Is the military so frail that celebrating the heroism, milestones, and successes of American servicemembers will push it over the precipice and cause it to fail its mission?
According to recent national and state-level reporting, as part of an effort to make the military more lethal, the Defense Department has marked tens of thousands of photos and online posts for removal from its websites. This includes a photograph of Private First Class Harold Gonsalves, a Marine and World War II veteran who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions jumping on a grenade to save his fellow Marines during the Battle of Okinawa, a post of Lieutenant Colonel Jennifer Cannon, an Airman and F-15E Weapons Systems Officer who flew more than 1,000 combat hours, and a reference to Major General Charles Rogers, a Soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his heroic efforts leading a fire support base as it endured repeated North Vietnamese Army assaults even while grievously wounded.
In essence, whether it intends to or not, the military is endorsing the idea that in order for it to be a more lethal fighting force, it needs to purge from its memory the stories of how Americans like Private First Class Gonsalves gallantly served their country. This endorsement reminds me of my dad’s stories from the early days of the Chicano Movement, where Chicano high school students railed against a society that told them that purging their families’ stories from American history would make them better Americans and make America better.
Make no mistake; to be an effective fighting force, the military needs some semblance of homogeneity. Recently fired former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General C.Q. Brown described a particular path to homogeneity when he said, “When I’m flying, I put my helmet on, my visor down, my mask up. You don’t know who I am—whether I’m African American, Asian American, Hispanic, White, male or female. You just know I’m an American Airman, kicking your butt.” That’s the type of homogeneity that matters when you’re building and employing a lethal military capable of winning our nation’s wars.
Instead, our current senior military leaders seem to be seeking a different type of homogeneity in their pursuit of “purifying” our military’s history, “otherizing” American servicemembers who continue to make significant contributions to our military and our nation, and normalizing white men as the model for American servicemembers. Given the current decline of the white-male population across the country, this path will only serve to undermine the military’s lethality, as a greater portion of current and future servicemembers reject a perspective on homogeneity that has not been relevant since before the famed cadre of African-Americans called the Tuskegee Airmen. These famed Airmen unleashed their lethality on the German Luftwaffe during World War II, and replace it with their own individual perspective on what right looks like.
After more than 20 years of war, I’m pretty confident that the military has living proof of what lethal looks like in the form of its current cadre of talented military members. The military has a vast set of examples of all shapes and sizes that can inspire its members to live up to their oaths to the constitution and commitment to our ever-evolving country. Instead of dismantling its examples of exemplary service, the military should reject the call to return to the previous century and reinforce the idea that it doesn’t matter where an American servicemember comes from, they are here to kick your butt.
The views expressed by Benjamin D. Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.
