The private-eye hero of my just finished new political thriller, The Apocalypse Mask, is a 30-something ex-Army Ranger who left the military because of its increased wokeness. Mark Slade didn’t quit out of political conviction but for self-preservation. He just could no longer trust his life to unfit soldiers poorly trained by lowered physical standards, such as that for women. “You got a problem with women in the military?” a female character asks him. “Lot more than the Chinese will when they take us on,” Slade replies. A new report on the dismal caliber of current U.S. military personnel, typically found only in a foreign newspaper, UK’s Daily Mail, makes Slade’s decision all the more believable.
But it was the movies that elevated my love for the U.S. military, those made by Hollywood during and shortly after World War II.
The article headline pretty much describes the problem: “US Army faces ‘TikTok mutiny’ as Gen Z recruits whine about low pay, ‘sh***y’ food and FITNESS TESTS while on bases in uniform.” The story itself describes a total breakdown of military discipline and behavior. It’s full of punk soldiers whining about their service misery on video and social media while still in uniform — a court-martial level offense. One poster with a million followers on TikTok , Anthony Laster, blasts his Army existence for its “No Privacy, Sh***y Food, Disrespectful Leadership, NO SLEEP!” (READ MORE from Lou Aguilar: Advent Versus Evil)
Putting aside the fact that all of his complaints have been the military reality forever, if not the point, TikTok is programmed and controlled by China, the enemy these weenies may soon be called upon to fight. And I don’t set much store by our chances. Because the rot starts at the top, with simpering brass like General Mark Milley (“I want to understand white rage, and I’m white.”) and Secretary of State Lloyd Austin (“The fact that the Afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away — in many cases without firing a shot— took us all by surprise.”) No wonder the Army will likely be 15,000 short of its 65,000 recruit goal, the Navy and the Air Force ten percent short.
Last year, when my nephew, Lucas, 21, asked for my advice about joining the Marines, I gave him the answer I once never thought I would, “No way!” Where once I would have pictured the Marine Corps War Memorial and the heroic leathernecks planting the U.S. flag amid the brutal Battle of Iwo Jima, a darker image came to my mind. Of Marines bearing the casket of their dead comrade (Lance Corporal Dylan Merola, 20), one of 11 Marines (plus two other servicemembers) blown away at Kabul Airport during Joe Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. Of the vegetative President, clueless First Lady Jill Biden, and inept SecDef Austin standing by with hands on their hearts while wearing those stupid COVID masks.
My answer to Lucas saddened me the second I said it. I grew up loving the United States military — patriotically, historically, and fictionally. The thought of men risking, and too often losing, their lives and limbs in war to defend our nation always stirred me. And America has been blessed by the best and bravest since its inception.
This Christmas Day, for instance, while you’re feasting in warmth and comfort among family or friends, try to imagine General George Washington’s 1776 Christmas. At 4:00 a.m. on December 26th, Washington and his men were crossing the Delaware River in pitch darkness, snow, and frost, still ahead, a grueling march and the war-changing battle for Trenton. Shortly before this daring operation, Washington had his officers read to his men excerpts from Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis.
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph.
I devoured military histories more thrilling than fiction, like James M. McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom about the Civil War. Consequently, whenever someone asks my opinion on slavery reparations for black people, I state that that they already got them — 360,000 Union dead — and deserve not one cent more. I can’t recommend enough Craig Symonds’ The Battle of Midway (Pivotal Moments in American History) describing the tide-turning battle of World War II, and many other stirring chronicles. The same went for the gripping novels about the war, like James Jones’ From Here to Eternity and Herman Wouk’s The Winds of War (his Holocaust-focused continuation, War and Remembrance, is not as good). (READ MORE: All in the Homily: On the Death of Norman Lear)
But it was the movies that elevated my love for the U.S. military, those made by Hollywood during and shortly after World War II — in which most of the top male stars had fought. Some of the best are Destination Tokyo, Battleground, Stalag 17 (starring William Holden, USAF, 1942-1945), Run Silent, Run Deep (starring Clark Gable, USAF, aerial gunner, five missions over Nazi Germany), and The Longest Day, a magnificent depiction of the Allied Normandy Invasion.
Yet I can never forget Fredric March’s wonderful closing speech as a Rear Admiral in The Bridges at Toko-Ri. “Where do we get such men? They leave the ship and they do the job, and they must find this speck lost somewhere in the sea. And when they find it, they have to land on its pitching deck. Where do we get such men?” The answer is not on TikTok or under the Biden Administration.
One week left to order the perfect Christmas gift book – my romantic Yuletide ghost story, The Christmas Spirit, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other fine bookstores.