The Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs has selected as its theme for Veterans Day 2008 "Generations of Thanks for Generations of Service." Upon being asked to address a Veterans Day celebration Tuesday in Belleville, I thought it appropriate to reflect on changes in military service across the generations. Following are excerpts of that address:
Kids learn to read at about 5 or 6 years old, my age at the beginning of World War II. My earliest memories include reading headlines of the Monroe Evening Times. They were always on the war, so I associated headlines with war. I recall our grade school classes marching over to the post office to buy war stamps; flags in the windows with stars signifying family members on active duty - and the occasional gold star signifying a wartime death. Of course, the draft was a fact of life, and it continued after the big war. After all, there was the occupation of Germany and Japan, and the menace of the Soviet Union and expansion of Communism.
And sure enough, five years after the end of the big war, on a Sunday in June, the North Koreans crossed the 38th Parallel and were well on their way to taking over the entire Korean peninsula.
During both WWII and Korea, the draft was on and military service was near universal for the male half of the population. President Roosevelt's sons served in the armed forces, as did future presidents George H.W. Bush and Jack Kennedy. Major League Baseball continued throughout WWII, but was deprived of its best players.
Even after the Korean truce was signed in 1953, the draft continued. I recall MHS vo-ag instructor, Ken Allen, a WWII Navy vet, counseling us that we owed Uncle Sam two years, and we might as well count on it. Since the draft had existed during our lifetimes, and we figured it would always be so, we accepted it without question.
I successfully evaded the draft by joining the Marines for three years, causing some to question my judgment. But that was nothing. My high school pal, Werner Vogel, evaded the draft by joining the paratroopers and jumping out of airplanes. For this, he received a few extra bucks in hazardous duty pay, augmenting his 78 bucks a month. But hey! Like me, he's Swiss. He said he needed the money.
Obligatory military service was not limited to farm boys and sons of blue-collar working people. Singing stars, the Everly Brothers, enlisted in the Marines. Super stars like the "King", Elvis, served two years in the Army, and it was considered no big deal. Imagine something like that happening routinely today! But that was about to change, partly due to the nation's demographics.
Those of us reaching military age during the peaceful mid-50s had been born during the Great Depression of the 30s, a period of low birth rates. So while manpower needs were large, the pool from which to draw was small. Military service thus was near universal for the male half of the population, and the armed forces consisted of a general cross section of society.
The so-called "baby boom" began in 1946. So the available pool of young men from which to draw turned 18 just in time for, guess what, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 that marked escalation of hostilities in Vietnam. The catch was that even though manpower needs increased, the available pool from which to draw was so much larger that needs could be filled with just a portion of the available pool.
You know the rest of the story - an unpopular war, draft evasion based on personal or political connections, college deferments and other means favoring the upper middle class and those with connections. There was pressure to end ROTC at colleges and universities, and confusion between blaming the military as opposed to politicians responsible for decisions to wage war. Confidence in American institutions in general began to wane, all adding to a contentious period of unrest and upheaval in America.
The cessation of hostilities in Vietnam brought with it an end to the draft. As with any policy change, there are unintended consequences. With an all-volunteer force, we no longer have a cross section of society represented in our armed forces. There is an increased cultural gulf between our military and civilian populations that, in my judgment, is unhealthy. And a much smaller proportion of our leaders in business and government have military experience behind them.
But the most tragic consequence of no obligatory military service is the unequal burden of the cost of war, costs no longer shared by the population in general. The Iraqi invasion began in 2003. We keep recycling the same troops again and again and again. How many more times can we ask them to roll the dice?
Military action is entwined with foreign policy. I have often asked myself how different foreign policy, and decisions on war and peace, might be if there were high probability that the sons and daughters of our corporate CEOs and big-time politicians were likely to be in the line of fire.
It is honorable to serve your country in uniform. It is honorable to serve your country in combat. It also is honorable to work toward a world in which we can keep people out of combat. In fact, that's why our veterans have served, and are serving - so we can create the opportunity for a world in which we minimize the need to send people, including our own sons and daughters, into combat.
We all want a world characterized by peace and stability. Our American population is about 4 percent of the world. By attaining the cooperation and support of the other 96 percent of the world's population, we have the opportunity to create that world of peace and stability.
That opportunity, remember, was created by our veterans - to whom we owe generations of thanks for generations of service.
- John J. Waelti is a Monroe resident and an occasional columnist for The Monroe Times. He can be reached at jjwaelti@tds.net.
Kids learn to read at about 5 or 6 years old, my age at the beginning of World War II. My earliest memories include reading headlines of the Monroe Evening Times. They were always on the war, so I associated headlines with war. I recall our grade school classes marching over to the post office to buy war stamps; flags in the windows with stars signifying family members on active duty - and the occasional gold star signifying a wartime death. Of course, the draft was a fact of life, and it continued after the big war. After all, there was the occupation of Germany and Japan, and the menace of the Soviet Union and expansion of Communism.
And sure enough, five years after the end of the big war, on a Sunday in June, the North Koreans crossed the 38th Parallel and were well on their way to taking over the entire Korean peninsula.
During both WWII and Korea, the draft was on and military service was near universal for the male half of the population. President Roosevelt's sons served in the armed forces, as did future presidents George H.W. Bush and Jack Kennedy. Major League Baseball continued throughout WWII, but was deprived of its best players.
Even after the Korean truce was signed in 1953, the draft continued. I recall MHS vo-ag instructor, Ken Allen, a WWII Navy vet, counseling us that we owed Uncle Sam two years, and we might as well count on it. Since the draft had existed during our lifetimes, and we figured it would always be so, we accepted it without question.
I successfully evaded the draft by joining the Marines for three years, causing some to question my judgment. But that was nothing. My high school pal, Werner Vogel, evaded the draft by joining the paratroopers and jumping out of airplanes. For this, he received a few extra bucks in hazardous duty pay, augmenting his 78 bucks a month. But hey! Like me, he's Swiss. He said he needed the money.
Obligatory military service was not limited to farm boys and sons of blue-collar working people. Singing stars, the Everly Brothers, enlisted in the Marines. Super stars like the "King", Elvis, served two years in the Army, and it was considered no big deal. Imagine something like that happening routinely today! But that was about to change, partly due to the nation's demographics.
Those of us reaching military age during the peaceful mid-50s had been born during the Great Depression of the 30s, a period of low birth rates. So while manpower needs were large, the pool from which to draw was small. Military service thus was near universal for the male half of the population, and the armed forces consisted of a general cross section of society.
The so-called "baby boom" began in 1946. So the available pool of young men from which to draw turned 18 just in time for, guess what, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 that marked escalation of hostilities in Vietnam. The catch was that even though manpower needs increased, the available pool from which to draw was so much larger that needs could be filled with just a portion of the available pool.
You know the rest of the story - an unpopular war, draft evasion based on personal or political connections, college deferments and other means favoring the upper middle class and those with connections. There was pressure to end ROTC at colleges and universities, and confusion between blaming the military as opposed to politicians responsible for decisions to wage war. Confidence in American institutions in general began to wane, all adding to a contentious period of unrest and upheaval in America.
The cessation of hostilities in Vietnam brought with it an end to the draft. As with any policy change, there are unintended consequences. With an all-volunteer force, we no longer have a cross section of society represented in our armed forces. There is an increased cultural gulf between our military and civilian populations that, in my judgment, is unhealthy. And a much smaller proportion of our leaders in business and government have military experience behind them.
But the most tragic consequence of no obligatory military service is the unequal burden of the cost of war, costs no longer shared by the population in general. The Iraqi invasion began in 2003. We keep recycling the same troops again and again and again. How many more times can we ask them to roll the dice?
Military action is entwined with foreign policy. I have often asked myself how different foreign policy, and decisions on war and peace, might be if there were high probability that the sons and daughters of our corporate CEOs and big-time politicians were likely to be in the line of fire.
It is honorable to serve your country in uniform. It is honorable to serve your country in combat. It also is honorable to work toward a world in which we can keep people out of combat. In fact, that's why our veterans have served, and are serving - so we can create the opportunity for a world in which we minimize the need to send people, including our own sons and daughters, into combat.
We all want a world characterized by peace and stability. Our American population is about 4 percent of the world. By attaining the cooperation and support of the other 96 percent of the world's population, we have the opportunity to create that world of peace and stability.
That opportunity, remember, was created by our veterans - to whom we owe generations of thanks for generations of service.
- John J. Waelti is a Monroe resident and an occasional columnist for The Monroe Times. He can be reached at jjwaelti@tds.net.
