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.

The first Earth Day was celebrated on this day in 1970; since then, Earth Day has come to be celebrated around the world.  In the years following the celebration of the first Earth Day, the United States took an active role in the discussion on climate change.  In 1970, Congress established the Clean Air Act to set national air quality, auto emission and anti-pollution standards.  In 1980, Congress established the Superfund, designated with the task of cleaning up hazardous waste sites.  In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Pollution Prevention Act which emphasized the importance of preventing, not just correcting, environmental damage. 

President Bill Clinton led several significant environmental initiatives during his years in the White House.  In 1993, he directed the federal government to use its $200 billion annual purchasing power to buy recycled and environmentally friendly products.  Five years later, he announced the Clean Water Action Plan which focused on making America’s waterways safe for fishing and swimming.  (The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that in 1972, only 36% of the nation’s assessed stream miles were safe for fishing and swimming.  Today, still only 60% are believed to be safe for these activities.)  In 1999, President Clinton implemented even more stringent emissions standards for vehicles, making them 77% to 95% cleaner than they were the previous year. 

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, however, America’s commitment to the challenge of climate change seems to have dwindled as the nation has turned its focus to national security concerns.    The most recent Bush Administration did little to make significant progress in addressing climate change.  In fact, the United States has come under intense fire from many in the international community for its refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.  As the Obama Administration settles into office, it will be interesting to see how the nation’s official stance and action on climate change evolves, if it does.  During his election campaign, President Obama pledged to dust off the debate about Kyoto, indicating that he may consider ratifying it (the U.S. has already signed it), joining 183 other parties that have signed and ratified the convention.

In recent years, world leaders have put climate change higher on their agendas.  In fact, climate change was one of the key topics at the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey held last month.  In December, world leaders will convene in Copenhagen at the United Nations Climate Change Conference to discuss effective ways of mitigating the impact of climate change.  A series of conferences are being held in the months leading up to December’s conference that will set the stage for discussions in Copenhagen. 

Many have called on the U.S. to take the lead in addressing climate change.  Last month, several world leaders convened in Washington, D.C. to call on the Obama Administration to make climate change a top priority for the U.S. in advance of the UN Climate Change Conference.  According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, Connie Hedegaard said during the visit, “’As soon as the U.S. administration and this House and Senate can…come up with the American position [on climate change], the more strong the pressure will be on all of us’ at the UN conference.’”  In response, Todd Stern, Obama’s Special Envoy on Climate Change, urged Congress to pass climate legislation that would set a precedent for the rest of the world and prove that America is making progress in addressing the issue.

A recent Time magazine article explains that the United States has a unique opportunity, as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and most industrialized nation, to set a good example for the fastest industrializing nations of Brazil, India and China.  According to the article, Brazil, India and China (all three are among the nations that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol) are on pace to quickly become the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases; interestingly, China and India have stated that they will not take any significant steps to effectively address climate change until the United States does.  This clearly shows that the most significant actors in the debate are attempting to hold the United States accountable for its role in the climate crisis.  The Obama Administration has stated its intention to address the issue of climate change and time will tell if those intentions materialize.  If they do, there seems to be hope that other nations will follow America’s lead.

There is little doubt that the world must address the issue of climate change.  As our world leaders negotiate at the highest levels to find ways of mitigating the damage caused by the phenomenon, businesses, cities and individuals are finding ways to address the problem on a smaller scale.  Through activities associated with Earth Day, individuals can join together to make a difference and bring awareness to the growing devastation associated with climate change.

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.

The debate over establishing the United States Navy was long and arduous.  Many felt that the endeavor was a fruitless waste of funds; they believed that the British Navy was far too superior for the United States to even compete.  Others, including John Adams of Massachusetts, were fervent supporters of the development of an American naval force.  It was not until the Congress received intelligence that two British ships were on their way from England to Quebec, unarmed and without a protection convoy that the pro-naval advocates began to gain support.  The vulnerability of the two British ships seemed too good an opportunity to allow pass.  Within only a few days of receiving the information, the Congress authorized the outfitting of the two American vessels.

The new navy had surprising success during the course of the American War of Independence, taking “nearly two hundred British ships…, contributing to the demoralization of the enemy and forcing the British to divert warships to protect convoys and trade routes.”  With the British defeated and American independence secured, however, the new nation turned its attention toward securing its western borders and the attention given to the navy diminished to the point that for nearly a decade, it was nonexistent.  In its absence, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, the forerunner of the modern U.S. Coast Guard (see my recent article on the Coast Guard), policed the American seas.  The outbreak of civil war again proved the importance of a naval fighting force; the fact that the Union had one that vastly overpowered that of the Confederacy was vital to the eventual Union victory.  The United States Navy has been in operation without interruption since its re-establishment just prior to the Civil War.

As American policy and security interests have evolved, so too have the activities of the Navy.  United States naval participation in World War I was precipitated by German submarine attacks on civilian shipping interests.  The Navy was instrumental in the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II, a contribution they were all too happy to make after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.  The United States Navy was instrumental to the war efforts during the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam.  During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Navy’s blockade of the island was fundamental to American negotiations with the Cubans and Soviets.  The Navy has participated in Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and the ongoing War on Terrorism.  Dedicated in all ways to protecting American interests and promoting a positive American image around the world, the Navy embarked on a unique public-private partnership after the devastating 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean.  Partnering with a coalition of non-profits, led by Project HOPE, an international non-profit dedicated to providing medical attention to those most in need around the world, the Navy manned its two hospital ships, the USNS Comfort and the USNS Mercy, with volunteer doctors, nurses and other medical staff members, civilian and military, to provide much needed medical attention to the hundreds of thousands affected by the disaster.  The partnership has continued with missions to other areas of the world in which medical attention is scarce, including coastal areas in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia.  In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Navy deployed the USS Bataan to assist with disaster relief efforts.

From its fledgling beginnings, the United States Navy has become the world’s largest and strongest, with a tonnage greater than that of the next seventeen closest of the world’s navies combined.  There are more than 332,000 active Navy personnel and nearly 124,000 ready reserves.  Sailors, many of whom are our students, today we salute you on your 233rd birthday!