reviewsWar

The Melting Pot of our Military

What do American service members look like today? Do they resemble those that served in other wars? How has history changed those that decide to serve? Our history lessons taught us how the brave volunteers and conscripts fought the British in the American Revolution and the wars that followed. Senator John McCain and Mark Salter—former Sen. McCain staffer and collaborator of many of Sen. McCain’s previous books — tell the story of 13 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines that fought in each of the major conflicts, showing how they were different and yet they fought for many of the same reasons and values. America began as a melting pot of individuals wanting a new life, but often the service members endured the sting of prejudices against their race or ethnicity by a nation that they were protecting.

Sen. McCain’s service and support for the defense of America are well established. But the question that I asked as I read this book and listened to his speeches on the current conflict in Syria and Iraq was: Will intervening in war be just one more chapter in 14 Soldiers?

Sen McCain retired from the Navy and comes from a long tradition of service to the United States, Admiral John S. McCain Jr, his father commanded U.S. Pacific Command while Sen. McCain was a Prisoner of War in Hanoi and Admiral John S. McCain, his grandfather was a hero of World War II. Sen. McCain dedicated the book to four of his fellow POWs remarking, “It was a privilege, Gentlemen.”

            “War might be a great leveler while its being experience, but the millions upon millions      of Americans who have gone to war are the most diverse population the country would produce.”         Captain (Senator) John S. McCain III, U.S. Navy (Ret)

From the very beginning of our country, patriotism is often thought of as being synonymous with serving in the military. However, Joseph Plumb Martin, a young teen when he entered the militia, wrote in his memoirs from the Revolution, “…Patriotic sentiment was scarce…I thought I was as warm a patriot as the best of them.” After finding the term of his enlistment differed from his expectations, and he was to remain on duty longer, he wrote, “I wished only to take priming, before I took upon the whole coat of paint for a soldier.” Martin served during winter with General Washington’s army at Valley Forge; he and his fellow soldiers often went without food or clothing, walking barefoot or with rags for shoes. Martin, like most veterans of the Revolution, veterans never received any of the “acclaim or compensation they deserved.” Even though Congress awarded small pensions, only about 3,000 veterans ever collected anything for their service. He closed his memoirs talking about those that resented veterans for receiving a pension saying they were “hardhearted wretches.”

From the first day of service, a military member begins to see the world through a different lens. Oliver Wendell Holmes was the son of a prominent physician and young officer