Combat Service - and talking to conservatives
I sometimes refer to my post tennis group, a bunch of guys, from age mid fifties to 93, different ethnic backgrounds, education, native languages and political orientation. Yet, for the most part, we happen to like each other in a way that transcends all of these things. It's one of the most valuable things in my life.
Yesterday, the subject got around to "stolen valor" a specific term meaning a2005 law (ruled unconstitutional) that would have made it a federal crime to claim possession of a given medal of honor for combat service in wartime. But the term also fits on a given level the acusation against first Brian Williams, and later Bill O'Reilly. At first it became just another example of the left (this time me) and the right having a different world view, but it became more than that, which is why I want to share the conversation on this site
My antagonist, the Rush Limbaugh listening conservative, I'll call Drake. We both were active in getting our city to triple the size of the tennis center that we now enjoy most every morning, and have collaborated on such recreational issue afterwards. I rib him about his listing to Rush, and once when I agreed with the guy I told D about it and then when he thought I was being converted, said how after his riff about something that was not really political before he went to commercial, he had to make a connection, to leave the audience with an out of the blue, "And this is why we have to get rid of that guy occupying the oval office."
But, he being a retired graduate aeronautical engineer with an interest in the world beyond Fox news, we have a "tennis friendship." It turns out he hadn't even heard about the O'Reilly accusations, but he did know about the VA Chief's Robert MacDonald's "lie" about serving in special sevices. D didn't care too much about the circumstances, that it was his echoing the words of a homeless veteran, not a scripted public statement. That it was a way of expanding on the common experiences of one whose life had not gone well. But D knew all he had to know about that incident, which is that MacDonald was a Obama appointee.
Well, I let it go. I'm writing this essay not to trash conservatives, but to share how it's possible to connect. As we were talking something came to me, which is why a simple misstatement about the degree of intensity of one's military experience can be so meaningful. I told D about an example that illustrates the importance, and described the story, and it turned out that D knew the persons name, Admiral Jeremy Boorda
It was all about an attachment to a ribbon that military men wear on their vests on formal occasions, each one having significance of service, courage and awards of acknowledgement thereof. I'll quote from the Wikipedia article linked above to describe it:
The Navy "V" device is a miniature bronze letter V worn on certain medals and service ribbons, indicating valor in combat. Photographs showed him wearing them in the 1980s, but Boorda had stopped wearing the Vs years before, when he was informed that his experience in Vietnam did not qualify him to wear them. Reports at the time of Boorda's suicide indicated that his wearing of the "V" devices had not been intentional deception on his part, but had been an unintentional mistake that resulted from following verbal instructions delivered to commanders by Admiral Zumwalt when he was Chief of Naval Operations, as well as conflicting interpretations of Navy award regulations.
Yes, "at the time of his suicide." This man who was the first to have risen from the lowest enlisted ranks to be the highest ranking naval officer was so affected by the accusation that it, at the very least, contributed to his taking of his own life.
D and I had a little bit of a different interpretation of his action, about how clear was Boorda's breach, whether it was a misunderstanding or a brazen case of stolen valor. When I made the former argument he responded with "it was bad enough that he killed himself." Meaning if he had a reasonable argument he would never have done this. But we went on. He described a story told by his older brother who was waiting at the shores of the Rhine to invade Germany, and were firing across the river. His brother told him how how ranking officers from H.Q. were rushing in, grabbing a rife from a grunt, just to get off a few shots, so they will earn that V on their ribbons.
I brought up another example. This one of LBJ who managed to turn his ride on a B-29 as an observer into his being heavily engaged in bombing of German forces. When D. decided to use his example of one of the questionable Purple Hearts of John Kerry, i ironically compared him to his opposition candidate, whose service in the Texas national guard prevented a communist incursion in that state.
A few hours when I had checked out my emails, there was one from D, "
Al,
We were both right...sorta. I had the name right but Navy is correct. Boorda was chief of Naval Operations. Wikipedia has a good writeup. The medal in question is called the "combat V" which is added to other ribbons but must be officially awarded. Adm. Zumwalt [his boss] had told him to wear them.
I responded with this:
Just read the Wikipedia article. Perhaps this is something we can both agree on -- that it was a profound human tragedy.
Which D concluded with:
Agree. Particularly because he came up through the ranks to reach the highest level in the Navy.
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I am posting this for one reason, which is that too often this site is dedicated to excoriating those on the right. Forget for a second if you will, the real issues that are at stake, and that this is a venue for those who have chosen sides. Yet, there are stories that can touch our common humanity. In this case, the conversation caused D to learn more about Admiral Boorda, to see how the extremes of vilification can tap into insecurities that can cause, for some, an unbearable pain.
Partisan identification provides cohesion to values that their adherents espouse. In the clash of ideas, anger can escalate -- and the persons behind the labels are too easily forgotten. Sharing our memory of the tragedy of Admiral Jeremy Boorda reminded two opposing political partisans of the humanity that we all share.