘club’, of sorts, that I’ve read constitutes roughly 7% of the US population; that percentage being those currently serving in the military (less than 1%) plus those still living who’ve ever served (6%).

‘Vets’ are simply this: participants in and survivors of a collective ordeal that results from the foreign policy decisions of our two-party political system. Only a small percentage may have been in combat, heard shots fired or fired their own weapon at an enemy. But, unlike their protected countrymen, each felt that sinking feeling as they reported for conscription or signed away their freedom, sat in a chair and winced as a vendor shaved their civilian hair into a pile on the floor, lined up for endless inoculations, lined up for ‘chow’, dropped for pushups for a shrieking Drill Sergeant, lived with strangers in a bunk-filled barracks, trained endlessly, waited for orders, shipped out to god-knows-where for god-knows-how-long, missed home and family, lost young loves to those still in town, lived in conditions that would bring fellow citizens to tears and for pay that would attract few resumes.

A recent survey found that, within the 18 to 34 ‘Millennial’ age group, only 12% admitted to being ‘patriotic’. Yet, military service thankfully attracts enough young men and women who don’t live within themselves, from all walks of life and all sections of the country. In large part, this is due to the exposure of these young people to veterans, some of whom may be family members, job bosses, classmates at the community college or just the guy down the street who’s reached some under-stated level of success and sports a USMC bumper sticker on his Ford F-150.

So to my fellow veterans on Veterans Day, ‘Welcome Home’ and thanks for displaying, to that tiny percentage of our youth that will follow your example of military service, the aura of quiet dignity that you earned while in uniform. I am proud to belong to your very exclusive ‘club’.

Bill Gritzbaugh

November 11, 2015

GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICAN CITIES, A PROPOSAL

An American ‘Foreign Legion’?

Like many cities in the US, Portland, Oregon (near my home) is suffering from a plague of gun violence that is mainly a function of gang activity, but is also a manifestation of personal grudges generated by ‘disrespect’ expressed in Social Media posts, street confrontations or word-of-mouth. Arguments over virtually anything can generate shooting incidents since (primarily) young men are peer-pressured into taking revenge as violently as possible. Guns are, of course, easily available.

So far, community efforts here and elsewhere to find a solution have been very ineffective. Deaths in the thousands nationwide have been the result.

I’ve thought about a solution that would be based on the theory that removing young men from urban neighborhoods would have a huge impact on the problem. That sounds like a ‘duh’ idea, with no feasible legal way to accomplish such a sweeping-of-the-streets, so to speak.

I propose borrowing an idea from the French, namely, their ‘Foreign Legion’ military units. The FFL was formed in the mid-19^th Century as a military force whose main function was to protect French interests in that nation’s far flung colonial empire. Its members were predominantly non-French citizens who joined for money, adventure, travel and/or the potential to hide from a sordid past. It was nevertheless a part of the French Army, but could be used more cavalierly since the blood spilled would not, for the most part, be French.

My version would be 100% American (with the one exception being legal or illegal immigrants), and would essentially be an armed ‘Peace Corps’, but on steroids. More on that to follow.

So, how does this ‘Legion’ sweep the streets of the dysfunctional young urban men who are shooting up our cities?

1st, recruiting advertisements would be directed at the young men causing the problem. Pay, benefits and adventure would be the prime draw. But an unspoken and obvious benefit would be the potential recruits having a chance to escape a dangerous and boring urban existence.

2^nd, the Criminal Justice System would be asked to assist in the following manner: If a non-violent offender is going to be incarcerated or put on probation, that person is offered the opportunity to join the Legion for the same term as their sentence or probation plus the Legion’s training period plus one year. Violate that, and it’s back to the Criminal Justice System with no credit for time away.

 3^rd, individuals (again, non-violent offenders) who are currently incarcerated or on probation could be released into the Legion to serve the balance of their sentences/probation plus Legion training period plus one year. Violate that, and it’s back to the CJS with no credit for time away.

Why would a young man (not including those in jail) pick the Legion instead of the regular military?

1^st. Recruits would not need to meet the stringent enlistment requirements of, say, the US Army, e.g. high school diploma, physical fitness, adequate test scores on entrance tests, etc. The ‘Legion’ would accept nearly anyone, presuming they had the basic intelligence to occupy some Legion job. Physical fitness would be important, but being able to perform a job would be paramount.

2^nd. The Legion would not be a ‘Combat’ unit, e.g. its function would be altruistic assistance to Third World populations that have invited the Legion into their countries. It would be armed, but for defense only.

3^rd. Enlistments would not be of a set duration, say, 3 or 4 years as the traditional services require. A recruit could stay as long as they serve effectively with their unit, or leave whenever they want. Such early departures would have monetary consequences as a deterrent e.g. pay accumulates in a Legionnaire’s account until his unit returns to American soil. Quit, and some pay is forfeited.

4^th. Obviously, incarcerated or probationized individuals would not be welcome in the traditional military. Were they to serve honorably in the Legion, it could serve as a ‘cleansing’ pathway into the military should they wish to go that route at some future date.

So, I mentioned the Legion as the Peace Corps on steroids. Here’s a mission I see the Legion conducting. Assume a Sub-Saharan African nation’s population is suffering from drought. The US government offers that nation a Legion unit that will build a desalinization plant to provide fresh water to local farmers. “Great,” says the host nation, “but we have a guerilla group in the area and can’t guarantee their safety.” That's where the ‘steroids’ come in. The Legion will be an armed unit, capable of defending itself. It will take casualties. It would not be equipped for offensive operations, but would be adequately armed for its own defense. Regular US military units would be on-call should the Legion come under heavier assault than their weaponry can handle.

Or how about a Central American country asking our State Department for help with a highway between two important towns? Bandits have prevented free passage on the current dirt road, not to mention disrupting repairs. A Legion unit is deployed to build the highway and defend its construction workers during the project. Possibly the Legion could maintain local freedom of movement as long as they’re welcome in the host country. Again, it’s the ‘turn-key’ aspect of doing a job and providing its own security that makes the Legion appropriate.

Thus, the Legion would be a construction unit (think the Navy’s ‘Seabees’) but with its own protection. The recruits who join the Legion would be trained to operate heavy equipment, vehicles, welders, generators, not to mention the picks and shovels of micro labor. If they prefer, they could select the armed component in lieu of the construction side, or alternate between as the missions allow. Of necessity they’d need to be trained in light weapons use and care. As in Army/Marine Infantry units, weapons training is a right-of-passage and imparts to the individuals a huge dose of espirit de corps and self-esteem.

Where would they be trained? Pick a community that has suffered due to the closure of a military base. The facility need not, and should not, be new and state-of-the-art. Think the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) model of the 1930s. Old wooden barracks and dusty streets are fine. Large lots for driving D-8 Caterpillar tractors, road graders and dump trucks will be needed as will ranges for rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers. Should a community be unsettled by the proximity of young men, some of whom from the Criminal Justice world, being trained with weapons, emphasize the Legion’s structure, raison d’etre and invite them to tour the base. Indeed, an ideal situation would be for the community to ‘adopt’ the camp and its trainees. Imagine young men from hostile ghettos in large cities coming in contact with small town American warmth and hospitality. Naïve? I don’t think so. Also emphasize that weaponry is only employed for self-defense once the Legion is deployed on foreign soil.

The Legion’s status as a non-‘force-projection’ component of the US military could make it more politically correct for host governments. After all, many nations including the Chinese, Russians, Saudis, etc. are providing such services to underdeveloped countries around the world, although with ulterior nationalistic motives.

This Legion structure would, first and foremost, be to help Americans, but would be directed where the unit’s efforts would be most needed by those populations in need.

How would it be paid for? Take money from the current Foreign Aid budget, ask host countries to contribute, make the Legion a cause that Americans would support by specific bond purchases. Funding ideas could fill a page.

Now, such a unit would need leadership that would combine a traditional Drill Sergeant with Prison Guard and Probation Officer; a very tough position to fill. However, I’ve no doubt there would be ample, qualified applicants for all positions given the number of Iraq and Afghan veterans in the population that are un or under-employed. If the French could make their Legion work, we should have no problem.

How large would the Legion be? I’d suggest roughly 10,000 Legionnaires to be divided into Brigades, Battalions and Companies that would be deployed based on the job at hand. Imagine the effect on the crime and shooting stats for major cities if, say, 10,000 late-teen to 20-something men are no longer loitering, gang-banging and gathering without hope of jobs or, indeed, any constructive activity. They’ve wasted their high school years, many barely literate, and haven’t the vaguest idea how to prepare for or even apply for employment. Then one day, they’re offered a way out via a unique American Experiment patterned on the French Foreign Legion. Once trained, Legion members leave US soil for the duration of their service, returning only for annual leaves, if they choose. Otherwise, they can take their time off wherever their money (dispensed specifically for that event) will take them.

Imagine these same young men returning to their homes at some point with such vast experience gained then trickling back into those communities. Eventually, there’d be a cultural shift that could transform and rejuvenate entire sub-sets of our population. Thoughts?

ROSEBURG, START NOW TO PREVENT THE NEXT ONE

The ‘Selective Service System’ as Mental Health ‘Filter’?

Tragedies like Roseburg have become all too common in the last few years. Columbine, in 1999, seems to have started a cascade of events that seem to hit the headlines with an almost predictable regularity. The political parties use each occasion to pressure the public to choose between ‘blame the availability of guns’ on one side, versus ‘control the mentally ill’ on the other.

I lean towards the ‘control the mentally ill’ side and offer the following suggestion: Expand the Selective Service registration process to include a mental health assessment of the 18 year olds who are legally required to register. Currently it collects only Name, Gender, Date of birth, Social Security number and current mailing address.

The Selective Service System is used by the Federal Government to identify the pool of age-appropriate males for conscription in the event of a national emergency. Up until the early 70s, Selective Service did conscript hundreds of thousands of young men who helped fill the ranks of the Army and even the Marines (Navy and Air Force to a lesser degree) during WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Its continued use, notwithstanding the lack of an actual ‘Draft’, makes it perfect as a research process to help with the current ‘national emergency’ of mass shootings.

If one Googles ‘Brain Maturity’, or some version of that, one will find many articles and discussions about the brain’s maturation during a person’s teens and twenties. Male and female brains both ‘mature’ during this period, with the females reaching full maturity a few years before males. Most males who’ve reached, say, their forties can recall making bone-headed, irrational, stupid and self-destructive decisions and actions that they’d dearly love to reset. Thankfully, most of these males did not physically injure other people. But in extremely rare cases, they do.

Obviously, females are not the ‘shooters’ in these tragedies, and I believe that a statistically predicable glitch in male brain maturation is producing these psychotic young men. It just makes no sense that such horrendous acts are caused solely by a young man’s exposure to family, peers, the natural environment, social media, etc. If such factors were to blame, we’d see far more such events. However, a mentally dysfunctional mind creates an isolated and paranoid man who could, over time, reach a critical mass of anger that results in an explosion of suicidal violence. Indeed, it’s clear to me that these acts are in fact suicides whether the final bullet comes from the shooter’s gun or the police.

In the USA, all males are required to register for Selective Service (the Draft) between ages 18 and 25. The law requires even illegal immigrants to file with the promise that the registrant’s status won’t be shared with ICE. This registration process could be expanded to include an on-line mental health questionnaire that could be assessed by healthcare professionals who might identify clearly troubled and/or dysfunctional young men. At that point they could be summoned for detailed, in-person interviews. Should they refuse to register at all, refuse to take the on-line assessment, refuse to show up for further in-person assessment, or if they are assessed and deemed problematic, they would go on a national list that restricts their purchase or possession of firearms. Or, deferring to states-rights stalwarts, the Feds could release the list to the States who could enforce the purchase/possession restriction. The individuals could request reassessment on a yearly basis, e.g. an acknowledgement that brain maturation does progress over time.

As far as I know, there is no formalized ‘filter’ in place in the country that seeks to identify young males who may be mentally impaired and in need of treatment, or some basic monitoring of their welfare. The Selective Service registration process, already in place as a Federal law, could now be used as that filter. Though those males who will eventually cause havoc with a gun are a statistically tiny percentage of the entire population, the possibility to find even one before he ‘goes off’ would make the effort worthwhile. Thoughts?