This year, I thought it appropriate to take a somewhat different approach in writing about this holiday. As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rage on, we civilians rest peacefully each night knowing that we are safer because our military is engaged in containing the area of the world where Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations can plan their attacks against people who believe in democracy, equality, and personal freedoms. Our founder, Jim Etter, served in the Marines for 27 years. Many of our faculty and staff served as well. In additionally, approximately 80 percent of our student population is active duty or veterans and we are proud to serve so many of our nation’s heroes.

I recently read an article written by one of APUS’ alums, Brian Hawthorne, who is a veteran and currently a senior at George Washington University. The article details changes in the public’s attitude toward veterans as they returned home from various wars. Brian points out that after World War II, troops returned home to “yellow ribbons, a GI Bill of Rights and the open arms of their communities.” Perhaps due to the divisive nature of the Vietnam War, however, troops returned home from that war to a dramatically different reception. There were few to no yellow ribbons or parades and some returning troops met outright hostility.

Indeed, the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created tension among the American public. In a room full of twenty people, one will likely encounter ten who support these efforts and ten who do not; without question, there will likely be twenty different opinions on the best way to move forward in those nations. Regardless of one’s political opinion regarding the current efforts in either nation, I hope that no one loses sight of the fact that those in our nation’s military and those who have served previously deserve our utmost respect and gratitude.

On this Veterans Day, I strongly encourage each of you to embrace our nation’s servicemembers and thank the veterans and those currently serving for their service to this great nation. They fight to preserve our safety and our freedoms. A thank you to these heroes is the least we can do.

Maraniss, an editor at the Washington Post, crafted an excellent non-fiction book which is actually two stories with the crescendo event of both occurring in the October 17-18, 1967 two-day period.  Storyline number one is about an ambush of two companies of the Black Lion battalion in Vietnam.  As the Vietnam War continued to escalate, General Westmoreland and the Pentagon were under pressure to bring back better news, and President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) was under fire from conservatives and liberals as well as the radicals against war.  Storyline number two is about students at the University of Wisconsin who led a sit-in against recruiters from Dow Chemical, manufacturers of napalm, and a favorite target of anti-war elements across the nation.

I doubt that I would have read this book if I had not heard that it was about a battle in Vietnam and a peace march at Wisconsin that occurred on the same day.  I thought that the timing of the two events was a bit unusual and that the book was worth reading.  The research and evidence is substantial enough for the author to have created two separate books.  However, as separate books,  I doubt that I would have read either.  Maraniss combined the story of war with the story of anti-war protests in a creative narrative that kept me engrossed through the book’s 500+ pages.

The Black Lion battalion was part of the First Infantry Division, a storied Army battle group from World War II.  The narrative begins with the shipment of newly conscripted soldiers from stateside to replace troops leaving the battalion which was assigned to Vietnam in the mid 1960’s.  Maraniss focuses on two companies in the Black Lion battalion which was commanded by Colonel Terry Allen, Jr., son of a decorated World War II general.  Maraniss draws upon official accounts of the battle, eyewitness accounts, and even interviews with former North Vietnamese army officers.  Not surprisingly, his construction of the events differs from the official accounts of the incident which downplayed the participants’ recollections that it was an ambush.  It even differs from the Wikipedia account that cites his book as a source of information about the battle.

The protest at Wisconsin was part of the escalating unrest on college campuses around the country in the mid to late 1960s.  Students questioned their campus leaders as well as the political leaders of America asking why a war with no justifiable reason was being pursued.   The cast of characters at Wisconsin includes famous academicians, a daughter of a national politician (George McGovern), and a future politician (Dick Cheney).  Of all the dialogue in the book, I think the few pages dedicated to Cheney are unnecessary since he chose not to participate in the events of that day and his inclusion seems like a little politicizing about today’s Iraq War.

I can relate to the storylines in They Marched into Sunlight as I was a high school student during the period in question.  During that period, some of my older friends and cousins were drafted and sent to Vietnam while other friends and cousins  received student deferrals for their participation as a college student or deferrals for their role as a public school teacher.  Maraniss portrays the futility of the pursuit of a war in which the participants (soldiers) do not understand the reason for the war and the public understands it even less.  Sub-themes in this book include the failures in leadership at Wisconsin (Chancellor Sewell), Vietnam (General Westmoreland), and in the U.S. (President Johnson).  Even more telling is that for five more years after this incident, the U.S. continued to wage the war in Vietnam losing an additional 40,000 lives.  Maraniss provides no coverage of the subsequent events other than those that affected the key participants in both stories.  The author is perhaps not very subtle with his comment that by 1967 nearly 15,000 lives were lost in Vietnam and that by the end of the war, some 55,000 total lives were lost.  Such figures force the reader to realize that Maraniss’ story is only one of many involving this conflict.  LBJ chose not to run for re-election in 1968 for reasons that he did not specify but which many suspect revolved around his reasoning that he would not be re-elected with the impact of the war on families around the U.S.

Maraniss does an excellent job of describing a small part of the Vietnam conflict with painstaking research from participants still alive.  It may be the best book that I have read about the conflict since David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest almost thirty years ago.

11 Nov 2008
           
It is a private matter who you or I voted for to be the President of the United States one week ago.  It is a public responsibility, however, no matter how we voted, to now offer our support and best wishes for the new President’s success in keeping this nation strong, ensuring the liberties we have fought and died for, and making the country better every single generation for the generation that follows.
 
I take great pride in having served under 7 Presidents while in uniformed service.  (I missed Lyndon Johnson by 2 months, but served under Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, James Earl Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, William Clinton, and George W. Bush.)  Though those 7 men were the Commander in Chief, as a member of the United States Army and the United States Air Force, I worked not for them as men, but for the American people.  My duty, my allegiance, and my sworn oath were to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.  I will do so until I draw my final breath, in uniform or not.    

Some Presidents enjoyed my respect for the steadfastness of their character and the quality of their leadership.  Some whose ethics or moral fiber I did not respect still received my loyalty.  They were, after all, the elected leader of the American people, and that’s who those of us who wear or have worn the uniform work for.  I kept my own counsel – it didn’t matter if I respected them as leaders or merely served because they held the highest office the citizens of this nation can bestow upon a fellow American.  Male or female.  White or black.  Just an American elected by other Americans.  That’s reason enough for me.
           
These reflections of fealty and respect come to me now because the recent election, like the two that preceded it, was as momentarily divisive and vicious as – well, as every other American election.  Only our very first President was unopposed and received 100% of the Electoral College votes.  

The second US election, between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, was characterized by brutal campaigning, vicious lies, yellow journalism, and much enmity all the way around.  Adams won by 3 electoral votes, only to lose to Jefferson 4 years later by 8 votes.  The two despised each other.  But, as Americans are (uniquely?) able to do, they also respected each other’s intellect and contributions to the cause of liberty.  They began, after their terms as President, a lifelong correspondence that did not concluded until the death of both men on the same day, July 4, 1826.  The 50th anniversary of the day both signed the Declaration of Independence.  With Adams’ last words allegedly being, “At least Jefferson lives.”

Every election since has been the same.  We begin with vehement disagreement and, optimistically, we end by closing ranks and giving our support to the new President (all the while looking forward to the next election, of course.)  This time will be no different.  The entertainers who promised to leave the country 4 years ago if George W. Bush was re-elected disappointed us mightily by not having the courage to actually leave.  This time around, those who are claiming they’ll take their guns and canned goods to a mountain redoubt will likely prove equally disappointing. 

Our nation has endured the Presidencies of Franklin Pierce, Warren G. Harding, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and – well, if they’re still living, they’ve endured enough, so let’s leave it at that.  No matter what happens, we’ve seen worse.  Some of us served under worse than we could possibly imagine going forward.  Through it all, the common sense of the American people gets us through the worst of times and is there to reap the reward of their faith in the best of times,

I believe those who have defended the right to vote however we damn well choose, who have defended our right to disagree, who have defended our right to be wrong from time to time, and who have defended the Constitution itself, too often with their life’s blood, are among those who return to the citizenry at large most knowledgeable about just how unique and extraordinary our constitutional form of government is. 

Our Veterans are the guardians of the Constitution, for they are able to compare other forms of government they have seen, fought alongside, or fought against.  And they know firsthand the inexplicable elation of being able to repeat the following words, words that bring a catch in the throat of those taking it and those administering it.  This oath is for military officers; NCOs and enlisted personnel swear a very similar oath:

“I, ((Full Name)),  having been appointed an officer in the ((Branch of Service)) of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of ((Rank)) do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or 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.” 
           
As of this date, 11 November 2008, there is 1 veteran of World War I still alive (note:  Frank Buckles, age 107, is a resident of Charles Town where APUS is headquartered).  The best estimates are that there are 2,306,000 living service-members who served during World War II; 2,307,000 men and women who served during the Korean War; 7,125,000 Americans of every color, ethnic background, and political philosophy who were in uniformed service during the Vietnam War; 2,269,000 who served in Desert Storm and another 3,000,000 who have served or are still serving in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.  It shouldn’t be too difficult to find one to say “Thank you.”  Don’t worry or be embarrassed if it’s the day after Veteran’s day or a day 6 months hence.  Still thank them.  No matter when they served, no matter where, no matter for how long or in what capacity – they are the guardians of our Constitution.  Many have the scars, and some only a lonely marker where they now lie forever still, to prove it.
           
Thank you, Veterans.  To every one who has ever served, who does so today, or will in the future, I salute you.

Respectfully,
Joseph L. Shaefer
B Gen, USAF, Ret.

Before I provide you with the rest of the history of the Marine Corps, I need to disclose that our founder, Major James Etter, was an enlisted Marine in Vietnam and after attending college on the GI Bill after the war, became a Marine aviator.  He retired after twenty-six years of service.  When Jim founded American Military University, he solicited the assistance of General Al Gray, the twenty-ninth Commandant of the Marine Corps.  General Gray, a soldier’s soldier, not only provided guidance, but became a member of the AMU board, eventually the Board Chair, and continues to serve as a member of the Board today and as our Board Chairman, emeritus.  Writing about the Marines from information available on the web might trigger a call from either individual if I am not accurate, but I will attempt to get the facts right.

Upon its inception, the Continental Marines served aboard naval vessels, offering protection against mutinies and enemy vessels.  The Marines served in this capacity (as well as in many others as their mission expanded based on American security needs) until 1990 when the last Marine security detachments were removed from Navy ships.  Today, the Marines work closely with the Navy which helps facilitate rapid transportation and logistics for the Marines as they serve around the world.

Even in its infancy as a military force, the Marines served bravely and effectively in the First Barbary War (1801-1805) against Barbary pirates.  It was during this conflict that William Eaton and First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon led a force of only seven Marines and three hundred mercenaries in an attempt to take Tripoli; though the effort was unsuccessful (the expedition only reached Derna), the action is commemorated in the Marines’ hymn.  In the War of 1812, the Marines participated in the intense naval battles which characterized that conflict.  During the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the Marines successfully captured the Chapultepec Palace in Mexico City, another victory memorialized in the hymn.

During the American Civil War, the Marines dedicated the majority of their efforts to helping secure the Union blockade of the Confederacy which aided in the Union victory.  From the end of the Civil War to the beginning of World War I, the Marines participated in several international engagements, including the Philippine-American War (1899-1902), the Boxer Rebellion in China (1899-1901), as well as in Panama, Cuba, Morocco, Haiti and Nicaragua.

The fierceness of the Marines in World War I helped develop their reputation as one of the world’s top military fighting forces.  World War II brought several significant battles for the Marines in the Pacific theater.  During World War II the Marines began using the Navajo Code which was one of the keys to the victory of the western nations over the Axis Powers.  The famous photo of five Marines and one Navy Corpsman raising the American flag over Iwo Jima was taken by photographer Joe Rosenthal during World War II.

The Korean War (1950-1953) brought with it a tremendous growth in numbers of the Marine Corps, expanding their ranks from “75,000 regulars to a force of 261,000 Marines…” The Marines played a significant role during the Vietnam War (1959-1975), participating in some of the most intense battles, including those for Da Nang, Hue City and Khe Sanh.  Following the conclusion of the Vietnam War, the Marines were called to provide support for several international military interventions.  In 1980, the Marines participated in Operation Eagle Claw, the effort to rescue fifty-three hostages being held at the American Embassy in Tehran.  Marines also participated in the invasions of Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury) and Panama (Operation Just Cause).  

During the first Gulf War (1990-1991), the Marines were the first on the ground.  Marines have played a significant role in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, as well as the larger War on Terror.  In recent years the Marines have participated in many humanitarian missions.  The Marines helped provide relief to the victims of the December 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean.  Earlier this year, the Marines provided much needed medical and school supplies to citizens in Liberia.  

The Marines’ motto is Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful.  Throughout their history, the Marines have proven themselves worthy of such a credo.  Marines, some of whom are our students, congratulations on the 233rd birthday!    If any of you who are not Marines have had the privilege to attend a Marine Corps birthday celebration, they know how to do it right!  My neighbor, Lt. Col. (ret.) Ed Hall has hosted a Marine Corps Birthday Ball at his house for twelve years.  The tradition honoring Marines present from the oldest military engagement to the most recent, is moving.  Jim Etter, Al Gray, thank you for your dedication to American Military University and the American Public University System.  You will always be special to us and your service to your nation as Marines will forever be remembered.