Midway, June 1942

US Military Lacking Leadership

It is disheartening to see reported in the military times newspapers sharp increases in sexual assaults, involving everyone from the non-rated personnel, through flag rank officers. In my estimation, this isn’t simply a matter of boys and girls behaving badly … it is a matter of poor leadership, from the top down.

Memorial Day

Betrayal in Benghazi

By Colonel Phil Handley, USAF (Retired)

The combat code of the US Military is that we don’t abandon our dead or wounded on the battlefield. In US Air Force lingo, fighter pilots don’t run off and leave their wingmen. If one of our own is shot down, still alive and not yet in enemy captivity, we will either come to get him or die trying. Among America’s fighting forces, the calm, sure knowledge that such an irrevocable bond exists is priceless. Along with individual faith and personal grit, it is a sacred trust that has often sustained hope in the face of terribly long odds.

Dempsey: Leading from Behind

JCS Chairman General Martin Dempsey, United States Army, has concluded that flag rank officers do not live up to the standards the impose on others. While I agree this is a problem, it has been thus since the very beginning of human warfare, and it is rare general or admiral who will live in the same manner as the private soldier or basic seaman. But General Dempsey is serious about this and he wants to do something about it; something that has his own unique stamp; something that will help to create his own legacy as a flag rank officer. He intends to send out teams of inspectors to observe and review the behavior of all general officers and ensure that they live by the same rules they set for others.

Under the Axe

by Alexander B. Gray

When it comes to our national-defense priorities, constrained budgets inevitably encourage strategic myopia and the use of axes over scalpels to make cuts. But no military service is more accustomed to the blow of the budget gnomes' battle ax than the U.S. Marine Corps, which is forced to justify its existence whenever conflicts end or the nation faces tough economic times. As the Obama administration frantically seeks to wind down America's commitments in Afghanistan and the Defense Department finds itself disproportionately targeted for spending cuts, the Marines are once again in danger.

Women in Combat

by Bing West

Two decades ago, the Commandant of the Marine Corps declared that women serving in the infantry “would destroy the Marine Corps.” General Robert Barrow explained that, “in three wars—World War II, Korea and Vietnam—I found no place for women to be down in the ground combat element.” He cited the 1950 fighting retreat from the Chosin Reservoir in temperatures of minus 20 degrees, with one Marine division pitted against eight Chinese divisions. Had women comprised 15 percent of his division, Barrow concluded, the Marines would have lost the battle. “The very nature of women disqualifies them from doing it (killing so brutally),” Barrow said. “Women give life sustain life, nurture life; they don’t take it.”

Viet Nam Generation

by Jim Webb

The rapidly disappearing cohort of Americans that endured the Great Depression and then fought World War II is receiving quite a send-off from the leading lights of the so-called 60s generation. Tom Brokaw has published two oral histories of "The Greatest Generation" that feature ordinary people doing their duty and suggest that such conduct was historically unique.

General Hockmuth

Major General Bruno A. Hochmuth (May 10, 1911 - November 14, 1967) was the first and only Marine division commander to be killed in any war. He was also the first American general to be killed in Vietnam. It was a tragic loss, but one attributed to an epic mechanical failure that resulted in the death of three other Americans and one Vietnamese field grade officer.

The Playboy Club

The entry to the Playboy Club was not what you might suspect. No sophisticated foyer with muted music and a warm greeting by a Bunny that an aerospace engineer would reject due to her high drag profile. Our entry had curious names, like the Bicycle Seat, the Heart, the Parrot’s Beak, or the Light Bulb. Through those doorways, we entered the Ho Chi Minh Trail area in Laos, adjacent to the North-South Vietnamese demilitarized zone.