Category Archives: America

05/27/20

American Values Evaporating

Memorial Day got me thinking about how America passes its values from one generation to the next. I was irked by how Memorial Day has lost its meaning — honoring American war dead.

In my work with CEOs, I call that concept The Wisdom of the Campfire.

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We have two uniquely different holidays:

Memorial Day, the third Monday in May to honor American war dead

Veterans Day, the 11th day of the 11th month to honor American veterans

It is not a hard distinction to make and yet we fail to make it constantly.

There are other American values that are also evaporating from the American psyche. In no particular order, here they are:

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05/24/20

Bugles Across America

Long ago, the US Congress decided that every veteran was entitled to two uniformed persons at his funeral. One to fold the flag provided by the government, and another to play a rendition of Taps on a CD player.

It seems a small reward for having served your country.

A bugler plays “Taps” during the burial service for three soldiers missing from Vietnam War, Army Major Dale W. Richardson, Army Staff Sgt. Bunyan D. Price Jr., and Army Sgt. Rodney L. Griffin, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia October 20, 2015.

For one man, a Marine named Tom Day, that was not enough. He formed an organization called Bugles Across America to send a live bugler to play live Taps for the dead veteran.

This is a purely volunteer organization and when the year ends and there is a financial shortfall, Tom Day dips into his pocket and pays the difference.

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05/24/20

Memorial Day — The View From Another Direction Revisited

I wrote this blog post last year. I still like it.

Having been an Army brat, having grown up on Army posts, having a mother and father who served in World War II, having a father who was a career soldier, having been educated at Virginia Military Institute, and having served in the Army for five years — I have a view of Memorial Day from a different point of the compass.

Both of my parents are buried in a military cemetery. This is the Central Texas military cemetery next to Fort Hood with the Hill Country in the background. It is hallowed ground.

Just a few years ago, it was a pasture. Now, it is filled as shown because a lot of soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice for us.

I went to school with men who are buried in places like this. Fifteen VMI graduates have been killed in the War on Terror.

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05/20/20

Eddie Haskell RIP

From 1957 to 1963, there was a black-and-white sitcom called Leave It To Beaver. The Beaver (acted by Jerry Mathers) was Theodore “The Beaver” Cleaver.

His parents were June (Barbara Billingsley) and Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont). The Beave’s older brother was Wally (Tony Dow).

It became iconic American sitcom television, running six seasons for 234 sessions.

It ended when Wally grew up and went off to college. It was a fact-based ending as the family dynamic was about to change with Wally heading off to college, and the core of the story was the Cleaver family.

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05/11/20

Unemployment, A Few Words

Today we are facing monumental COVID19 unemployment that is initially tracked by the weekly number of new applications for unemployment payments — remember this is an insurance policy for which you have paid for years.

By that measure we are at 15% unemployment (those without jobs actively looking for a job which is known by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as U-3 Unemployment, the most common measure referred to by the media).

We are likely headed to 20-25% unemployment before the trend is reversed.

But, we are dealing with a situation that is entirely different than the traditional manner in which we assess these numbers over a long period of time.

Traditionally, we look at these numbers as a means of tracking a trend line to establish the expansion or contraction of the economy. They are trend numbers.

Before the advent of COVID19, the USA was at record high employment.

These numbers subsume — incorporate — people who technically meet the criteria, but who are really “furloughed” rather than classically unemployed.

By using the word furloughed, I am suggesting that their jobs are waiting for them whenever that business re-opens.

They are not “looking for a new job;” they are waiting for the business that formerly employed them to re-open.

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04/18/20

The Doolittle Raid and COVID19

On 18 April 1942 — today is 18 April, y’all — sixteen B-25B Mitchell bomber aircraft flew off the deck of the USS Hornet and conducted a bombing raid on Tokyo. The raid was militarily insignificant, but it sent a message to the Japanese. America was in the fight — four months after Pearl Harbor — and intended to take the fight to their capital.

My father told me it was an enormous boost to American morale. He was in the Army and the Army was getting ready to go to war in North Africa on 8 November 1942 with the Operation Torch landings.

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04/14/20

The Post COVID19 World Will Be Different?

I have been mulling the post COVID19 world as this matter continues to evolve. I have been reading a lot of others’ opinions, many of whom I respect and several of whom I despise — but one has to build a base of knowledge, right?

So, here are some thoughts.

This COVID19 Thing Will End

Just to be clear, there will be an end to this COVID19 affliction. Yes, there will.

There will be ingrained better hygiene practices (says the chap on his 16,393rd hand washing since 1 Mar 2020), some therapeutics, and a vaccine.

There will be multiple vaccines and the whole vaccine thing will be integrated with the flu vaccine of which 170MM Americans got the needle this flu season. [I got mine at Costco from a guy who had been to school to learn how to do it. Free.]

COVID19 will become like polio — something we figured out, but which was very dangerous. Dr Jonas Salk, University of Pittsburg, talking to you, amigo.

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04/4/20

Understanding The Chain of Command — Aircraft Carrier Commander Relieved

The military is an organization designed to operate under the most trying situations — combat with America’s enemies. It is a hard warrior culture.

Men are given command of meaningful warfighting assets — aircraft carriers, fighter wings, divisions, landing forces — within a chain of command that goes both up (superiors) and down (subordinates).

Any commander knows this reality when they receive command — they are given it by their immediate superior.

When I commanded a combat engineer company, the battalion commander handed me the company guidon and empowered me to run the unit within the guidelines of his orders.

I knew the deal. He knew the deal.

If I had a question, I asked the battalion commander. If he wanted me to do something, he gave me an order and I then passed it along to my platoon leaders, the first sergeant, and the men. We then accomplished the assigned mission.

If I had a beef with the battalion commander, I was welcome to state it, but once he made a decision, I saluted and carried out the order. If I did not accomplish the mission or if I refused to undertake the order, I expected to be relieved.

The Army, the military, only works in times of distress if and only if subordinates carry out the orders of their superiors.

A subordinate commander has a responsibility to inform his superior as to the status of  any mission on a continuing basis.

The Army mantra is: Shoot, Move, Communicate.

The Aircraft Carrier

The USS Theodore Roosevelt is one of ten of Nimitz-class nuclear powered aircraft carriers. It is at the core of an attack carrier group and is a powerful extension of American force.

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