Brian M Downing
President Obama recently made a gaff by referring to a four-star flag officer as “General” McRaven. McRaven, in fact, is an admiral. For the president’s legions of foes, this underscores the president’s cluelessness regarding military matters. I presume they think that Bush the Younger and Cheney the Other-Prioritized were far better informed. The president’s miscue might have stemmed from McRaven’s frequent appearance in camouflage uniform – attire I associate with special forces and guys who did LRRPs, not with flag officers in the navy or army. At least not ones with confidence and sense.
I wonder why an admiral feels the need to dress in camo. Perhaps it’s because the navy has had relatively little to do with actual fighting since Vietnam, if not WW2, and admirals feel self-conscious about it when around guys in the army and marines. Hence the bravado in attire. And hence Obama’s confusion. In the spirit of even-handedness and inter-service comity, I also wonder why generals feel the need to dress in camo. They’re not exactly in the fray. Surely it’s for the cameras. Kind of like MacArthur walking through the surf at Leyte in his shoes or a politician rolling up his shirt sleeves as he talks to construction workers. Camo gives the illusion of combat readiness and combat experience just as well as rolled-up sleeves give the illusion of having done manual labor and hence understanding the working class.
If the object is to blend into one’s surroundings, generals should wear white while in their paper-cluttered offices in Arlington and Tampa. Perhaps some mocha-colored flecks here and there would convey the illusion of readiness, though inattentiveness while sipping one’s latté might be a more credible explanation. Then again, the generals might object that white uniforms would make them look like Good Humor men, orderlies in a Ken Kesey novel, or maybe even as sailors.
I once read that several officers who never left their Pentagon offices during the Panama operation awarded themselves Combat Infantryman’s Badges – a highly-prized army decoration bestowed upon combat soldiers. Good Lord! An elderly neighbor who fought from Normandy into Germany was never given a CIB because he wasn’t in an infantry unit, only a company of Shermans that closed the Falaise-Argentan Gap and broke through the Siegfried Line. He did, however, get three Purple Hearts along the way.
I once saw Creighton Abrams when I was in Vietnam. He eschewed any pretense of combat readiness and wore khakis – a dress uniform for warmer climes and seasons. The guy broke through the German encirclement of Bastogne back in 1944 and was Patton’s favorite battalion commander. On the other hand, Patton’s son was the assistant post commander when I was stationed at Ft Knox. Patton the Younger packed a pistol with him as he roamed around the post, usually in fatigues, ever vigilant for things in need of boot polish or a dab of Brasso. I realize that rural Kentucky is not very genteel, but the pistol still seemed ridiculous to me and many of my colleagues as well. His dad’s famous pearl-handled pistols were in the Patton Museum on Knox. Omar Bradley said they made Patton look like a pimp in a New Orleans bordello. Bradley and Eisenhower were decent guys. They awarded themselves very few decorations and looked more like the gents who ran the old hardware stores. Nonetheless, they defeated the Third Reich.
The commander of Ft Knox when I was there was a square-jawed major general named William Robertson Desobry. During the Battle of the Bulge, Desobry patched together a few hundred troops and delayed a full panzer division for a few critical days. He was later wounded and taken prisoner. He went about his duties at Knox in a dress uniform and conspicuously unarmed. Desobry felt no need for the displays of bravado that Patton the Younger and his successors so diligently practice.
Copyright 2012 Brian M Downing