(The rows of 9/11 graves at Arlington Cemetery, 29 May, 2011. The 9/11 Memorial to their loss is on the left. Photo Socotra.)
This first warm holiday of this strange year had a lot of co-workers sliding early to the door last week. There is a tempest coming in the business space where we work, but the government was unable to get its act together, and with nothing critical impending over the long weekend I think people just wanted to get away.
The wars are winding down. You rarely hear of Iraq in the news anymore, though we still have thousands serving there. The Taliban is desperately bombing in Afghanistan to demonstrate their vitality, but there is an air of desperation in the start of this new fighting season, and with that asshole bin Laden finally in his watery grave, I have no doubt that the Administration will be looking seriously at an exit.
With a son in the military pipeline, I certainly am praying for peace- though a sustainable one, not like the cut-and-run from the aftermath of the Russian war in Afghanistan that landed us in this mess.
I have skin in the game now that is, for the first time, not my own.
There will be a shuffling in the Pentagon line-up to manage the transition to “peace” and the inevitable budget cuts that are going to come to the arena where I make my post-military living.
“Hoss” Cartwright, the scrappy Marine Vice Chairman and favorite of the President has been passed over to be the new Chairman, and so has Jim Stavridis, the Sufi-minded Admiral and big-thinker who I admire a great deal. Instead, outgoing SECDEF Bob Gates has tapped the Chief of Staff of the Army, Martin Dempsey, to be the next Chairman.
DoD is going to have a conspicuously Green tinge as the budget comes down. Some cynics are saying that Hoss got shot because Army is the Service most at risk to the slashing of its force structure, and maybe because he was too influential with the President. Certainly they will be in a position to protect itself in the Joint world: Dempsey as Chairman, Dave Patraeus at CIA and Ray Odierno as the new Army CoS.
Of course, it has been so long since I heard of anyone in the Air Force that I wonder who is minding the store there. It is all subject to confirmation by the Senate, of course, so there are still plenty of thrills and chills to come if anyone gets a wild hair.
It is sort of curious, since Dempsey only took over his post as Service Chief a short month ago. All the new guys have superb combat credentials that go back to the awful year of 2006 and the surge that worked in Iraq. Dempsey had the 1st Armored Division, Odierno had the 4th Infantry Division, and Petraeus had the 101st Airborne Division.
The Vice Chairman will reportedly be Admiral Sandy Winnefeld, currently the NORTHCOM commander in Colorado Springs.
I wonder about his relationship with the new leaders of DoD, the IC and the Green Machine, all of whom were engaged in the Surge. PACOM Chief Fox Fallon had dispatched Sandy on a mission to Iraq in 2007 to trim forces in the field.
I thought about that and the consequences of how we are going to screw up the inevitable budget cuts as I found some respectable shorts and a conservative shirt after a refreshing hour-long swim with Jiggs in the pool. There was an entertaining interlude happening over on Tony’s patio that helped to pass the time.
The new people from Arkansas and Kentucky had managed to lock themselves out of the second floor unit, and were attempting to scale the balcony. Eventually the mom from Kentucky who is a Med Tech at Walter Reed made it, and there was hooping and hollering in celebration of the feat.
I am sorry that Mardy 2 sold the place- the new crowd has several wild children and have considerably changed the tone around the pool.
Change is difficult, and as I searched for the keys to the Hubrismobile in the late afternoon light, I wondered about what is to come. Smart people have been thinking about it. I served in a minor role on a panel of formerly important people to make recommendations about how to transition to a smaller force without breaking the personnel system as we did so spectacularly after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Grown Ups came up with some solid and tough recommendations that involve getting rid of the dead wood and lopping off whole mission areas to preserve the vitality and health of the larger force, rather than salami-slicing the budget and rendering everything equally broken.
Of course, none of it will happen since that requires discipline and courage, none of which are in good supply here in Washington.
I put the top down as I drove over to get flowers, and fished in the glove compartment for the Arlington Cemetery pass. It is the time I decorate the graves of my friends who died on the day when the endless wars began almost ten years ago. I try to avoid the actual Memorial Day, and go the afternoon before the enhanced security locks the place down to accommodate the VIPs.
I drove in through the public gate, displaying the pass and driver’s license to gain access to the grounds in the shiny German car, pleased to not be on foot with the tourists, since it is a pretty good hike to the southeast corner of the sprawling garden of stone. The further from the gate, the less foot traffic there was. Near the 9/11 Memorial, there was a posse of Rolling Thunder Harley-Davidsons motoring around aimlessly, but otherwise the sector was quiet and serene under blue skies and puffy white clouds the colors of the stones below.
There are a lot more headstones in the corner of the cemetery closest to the Pentagon than there were that sad fall day when we followed the caisson on foot down from the old Chapel at Fort Myer. The fresh-turned red dirt of Virginia was raw then, and muddy.
(Marker of LCDR Otis Vincent Tolbert, USN, 29 May 2011. Photo Socotra.)
The turf has grown back rich and green. I noticed the coloring on Vince’s stone has bleached out a bit, though Dan’s is still vibrant and dark against the cool white stone. Both had fresh roses, and Dan’s family had sent a nice arrangement, and the Old Guard of the Army’s 3rd ID has ensured that little American flags were properly positioned in front.
(Marker of CDR Dan Frederick Shanower, USN, 29 May 2011. Photo Socotra.)
I put the flowers on the graves, and straightened myself up to give as crisp a salute as I can these days. Then I walked back to the car, and drove up the hill on the Navy Annex side of the cemetery, alone except for a few solitary walkers.
The Army has apparently purchased the Annex, and is going to start ripping it down this coming September, ten years to the day that the world lurched on its axis.
I tried to picture the bluff behind the soaring spires of the Air Force Memorial without the mustard-brick eight wings of the Depression-era building. It will be replaced, in time, by green turf and decorated with white stones. I hope it will not fill too rapidly.
Pray for peace, and pray for those who have earned it for us.
Copyright 2011 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com