Duty: The Sublimest Word
I’ve already briefly mentioned my recent trip to West Point for the funeral of Timothy J. Vogel, one of America’s greatest warriors. Tim meant a lot to me, so please forgive me if I repeat myself a little. Before I go on, however, a brief and nostalgic look at the soldiers of another war and their representations in celluloid. The film was The Bridges of Toko-Ri, after the book by James Michener, starring William Holden, Grace Kelly, Frederic March and Mickey Rooney among many others. The plot was a simple one. Our hero, played by Bill Holden, is recalled to duty off the Sea of Japan during the Korean conflict. He is a reluctant warrior. He is a successful lawyer married to a beautiful blonde, Grace Kelly, with two young children. He nevertheless answers the call. The admiral on board the carrier is Frederic March, who knows Holden’s father and his comfortable situation back home. He worries about him, especially when he meets his wife on a brief shore leave in Japan. “What kind of man risks his life when he has so much to lose...?” he asks himself.
And lose his life the hero does. Assigned to blast the heavily defended bridges of Toko-Ri in order to stop Chinese men and supplies reaching the enemy, Holden has to ditch in North Korean territory as his plane takes machine gun fire and loses fuel. His buddy Mickey Rooney flies off on a chopper trying to save him once Holden is on the ground. Both men die when surrounded by North Korean regulars, fighting to the end. “What kind of men are these..?” asks March, once again when informed of their deaths.
Well, I’ll tell you. The Holden character, who was called Brubaker in the movie, was based on Sully Vogel, the strongest man ever to attend the Naval Academy, and the one who was shot down over North Korea, but already a legendary fighter pilot before his death. He left behind three boys, Tim Vogel, my friend, Bill, a submarine commander, and Freddy, a Marine Colonel and later in the CIA. (There was also a daughter.) Tim Vogel was teased throughout his life for having Grace Kelly as his mother. ("I’d like to do your mother,” was an opening greeting by many). He wasn’t teased about anything else, however. Vogel became an even greater pilot than his dad. He won 17 awards for gallantry in action, two DFC’s, flew 200 missions over the most heavily defended targets in history over North Vietnam, and had 600—yes, 600—landings on pitching carriers. He was the most popular cadet at West Point, became a Commander in the U.S. Navy, and was as fierce a warrior as he was a warm and giving friend to everyone who knew him. My friend Chuck Pfeifer—two Silver Stars in the Nam as a Special Forces captain—introduced us and it was love at first sight. I took him to Elaine’s, we both got very drunk, and all he wanted to know was about my experiences in Phu Bai and Firebase Birmingham. Like a lion asking an ant about the hunt.
About ten years ago Timmy contacted MC, a more lethal cousin to Multiple Sclerosis, and was given a year to live. He stretched it to ten by his warrior spirit. His funeral with full military honors took place last week at the Point. The chapel was packed with heroes, his brothers in arms. Pfeifer, Dennis (the Horse) Lewis, Bob Jones (6 years in the Hanoi Hilton and looking twenty years younger than the rest of us) the legendary Johnson brothers, Oliver and Johnny, one a fighter pilot, the other a chopper ace, Robbie Stichweh, the best back in the nation while at the Point, Jim Hall, a fighter pilot who volunteered for a suicide raid north of Hanoi and was awarded the DFC, John Seymour and on and on. Tim was laid to rest along the cemetery line of the class of 65, next to the pyramid, among the beautiful maple and oak trees that line that sacred place. There were very few tears. Tough guys keep their grief to themselves.
Robert E. Lee once said that duty is “the sublimest word in the English language.” Yes it is, but dodging duty has now become the operative word in the neocon language. They talk about supporting our troops and all that blather, but how many of these bloodthirsty donut eaters have ever answered the call of duty? Some of us helped with Timmy’s bills toward the end of his life. He never asked, but we knew he was needy. This is the greatest outrage of them all. While the fat Kagan brothers feast at the White House and TAE institute, Tim Vogel needed help to get around on his wheelchair. The blood of America’s fighting men cannot indefinitely be spilled by a government made up of people who have avoided military duty, which is unwilling to meet the needs of those who have served.
--The American Conservative
Comments
Only Taki would end his moving tribute to a family of
admirable military heroes with an equally emotive
invocation of the fat Kagan
brothers, gorging themselves on victuals at AEI while
avoiding the military duties they gladly impose on
others.
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Moving taki, very moving. The men you mention fought and died for a nation, a blood and soil nation. The men with whom you contrast Mr. Vogel are ideologues, and are unwilling to die for their ideology, though it must be admitted that they are willing to use all form of treachery to realize their ideological goals. They care nothing for America, her constitution, her history, her heroes or her tragedies. Indeed, all these things are esteemed as but symbols to be exploited for maximum effect. Witness how ron paul’s reasonable observation of the causes (not justifications) of muslim hatred of America in the context of 9-11 was distorted by el duce, upon the emotional pivot of 9-11, into a ward Churchill like statement “we deserved it.” When dealing with these Trotskyites and their Pravda like media apparatus I can only offer the words of the great statesmen Jesse Jackson, to wit: “keep hope alive.” (Mr. vogel’s plight brings to mind the first part of Utopia by Thomas More)
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Taki wrote: “...Sully Vogel, the strongest man ever to attend the Naval Academy...”
A man of sublime honour, because he was a man of sublime courage. I hesitate even to write his name, because I feel unworthy to praise him at all. Some men are above the praise of other men - as Lincoln acknowledged in his Gettysburg address,
“...in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”
That said, just a reminder that no man’s honour ever resides in his physical strength, or even in whether he feels fear. I forget this man’s name offhand, but I know a story about a German Jew who fought in the trenches in World War One - he was a very small, sensitive man - and a very big, fearless sergeant in the trench taunted him for shaking with fear. The sensitive little man replied, “But I am more courageous than you, because if you were as afraid as I am, you would have run away a long time ago.”
My father, who fought in WW II, always taught me, “Courage isn’t the absence of fear. Courage is doing what you must do even though you’re afraid.” And another one of my great elders taught me, “Hemingway was wrong. Courage is NOT ‘grace under pressure’; courage comes from within; it is the willingness to overcome our own fear.”
And one more gloss: General Lee was mistaken to call “duty” the most sublime word. The most sublime word is “Charity”, and it is inseparable from courage. Christ had no duty to die on the cross; it was all perfect charity, and thus it was perfect courage.
All that said, this is a beautiful piece by Taki, and his very damning conclusion about the physical AND moral cowardice of the neocons is 100 percent true.
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I wanted to stand up and salute after reading the moving tribute to a true American hero, particularly since he was a pilot and I publish an newspaper devoted to aviation in general and military aviation in particulr. The men who are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan now are all true American heroes, despite the fact that the people who sent them there aren’t fit to hold their boots. Thank you for publishing it.
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