Inside the Headquarters

It’s Labor Day weekend. Venture out with every other minivan and Mini Cooper known to man. Some gems are tough to pass up.

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia is one such find. It is a tiny place a little more than 60 miles from Washington, D.C. So close and yet so far, it is a world or two away from the gridlock that is the nation’s capitol. It is a place of beauty and wonder as well as a time capsule of military history.

Harpers Ferry was first home to a major U.S. armory and arsenal. Work on the armory began in 1799. Hundreds of thousands of muskets for the U.S. Army were manufactured there before the Civil War. The convergence of the Potomac and mighty Shenandoah rivers provided a power source. Canals and later railroads provided means for moving goods. It worked, until abolitionist John Brown’s famous raid on the arsenal in 1859. The Marines (it seems they were closest) were sent to take down Brown.

The Civil War hit Harpers Ferry hard. The town, a part of Virginia in 1860, changed hands no fewer than eight times. Other Civil War sites dot the countryside including Antietam/Sharpsburg in neighboring Maryland.

Now a National Historic Park, Harpers Ferry overlooks the beauty of the two rivers. Thomas Jefferson wrote of the area’s splendor in 1783. The town remains small and pristine. Parking can be a challenge, refreshments are marginal, but the scenery and history make it worth the day or even an afternoon.

And if you want to link your history with more physical pursuits, hiking and biking are big – The C&O Canal Trail as well as the Appalachian Trail pass by town. Kayaking is big as is the pastime of tubing—a pursuit I have never understood.

Why are you a Harpers Ferry fan? What are your favorite destinations rich in military history?

I have come to appreciate art for art’s sake.

I also go right to the obits in the Naval Academy alumni magazine, “Shipmate.” I have never read an article. Until now.

The Seattle Opera is performing “Amelia,” a work about a Naval Academy graduate lost at sea during the Vietnam War and the daughter he left behind. Judging from the reviews, this original work is a hit, though it seems like an odd theme for the operatic stage.

From the “Shipmate” article, it is difficult to discern the real-life story. From what I can gather, Navy pilot Cmdr. Albert Dodge McFall (Class of 1950), went missing in 1965 while training for a second deployment to Vietnam. He left a wife and two children. It is the daughter, poet Gardner McFall, who, from her description, was hit hardest by this death.

Years later she published a book of poems. “The Pilot’s Daughter” chronicled her journey from her father’s (Dodge’s) death to the birth of her daughter. (The child is not Amelia.)

Through Gardner’s poetic style, fortunate choice of artistic friends, years of work and luck came the completed opera.

The character Amelia, named after (yes) Amelia Earhart, is Gardner. The opera appears to play like an episode of “Lost” with flash forwards and flash backs through time. Conventions aside, major critics have not been shy with their praise.

A synopsis of the opera can be read online.

Reviews include the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Seattle Times.

Will its Seattle success mean “Amelia” will open at an opera house near you?

Do you want it to?

Nicholas Coppolo (Icarus), Kate Lindsey (Amelia), and Nathan Gunn (Paul) in Seattle Opera’s “Amelia.” © Rozarii Lynch photo

I was intrigued by the growling in the vehicle at the next pump, but could not make out the culprit, though it seemed to be a dog in a police cruiser. A uniformed officer was Jake’s handler (the growl had a name), and the German Shepherd-Border Collie mix is a member of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency Police Canine Division, which stood up in 1998 to combat terrorism, three years prior to the September 11 attacks. His handler took great pride in Jake, and it was clear he cared deeply for this animal. “Well, he’s 8, but he’s got a lot of good years left,” he said. “Obviously. I can hear that,” I thought.

This Pentagon unit with 21-40 dogs is an explosives K-9 division protecting the thousands working at the Defense Department as well as the Pentagon’s many visiting dignitaries. They also help other police forces around the national capital region. Aside from explosives detection, dogs and handlers respond to bomb threats, and check out suspicious vehicles and packages.

The officer confided Jake had faced some challenges, including a brush with death row. He had bitten his previous handler numerous times and was thought to be untrainable. Enter our police hero who said “Give me a shot,” and he and Jake have been working and living together for two years. Unlike military working dogs, these K-9s go home each night with their handlers. It has been found this lifestyle arrangement maintains a crucial rapport between dog and handler. (I wonder how an officer would react if his or her dog was in danger. I have done some crazy things for even crazier dogs.)

The public relations people have taken the sports hero approach with the dogs. Be it during school visits or with overly curious gas station patrons, the officers are happy to share the dog’s trading card. K-9 Jake has his own card with his photograph (complete with American flag) on the front. Biographical information and a synopsis about the K-9 program are on the back. It is difficult to imagine the dog I heard in the cruiser looks like the calm, bundle of joy pictured.

The officer shared when Jake retires he’d like to take him home permanently.

I’d settle for more trading cards.

Remembering the fallen is a relatively new idea. War memorials used to commemorate victories, like the Arc de Triumph in Paris, where the fallen are not named. This began to change around the turn-of-the last century. Memorials listing war dead can be seen in town centers in the U.S. as well as Europe. They are uncatalogued; it is exciting to discover them by chance.

I was in my birth town, Baltimore, with a friend recently and we found an unusual war memorial. A number of elegant plaques had grown into a small collection in a little nook at the front corner of St. Leo’s Catholic Church (227 South Exeter St.) in Little Italy. The plaques started at World War One and worked their way to the present. They list all from the parish who have fought. A star was placed by the names of those killed. It is a sweet tribute to an almost exclusively Italian group of boys.

If you check it out, Little Italy is a ghost town. Though we heard an older couple speaking Italian as they walked, a restaurant dating back more than 70 years was closed. Its building was for sale. You can watch residents play bocce ball at the neighborhood bocce court, but that and a handful of restaurants (no markets!) comprise what had been a bustling Italian enclave at one time.

Will the war memorial tradition at small venues like neighborhood parishes go the way of once-thriving city neighborhoods?

Wanna steal valor? Claim you are a Medal of Honor recipient having never served a day in the military? Don a general officer uniform and go on the speaking circuit?

California’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a man convicted under the Stolen Valor Act, finding the law unconstitutional. The court ruled the three-year-old edict violated the free speech rights of Xavier Alvarez, who falsely claimed to be a Marine Corps Medal of Honor recipient.

The court in its 2-1 decision found Alvarez’s lie harmed no one, and there is no reason the government should legislate on lies of this nature.

The court has a point.

While people may find Alvarez’s actions abhorrent, are they criminal? He lied. He misrepresented himself. Is this a crime?

Is the person who misrepresents himself or herself on a resume guilty of a similar crime? Let’s say they claim to be a Nobel Prize recipient. Or a Pulitzer winner. Crime? Probably not. Against societal conventions? Maybe.

People lie about who they are. Men and women misrepresent marital status. Sure there may be legal repercussions in divorce court, but is the misrepresentation a crime? A man passes himself off as a women. Has he committed a crime or is he just a transvestite? Some guy poses as a war hero or multi-star big guy. Crime? I am not an attorney, but as the court ruled, if the lie hurts no one, it is simply a lie and within an individual’s constitutionally protected rights.

The counter argument may be the lie hurts veterans and society as a whole, but it seems this “damage” cannot be quantified to the court’s satisfaction. It is just a lie. A misrepresentation. Not a crime.

The guy down the street falsely prancing as a two star – a rank this person never achieved. Why not expose him publicly and make sure as many as people as possible know that this guy is a valor monger? Call the media. Churn out a press release. Strip this person of his or her dignity.

Expose him or her for the liar and thief they are. Is that not sufficient? The court deal would be a welcome respite from the community embarrassment. Dispense with the legal drama here. Too many seem to have jumped on this stolen valor train to nowhere. We now thank veterans for their service out of some sense of awkward societal obligation.

Show me the valor poser, and I will show you a sad, lost person.

For the living valor mongers, let the court of public opinion make its judgment.

Does anyone out there have an opinion on posers and the stolen valor decision?

Does a former drill sergeant really make a terrible therapist? Whether you are in therapy or out, R. Lee Ermey as a touch therapist with nothing but disdain for his patient just doesn’t get old. Most of you have probably seen this. I find it brilliant. Ermey and his director are masters of their art.

Ermey, who is a former drill instructor and spent 11 years in the Corps, has enjoyed acting success. He has appeared in nearly 60 films including The Boys in Company “C,” Apocalypse Now, and of course Full Metal Jacket, where his drill instructor portrayal is not unlike the one we see for Geico. Ermey was medically retired as a staff sergeant in 1972, but “attained” the honorary rank of gunnery sergeant in 2002 by the pen of then-Commandant of the Marine Corps Jim Jones for his work on behalf of the Marine Corps.

With the Potomac in the background I saw this sign billowing at the “Free Bradley Manning” protest in Quantico Town, just outside the confines of the “Crossroads of the Marine Corps.” This image is not something one sees around Quantico very often. I found it striking in its silence and beauty away from the Manning mess.

Is this accurate or just more rhetoric?

From MCBQMNS@comcast.net Aug, 6, 2010:

On Sunday 8 August 2010 we are expecting members of CODEPINK and possibly other organizations to gather at the waterfront park in Quantico Town in order to protest PFC Bradley Manning’s arrest and confinement at Marine Corps Base, Quantico. Base officials, Prince William County Police, and the Quantico Town Police are working together to ensure this event occurs without incident.

Personnel assigned to MCBQ should avoid the area from 1000-1700 on Sunday, 8 August 2010.

Is Quantico encouraging people to stay away from a public off-base event? Does this cross a line?

Code Pink, the famed femme fanner of fires, descended upon Quantico, Va., to protest the incarceration of alleged Wikileaks secret document machine, Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, who is confined to the Quantico brig.

Code Pink, our gurlz from the San Francisco Bay Area, can be creative. Our last story showed the group holding a kiss-in at a recruiting office parking lot in Berkeley to block access to the recruiters. Impressive.

But recruiting store fronts are on civilian property. As you probably know, one cannot protest on board a military installation, so Code Pink, Veterans for Peace and others obtained a permit to hold their event in Quantico Town. It is a civil municipality surrounded by the base on three sides and the Potomac on the fourth, but it is civilian property.

Despite Manning’s presence in the brig, it is an unlikely place for a protest. But heroes on both sides gathered. A docile Code Pink and Manning supporters numbered a couple of hundred. They had the requisite chant, “Free Bradley Manning,” signs, and speeches. One gentleman announced Manning supporters had raised $60 thousand in his defense, half their goal.

Does he have a defense? If you listen to the pink and righteous, the government wants whistleblowers, aka Manning. But one attendee told me many in the pro-Manning camp did not understand he had allegedly committed a crime with the release of classified material. Such are the doe-eyed and bleating. Manning had options.

Off to the side was a silent and equally cordial group numbering 10 or so for the other team. Their main image is shown above. Concrete Dave, a veteran, knew the protesters by name. They seem to have the Looney Tunes Ralph-and-Sam thing going.

Media was plentiful. According to Quantico public affairs, CNN (whose camera guy tried to take down a cop); DC-based Ch 4, 7, 9; a number of smaller outlets (I think I spoke to a Russian news organization); were all present. And we cannot forget our friends at al Jazeera. (Arabic T-shirts, a must.)

What are your thoughts on Wikileaks and the secret documents? PFC Manning?

Peaceful protests? And that e-mail from Quantico? Unnecessary? Over the line?

(Despite the outrageous Hawaiian attire, my escort was not DIA, as alleged.)

US News and World Report had a piece on the ultimate political reality show: Sarah Palin and Rod Blagojevich.

It is an over-the-top “reality show” with a love story between the two thrown in. (Guess Sarah dumps husband Todd.) We find the two former governors to be more the political exceptions; two people with no interest in actually governing their states, as US News notes. But TV has hit some noteworthy lows, so it could register as entertaining for the reality series crowd. Or it could amount to a short-lived smash-and-grab. But isn’t that what it’s all about? (So how many of you out there are reality TV junkies?)

Clearly, the best reality show goin’ is in Afghanistan, and with Marine Gen. Jim “I like Brawlin’” Mattis probably soon at the U.S. Central Command helm, anything is possible. Sure documentaries have been done in theater and numerous stories for print and broadcast by “embeds” have graced TV screens, magazines and newspapers. The ultimate nod was Academy Award wonder, “The Hurt Locker.”

As tasteless as some reality bottom feeders can be, our Afghanistan reality show could be the low-brow “Big Brother” meets the tired, but reliable, “Amazing Race.”

Cameras would follow our boys and girls ‘round the clock. There is so much we don’t know. Do the doe-eyed and bleating argue? Fight each other? Read? Surf the Web? Make YouTube videos? Get sick? Laugh? Cry?

Do they talk about upcoming missions? (No WikiLeaks here.) We’d have the director work his way from the forward operating bases to force commander Army Gen. David “King David” Petraeus. He appears gracious, brilliant. But how miffed is he at his unexpected tour of duty? What does his wife think? We need the wife.

An episode or two with Afghan president Hamid Karzai could be a hoot. Who is that man’s tailor? Really. I want him or her on camera. Filming Karzai meeting with other elected officials (and his tailor) would be more reality than viewers could take.

Could we get the Taliban to appear regularly? Taliban leaders would love the exposure and it could help relations on all sides. If the show took off, the director could spend some quality time with the brawler himself, Jim Mattis. He’s a four-star and single. There must be some stories there. But is this man ready for prime time? No need for episodes at the Pentagon and White House. The uber-scripted are an uber buzz kill. Ratings would tank.

“Reality Afghanistan” could be compelling. Having worked with a couple of producers out of Los Angeles back when I was shillin’ for the Defense Department, these guys are looking for the next great thing. Could this be it or has it already been discussed – too many times?

Should we have a reality show of the Armed Forces? What is your vision for the ultimate showcase of US units in any service anywhere in the world? (Hey, our ship-bound Navy brethren could be interesting. All those people forced into close-quarters for long periods? Explosive!)

“Is anyone reading?” I ask each time I post … and between posts. Blog Goddess at MOAA assures me you read, but I remain dubious.

What was suggested as a column, became MOAA’s first blog. My friends are kind enough to feign excitement by my body of work. Most others are condescending, “You write a … blog?” Yes, after three years it still bothers me.

But I enjoy “Inside the Headquarters.” I like crafting informative fare upon which readers may feast. (Let me live in my fantasy world!)

I read a few defense blogs, but I read more about blogs. Sort of the science of blogs. Commenting? I’d rather move to a small village on the Tigris than comment on a defense blog. Yet I want commenters. I’ll write, but won’t comment. (How do you get through your day?)

Not all blogs are about defense. Pick a topic: fashion, finance (MOAA has a great financial blog), interior design. Vintage automotive. I enjoy them, and I’ve considered commenting. Maybe I make the connection because I don’t write about these topics. Maybe these blogs tend to be more approachable. Maybe I like them. Maybe I find them comfortable and inclusive.

My point?

It may be time for a makeover. Can defense be charming and engaging? Maybe not, but there could be an elusive balance to capture. “Inside the Headquarters’” content is reflective of current defense-related events. My writing style is reflective of my deep frustration with DoD – present concerns informed by alarmingly negative past experiences. But approachable might be a better avenue even for the controversial topic. (Maybe not.)

Why now? I have started playing with another Web site on non defense topics – like antiques, wondrous water lilies in my pond and walking my dogs at Assateague. The writing is joyous. While some defense entries are penned with ease, they may be difficult to read. This blog is about defense and you, the reader.

Well, realistically “edgy” won’t disappear. I mean, if we are going to contract for budget breaking-weapons systems, support race-based anything and continue to exclude women from combat and patronize their quasi combat-related accomplishments, my “concern” may bleed through. But we can take the occasional academic approach or follow more of a news story or news feature style. I do it in Military Officer magazine, on the rare occasion the Magical One runs my stuff. But we are talking the theater of the absurd in the blog, so we’ll see.

We will continue on the high road. The factual road. The balanced road. The entries will continue to be hard-hitting, and I hope to get a discussion going. (Maybe I won’t close on that place on the Tigris.) Since you probably don’t want to hear about my long walks on the beach at Assateague swimming with my criminal Labradors we will continue to write about the happenings “Inside the Headquarters.”

Everyone’s equal on the slaughterhouse floor.

Your thoughts on style? Content? Please remember I am always looking for tips on happenings inside your headquarters. (WikiLeaks spoken here.)