On February 27, 1942, Brigadier General Ralph McTyeire Pennell, the commander of the 27th Infantry Division at Fort Ord, California, replied to a letter written by a U.S. Congressman, Clinton P. Anderson, who questioned the rationale behind assigning a constituent to the infantry, instead of a position where his “fine education” could ostensibly be better utilized. In his eloquent and forceful response, General Pennell challenges the notion that some individuals should be spared the dirty and dangerous work of war.
Dear Mr. Anderson:
Your letter of February 17, to the Adjutant General, concerning Private Robert H. Lister, Company A, 165th Infantry, has been sent to me. You state: “I am wondering if there has been some mistake in his assignment to Fort Ord. Robert Lister has a fine education, has a Masters Degree, is about ready for a Doctor’s Degree, is an expert Spanish student, a skilled archeologist, and had been an instructor at the University of New Mexico.”
In this division of 22,000 men, I receive many letters similar to yours from parents, relatives, friends and sweethearts. They do not understand why the men who had a good law practice at home cannot be in the Judge Advocate Generals Department, why the drug store manager cannot work in the post hospital, why the school teacher cannot be used for educational work.
They are willing for somebody else to do the hard, dirty work of the fighting man so long as the one they are interested in can be spared that duty. If the doctors in the future are to have the privilege of practicing their profession, if archeologists are to investigate antiquity, if students are to have the privilege of taking degrees, and professors the privilege of teaching in their own way, somebody must march and fight and bleed and die and I know no reason why the students, doctors, professors and archeologists shouldn’t do their share of it.
You say,“It strikes me as too bad to take that type of education and bury it in a rifle squad,” as though there were something low or mean or servile in being a member of a rifle squad and only morons and ditch diggers should be given such duty. I know of no place red-blooded men of intelligence and initiative are more needed than in the rifle or weapons squad. In this capacity, full recognition is given to the placing of men so that they may do the work most beneficial to the unit of which they are a part. Whenever men are needed for a particular duty, the record of all men having the required skills and qualifications are considered.
I have examined the records of Private Lister and it is fairly complete. I know he holds the 100-yard dash and broad jump records in the Border Conference; that he was president of his fraternity; that his mother was born in Alabama and his father in Michigan; that his father lives at the Burlington Hotel in Washington and I suspect asked you to do what you could to get his son on other duty.
It is desirable that all men, regardless of their specialty, shall learn by doing; how hard it is to march with a pack for 20 miles; how to hold their own in bayonet combat; and how to respect the man who really takes it, namely the private in the rifle squad. If Private Lister has special qualifications for intelligence duty, he will be considered when a vacancy occurs in a regimental, brigade, or division intelligence section. You can’t keep a good man down in the Army for long. Every commander is anxious to get hold of men with imagination, intelligence, initiative, and drive.
Because you may think I’m a pretty good distance from a rifle squad, I should like to tell you I have a son on Bataan peninsula. All I know of him is that he was wounded on January 19. I hope he is back by now where the rifle squads are taking it, and I wish I were beside him there.
I have written you this long letter because in your high position you exercise a large influence on what people think and the way they regard the Army. It is necessary for them to understand men must do that which best helps to win the war and often that is not the same as what they do best.
Sincerely yours,
Ralph McT. Pennell
Brig. Gen., USA
Commanding
General Pennell commanded the 27th Division until October 1942, when he requested relief due to age (59) and was reassigned to the army’s Field Artillery School. He died in 1973. His son, Captain Robert Pennell, survived his injury in Bataan and the death march, and was awarded a Silver Star. Clinton P. Anderson, a representative and, later, senator from New Mexico, was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by Truman near the end of the war. And what of Private Lister? He returned from the Pacific War to go on to a long and distinguished career as an archeologist, specializing in early Native American cultures.
The impending return of Donald Trump as Commander in Chief has caused some Pentagon officials to fear one of his first changes will be to replace current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. C.Q. Brown, Politico reported on Friday.
During Trump’s first term, conflict arose between the White House and the Pentagon during the riots of 2020 over the Insurrection Act which Trump wanted to invoke to bring order to civil unrest. One of Trump’s chief critics was C.Q. Brown, then chief of staff of the Air Force, who has spoken publicly about his rise as a Black man in the military and has been a staunch supporter of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (DEI).
Last month, Trump posted a campaign video in which the president-elect promised to make a Trump-led military more like those seen in the 1987 film “Full Metal Jacket” and not like those showcasing pride month and transgender soldiers.
"We will not have a woke military!” Trump posted on X. The spot ends with the tagline “Let’s make our military great again.”
Two individuals in the Trump transition team said that Brown has long been a thorn in the side of congressional Republicans who had accused the current Pentagon brass of being more focused on DEI and less on building an effective military.
“He’s a DEI/woke champion,” a second DOD official said. “Can imagine he’ll [Brown] be gone quite quickly.”
Reached for comment by Politico, Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, “The American people re-elected President Trump because they trust him to lead our country and restore peace through strength around the world. When he returns to the White House, he will take the necessary action to do just that.”
“There is some anxiety,” one current Department of Defense official said to the outlet on a condition of anonymity. “I think they are immediately worried,” the official said of Brown’s team.
RETIRE OR GET FIRED. YOU GET TROOPS KILLED OR MAIMED. X has some whinners complaining Trump dodged Military service, so did Biden. Biden used influence to avoid, Trump had heel spurs, later surgery repaired. The Military March on their feet, 60 lbs of gear on their backs. Many people were disqualified due to feet flat ones were the highest issues, vision, or other health reasons, farmers rejected as food needed produced. That was a time when orthotics were not widely used in America or elsewhere.
Hub just lost his neighbor and life long friend both born in 1940 4 months apart. Jon was classified 4 F due to a sick childhood. Hub served 20 as Avionics on Carriers. 1 of his other friend's was deaf in 1 ear, he was able to fool the Doctors. Not every one goes to combat, but need the training just encase your position is over run.
The Woke are terrified real training will come back, and WOKE in command POSITIONS fears for THEIR jobs. WAR IS BRUTAL AND HELL, ask anyone who actually went. Basics is to get you ready, not coddle you. Seals/Special Forces have the rough training due to their skill sets. Marines were the only branch to make quota under Biden's WOKE MILITARY. Kick them out, enlistments will go up. Another reason to ditch Mike Johnson as House Speaker.
Biden is Rushing a new Ukraine package through. More Billions.
Pentagon Plans $6 Billion in Ukraine Aid Ahead of Presidential Change
Trump has been critical of Biden's assistance for Ukraine, fueling concern about the future of support for President Volodomyr Zelenskiy's government under a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and possibly the House of Representatives.
The House has been narrowly controlled by Republicans since January 2023, and it was not clear by Wednesday afternoon whether the party had won enough seats in Tuesday's elections to keep Democrats from winning a slim majority.
Imagine what all those modern moron slaves could have been if they'd stayed in their Plantation and help it be a Balanced place?!
But no... They decided to go to foreign Plantations around the Planet to torture, wound and murder other fellow modern moron slaves, because in Reality they were/are just degenerate uman animals.
What do we do to deserve such men?
"Blessed are the Peacemakers"
On February 27, 1942, Brigadier General Ralph McTyeire Pennell, the commander of the 27th Infantry Division at Fort Ord, California, replied to a letter written by a U.S. Congressman, Clinton P. Anderson, who questioned the rationale behind assigning a constituent to the infantry, instead of a position where his “fine education” could ostensibly be better utilized. In his eloquent and forceful response, General Pennell challenges the notion that some individuals should be spared the dirty and dangerous work of war.
Dear Mr. Anderson:
Your letter of February 17, to the Adjutant General, concerning Private Robert H. Lister, Company A, 165th Infantry, has been sent to me. You state: “I am wondering if there has been some mistake in his assignment to Fort Ord. Robert Lister has a fine education, has a Masters Degree, is about ready for a Doctor’s Degree, is an expert Spanish student, a skilled archeologist, and had been an instructor at the University of New Mexico.”
In this division of 22,000 men, I receive many letters similar to yours from parents, relatives, friends and sweethearts. They do not understand why the men who had a good law practice at home cannot be in the Judge Advocate Generals Department, why the drug store manager cannot work in the post hospital, why the school teacher cannot be used for educational work.
They are willing for somebody else to do the hard, dirty work of the fighting man so long as the one they are interested in can be spared that duty. If the doctors in the future are to have the privilege of practicing their profession, if archeologists are to investigate antiquity, if students are to have the privilege of taking degrees, and professors the privilege of teaching in their own way, somebody must march and fight and bleed and die and I know no reason why the students, doctors, professors and archeologists shouldn’t do their share of it.
You say,“It strikes me as too bad to take that type of education and bury it in a rifle squad,” as though there were something low or mean or servile in being a member of a rifle squad and only morons and ditch diggers should be given such duty. I know of no place red-blooded men of intelligence and initiative are more needed than in the rifle or weapons squad. In this capacity, full recognition is given to the placing of men so that they may do the work most beneficial to the unit of which they are a part. Whenever men are needed for a particular duty, the record of all men having the required skills and qualifications are considered.
I have examined the records of Private Lister and it is fairly complete. I know he holds the 100-yard dash and broad jump records in the Border Conference; that he was president of his fraternity; that his mother was born in Alabama and his father in Michigan; that his father lives at the Burlington Hotel in Washington and I suspect asked you to do what you could to get his son on other duty.
It is desirable that all men, regardless of their specialty, shall learn by doing; how hard it is to march with a pack for 20 miles; how to hold their own in bayonet combat; and how to respect the man who really takes it, namely the private in the rifle squad. If Private Lister has special qualifications for intelligence duty, he will be considered when a vacancy occurs in a regimental, brigade, or division intelligence section. You can’t keep a good man down in the Army for long. Every commander is anxious to get hold of men with imagination, intelligence, initiative, and drive.
Because you may think I’m a pretty good distance from a rifle squad, I should like to tell you I have a son on Bataan peninsula. All I know of him is that he was wounded on January 19. I hope he is back by now where the rifle squads are taking it, and I wish I were beside him there.
I have written you this long letter because in your high position you exercise a large influence on what people think and the way they regard the Army. It is necessary for them to understand men must do that which best helps to win the war and often that is not the same as what they do best.
Sincerely yours,
Ralph McT. Pennell
Brig. Gen., USA
Commanding
General Pennell commanded the 27th Division until October 1942, when he requested relief due to age (59) and was reassigned to the army’s Field Artillery School. He died in 1973. His son, Captain Robert Pennell, survived his injury in Bataan and the death march, and was awarded a Silver Star. Clinton P. Anderson, a representative and, later, senator from New Mexico, was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by Truman near the end of the war. And what of Private Lister? He returned from the Pacific War to go on to a long and distinguished career as an archeologist, specializing in early Native American cultures.
https://www.historynet.com/war-letters-general-argues-no-man-valuable-hold-rifle/
Pentagon officials anxious Trump may fire the military’s top general
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pentagon-trump-woke/2024/11/08/id/1187339/
The impending return of Donald Trump as Commander in Chief has caused some Pentagon officials to fear one of his first changes will be to replace current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. C.Q. Brown, Politico reported on Friday.
During Trump’s first term, conflict arose between the White House and the Pentagon during the riots of 2020 over the Insurrection Act which Trump wanted to invoke to bring order to civil unrest. One of Trump’s chief critics was C.Q. Brown, then chief of staff of the Air Force, who has spoken publicly about his rise as a Black man in the military and has been a staunch supporter of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (DEI).
Last month, Trump posted a campaign video in which the president-elect promised to make a Trump-led military more like those seen in the 1987 film “Full Metal Jacket” and not like those showcasing pride month and transgender soldiers.
"We will not have a woke military!” Trump posted on X. The spot ends with the tagline “Let’s make our military great again.”
Two individuals in the Trump transition team said that Brown has long been a thorn in the side of congressional Republicans who had accused the current Pentagon brass of being more focused on DEI and less on building an effective military.
“He’s a DEI/woke champion,” a second DOD official said. “Can imagine he’ll [Brown] be gone quite quickly.”
Reached for comment by Politico, Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, “The American people re-elected President Trump because they trust him to lead our country and restore peace through strength around the world. When he returns to the White House, he will take the necessary action to do just that.”
“There is some anxiety,” one current Department of Defense official said to the outlet on a condition of anonymity. “I think they are immediately worried,” the official said of Brown’s team.
RETIRE OR GET FIRED. YOU GET TROOPS KILLED OR MAIMED. X has some whinners complaining Trump dodged Military service, so did Biden. Biden used influence to avoid, Trump had heel spurs, later surgery repaired. The Military March on their feet, 60 lbs of gear on their backs. Many people were disqualified due to feet flat ones were the highest issues, vision, or other health reasons, farmers rejected as food needed produced. That was a time when orthotics were not widely used in America or elsewhere.
Hub just lost his neighbor and life long friend both born in 1940 4 months apart. Jon was classified 4 F due to a sick childhood. Hub served 20 as Avionics on Carriers. 1 of his other friend's was deaf in 1 ear, he was able to fool the Doctors. Not every one goes to combat, but need the training just encase your position is over run.
The Woke are terrified real training will come back, and WOKE in command POSITIONS fears for THEIR jobs. WAR IS BRUTAL AND HELL, ask anyone who actually went. Basics is to get you ready, not coddle you. Seals/Special Forces have the rough training due to their skill sets. Marines were the only branch to make quota under Biden's WOKE MILITARY. Kick them out, enlistments will go up. Another reason to ditch Mike Johnson as House Speaker.
Biden is Rushing a new Ukraine package through. More Billions.
Pentagon Plans $6 Billion in Ukraine Aid Ahead of Presidential Change
https://www.reuters.com/world/white-house-plans-rush-military-aid-ukraine-by-inauguration-day-politico-reports-2024-11-06/
Trump has been critical of Biden's assistance for Ukraine, fueling concern about the future of support for President Volodomyr Zelenskiy's government under a Republican-controlled White House, Senate and possibly the House of Representatives.
The House has been narrowly controlled by Republicans since January 2023, and it was not clear by Wednesday afternoon whether the party had won enough seats in Tuesday's elections to keep Democrats from winning a slim majority.
The best story told by a Marine, I’ve ever listened to. https://youtu.be/rWJ5yxuvTMw?si=K0_vMsqr2qDR0CHm
Thank you, my dad is a Marine and I am forwarding this to him.
You are most welcome, and thank your dad for his service from both of us.
… and Miley🤐
Thank you Sir, for posting this.
It was a pleasure to be of service, sir.
Imagine what all those modern moron slaves could have been if they'd stayed in their Plantation and help it be a Balanced place?!
But no... They decided to go to foreign Plantations around the Planet to torture, wound and murder other fellow modern moron slaves, because in Reality they were/are just degenerate uman animals.
Great men and women no doubt.
I concur. War IS a racket…