American Idol?

After a 42 year wait, LTC(R) Bruce Crandall received the nation's highest honor last week when he was awardeed the Medal Of Honor for actions as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam.  Then-Major Crandall's heroism was immortalized in the LTG(R) "Hal" Moore's classic book "We Were Solidiers Once...and Young" and later in the Mel Gibson movie of the same name.

I had the opportunity to see this ceremony broadcast live and it was moving to say the least.  The tragedy is not so much that this took 42 years to accompllish, but that so few people even know that it occured.  We have been able to see almost live updates of the Anna Nicole debacle and we are promptly informed every time Britanny Spears checks into and out of rehab, shaves her head, or "forgets" to don underwear, but Mention the name "Bruce Crandall" and you will get stares like you were doing card tricks for a dog.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised to find this article in the Wall Street Journal:

The Real American Idol
March 1, 2007; Page A12

Amid the mad jumble that makes the news in our time, the White House on Monday held a ceremony for a Medal of Honor recipient. His name is Bruce Crandall. Mr. Crandall is 74 now, and earned his medal as a major, flying a Huey helicopter in 1965 in the Vietnam War.

The Medal of Honor is conferred only for bravery in combat. It is a military medal, and it is still generally regarded as the highest public tribute this nation can bestow. It is also very rare.

Still, the Medal of Honor does not occupy the place in the nation's cultural life that it once did. This has much to do with the ambivalent place of the military in our angry politics.

In the House debate just ended on a "non-binding" resolution to thwart the sending of more troops to Iraq, its most noted element was the Democratic formulation to "support the troops" but oppose the war. We will hear more of this when the members of the Senate debate their own symbolic resolution.

In last November's congressional election, the Democrats picked several military veterans as candidates to mitigate the notion, a burden since Vietnam, that an endemic hostility toward things military runs through the party's veins. Those Democratic veterans won. Notwithstanding the bitter divide over Iraq, the presence of these veterans in Congress should be a good thing, if one thinks that the oft-publicized "divide" between the professional military and American civilians is not in this country's interest. It surely cannot be in the country's interest if over time more Americans come to regard the life of U.S. soldiers at war and in combat as an abstraction -- as say, mainly Oscar nominees or as newspaper photographs of scenes of utter loss at arms.

Two men have received the Medal of Honor for service in Iraq: Army Sgt. First Class Paul R. Smith, who died defending some 100 fellow soldiers, allowing their withdrawal; and Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, who died after he dove atop a live grenade to protect his squad. (Cpl. Dunham's act was the subject of a 2004 Wall Street Journal story by reporter Michael M. Phillips and later a book, "The Gift of Valor.")

Bruce Crandall's Medal of Honor, at an emotional remove of 42 years, offers a chance to ponder just where the military stands now in the nation's life. The particulars of Lt. Col. Crandall's act of heroism, and what others said of it at the awarding of the medal on Monday, offers we civilians a chance to understand not merely the risks of combat but what animates those who embrace those risks.

Mr. Crandall, then a major, commanded a company with the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, carrying soldiers to a landing zone, called X-ray, in the la Drang Valley. An assault from the North Vietnamese army erupted, as described at the White House ceremony Monday. Three soldiers on Maj. Crandall's helicopter were killed. He kept it on the ground while four wounded were taken aboard. Back at base, he asked for a volunteer to return with him to X-ray. Capt. Ed Freeman came forward. Through smoke and bullets, they flew in and out 14 times, spent 14 hours in the air and used three helicopters. They evacuated 70 wounded. The battalion survived.

A Medal of Honor requires eyewitness accounts, and an officer there attested, "Maj. Crandall's actions were without question the most valorous I've observed of any helicopter pilot in Vietnam.

Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, spoke at the ceremony of what he called "the warrior ethos." Look at his words and consider whether they still stand today, or whether as a matter of the nation's broader ethos of commonly accepted beliefs, they are under challenge. Gen. Schoomaker said: "The words of the warrior ethos that we have today -- I will always place the mission first; I will never accept defeat; I will never quit; and I will never leave a fallen comrade -- were made real that day in the la Drang Valley.

At issue today is the question: Is that ethos worth it, worth the inevitable sacrifice? And not only in Iraq but in whatever may lie beyond Iraq.

The secretary of the Army, Francis Harvey, went on in this vein: "The courage and fortitude of America's soldiers in combat exemplified by these individuals is, without question, the highest level of human behavior. It demonstrates the basic goodness of mankind as well as the inherent kindness and patriotism of American soldiers."

An American soldier in combat demonstrates "the basic goodness of mankind"? And the highest level of human behavior? This was not thought to be true at the moment Maj. Crandall was flying those choppers in Vietnam. Nor is it now.

To embrace the thoughts of Gen. Schoomaker and of Secretary Harvey is to risk being accused of defending notions of American triumphalism and an overly strong martial spirit thought inappropriate to the realities of a multilateral world. This is a debate worth having. But we are not having it. We are hiding from it.

In a less doubtful culture, Maj. Crandall's magnificent medal would have been on every front page, if only a photograph. It was on no one's front page Tuesday. The New York Times, the culture's lodestar, had a photograph on its front page of President Bush addressing governors about an insurance plan. Maj. Crandall's Medal of Honor was on page 15, in a round-up, three lines from the bottom. Other big-city dailies also ran it in their news summaries; some -- the Washington Post, USA Today -- ran full accounts inside.

Most school children once knew the names of the nation's heroes in war -- Ethan Allen, John Paul Jones, Stephen Decatur, the Swamp Fox Francis Marion, Ulysses S. Grant, Clara Barton, Billy Mitchell, Alvin York, Lee Ann Hester. Lee Ann who? She's the first woman to win a Silver Star for direct combat with the enemy. Did it in a trench in Iraq. Her story should be in schools, but it won't be.

All nations celebrate personal icons, and ours now tend to be doers of good. That's fine. But if we suppress the martial feats of a Bruce Crandall, we distance ourselves further from our military. And in time, we will change. At some risk.

While it is impossible to do now because of the ongoing Congessional debacle over the President's troop surge, I hope that at somepoint in the not to distant future we can begin to embrace our soldiers and all those who have placed them selves in harms way at the call of our nation.  I hope that we can collectively honor them for their bravery and sacrfice without worrying that we are sending the wrong message to a politically correct world.  I hope that we stop running from the debate.

Comments

[Josh]

GREAT POST!!! You're ABSOLUTELY right about our generation, the generations following us; not knowing these names! As a former Army NCO, I have every intent to raise my sons with a sense of duty and honor. They'll never know that unless they see, read and hear about our "REAL" American Idols... THANKS!!!

[MissBirdlegs in AL]

I'm the local newsperson for my e-mail list. :) I send them stuff that I KNOW they're not hearing about on the news. So I sent a link to the video of Major Crandall's award ceremony, and a copy of the text from President Bush's speech that day. I made the point to them that when I was growing up, I heard about the heroes in newsreels. Sad that we don't anymore.

[I wish the computer would turn on them]

Schwartzenegger insists the victims of the 2007 Southern California firestorm temporarily residing at Jack Murphy Stadium are happy.
First he calls Tonight Show host Jay Leno an "idiot". Then he drops this bomb.
If it were Gray Davis the gods would have their media attack him mercilessly for these mistakes. Together they may be enough to cost any other politician his career. But not Arnold Schwartzenegger.
They say he makes comments like these all the time, clues which are all buried. And it's because they have BIG plans for him::::He is a tool who will be used to accomplish historical evil for the gods.

They say there is a strange sense of "unease" at the State Capitol, perhaps because he doesn't belong there. He is not American. Sadly this is an issue that is too readily discounted:::::His loyalties lie with a country that was the enemy of the United States a mere 65 years ago. Just as we witnessed with Clinton in 1992 expect blacks to register and vote en masse for Schwartzenegger as well, a clue and a red flag.

Just as we haven't seen any more of that "Everybody is happy." idiocy from the Preditor so do we no longer hear anything of the possibility a firefighter started one if not more of these SoCal fires, buried forever.
Weight training (promoted in every prison system in the country), promotion of pharmeceuticals (steroids), desensitizing "guy flicks" all prove the name "Preditor" is warranted.
Less than 24 hours passed after a traffic accident on I-5 before Schwartzenegger declared a state of emergency, but it took over 2 full days before he did the same for the San Francisco Bay envionmental disaster incident.

The Indian casinos is another good example illustrating how the god's offensives are designed to inflict on everyone involved::::Expect these four powerful tribes were sold on preying on their fellow tribes, convinced this bill could help them crush their competition. Expect ALL FOUR to have pursued telepathically pushing people into losing money in their casinos, a common temptation the gods employed in Nevada casino executives as well, all of whom are rotated clone hosts, unlike the Indians. This is yet another example of the gods employing a strategy which fucks everyone involved::::The preditors who accepted these assignments as casino brass will die for this (and other) evil.
Penny machines are the clue they enlightened those whom they run through Nevada casinos now. I think the days are mostly over now. Incidentally, this new tactic accomplishs other goals as well and need to be taken by the disfavored as a clue.
The gods use their tools in government to promote this offensive. They then turn around and use this perception to corrupt the disfavored, equating their evil with sucess. This is a excellent corruptor and a frequently recurring strategy in the god's arsenal of weapons.
In addition, the Preditor whom the gods assigned to the government representative clone hosts during this offensive incurr by being involved as well, as do the corrupted public servants involved. The difference is the corrupted public servants won't be in a different clone host next month, ready to incurr yet more evil. But the evil they DO incurr will ensure they lose any hope of immortality. And therein explains life in the 20th century.
It's over. All that's left are wrapping up loose ends before they close things out.

The gods love reverse positioning, and this Austrian genocide issue is an OUTSTANDING example:::
There is symbolism between the two:::Hitler was an Austian-born leader of a foreign nation.
It appears as if Hitler is a monster. When Schwartzenegger does his thing he will appear as a hero, an enforcer of decency. Quite the opposite is true, ironically.
Monsters like Al Capone, violent gangsters from the 20s and 30s thought they were going up. Instead they were routed into the Nazi death camps::::This Austrian genocide event disposed of these monsters.
Schwartzenegger's genocide event will dispose of society's VICTIMS, people who are the way they are (abusive, abrasive, violent, criminal) BECAUSE of their disfavor.
People will say the Italians were pushed into it too, but I'd like to remind you black evidence is contradictory (crack, AIDS, etc). Italian evidence REINFORCES corruption (1906, ). Based on these clues it is safe to say the Italians are more disfavored than Africans.
Ironically, Hiter is the enforcer of decency. Schwartzenegger is the monster. But the movies already prove Schwartzenegger is a promoter of indencency, so when his genocide event happens there will be no secrets.

This exposure from me can change their script. Or, more appropriately said, alter the Manifest Destiny's senarios to fall in line with the god's script.
That means Schwartzenegger was never going to be used. But I think the evidence we have suggests he in fact IS the one foreshadowed with the Hitler figure, his genocide event foreshadowed with the Holocaust.
And, ironically, blacks will show up at the polls to vote for their own deaths.
I believe there is symbolism with Ronald Reagan as well.

There is one geographic clue I have not addressed in years:::Uranus, a planet tilted 90 degrees on its axis. I have stated in years past that I think this is a clue offered by the gods suggesting the fate of planet Earth, that tectonic plate subduction would be the method of disposal:::Earth’s axis will shift breaking continental plates free and initiating mass subduction.
Undesirables will either perish in the government marijuana erradication program "gone awry" or be the recipients of reparations granted by the US government because of it.
I believe the New Testiment battle of the Anti-Christ and the Second Coming of Christ will ocurr in subsequent years SPECIFICALLY because these people will be distracted with the money during the event.
When the Earth's axis shifts people will be cast into outer space with gold cards in hand.
I think this was foreshadowed on an episode of the Simpsons where Homer and Bart are on the disfavored ship and eject, only to experience a sense of euphoria, expand then explode in the vacuum of space.
When the United States government pays out reparations I believe you have less than a handful of years before the gods end on Planet Earth.

Vienna was the center of the music world for a reason.
Any middle age person today remembers the excitement surrounding classical music in the mid-20th century.
Classical music was "in play". Expect the same "magic" was employed back then as well.
Motzart's ugly for a reason. Similarly, Schwartzenegger's appearance is suspect as well.

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Reparations for a government marijuana erradication program gone awry a.wav
Reparations for a government marijuana erradication program gone awry b.wav

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