Open Letter to President Obama and the Joint Chiefs of Staff

President Obama, General Dempsey, General Odierno, General Dunford, Admiral Greeniert, General Welsh, General Grass

Gentlemen, I am not blessed with a law degree, I did not graduate from Annapolis, West Point or the Air Force Academy.  I have not attended any of the war colleges.  The highest military school I attended was the USAF Senior NCO Academy nearly thirty years ago.

I am blessed, however, with a view of history that appears to be unique, at least compared to you who lead our nation's military.

I remember WWII, vaguely to be sure, but there are certain things that are vivid.   I remember living in a tenement near my father's job in the war industry.  I remember my parents using coupons to buy certain foodstuffs, gasoline, tires, and nylon stockings.   I remember the sighs of happiness when victory was announced over Germany and Japan.

I remember Korea only slightly better, but the lack of a victory meant no happiness except for those Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen who came home.  Now, nearly sixty years after the declared truce, we still maintain an enormous military presence on the Korean peninsula lest the North Koreans decide to resume the battle.

I distinctly remember Vietnam.  I spent a year there maintaining tactical radars and dodging incoming artillery, mortars, and rockets.  Our role in Vietnam was said to be designed to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam, but when we declared peace in 1973 and pulled our troops out, the North Vietnamese were victorious in less than two years.

I certainly remember the first Gulf War that we were on the verge of winning when suddenly we declared victory and came home, leaving Saddam Hussein in power in Iraq in 1991.

The Iraq war is also clear in my memory.  We went after Saddam Hussein in the aftermath of the 911 attacks, ostensibly because he was still maintaining a considerable stockpile of "weapons of mass destruction," which, for some reason, the national press took to mean only nuclear weapons despite the 1988 slaughter of thousands of Kurds with chemical weapons.  Hussein was pulled out of a hole in the ground, tried by an Iraqi court, convicted and hanged.  The war dragged on and finally the President pulled our troops out, or perhaps they just came home on their own, as he seems to be wavering on what role he really played.

The war in Afghanistan dragged on from 2001 until 2013.  While Osama Ben Laden was killed, beheading the Taliban did little to stop them from continuing to wage war, but in 2013, we pulled out our army.  Just recently, our marines were pulled out.  The war in Afghanistan is still active and the Taliban is still a force.

So I remember a little about WWII and Korea and substantially more about other wars in which American forces have been deployed.  We, and that includes our allies, won WWII, but it was a hard-fought battle in which the resources of this great nation were put to work to defeat our enemies.  Manufacturing, agriculture, and petroleum products were limited to the population in order to win that great war.  We went after the enemy in several major campaigns, North Africa, Italy, France, and Germany in the west, and across the Pacific aiming for Japan in the east.

Since the end of that great war, we have bombed our enemies from the skies and fought them in places like the Chosin Reservoir, the Pusan Perimeter, Inchon, Ia Drang, Khe Sanh, Hue, Baghdad, Mosul, Najaf, Kabul, Kandahar, and Tora Bora.   With the exception of those locations in South Korea that we are still protecting 60 years later, every single one of these places is either under the control of our former enemies, or in increasing danger.

What is different?  In WWII, we had objectives and when those objectives were met, we didn't pull out and let the enemy back in, we held on.  Then we set new objectives, met them, and so on until Germany and Japan capitulated.  Even then we didn't pull out and come home.  We stayed and helped our former enemies build new nations.  In this huge war, the American people were tasked to participate.  They were subjected to rationing like has never been seen since.

In all the other wars, the American people were only aware of hardship if one of their family participated in the war.  The home front did not exist.

If we want to clear the world if ISIS/ISIL, now is the time now to recognize the need to wage war as we did in WWII.  Establish objectives.  Establish beachheads on the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and enter the Middle East with enough power to annihilate ISIS/ISIL and don't stop until they no longer exist.  Yes, there will be an enormous losses of civilian and military.

The longer you wait, the harder the job will be.  Remember the Nazis?  If we had intervened in 1938 with the power that we used in 1944, the war would have been over much faster.  If we wait another four years like we did in Europe, the ISIS/ISIL forces will be that much harder to defeat.

Most important, you must have the full participation of the American people.  Steel and petroleum must be directed towards the war effort.  Agriculture must be used to support the war effort.  Shipping and other transportation must be used in the war effort.  In short, you must create a home front as was created to win WWII.

Remembering Swede

In July of 1968, I returned from Vietnam with an assignment to go to Fortuna Air Force Station, North Dakota. My family and I drove a circuitous route from Denver through Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota, then up through western North Dakota, arriving in the village of Fortuna on a Thursday afternoon. We got a room at Lee's Motel, and in the morning, I went out to the radar base to sign in and find out about housing. We were in luck. A house in town was coming available the next Wednesday. I took it, sight unseen.

On Saturday, I took some letters up to the post office to mail. The postmaster, a friendly sort of fellow, stuck his hand out through the little window and said, "I hear we are going to be neighbors. I'm Swede Benson."

I didn't know it at the time, but that friendly grin would stick with me for many years to come. He told me about Fortuna, and what living was like in that part of the world. As I got ready to leave, he stopped me and said, "When your movers come, take your kids across the street to my daughter. She'll watch them while you get moved in."

Back at the motel, I told my wife what he'd said and we both agreed that it would be better not to take Shannon and John to a total stranger, but on Wednesday, the moving truck was there before nine o'clock and about 9:30, a tall pretty teenager walked into the yard and said, "Hi. I'm Diane. I'll keep your kids while you get settled." Not only did she keep them all day, she kept them that night as well.

Later that fall, my pay got screwed up and I wasn't going to get a real paycheck for six weeks or so. One Saturday, Swede came across the street and asked if he could talk to me outside. He told me he knew we were having some trouble, so he'd made credit arrangements for us at the gas station and the grocery store. Then he said, "I've got a little money set aside. I can let you have $500 if you need it."

A man I'd known for two months or so was making an offer like that.

We managed to get through our monetary woes without making use of the credit or having to borrow Swede's money, but I never forgot the offer.

My son John was four years old when we met the Bensons. Little, white haired, and cocky, he and Swede really hit it off. John was proud to say his name in full, John Francis McNamara the Second, and he'd introduce himself that way to everyone he'd meet.

When my marriage broke up, Swede asked me to join them in the Fortuna AFS mixed doubles bowling league. I reminded him that I no longer had a wife, he said that Diane would be the fourth. We ended up in first place in the the league.

Swede put my on his curling team and taught me the rudiments of the game. I was doing pretty well until my knee went out on me and I had to quit. As I am writing this, I'm recuperating from surgery on that very same knee, some forty-six years later.

Swede took me golfing once - at Dr Mainprize Park in Saskatchewan. It was he, Don, Red Wilson, and me. It was the only time I've ever played the game.

I left Fortuna in 1970, but in 1972, I returned to North Dakota for a second Peace Garden State tour, this time at the radar station near Max, south of Minot. One summer day, I decided to revisit Fortuna. I drove straight to the Benson home only to find them loading in the car to go on a trip. We chatted for a while, and then they left and I drove out to the base, then back to town to Doug and Bonnie Grote's Roam Inn where I saw some friends.

I never did get back to Fortuna and moved on with my Air Force career, but I carried fond memories of Swede, Stella, Don, Diane, Joel, Rich and Mary and mentioned them often when I'd get to talking about North Dakota.   

One day in the 1990's, I Googled Fortuna, ND and got a hit on the Fortuna Curling Club. I sent them a note and got a response from someone who said his mother thought she remembered my name and that he'd see if anyone else knew me. A short time later, I got an e-mail from Diane saying "Hi, old friend." Later that year she and a friend and their daughters and their friends visited Washington, DC. I lived in suburban Maryland at the time, so I met them for dinner one night. It was Easter and the places I knew in the vicinity of their hotel were all closed, but we finally found a sports bar open. Heck of a place to take teenage girls, but they seemed to have a good time.

In 2005, my wife and I drove from Georgia to Fortuna for an Air Force reunion. At the picnic in the little park, I spotted Stella, so I stopped her. She knew me, but when we went up to Swede, he drew a blank until Stella reminded him about the little white-haired boy who lived across the street so many years before. Swede's eyes lit up and with that grin, said, "John Francis McNamara the Second."

I've never enjoyed a picnic in a park as much as I enjoyed that one. Donald and Mary were there as well as Diane and her husband. Finally, Swede got around to asking me about my golf game. I was embarrassed to tell him that the only time in my life that I'd played had been with him and Red and Donald.

Richard "Swede" Benson passed away yesterday. My eyes got damp when I read the note.  The world lost an awfully good man, but what memories he's left for us who knew him.  That grin and handshake, those quiet offers of help, and the things he'd do for his friends, neighbors, and those of us who would only be in his life a short time, the men and women from the radar base.

Rest in peace, Swede, and please give Stella and Mary a hug from me.

Things I Remember

The family telephone on the wall (later on a table) in the hallway.

The family camera, a Kodak box Brownie, in a desk drawer in the living room

The family radio (and later TV) in the living room

The family games, all stored in their original boxes in a drawer upstairs.

Note:  These first four are no longer "family" things as they are now available on personal electronics.   I wonder if that is part of the cause of the way our society is slipping away.

The family car, parked in the garage unless Dad was at work.

The family vacation, perhaps a day at Morse Museum, or an afternoon at Mascoma Lake or Crystal Lake

Fishing Bloods Brook and being disdainful of the little stocked trout with white meat, but keeping them anyway.

Hanging around the garage, being impressed with the FWD, and Eddie Fitzgerald's wrecked LaSalle.

The family pew, always the very same one in the Congregational Church

The family get together, usually at my grandparent's big farm house.

Going to a two room, eight grade school - the big kids (4th graders) had the window aisle and I so wanted to be a big kid and sit along those windows.  Eventually, I did, but the very next year, I was in the other room and along the wall side.  Tsk.