#SBRLLR: Firstie (Part 2)

A lot of guys stayed in Europe following the staff ride, but I caught a flight back to Rhode Island and spent my time laying on Newport Beach with my girlfriend Marla.  Alas, we didn’t have much longer as a couple.  She’d decided to head to California for college.  We made the most of what we had, however, and we parted without regrets.  In another life, our relationship might’ve had legs.  At the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, respectively, neither of us wanted anything permanent.  We held tight to what we had, though, and if we parted mostly without tears, this was only possible because each of us realized that we had the rest of our lives ahead of us.

#SBRLLR: Firstie (Part 1)

" I, ___, having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of Second Lieutenant, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter;. So help me God.”

― U.S. Army Officers’ Commissioning Oath

I met my counsellor at the end of cow year to again discuss my options.  He’d been happy to see me the last time, but this time he looked a little more serious.

#SBRLLR: Duty - Honor - Country (Part 5)

Whether it was my newfound work ethic or just simple physical maturity, cow year was my best in the pool by a wide margin.  I won my event at Navy for the third time, leading a trio of Army butterfliers to finish something like first, third, and fourth.  We lost the meet, decisively this time, but I found some peace with it for once, content in the knowledge that I’d at least done all that I could do.  I also scored a dual-meet win in the 100 Fly against Harvard later that same season, the only individual win for the Army team in the entire meet.  This was important because I felt like it proved that I hadn’t given up too terribly much in the pool to pursue my other dreams.  About midway through the season, Ray Bosse posted a list of top national collegiate times, and I saw myself ranked something like 90th overall in the 200 Butterfly.  

#SBRLLR: Beat Navy (Part 1)

"From the Far East I send you one single thought, one sole idea — written in red on every beachhead from Australia to Tokyo — There is no substitute for victory!"

― General Douglas MacArthur

We marched back from Lake Frederick after a relatively relaxed week in tents.  Our class motto, “With Honor We Strive,” led the way, emblazoned in gold letters across a black background.  To my amazement, the entire West Point community came out to give our class a legitimate hero’s welcome.  I didn’t know what to think.  After six weeks of Beast Barracks, the mass cheering of all those folks lining the streets evoked within me some rather serious cognitive dissonance.  Similarly, my classmates and I were eager for the end of Beast Barracks but also nervous for what lay ahead.

5 Things on a Friday: Writing Update & Other News

Happy Friday, folks!  Let’s get it on!

"Come fill your glasses, fellows, and stand up in a row..."

Summer Reading List: West Point and its Graduates

The Summer Reading List project was by no means meant as a military history exercise.  My goal was to put together a list of novels and histories that would not only teach me something but also expand my literary horizons.  It was fun because some of my friends got really into it.  By the time I was done, I had what I felt was a very good list.

I’m expanding the project because of a conversation I had last week on Twitter.

There should be a class on Old Grads in war. And what they did/who the fought/who they rolled over, etc.

— Drunk Old Grad (@DrunkOldGrad) June 6, 2016

We want to talk battle at the operational and strategic level, but never get down to study the individual West Point graduate and actions.

— Drunk Old Grad (@DrunkOldGrad) June 6, 2016

There may be a definitive list of books about West Point graduates (“Old Grads”) and their actions in service to the nation, but if there is, I’m unaware of it.  Regardless, I’m a sucker for a good history (historiography) project, so...  

5 Things on a Friday: On Knowing Evil When You See It

It’s been a disturbing week in American political life.  Normally, I really enjoy politics--and especially this year’s presidential primary race--but this week it became clear that Donald Trump is not only going to win the Republican nomination, he’s going to do it using a Fascist, neo-White Supremacist platform, and there’s not a damned thing that anyone can do about it.

It’s disturbing.  I’m not a Trump supporter, but I am a Republican, and I don’t know what the Hell has happened to the party that I grew up in.  

The party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt--heck, of Dwight Eisenhower and more recently, of arch-pragmatist George H.W. Bush--has abandoned compromise and the essential forms of democratic government so completely that its own core supporters no longer understand the difference between reasoned discourse and hate-speech.  Republicans have vilified the President, who is a good man regardless of his being on the wrong side of a number of important policy issues, to the point where we can’t now look at an actual villain and see him for what he is.

This is not the way our government is supposed to work.  Honestly, I keep wondering if this is what conservative, patriotic Germans thought in the 1930s as they watched a demagogue rise up, take over their country, and turn it into a dictatorship.

Hitler did not represent the natural course of German historic evolution, but he sure as shit convinced people that he did, and look what that got us.  Or, to put it another way, what the fuck is wrong with people?

Pictures from Gettysburg

Our trip to Gettysburg was terrific.  It was great to see old friends, walk through history, and visit Hershey Park afterwards.  We went with some old friends that I hadn't seen in years, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  So did my girls.

Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the most important, most misunderstood events in American history.  People always talk about the brilliance of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, but in the same breath, you always hear Gettysburg as the one time that he really screwed up, that maybe if things had gone differently on that third day, the whole course of the war might have changed.

Perhaps in the short term, but I doubt anything changes overall.

Quote of the Day

One of my friends stuck this on Facebook yesterday.

5 Things on a Friday: the Energy & Amabassadors Edition

It’s a lot of energy and energy policy this week and a little bit of Twitter, much of which may only interest me.  If you came here looking for D&D stuff or triathlon advice, I don’t know what to tell you.  I’ve known for some time that this would be a much more successful blog if it was about exactly one topic, even if I only posted on that topic once a week.  However, I prefer doing it this way because this is who I am.

15 Reasons to be Thankful this Thanksgiving

1.  We’ve all got our health.
This was not a given.  I found myself in the hospital in August after a spider bite.  The back of my leg became infected with an antibiotic-resistant form of the streptococcus bacteria, and it took several rounds of antibiotics and four full days as an in-patient to clear it up.  Not fun.  But I’m better now, and I’ve been slowly but surely working my way back into form in anticipation of the coming triathlon season.

Sally and I are both over 40, and we’re both in good shape.  This puts us markedly ahead of where my parents were at our age, and I don’t take that lightly.

5 Things on a Friday: Looking Forward to 1992

There was lots of interesting news this week.  I could easily have put together ten things for this particular edition of “5 Things”, but my goal isn’t to make this a weekly treatise on the crap that I personally find fascinating.

Fair warning: with next week’s elections, this week’s column has a lot of politics.  I tried to keep it non-partisan, but my own views are slightly left-of-center, and that my well come through.  You’re more than welcome to drop competing viewpoints in the comments.

Five Things on a Friday: Starting from Scratch

Happy Friday!  I don’t know about you, but I am beyond ready for the weekend.

Let’s get to it, yeah?

***

1.  Scotland Rejects Independence From Britain in Historic Vote (NY Times)

“With a sweeping majority far wider than had been forecast, voters in Scotland rejected independence from the United Kingdom in a referendum that had threatened to break up a 307-year union, according to the final count on Friday.”

Quote of the Day

"When I think of the greatness of my job and realize that I am what I am, I am amazed, but on reflection, who is as good as I am?  I know of no one."

   -- Major General George S. Patton in a note to his diary, fall 1942, just before the invasion of North Africa, codename TORCH. As quoted in An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson.

There's another great quote a page later that Patton sent to his subordinate generals just before departure:

"If you don't succeed, I don't want to see you alive.  I see no point in surviving defeat, and I am sure that if all of you enter into battle with equal resolution, we shall conquer, and live long, and gain more glory."

The man was like a Viking God, and it's an indictment of our society that we would almost certainly have no use for his particular brand of leadership in today's world.

Joyeuse, the Sword of Charlemagne

I've been working on a new short story, and it needs a magic sword.  In auditioning famous swords in history, one of the ones I considered was Joyeuse, the sword of Charlemagne.

Joyeuse, on display in the Louvre.

I decided not to use it, however, because it's too famous.  In fact, it was very easy to find its curent location using Google and Wikipedia.

Still, it's an interesting piece of history.  Here's a picture of Louis XIV in happier times, holding Joyeuse.

That's quite a haircut.