Had an ancestor who was reviled for being a wife-beating drunk. Everyone hated him, grew up hearing only about what an awful piece of shit he was. Later found out he was a cavalry NCO on the front in the Great War (hmm, wonder if that was related to the drinking?), and volunteered to fight in WWII (he didn't end up going; the officer in command recognized him and pulled him out of the ranks at the last minute, promoted him to warrant officer on the spot, and held him back to train the men).
Stories like the one you told here hit me in the feels. There's no respect for warrior culture in our feminized society and warriors are treated abhorrently. Homeless vets dying of drug ODs while migrants get free housing, education, and health care. Hysterical women destroying the careers of blooded line troops because they used the wrong pronoun or didn't want the Fauci Ouchie. Political appointees in generals' uniforms wrecking the lives of real officers because the latter called out the formers' mendacious incompetence. The shitshow of imperial collapse is a sight to behold.
Hysterical men and women destroy the careers of blooded line troops. Hysterical men in makeup scream if they don't hear the "right" pronoun or are blocked from getting to watch females undress and use the bathroom. Hysterical, resentful and vindictive men have long destroyed the careers of women, at least those times when a woman didn't have a male mentor to block the nasty. It takes both sexes to bring on this destruction, but it's also being fought by both sexes, including the old school feminists who have long been demonized. If you want to blame anyone, then blame those who attacked and ostracized females who didn't conform to the "feminized" pigeonhole designed by others. Most humans conform to group think, even if goes against their natures, rather than be ejected from the group.
I was shocked by the very first sentence. Dismayed at the next several paragraphs, and thankful to you- not for an apologetic of the man I called dad, but for unwinding the truths about the complexity of the father I knew.
Was he the perfect example for this article? No. He was the imperfect example that was perfect for this writing.
I am a product of Col Downard's final marriage- a tough, but happily successful one that he remained in until his death. To this day, I still have not met all my half-siblings.
And no apologies from me either. I do understand the path of broken hearts, broken homes, and broken families he left behind. But that is not the man I grew up with. Still Hard? Still Unrelenting? On the surface- absolutely. I grew up as his personal Private. And yes, he was a man that was truly haunted by his demons- prone to drink too much, set in his ways, and yes, to the very end, prone to hit the floor at the unexpected sound of a car backfiring as it passed on the street. He was, I know now, the textbook case of undiagnosed PTSD.
He spoke little of his military career. What I learned of his career, I learned from his men- both from WWII and Korea. And that's when I saw the hard man soften. Where I could see the "heart behind the hardness". Where I saw men like his company surgeon and others under his command, years later, talk with fondness, respect, and even reverence about his leadership- how they lost so many, but would have lost so many more without him at the lead. How they would follow him into hell again if asked. It was then that the flawed man I called Dad began to transition into my example of what a leader should be. My biggest regret still to this day is that I was too young to really appreciate it then... to comprehend it... and to thank him for who he tried to become. His lessons still resonate with me daily. I got to see both sides of the man and I thank "his soldiers" that reflected that brighter side of him.
As a follow-up to your article- after his medical retirement from the Army, he continued to fight for veterans. He joined the DAV and continually fought for the rights of those men and women- from WWII through Vietnam, helping them get their disability benefits from the government. He loved what he did. He was good at it. Why? Because he considered them all his soldiers and advocated for them relentlessly. To be sure, it took its toll. Their stories, their tribulations, brought back the darkness. He helped them because he "knew" them, he got them, he was them. In a way, he continued to lead "his men" until he retired- and it continued to shape the man, for better and worse.
He wasn't "bad stock" (although I understand where the sentiment originated). He was a product of his environment, and it had a significant impact on those that came in contact with him- for better on the front lines, and for worse on the home front. I pray that those with the same scars can relate, and can get the help that was not available to my dad.
I understand the intent of your article and appreciate your insights and how you applied his story to the "transition" that the military is going through. More than that, I appreciate your willingness to see, and tell the story of, the whole man.
What a gracious reply, Mr. Downard, you are certainly a credit to your illustrious father. You're an excellent writer as well.
I'm the son of a Korea and Vietnam combat veteran and also love and respect my father, despite many issues related to his experiences during his service to our country. Recently my mom moved and only a few weeks ago I opened a portfolio of paintings my dad painted after Vietnam as course work for an art correspondence course he took, obviously attempting to process his recent experiences in heavy combat.
To my surprise, I remembered them vividly from the time he painted them at night after working at the Pentagon. Looking at them a few weeks ago, I finally understood why he took that art course.
Chris.....My name is Lanny West (birth name.... Boyd Anthony Downard). I am the son who wrote the book that you quote and reference in your article. While the quote you used is correct you left out the context which makes your readers feel that I had first hand knowledge of Donald. I did not. My father, who I never knew, was actually married 8 times. My mother was his 5th wife and had two sons; me and my brother David. As shared in my book I started drinking at age 13 and was an alcoholic by age 15. It was at that time in my life.... coming home blasted from a party, that my mother lashed out at me and told me I was just like my father... a drunk, an abuser and a womanizer...... I had quite the reputation even at that age. Until that point in my life I never knew anything about Donald E. Downard. I never had a reason to find out about him because my mother had married 2 other men that were exactly like she described my father. Why in the world would I want to reach out to find such a man. In writing my book I was forced to do the research necessary to at least find out a little of who he was. I was lead to the website called Find A Grave which pointed me to the book Dachau 29 April 1945... The Rainbow Lieberation Memoirs by Sam Dann. I won't bore your audience with the whole story but I was able to connect with one of my sisters by Donald's 3rd marriage. AND just a few days ago, because of your article here and mentioning my book one of his sons, Donald Downard, reached out to me through my publicist. We connected via phone just yesterday and it was a beautiful connection and time of discovery not to mention eye opening........ I would love to connect with you and find out how you came across my book as it is not and probably will never be a big seller. And quite frankly it was not written to be so. Your mention of my book has opened a much appreciated new chapter in my life with siblings I did not know existed. By the way..... all that you shared in your article I already knew through my research. Nothing shocking at all..... Yes... he was a very conflicted man but then who wouldn't be after seeing and experiencing the atrocities witnessed during times of conflict...... I have a very revised vision of my father through my conversation with his son and my brother Donald...... and that is the man I wish I had known. To close.... even without ever having known my father I have lived my life and and continue to live my life by a quote of his found in the page of the Dachau memoirs...... "I believe there is no limit to what a man can do if he doesn't care who gets the credit for it". I believe he lived his life that way. I hope you will be kind enough to reach out... my email addy is Lanny@TippingPT.coach
Hi Lanny, thank you for opening up to Chris Bray's readers like me with your post.
A friend of my father's returned to the US deeply troubled from Vietnam, and made a radical conversion to evangelical Christianity. He stopped smoking and drinking and tried to enforce his new lifestyle on his two teenage sons. They would have none of it and one of them got in a fist fight with their dad. There was so much suffering in the American families of brave men like your father.
3) Our society cannot survive unless it includes young men (and, additionally but perhaps secondly, women) who can and want to fight. A place needs to be made for them, or they will carve one out. This has been the history of humanity.
"A place needs to be made for them, or they will carve one out"
That very astute, very rational observation appears to have escaped the notice of our lords and masters. If they were sane, they would be afraid. Very afraid. Just as they want us to be. Of everything.
If the breaking is the point, and if our society cannot survive without young men who can and want to fight, then the obvious solution is to prevent young men being able and willing to fight, and that surely that's the common thrust of all the woke initatives: sexual perversion, ethnic shame, freely available porn and drugs, chemically castrating pollutants, feminizing diets, subsidized abortion, spectator sports, the "metaverse:" all work in their own ways to stop boys becoming men.
You can be sure that most boys in our younger generations will never beat either their wives or an armed opponent. They will beat only their meat.
My son just left the Marine Corps after five years of service and he was done after being forced to participate in anti-racism training in the desert in Kuwait. The Marine Corps has been intolerant to racism prior to this training but this training appeared to pit Marine against Marine. In his five years he advanced from recruit to sergeant and he always said his goal was to help young Marines find their particular skills to benefit the Marine Corps. He thought it was his duty to help them become the best Marines they could possibly be but after going through that training in the desert it was clear to him that was no longer the focus of the Marine Corps. He loved the Marine Corps and I also came to love the Corps because they helped to produce a youngman who just before he deployed overseas said to me that he "hoped to be a positive role model to the young Marines he was responsible for" when he said this to me I must admit that I laughed as he did because from the age of 13 to 18 he was hell on wheels and had no idea what to do with his life. My laughter changed to something else afterwards. He stayed in the Marines for an extra year so he could deploy overseas but he feels with the training they are initiating now he would be concerned about the people above him to look out for his interests and the damage to the esprit de corps of the Marines.
The armed services is not the place for social experiments it should remain as it always has been the last true meritocracy in America. Men, women, black, white, Latinos and whatever other races that should be left at the door and you are simply Americans. These are people who make life and death decisions in a split second based on what is confronting them not what is bothering them. Anyways, if I had a point I think I have lost it so I'll shut up.
Excellent portrait of a dilemma. Rough men are the front line and the bottom line in protecting civilization. Nobody condones domestic violence, and this man clearly had major demons to confront from combat, as well as quite possibly some neurological anomalies that made him fearless and prone to violence. The current stupidity of what’s being foisted on the military under the woke umbrella, the crappy leadership and stupid wastefulness of our military adventures for the last 30 years is endangering our national security and treasury. Reality always wins. We are going to pay a heavy price for this foolishness.
As a combat vet, I liked this piece. The quote from the Jack Nicholson movie, about the military lawyers, "you can't handle the truth," comes to mind, as well as my well-reasoned disgust of modern publishing 'houses' and their gatekeepers, and, of course, the woke half or quarter of our population. I've published four books in commercial houses but went 'indie' for the last eight when it became apparent that the boobs and soy boys who manned the gates 'could not handle the truth,' and would only allow through works by know-nothing fools that pushed the now-popular woke memes.
You familiar with Breakfast With the Dirt Cult? That should have been made into a movie by now but the author had to self-publish because the obese bluehairs don't want to hear real talk from a white guy (regardless of how many people very much do want to hear it).
Well, the same globalist gang has been fucking with the military(ies) for our entire lifetime on path to the great reset / agenda whatever-they're-calling-it-this-week, so this somewhat nostalgic tone for past fucked up war-wars vs today's fucked up psych war is really all part of the same crazy-making abuse continuum, if you ask me.
The thing that I get when I read many of these responses, is that most people still don't (or can't) understand what combat does to those who survive it. LtCol Downard went through his own personal hell of unrelenting fear, seeing his men, civilians, and the enemy die, deprivation, sleeplessness, and the certainty that he was going to die too - for months, maybe years.
Surviving that and living with it are almost impossible without a lot of time and the support of family and fellow combatants. During LtCol Downard's time and before, self-anesthesia through heavy use of alcohol was the only thing available, so getting drunk every opportunity was common among them. Bad decisions soon followed.
Our culture was and still is, "put those bad memories behind you, and don't bother us with them", so most combat veterans kept silent and drank - sometimes to oblivion.
When we decide to go to war, we are condemning thousands of good young people to this fate after the country is done with them. It is the hidden cost of warfare.
ROE is literally a threat to our lives but it seems to have peaked and mitigated into sanity after much suffering (Rules of Engagement).
The Milley type groveler and Austin - Esper war profiteers are more of a threat than the latest mandatory training distractors
Oh and our Sergeant Majors all act like Milley, they’re done.
No one has respect for our Generals or trusts our Sergeant Majors (with exceptions).
The real demoralizing factor is faithless leadership and command by investigation, this led to moral cowardice and the ensuing physical cowardice. A buck passing contest gathering evidence at every level and passing blame down the ranks to avoid jail is the Italian Army command climate of 1940, or us the last 20 years. You have 2 armies- the warriors and the shirkers.
Guess who gets promoted?
Or even just retained?
Moar; Overthrowing the Constitution will tell when they need it, “By what authority “ is a very real question now.
I’m afraid you’re wrong about the combat experience however. Its there but the Army as an institution drives it out, its informal but combat experience is a threat to the non combat came up by schools not war leaders. It also doesn’t promote warriors for that reason.
For those of you who like TV the Perfumed Princes won.
The shirkers get promoted, just like in big business. The less you actually do, and the more you suck up, the higher you will go. The more money you will make, the more power you will have. --- Which tells you EVERYTHING you will ever need to know about the majority of politicians. Principally, about our resident-in-chief.
I have a 20 year old daughter who is in the Space Force in California. The way she describes things the military is conflicted. It is struggling to go from the old system of duty/honor/country to what you mentioned: "where do I get my abortion. The military is still selecting squared away young people. My daughter will be a reservist working on satellite issues. Who knows, she may turn out to be a female warrior like the women who fly the Reapers out of Creech AFB in Nevada. They are laser-focused on the mission tracking bad guys in garden spots like Iraq, Iran, Somalia, etc., and sometimes they get to do the "kill shot". My daughter will be contemplating satellites that might interfere with U.S. missions and how to overcome them; to laser out the enemies hunter satellites or merely to change location of our assets. It's a new chess match with the game moving beyond our earthly limits. My girl the reserve satellite chaser! Her goal is more earthly. She will be studying nursing when she's not playing satellite chess. And when she gets her nursing license what to do? Well to become a flight nurse of course. She is a real giver. Most of the kids now enlisting are givers. And the woke crap that is a distraction now will be eradicated by the next administration. We must pray for that to happen for our country's good and the good of our selfless givers.
Interesting read Chris. I deployed to Iraq twice. Once in 04 and the other in 07 during the "surge." It was depressingly all too common to patrol the streets of Baghdad and see what the articles above described. I again served in Afghanistan during the "surge" of 2011. Not much better aesthetics there either. I have many friends or what we commonly call "battle" (short for battle buddy) from the early days of Iraq war still serving today. Most are in leadership positions and a few have pinned stars. Communication has essentially stopped since the advent of COVID and all things political. Their silence is deafening. I too worry for the future of our service and sincerely miss my battles.
I'm trying to start a conversation about it, but anyone who might be inclined to participate is just saying fuck it and submitting paperwork to separate whether through retirement, unqualified resignation, medical evaluation board, or simply not re-enlisting. Hyper-reality reigns and anyone who tries to point out the emperor has no clothes is sidelined. The extreme examples you mention in the article are just the things anyone can see, those of us that has our own slice of the pie have to deal with the fact that senior leaders, particularly above the installation level say and believe things that have no connection to the reality we see on the ground. If only I could retreat to the blissful ignorance of Gell-Mann amnesia. The incentives are aligned so powerfully against seeing the problem as it is, that anyone with career aspirations would have to be an idiot to let themselves appreciate the true, horrific scope of what we face.
What I did was give up career early and just do the work.
You will probably be retained due to necessity of having warriors.
You will only get promoted essentially to be retained.
If you go National Guard you can actually be retained without having to worry about promotion being retention (up or out).
Its Binary sorry. Embrace duty or the system for career advancement, you cannot have both. If it helps even in the 90s (I have 3 stints in service because it gets toxic) even in the 90s seeing what climbing the greasy pole made one into was a deterrent. Its not if they’re Delusional it’s what is the current official delusion.
In the end its rare for even a 3 or 4 star to have real powers of a Commander. The power since MacNamara is with the DOD civilians. That’s why Rumsfeld and Esper became DOD civilians instead of pursuing Flag Officer.
What good did either accomplish?
Of course not.
Its an easy choice. Look at what you’d become and laugh at career.
As for the conversation you are trying to start- they know this, they are just CHOOSING what’s right for them instead of what’s right. That’s all.
From you, the implicit complement means a lot. I agree 100% on it being binary, I was totally persuaded of this position from the COL Boyd Be Somebody or Do Something.
I don't know that all are choosing, I think some really kid themselves. I say this because my 1st line is a great leader and was involved in the interviews Wong and Gerras did for their "Lying to Ourselves" paper. He confirmed what they said in the paper, namely that when asked about their integrity everybody was sure that they had high integrity and never lied, until they were forced to be introspective about it. Only then did they realize that lot of the cultural norms that they'd learned to not give a second thought to weren't so easy to reconcile. I don't underestimate what people can convince themselves of, it might cause cognitive dissonance, but they'll swear to things and really BELIEVE. If they really THOUGHT about it, though, they wouldn't stand by it. I think many sense this and use convenient excuses not to THINK. When a captain is saying something, that's a built in excuse to dismiss it out of hand right there.
Great read, but I always fall off anytime I read that combat PTSD, even the untreated kind, is the boogeyman behind all kinds of bad behavior. His truly honorable and courageous service aside, only proper douche bags beat their wives, partners, children and dogs. 6 marriages later, all is not forgiven.
Had an ancestor who was reviled for being a wife-beating drunk. Everyone hated him, grew up hearing only about what an awful piece of shit he was. Later found out he was a cavalry NCO on the front in the Great War (hmm, wonder if that was related to the drinking?), and volunteered to fight in WWII (he didn't end up going; the officer in command recognized him and pulled him out of the ranks at the last minute, promoted him to warrant officer on the spot, and held him back to train the men).
Stories like the one you told here hit me in the feels. There's no respect for warrior culture in our feminized society and warriors are treated abhorrently. Homeless vets dying of drug ODs while migrants get free housing, education, and health care. Hysterical women destroying the careers of blooded line troops because they used the wrong pronoun or didn't want the Fauci Ouchie. Political appointees in generals' uniforms wrecking the lives of real officers because the latter called out the formers' mendacious incompetence. The shitshow of imperial collapse is a sight to behold.
What a great line: “The shitshow of imperial collapse is a sight to behold.”
We are watching that happen in Mar a Lago!
IT is a shame that so many did not get the treatment to help them cope with the horror they experienced. Even today.
Hysterical men and women destroy the careers of blooded line troops. Hysterical men in makeup scream if they don't hear the "right" pronoun or are blocked from getting to watch females undress and use the bathroom. Hysterical, resentful and vindictive men have long destroyed the careers of women, at least those times when a woman didn't have a male mentor to block the nasty. It takes both sexes to bring on this destruction, but it's also being fought by both sexes, including the old school feminists who have long been demonized. If you want to blame anyone, then blame those who attacked and ostracized females who didn't conform to the "feminized" pigeonhole designed by others. Most humans conform to group think, even if goes against their natures, rather than be ejected from the group.
Mr. Bray-
Wow.
I was shocked by the very first sentence. Dismayed at the next several paragraphs, and thankful to you- not for an apologetic of the man I called dad, but for unwinding the truths about the complexity of the father I knew.
Was he the perfect example for this article? No. He was the imperfect example that was perfect for this writing.
I am a product of Col Downard's final marriage- a tough, but happily successful one that he remained in until his death. To this day, I still have not met all my half-siblings.
And no apologies from me either. I do understand the path of broken hearts, broken homes, and broken families he left behind. But that is not the man I grew up with. Still Hard? Still Unrelenting? On the surface- absolutely. I grew up as his personal Private. And yes, he was a man that was truly haunted by his demons- prone to drink too much, set in his ways, and yes, to the very end, prone to hit the floor at the unexpected sound of a car backfiring as it passed on the street. He was, I know now, the textbook case of undiagnosed PTSD.
He spoke little of his military career. What I learned of his career, I learned from his men- both from WWII and Korea. And that's when I saw the hard man soften. Where I could see the "heart behind the hardness". Where I saw men like his company surgeon and others under his command, years later, talk with fondness, respect, and even reverence about his leadership- how they lost so many, but would have lost so many more without him at the lead. How they would follow him into hell again if asked. It was then that the flawed man I called Dad began to transition into my example of what a leader should be. My biggest regret still to this day is that I was too young to really appreciate it then... to comprehend it... and to thank him for who he tried to become. His lessons still resonate with me daily. I got to see both sides of the man and I thank "his soldiers" that reflected that brighter side of him.
As a follow-up to your article- after his medical retirement from the Army, he continued to fight for veterans. He joined the DAV and continually fought for the rights of those men and women- from WWII through Vietnam, helping them get their disability benefits from the government. He loved what he did. He was good at it. Why? Because he considered them all his soldiers and advocated for them relentlessly. To be sure, it took its toll. Their stories, their tribulations, brought back the darkness. He helped them because he "knew" them, he got them, he was them. In a way, he continued to lead "his men" until he retired- and it continued to shape the man, for better and worse.
He wasn't "bad stock" (although I understand where the sentiment originated). He was a product of his environment, and it had a significant impact on those that came in contact with him- for better on the front lines, and for worse on the home front. I pray that those with the same scars can relate, and can get the help that was not available to my dad.
I understand the intent of your article and appreciate your insights and how you applied his story to the "transition" that the military is going through. More than that, I appreciate your willingness to see, and tell the story of, the whole man.
Thank you.
Have you ever thought about writing this story yourself?
I'm going to read this over and over again. Thank you.
What a gracious reply, Mr. Downard, you are certainly a credit to your illustrious father. You're an excellent writer as well.
I'm the son of a Korea and Vietnam combat veteran and also love and respect my father, despite many issues related to his experiences during his service to our country. Recently my mom moved and only a few weeks ago I opened a portfolio of paintings my dad painted after Vietnam as course work for an art correspondence course he took, obviously attempting to process his recent experiences in heavy combat.
To my surprise, I remembered them vividly from the time he painted them at night after working at the Pentagon. Looking at them a few weeks ago, I finally understood why he took that art course.
Chris.....My name is Lanny West (birth name.... Boyd Anthony Downard). I am the son who wrote the book that you quote and reference in your article. While the quote you used is correct you left out the context which makes your readers feel that I had first hand knowledge of Donald. I did not. My father, who I never knew, was actually married 8 times. My mother was his 5th wife and had two sons; me and my brother David. As shared in my book I started drinking at age 13 and was an alcoholic by age 15. It was at that time in my life.... coming home blasted from a party, that my mother lashed out at me and told me I was just like my father... a drunk, an abuser and a womanizer...... I had quite the reputation even at that age. Until that point in my life I never knew anything about Donald E. Downard. I never had a reason to find out about him because my mother had married 2 other men that were exactly like she described my father. Why in the world would I want to reach out to find such a man. In writing my book I was forced to do the research necessary to at least find out a little of who he was. I was lead to the website called Find A Grave which pointed me to the book Dachau 29 April 1945... The Rainbow Lieberation Memoirs by Sam Dann. I won't bore your audience with the whole story but I was able to connect with one of my sisters by Donald's 3rd marriage. AND just a few days ago, because of your article here and mentioning my book one of his sons, Donald Downard, reached out to me through my publicist. We connected via phone just yesterday and it was a beautiful connection and time of discovery not to mention eye opening........ I would love to connect with you and find out how you came across my book as it is not and probably will never be a big seller. And quite frankly it was not written to be so. Your mention of my book has opened a much appreciated new chapter in my life with siblings I did not know existed. By the way..... all that you shared in your article I already knew through my research. Nothing shocking at all..... Yes... he was a very conflicted man but then who wouldn't be after seeing and experiencing the atrocities witnessed during times of conflict...... I have a very revised vision of my father through my conversation with his son and my brother Donald...... and that is the man I wish I had known. To close.... even without ever having known my father I have lived my life and and continue to live my life by a quote of his found in the page of the Dachau memoirs...... "I believe there is no limit to what a man can do if he doesn't care who gets the credit for it". I believe he lived his life that way. I hope you will be kind enough to reach out... my email addy is Lanny@TippingPT.coach
Hi Lanny, thank you for opening up to Chris Bray's readers like me with your post.
A friend of my father's returned to the US deeply troubled from Vietnam, and made a radical conversion to evangelical Christianity. He stopped smoking and drinking and tried to enforce his new lifestyle on his two teenage sons. They would have none of it and one of them got in a fist fight with their dad. There was so much suffering in the American families of brave men like your father.
God bless you and your family.
As a military wife, I can't believe what I am seeing. The woke bunch are breaking the military.
1) Perhaps the breaking is the point.
2) In the book I'll probably never actually write that inspired a recent post (https://guttermouth.substack.com/p/im-sorry-youre-an-asshole-part-3), the second-most-important thing other than the one in the aforementioned post was, simply, "no one is one thing."
3) Our society cannot survive unless it includes young men (and, additionally but perhaps secondly, women) who can and want to fight. A place needs to be made for them, or they will carve one out. This has been the history of humanity.
"A place needs to be made for them, or they will carve one out"
That very astute, very rational observation appears to have escaped the notice of our lords and masters. If they were sane, they would be afraid. Very afraid. Just as they want us to be. Of everything.
If the breaking is the point, and if our society cannot survive without young men who can and want to fight, then the obvious solution is to prevent young men being able and willing to fight, and that surely that's the common thrust of all the woke initatives: sexual perversion, ethnic shame, freely available porn and drugs, chemically castrating pollutants, feminizing diets, subsidized abortion, spectator sports, the "metaverse:" all work in their own ways to stop boys becoming men.
You can be sure that most boys in our younger generations will never beat either their wives or an armed opponent. They will beat only their meat.
Also notice that it bears no resemblance to the way any rising power anywhere else in the world is raising its children or directing its culture.
China is essentially looking at our social program and doing precisely the opposite.
I don't blame them.
All that and the "role model" their father's have provided, too. Most of which are pusses, too.
Guttermouth: Read your sub stack. Thank you. A favorite quote is "Trash your illusions and the world will beat a path to your door."
Much appreciated.
Indeed. Mars will be Mars.
We will welcome them when the time comes. I hope they will still need us.
My son just left the Marine Corps after five years of service and he was done after being forced to participate in anti-racism training in the desert in Kuwait. The Marine Corps has been intolerant to racism prior to this training but this training appeared to pit Marine against Marine. In his five years he advanced from recruit to sergeant and he always said his goal was to help young Marines find their particular skills to benefit the Marine Corps. He thought it was his duty to help them become the best Marines they could possibly be but after going through that training in the desert it was clear to him that was no longer the focus of the Marine Corps. He loved the Marine Corps and I also came to love the Corps because they helped to produce a youngman who just before he deployed overseas said to me that he "hoped to be a positive role model to the young Marines he was responsible for" when he said this to me I must admit that I laughed as he did because from the age of 13 to 18 he was hell on wheels and had no idea what to do with his life. My laughter changed to something else afterwards. He stayed in the Marines for an extra year so he could deploy overseas but he feels with the training they are initiating now he would be concerned about the people above him to look out for his interests and the damage to the esprit de corps of the Marines.
The armed services is not the place for social experiments it should remain as it always has been the last true meritocracy in America. Men, women, black, white, Latinos and whatever other races that should be left at the door and you are simply Americans. These are people who make life and death decisions in a split second based on what is confronting them not what is bothering them. Anyways, if I had a point I think I have lost it so I'll shut up.
Excellent portrait of a dilemma. Rough men are the front line and the bottom line in protecting civilization. Nobody condones domestic violence, and this man clearly had major demons to confront from combat, as well as quite possibly some neurological anomalies that made him fearless and prone to violence. The current stupidity of what’s being foisted on the military under the woke umbrella, the crappy leadership and stupid wastefulness of our military adventures for the last 30 years is endangering our national security and treasury. Reality always wins. We are going to pay a heavy price for this foolishness.
As a combat vet, I liked this piece. The quote from the Jack Nicholson movie, about the military lawyers, "you can't handle the truth," comes to mind, as well as my well-reasoned disgust of modern publishing 'houses' and their gatekeepers, and, of course, the woke half or quarter of our population. I've published four books in commercial houses but went 'indie' for the last eight when it became apparent that the boobs and soy boys who manned the gates 'could not handle the truth,' and would only allow through works by know-nothing fools that pushed the now-popular woke memes.
You familiar with Breakfast With the Dirt Cult? That should have been made into a movie by now but the author had to self-publish because the obese bluehairs don't want to hear real talk from a white guy (regardless of how many people very much do want to hear it).
Thanks—I’ll check it out!
Well, the same globalist gang has been fucking with the military(ies) for our entire lifetime on path to the great reset / agenda whatever-they're-calling-it-this-week, so this somewhat nostalgic tone for past fucked up war-wars vs today's fucked up psych war is really all part of the same crazy-making abuse continuum, if you ask me.
Agreed. Thanks for the links!
The thing that I get when I read many of these responses, is that most people still don't (or can't) understand what combat does to those who survive it. LtCol Downard went through his own personal hell of unrelenting fear, seeing his men, civilians, and the enemy die, deprivation, sleeplessness, and the certainty that he was going to die too - for months, maybe years.
Surviving that and living with it are almost impossible without a lot of time and the support of family and fellow combatants. During LtCol Downard's time and before, self-anesthesia through heavy use of alcohol was the only thing available, so getting drunk every opportunity was common among them. Bad decisions soon followed.
Our culture was and still is, "put those bad memories behind you, and don't bother us with them", so most combat veterans kept silent and drank - sometimes to oblivion.
When we decide to go to war, we are condemning thousands of good young people to this fate after the country is done with them. It is the hidden cost of warfare.
God Bless and forgive LtCol Downard.
Its supposed to break the military.
Which doesn’t mean it will
ROE is literally a threat to our lives but it seems to have peaked and mitigated into sanity after much suffering (Rules of Engagement).
The Milley type groveler and Austin - Esper war profiteers are more of a threat than the latest mandatory training distractors
Oh and our Sergeant Majors all act like Milley, they’re done.
No one has respect for our Generals or trusts our Sergeant Majors (with exceptions).
The real demoralizing factor is faithless leadership and command by investigation, this led to moral cowardice and the ensuing physical cowardice. A buck passing contest gathering evidence at every level and passing blame down the ranks to avoid jail is the Italian Army command climate of 1940, or us the last 20 years. You have 2 armies- the warriors and the shirkers.
Guess who gets promoted?
Or even just retained?
Moar; Overthrowing the Constitution will tell when they need it, “By what authority “ is a very real question now.
I’m afraid you’re wrong about the combat experience however. Its there but the Army as an institution drives it out, its informal but combat experience is a threat to the non combat came up by schools not war leaders. It also doesn’t promote warriors for that reason.
For those of you who like TV the Perfumed Princes won.
Well Princex.
The shirkers get promoted, just like in big business. The less you actually do, and the more you suck up, the higher you will go. The more money you will make, the more power you will have. --- Which tells you EVERYTHING you will ever need to know about the majority of politicians. Principally, about our resident-in-chief.
Amen Brother.
I have a 20 year old daughter who is in the Space Force in California. The way she describes things the military is conflicted. It is struggling to go from the old system of duty/honor/country to what you mentioned: "where do I get my abortion. The military is still selecting squared away young people. My daughter will be a reservist working on satellite issues. Who knows, she may turn out to be a female warrior like the women who fly the Reapers out of Creech AFB in Nevada. They are laser-focused on the mission tracking bad guys in garden spots like Iraq, Iran, Somalia, etc., and sometimes they get to do the "kill shot". My daughter will be contemplating satellites that might interfere with U.S. missions and how to overcome them; to laser out the enemies hunter satellites or merely to change location of our assets. It's a new chess match with the game moving beyond our earthly limits. My girl the reserve satellite chaser! Her goal is more earthly. She will be studying nursing when she's not playing satellite chess. And when she gets her nursing license what to do? Well to become a flight nurse of course. She is a real giver. Most of the kids now enlisting are givers. And the woke crap that is a distraction now will be eradicated by the next administration. We must pray for that to happen for our country's good and the good of our selfless givers.
Interesting read Chris. I deployed to Iraq twice. Once in 04 and the other in 07 during the "surge." It was depressingly all too common to patrol the streets of Baghdad and see what the articles above described. I again served in Afghanistan during the "surge" of 2011. Not much better aesthetics there either. I have many friends or what we commonly call "battle" (short for battle buddy) from the early days of Iraq war still serving today. Most are in leadership positions and a few have pinned stars. Communication has essentially stopped since the advent of COVID and all things political. Their silence is deafening. I too worry for the future of our service and sincerely miss my battles.
Silence is the norm now except in person, hushed.
The notion that all this PC nonsense is taking root with us however is ridiculous, feeding considerable anger is all it accomplished.
I'm trying to start a conversation about it, but anyone who might be inclined to participate is just saying fuck it and submitting paperwork to separate whether through retirement, unqualified resignation, medical evaluation board, or simply not re-enlisting. Hyper-reality reigns and anyone who tries to point out the emperor has no clothes is sidelined. The extreme examples you mention in the article are just the things anyone can see, those of us that has our own slice of the pie have to deal with the fact that senior leaders, particularly above the installation level say and believe things that have no connection to the reality we see on the ground. If only I could retreat to the blissful ignorance of Gell-Mann amnesia. The incentives are aligned so powerfully against seeing the problem as it is, that anyone with career aspirations would have to be an idiot to let themselves appreciate the true, horrific scope of what we face.
What I did was give up career early and just do the work.
You will probably be retained due to necessity of having warriors.
You will only get promoted essentially to be retained.
If you go National Guard you can actually be retained without having to worry about promotion being retention (up or out).
Its Binary sorry. Embrace duty or the system for career advancement, you cannot have both. If it helps even in the 90s (I have 3 stints in service because it gets toxic) even in the 90s seeing what climbing the greasy pole made one into was a deterrent. Its not if they’re Delusional it’s what is the current official delusion.
In the end its rare for even a 3 or 4 star to have real powers of a Commander. The power since MacNamara is with the DOD civilians. That’s why Rumsfeld and Esper became DOD civilians instead of pursuing Flag Officer.
What good did either accomplish?
Of course not.
Its an easy choice. Look at what you’d become and laugh at career.
As for the conversation you are trying to start- they know this, they are just CHOOSING what’s right for them instead of what’s right. That’s all.
From you, the implicit complement means a lot. I agree 100% on it being binary, I was totally persuaded of this position from the COL Boyd Be Somebody or Do Something.
I don't know that all are choosing, I think some really kid themselves. I say this because my 1st line is a great leader and was involved in the interviews Wong and Gerras did for their "Lying to Ourselves" paper. He confirmed what they said in the paper, namely that when asked about their integrity everybody was sure that they had high integrity and never lied, until they were forced to be introspective about it. Only then did they realize that lot of the cultural norms that they'd learned to not give a second thought to weren't so easy to reconcile. I don't underestimate what people can convince themselves of, it might cause cognitive dissonance, but they'll swear to things and really BELIEVE. If they really THOUGHT about it, though, they wouldn't stand by it. I think many sense this and use convenient excuses not to THINK. When a captain is saying something, that's a built in excuse to dismiss it out of hand right there.
Stay the path.
This part interminable as it seems is ending.
The True people and True Warriors time approaches -whether they want it or not.
Good hunting.
In interest of integrity- I am as of this month Retired Reserve.
Now I think in truth its a break and that’s all, I’ll stand if it gets real.
But at least I can skip the next few briefings on who knows what! 😂
congrats brother! and thank you for the encouragement
Great read, but I always fall off anytime I read that combat PTSD, even the untreated kind, is the boogeyman behind all kinds of bad behavior. His truly honorable and courageous service aside, only proper douche bags beat their wives, partners, children and dogs. 6 marriages later, all is not forgiven.
Yeah, I see this point. Lots of people go to war and don't come home to beat their wives and abandon their children.