For four generations my family (direct line) have not served in the military and I suspect that will be true of the fifth generation as well who are little children now. The last to serve were three of my great-great-grandfathers who were in the American Civil War fighting for the Union. I believe only one saw action and he was in some of the fiercest battles, serving from 1862 to 1865. He entered as a private and mustered out as a captain.
None of the services would take my dad during World War II and both of my grandfathers were too old to serve in World War I.
Of my extended family only my great-uncle Ed Schneider served and he was one of the relatively few unfortunate enough to serve in World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam. He was a steamfitter and that was a vital trade in the Navy of yesteryear. He lived to tell the tale.
Consequently, I have little to say about those who’ve died in our wars other than that I’m sincerely grateful for their sacrifice.
I’m also, apparently, one of the few who thinks that the best way of honoring those sacrifices is in avoiding getting into wars unless the United States is actually threatened. We haven’t actually been threatened by war for more than 80 years.
The best way to honor those sacrifices is to only go to war when you intend to win. Meaning, you put the entire country on a wartime footing. That includes rationing allowing everybody to make some sacrifices.
I only care about winning. If we are serious about winning, rationing should be no problem, and conversely, if it is a problem, we are not serious about winning.
That has certainly been the problem since World War II. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq.
That also brings up the issue I raise in a post above: the Congress. Not requiring the Congress to declare war makes it unlikely the entire country will go on a wartime footing.
I agree that Congress should declare war. That would mean we were actually threatened, and we intend to win. Unfortunately, there is no app for that.
TB’s ideas are more pertinent for future vets. I would probably alter his ideas a bit but not that much. I would add specifically that we should not use the military for nation building of nations that have a long history of not being functional.
For the present, we should ask for qualified leadership to run DoD and the VA. They should have significant and broad leadership experience and preferably some knowledge of the military. The VA leader should have experience with leadership in health care.
Steve