Robert Moore says "I have long been a proponent of a mandatory term of national service for all citizens. If not in the armed forces, then in the Peace Corps or some other sacrificial service to the country."
WWII vet taught me about war, peace and patriotism
By Robert F. Moore
CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
I have never served in the military. As a matter of fact, when the military was trying to draft me, I was doing everything I could to stay out. I was successful. I do not miss not having the Vietnam experience, but I will admit that the discipline of the services would have been a great benefit to me had I survived.
To a person of the proper age who is not certain of direction, I would readily advise a tour of military duty. As a matter of fact, I have long been a proponent of a mandatory term of national service for all citizens. If not in the armed forces, then in the Peace Corps or some other sacrificial service to the country. No doubt it would produce citizens superior to many we have now.
I have a great respect for those who willingly put their lives on the line to defend the country they love. They deserve the very best, and that includes leadership. Men and women in the military are trained to obey superiors, and they deserve to have the very best superior officers.
The officers deserve to have the very best citizens directing them since we do find it necessary to have civilian control of our military. This was a wise decision by the founders, who were intimately aware of the abuses of an unfettered military.
I am fortunate to have had an example of military service and public responsibility to admire and to learn from. My father served in the Navy from 1941 until 1946. His ship was in most of the major engagements in the Pacific, and he was part of the occupying force at Nagasaki about two weeks after the atomic bomb was detonated there -- which caused his death from leukemia some 56 years later.
When we were facing a crisis in Cuba over Russian missiles, my father said it looked like he was going to have to go again. He was ready to serve his country.
I have asked myself what causes a person to put his life in harm's way for some esoterical principle when every human instinct calls out for survival. It is because this happens that I know that we answer a greater call than our own self-interest.
None of the people I have known who served in combat seeks to glorify it. To a man, they will say it was an experience they would not have missed but wouldn't give a dime to do it again. They simply answered the call when it was their time.
So many do not return. Others return maimed physically, some emotionally. Some recover and some carry the scars for a lifetime. None return unscarred. My father suffered panic attacks all of his adult life and finally died as a result of service to his country. He was not proud to die, but he was satisfied that he had done his duty.
My father taught me that war is not good; he hated it. He realized that sometimes it was necessary but that far too many times we go to war when we should be searching for peaceful solutions. My father taught me that rational men can seek rational solutions and that whatever time that search took was better than sending men, and now women, to be killed as a testament to failed diplomacy.
In short, my father, the warrior, taught me peace. He taught me well.
My father was not a flag waver, either. He did not find it necessary to prove his patriotism to the world. He knew what he had done. He also knew that our country's flag could not be diminished by burning it but that it could be diminished by the denial of the freedoms for which he fought.
He was intensely protective of the rights of the people to direct their government and to be free from governmental scrutiny. He never, to my knowledge, missed an opportunity to cast his vote. He had little patience for people who would shout for war and stick the flag on their car when they had no chance of suffering the consequences of battle.
My father taught me well by his example. I am a warrior for peace. The women and men in our armed forces deserve to be directed by warriors for peace. All too often it is old men who send the young out to die. If our warriors are going to die for us, they should know that we did our very best to bring peace before we asked them to give their lives.
They should also know that if they fall in battle that they will be honored by their country and that if they return wounded they will be cared for and not turned away by a Veteran's Administration devoted to cost cutting.
For those who return victorious comes the dignity of their service and the gratitude of a nation.
My father was my example of the civilian warrior. Warriors for peace are patriots, too.
Robert F. Moore of Science Hill owns a mechanical engineering firm. Reach him by e-mail at mrrfmoore@alltel.net.
