War on our shores

Flight Journal, Apr 2001 by Davisson, Budd

For over half a century, Americans have talked about, examined relived and pretty much dissected every aspect of WW II. This is only right, as that conflict was the seminal event of the last century. We fought a helluva fight, vanquished our foes and, in the process, expanded our industrial base many times over. We rewrote the book on the role of females in the workplace, as women became the backbone of the American war machine. We accomplished unbelievable industrial feats, some of which have gone unnoticed.

An example of how quickly America got its act together can be seen in some of the time frames attached to that conflict. For instance, in barely nine months after Pearl Harbor, we developed the concept of amphibious landings; we built the ships, manufactured the shoelaces, hand grenades, bayonets and boots, and then trained the men who would wade ashore at Guadalcanal. Nine months! It seems impossible.

We are proud of what we accomplished. That generation has rightfully earned our accolades. At the same time, however, we skip over one aspect of WW II that touched virtually every combatant nation but ours: we had the luxury of equipping for a war that was far removed from our shores. For the last 130 years or so, we haven't tasted war on our own doorstep. What other nations accept as a natural part of their modern history-fighting a war while civilians are dying-is a completely foreign concept to those of us in "the colonies."

When we read about the Russian people moving their complete aircraft industry a thousand miles across mountainous terrain in the dead of a brutal winter while under attack by the Germans (see "Hatching Stalin's Falcons," by Barrett Tillman, page 22), I'm not convinced it really means anything to us. Intellectually, we understand it. But we can't really relate to it. We don't understand what it means to accomplish such a gigantic task with only rudimentary transportation. We can't understand the conditions at the time, as only a few of us have lived through the cruel winters that are an accepted part of every Russian year. The desperation bred by loading vital equipment while listening to enemy artillery in the distance is an emotion we have never known.

The British understand the concept of total warfare; they have lived it. The French understand it; the Italians, too. The Germans surely understand total warfare. The manufacturing feats of the Axis powers-- especially the Germans-are amazing: their aircraft production, for instance, increased steadily throughout the War-in a country roughly the size of Wisconsin-even though the Allies were pounding them senseless with daily bombing raids.

As nations go, we are among the most blessed. The basic ingredients that enabled us to manufacture the tools of war exist in few other places in the world. We had the natural resources, the industrial base, the people and the spirit to bring it together. However, when it comes to warfare, our biggest blessing was, and is, that our geographical location (in relation to warring nations) has always kept the war "over there." Not here. Without delving into the details of historical research, it can be safely stated that only a few U.S. citizens have ever died on U.S. soil as the result of an act of war initiated by a foreign power. This, of course, does not diminish the fact that more Americans died in four years of the Civil War than in all American conflicts of the 20th century.

It is interesting to think back on the U.S. isolationists of the past who recognized that being surrounded by oceans and friendly powers made us virtually untouchable. They knew that we could have simply sat back, manufactured arms, made money and watched as the rest of the world committed suicide. Although Pearl Harbor made the decision for us, even without it, we were not about to sit back and watch the War happen. And that reflects on another American blessing that some might say is a curse: we value freedom above all else. Ours and that of all peoples.

More than most nations, we understand and defend the most basic precepts of freedom. That is, in fact, what caused us to declare our own independence. It is in the name of freedom that we stand by our friends, and that is a quality of which we can be justifiably proud. -t