There is a lot of talk about monuments these days. The direction it is going- more demonstrations in Boston this morning, results unknown at press time- amounts to an assault on the country where I thought I grew up. I am OK with the debate, though not the direct action taken against monuments to causes I support and even those I don’t.
They are the relics of those who went before us, and I despise anyone who attempts to bleach the past as thoroughly as Hillary’s email server.
The picture at the top of this short essay is of Admiral George Dewey, whose flagship ex-USS Olympia (C-6) is slowly sinking at the pier in Philadelphia for want of maintenance money. Think about her. She is a special place, and I am proud to have trod her decks:
http://www.phillyseaport.org/olympia
Unlike his flagship, Dewey was mortal. After service in the Civil War (which apparently hasn’t ended yet) he was named commander of the US Navy’s Asiatic Squadron in 1897, thanks to the help of strong political allies, including Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt. I haven’t checked all the news yet today, so I am not sure who is in or out at the moment, since I bent my iron will to breakfasting instead of blggering, and went out to brunch at Mylo’s Grill up in McLean this morning.
Fine place, BTW, if you are looking for a fine place to while away a sunny summer day in Northern Virginia. But having returned and times being what they are, I know that Roosevelt’s manifold retroactive crimes, which include being white and dead, are dreadful offenses against something or other these days, but then he had a certain sense of honor and duty sadly fallen from our times.
When alive, Roosevelt’s help was essential in supplying Dewey with guns, ammunition, and other needed supplies so that the Squadron- predecessor to the 7th Fleet I served- would be prepared if war broke out with Spain.
It did matter in an age where action was valued, and surrender unthinkable. An aggressive commander, Dewey ignored China’s neutrality and took on coal for his fleet at Mirs Bay in Hong Kong. He was forced to leave the Crown Colony on April 25, but not before the USS Baltimore (C-3) had arrived from Honolulu with ammunition to conduct necessary operations against the Kingdom of Spain.
War orders were picked up from a Hong Kong cable office…they were much more simple than the reams of OpOrders we had, festooned with annexes and hundreds of pages of attachments. There was a remarkable distillation of direction.
In today’s hot-house atmosphere that is attempting to re-fight a war long over while real war clouds rise, I thought this was pretty cool coming from a completely different sort of Washington. Here is the direction, complete:
To: Dewey, Asiatic Squadron: “War has commenced between the United States and Spain. Proceed at once to Philippine Islands. Commence operations at once, particularly against the Spanish fleet. You must capture vessels or destroy. Use utmost endeavors. Long.
The ‘Long’ in question was Secretary of the Navy, John Long.
Here is a monument that I hope survives at Union Square, San Francisco. Enjoy history before they take it away from us.
Copyright 2017 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com