What Does it Feel Like to Kill?
What does it feel like to kill? For some reason, that question’s been on my mind a lot lately. With Chris going off into the Marine Corps later this year, it came up at my…
Category: War
Charles on the Diane Rehm Show: Mental Health and Iraq
10:00 Mental Health and Military Service in Iraq A new study shows more than one in three members of the U.S. armed forces serving in Iraq seeks help for mental health problems. We talk about the…
I believe I’ve found the correct camp
I think I’ve found the correct camp. According to this website, Hakodate Camp 2-B changed its name first to Tokyo-6, then Sendai-4 (Ohashi). Which means two things, first, that I’ve been looking in the wrong places, and…
Too Late
I just discovered that following up with George Stoddard won’t be possible — he passed away on July 10. More on George Stoddard and the U.S.S. Houston here: http://usshouston.blogspot.com/ (this is in followup to…
Got the cable
I went back to the archives this afternoon, to get the next box they’d pulled — the POW related cables. Here is the cable, which says it is from the Hokadate camp, listing my grandfather.…
A trip to the archives
So, the next step was the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. I called and talked at length with one of the military archivists, then went to visit. The bad news — no unit records…
A call from Texas
So, I needed to know: was Fred Miles actually assigned to 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery? And if so, what camp did he end up with in Japan? It looks like most of the battalion…
The Lost Battalion
Having never met my grandfather, I never really knew any details of his World War II experience. He died the year I was born (I think) or shortly afterward. My Dad emailed me a couple…
Remembrance and Responsibility: Why Abandonment of Iraq is Wrong
Iraq as a nation sits on a razor’s edge. On one side is a reasonably stable society, with power sharing among its people and a better future for all Iraqis. On the other side is a major sectarian war, ethnic cleansing in the many mixed communities in Iraq, with possible dissolution as a state or a return to totalitarian regime. And, as much as we opposed the war, now the one thing preventing Iraq from falling on the wrong side of that line is U.S. and coalition troops, and newly deploying Iraqi police and military units.…
The Trials of Julian Goodrum
Lieutenant Julian Goodrum is the picture of an American soldier: a young man with quintessentially good looks and a friendly smile, despite the hell he has been through for the last two years. Goodrum served…