What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons…
– Wilfred Owen
What’s wrong with writing poetry on an aircraft carrier? I can’t speak to being on an aircraft carrier, but on a submarine you are not in war mode 24/7; there’s time to do ordinary things. (usually).
Let me guess: Tommy here hasn’t ever served in the military, right? All he knows about it is from movies?
Talked to quite a few vets. My understanding is that outside of training, the military is like 90% waiting… I’m sorry, “assuming a holding pattern”
I wouldn’t say 90% but it is significant. “Hurry up and wait” is a common phrase in the military - you don’t exactly have much “free time” (where you could do as you please) but you do have a lot of time wasted because you have to be at this location at 5:30 so you can wait for an evolution at 6 that doesn’t actually involve you doing anything until 7:30. So you just sit around waiting to do shit but can’t go anywhere else. Poetry sounds like a better way to pass the time than what I did in those situations, which was usually nap or BS with the others waiting around.
Free time? On a sub? There’s got to be something you’re dinq on, so get hot.
I guess he doesn’t like the national anthem then, which is a poem written during war
It was Key, not Keyes, and his relationship with slavery was complicated. Far more so than many of his contemporaries.
Reminds me of the quote by Thucydides: “The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
This is mis-attributed.
Yeah, fuck specialists! If you aren’t good at everything, you’re worthless!
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
How many brain sugeries did he perform? How many spaceflight trajectories did he calculate? How many high speed computer processors did he engineer?
Alan Turing, a mathematician and gay man, is right up there with Oppenheimer, Churchill, Macarthur, and Stalin in level of importance towards the allied victory in WW2.
I’m a veteran. A lot of really good troops in technical fields tended to not serve all that long due to better quality of life outside of the military. An ace technical troop is worth their weight in gold.
Various types of mechanics and technicians, logisticians, network admins, equipment operators, pilots, various engineers, and other technical troops are the real power of the US military. Most of those are more technical than physical.
It isn’t brawn that keeps around 100 USN ships deployed around the world at any given time. It isn’t brawn that gives the USAF a 48 hour turn around time for operating anywhere in the world. It isn’t brawn that keeps large ground forces supplied at bases all around the world. It is education, brains, and training.
I agree with the sentiment here, but as a history fan I have to challenge MacArthur’s place on that list.
He’s well known for his personality, speeches and statements, not his performance on the battlefield, which resulted in the needless deaths of thousands of American servicemen simply following his unwise orders. MacArthur was a brilliant politician but a mediocre general, and should be remembered as such.
If you want to reach for an American WW2 general worth his stars, can go with Patton or Eisenhower. They did well, even with the benefit of hindsight. We also had a slew of amazing admirals around about that time. They weren’t all good of course, but we had enough.
I remember when Putin’s War started. Over on that other site someone commented that one of the things that’ll make or break the war for Ukraine is:
Logistics!
To paraphrase, “The U.S. is many things but they’re inarguably the masters of logistics. They can get anything, anywhere, across the globe in a shockingly short amount of time. If they back Ukraine, Russia’s in a whole world of hurt.”
