August Reflections

On my desk is one of those calendars sent out every year by veterans’ organizations with significant military anniversaries highlighted in red. You’ve likely got one or something like it if not physically handy at least tabbed on one of the electronic leashes that seem to regulate our days. Scanning the month of August set me to thinking and that led to one of these semi-regular clack attacks on my long-suffering keyboard.

What caught my eye immediately was the 235^th Anniversary of the United States Coast Guard which was brought into being on 4 August 1790 as the Revenue Cutter Service. The Puddle Pirates have come a long way from a little coastal police force of just 10 revenue cutters bound to collect much needed taxes and combat ocean-going smugglers. These days our Coast Guardians range far and wide as the only armed service under the Department of Homeland Security.

The Coasties are also the only one of our uniformed military services that carries law enforcement authority and they exercise it worldwide. These days, where you find our U.S. Navy, the Coast Guard is likely either close aboard or just over the horizon. While they regularly apprehend drug smugglers trying to land narcotic poison on our shores, Coast Guard units also play a huge role keeping illicit weapons and ammo out of enemy shot lockers, particularly in Middle East.

And they show up in some of the most unexpected places. I distinctly recall being evacuated with wounds suffered during the battle of Hue City in 1968 aboard one of the landing craft that shuttled across the Perfume River. The crew of that Mike Boat were all Coast Guard, smack dab in the middle of one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War. They did much the same heroic things earlier in World War II handling landing craft in both the European and Pacific battles.

The Coast Guard anniversary is a big deal around our place. As a retired Coast Guard Auxiliary officer, my spouse is justifiably proud of her service but she has yet to explain why a boat or aircraft is called a “facility” in USCGA jargon. Maybe you just had to be there.

Scanning through August on a military calendar, it’s easy to get stuck in the first couple of weeks. Take the 7 August date for example. That date in 1942 marks the start of one of the most legendary battles in military history when the 1^st Marine Division landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. These landings marked the first Allied land offensive in the Pacific and were a rejuvenating shot of optimism for America, still reeling from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the doomed last stand on Wake Island and the Japanese juggernaut rolling across most of Southeast Asia. As a veteran of combat service with the fabled Blue Diamond 1^st MarDiv, I’m always conscious of that particular date. One of the proudest moments in my post-military career was working on the HBO mini-series The Pacific and bringing some of those Guadalcanal stories to worldwide TV audiences.

It was in early August 1945 that President Harry S. Truman made the momentous decision to use atomic weapons on the Empire of Japan in an effort to end the bloodshed in the Pacific war. There are still some historians—damn few of whom are combat veterans—insisting that dropping the bombs on Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August), killing more than 100,000 Japanese was unnecessary.

Facts from the time mark that position as nonsense. Japan was preparing for a fanatical defense of its home islands following staggering losses on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Truman—and virtually everyone in and out of uniform in his war cabinet in August 1945—believed an invasion of Japan would have cost upwards of a million allied lives. Even as late as July 1945, the Allies were suffering 7,000 casualties a week fighting the Japanese. Truman made the right call and none of the thousands of WWII vets I’ve talked to over the years disagreed with it.

Here’s another thing that makes August auspicious in the military year. August 7 has been designated National Purple Heart Day. That one touches me as I managed to become an enemy target at least three times during my combat service. I’m just one of nearly two million wearing one or more Purple Hearts but it’s nice for all of us to get that tip of the national hat for our blood sacrifice at war. And while I have your attention on the matter, the proper term is wounded and not injured in action. You’re wounded when struck with enemy ordnance. You’re injured in an auto accident or when you fall off a barstool.

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