Signs of Wokeness Metastasizing in the US Military

John R. “Buck” Surdu

I have often complained that the Left has worked to vilify, destroy, or give away everything in which I believe. To the left “patriotism” has become a dirty word. The Left is working to destroy our government, our institutions, and traditional middle-class family values. Working hard, being punctual, and upholding standards of behavior are signs of “whiteness” that must be eradicated. All my life I believed that we should be color blind, but the Left has created an environment in which not thinking about race is racism. Norms, institutions, law, standards, and culture mean nothing to the Left; only winning matters. Even my Catholic high school made the news a couple of years ago for pushing heretical, woke, and gender-fluid agendas on students. The Left creates nothing; they only destroy. Recently the military, where I spent almost 30 years of my life, has succumbed to wokeness as well. I feel betrayed and deeply saddened by those who hold positions of responsibility within our military.

Admittedly, the cancer of wokeness has been growing in the military for a long time — throughout most of my career if I am being honest. It certainly predates the fecklessness of Secretary Austin and General Miley. To describe those two men as buffoons is to malign buffoons. To describe them as traitors to their uniforms is to malign “honest” traitors like Benedict Arnold.

Recently the Air Force Academy expelled 22 cadets for cheating. Those of us who served in other branches of the military like to joke about the low military comportment of the Air Force and their penchant for creature comforts, but I must give kudos to the Air Force. When 75 varsity athletes were found to have cheated on a take-home exam at West Point a year ago, the Superintendent set a new standard of shame and ignominy by letting them remain cadets. He professed a convenient lie about honor remediation that ensured these varsity football and lacrosse players didn’t miss a game. Lieutenant General Williams debased the reputation of West Point and essentially acknowledged that the institution no longer places honor in high regard.

Douglas MacArthur, in his famous “Duty, Honor, Country” speech in 1962 said of West Point cadets,

From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation’s destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

(Take a few minutes to read or listen to this whole speech!!) Yet Williams, Milley, and Austin have forsaken their sacred obligation to educate, train, and inspire future generations of leaders for the military and the nation.

One needs to ask, if the Air Force Academy correctly kicked out 22 seniors, how far has the rot settled that enabled these cadets to rationalize cheating? No mention is made of the junior classes, but one suspects that these seniors inculcated this lack of honor in their subordinates — as the faculty at the Air Force Academy and West Point have done.

In response to this story about the Air Force, a friend and veteran of both the Navy and the Marine Corps responded,

No segment of society seems to be immune from this erosion of attitude. I often think of the Officer Corps as our last great hope, but the officers themselves don’t think so. But, then I see the JCS denizens being just as Woke, PC and self-serving as the rest of the “deep state.”   I am especially sorry about the uneven performance of some of the Marines wearing multiple stars.

I think the issue is much more insidious than the laxer honor code at the service academies and it is endemic in the entire officer corps. If one does not have a special calling to the national purpose, then the meaning of a commission is lost and it’s just “another job” being undertaken by just “another person.” What kind of revival would it take for the military to get back to a lifelong commitment to duty, honor, and country and to personally being an exemplar thereof and a tolerator of no less from one’s peers? I weep for the loss of an almost divine focus. I wonder if Mayor Giuliani’s “broken window” theories of respect for the law would be a model. Start with the insistence upon the small indicia of the officers’ special characteristics and manifest behaviors and presentment (no wearing BDU’s in non-field conditions; you’re an officer, for God’s sake, not a ditch-digger!)

Shamefully, it seems like rules about cheating and plagiarism are better enforced at any local community college than the service academies.  There is no crevice or corner into which the rot of wokeness and Leftism has not seeped.

Doctors Wong and Gerras wrote a paper for the US Army War College, called “Lying to Ourselves.” (I highly encourage veterans and those concerned with the erosion of the profession of arms to read this article.). Wong and Gerras supportably claim,

Untruthfulness is surprisingly common in the U.S. military even though members of the profession are loath to admit it. Further, much of the deception and dishonesty that occurs in the profession of arms is actually encouraged and sanctioned by the military institution. The end result is a profession whose members often hold and propagate a false sense of integrity that prevents the profession from addressing—or even acknowledging—the duplicity and deceit throughout the formation. It takes remarkable courage and candor for leaders to admit the gritty shortcomings and embarrassing frailties of the military as an organization in order to better the military as a profession. Such a discussion, however, is both essential and necessary for the health of the military profession.

To the previous query about the “broken window” theory, this paper asserts that we in the military lie in hundreds of small ways that build a culture of “pencil whipping” and toleration of lies that is both prevalent and insidious. More importantly, we in the military are lying to ourselves by pretending we are honorable and above reproach while engaging in and tolerating these hundreds of little lies. When does the telling of little lies help rationalize the bigger lies? When does a broken window lead to more crime? Those who will pay for this work rot are our soldiers.

If the service academies do not promote and ruthlessly enforce honor in all words and deeds, then where will it be taught? In our political indoctrination camps euphemistically referred to as schools?

In April the Ukrainians sank a Russian ship. This was greeted with glee by much of the world community, me included. Personally, I find the Ukrainians only slightly less bad than the Russians, but who doesn’t like to see someone shove a stick in Putin’s face? The last report I read indicated that only 60 of 500 sailors on board were recovered alive.  I am definitely not pro-Putin and there are no excuses for the war crimes that Russian soldiers have committed in the Ukraine, but there are days I feel like I have more in common with Russian sailors than American politicians, professors, corporate board members, and teachers.  One side of me celebrates the sinking of a Russian ship, but the other side of me feels empathy for the sailors’ families. I have little in common with the large portion of the American population that extols (or tacitly tolerates) the Left’s holy virtues of wokeness, Marxism, racism, murder (under the guise of “choice”), and fascism. No matter the degree of collaboration, corruption, profiteering, and appeasement from our political and business overseers, Russia and China are our enemies. They seek our destruction, often with the willing and willful cooperation of our elitist political caste. When bad things happen to Russia and China, that is a good thing; however, as my friend said,

I’m still bitter about Karelia, so until the Rooskies give it back, I’m not big on them; however, in my old age, I just hope and pray there are not too many Russian mothers weeping tonight…

As another example of honoring brothers in arms, and how I feel like I have more in common with foreign soldiers than our political masters, another friend sent me this interesting note:

I went to visit my parents’ graves in Philly as I’m back to visit friends and family. I never noticed how many military grave markers were there until today, from WWI – present. I did note one across from the family gravesite that had been knocked off its concert marker. It was incredibly heavy, but I put it back into place (“taking care of our own” never stops). I looked more closely and noted the Soldier was in the USAAC [US Army Air Corps] and died in 1944. I was able to find the mission log of the 321st bomb group and found the T-SGT was one of two planes shot down over Verona that day. He had celebrated his 21st birthday only two weeks earlier. The family gravestone listed no other children. One more reason to stand your ass up for a correctly sung National Anthem.

I have come to attention in Ypres, where they stop traffic and play last post for the WWI dead. I have visited military cemeteries all over the world. I have stared in awe at the ossuary at Verdun. Honoring soldiers is an often-sobering duty, privilege, and opportunity. In a few months, I’ll stand at attention at Arlington as we lay my dad to rest. Our military “leaders,” political overseers, educators, “fact checkers,” media moguls, and business leaders need to spend significantly less time advocating the destruction of our culture, institutions, law, and nation for their own self-interest. They should cease actively corrupting our youth to promote their bankrupt world views. Instead, they should spend more time contemplating and honoring — through words and deeds — the legacy of those who have paid the last full measure of devotion. But the rote of wokeness has penetrated deeply into every corner of our once-great nation and our once powerful military.

Many days I feel I have misspent my life in the uniform of an Army that no longer exists in the service of a country that no longer exists. May God have mercy on us all and show us the way back to the light.

 

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