Reflecting Heroism, September 2013

By Bill Doughty

This has been a month to reflect on the meaning of service, sacrifice and courage in the face of violence.

The week began with a terrible tragedy at the Washington Navy Yard at the Naval Sea Systems Command less than a week after 9/11.  It is ending with memorials, commemoration and more reflection.  

Throughout the week there have been expressions of grief and resolve.  Tomorrow, the nation will pause to honor those killed in the mass shooting last Monday.

Remembering POWs and MIAs  

In different ceremonies across the nation, DOD and Navy leaders paid respect to other patriots, including Prisoners of War and missing servicemembers.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks with Rolling Thunder Sept. 20, 2013.  
(Photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo)

Yesterday, at a Pentagon ceremony, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, “Americans in uniform today are inspired by the fierce resolve of generations of American POWs.  We also draw inspiration from the bonds of camaraderie, compassion, and love that prompted our POWs to care for each other, and sustain each other, through terrible, terrible months and years of hardship.”

Addressing families and friends of missing servicemember, Hagel said, “Words and promises cannot make the lingering uncertainty and heartache go away.  But I hope it provides comfort to know that as long as members of our armed forces remain unaccounted for, the Department of Defense will do whatever we can to find them and bring them home.”

Portraits of Valor in War

In a ceremony at Naval Base San Diego yesterday, the Navy named three Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyers for three heroes in three conflicts -- WWII, Vietnam and Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Named in the ceremony Sept. 20 were: USS John Finn (DDG 113), USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114) and USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115).  The names were selected by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, who was unable to attend the ceremony because of the shooting tragedy at the Navy Yard.

The building of these ships has been overseen and coordinated by the men and women of Naval Sea Systems Command.

Beyond the Call of Duty

During this time of reflection, an inspiring book to pick up is “Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty” by photographer Nick Del Calzo and writer Peter Collier.

This large tabletop book gives a synopsis of the heroism of each Medal of Honor recipient living at the time it was published.

My copy is from 2003 and offers a forward by former President and WWII Veteran George H. W. Bush.

“The Medal of Honor pays homage to comrades who have given their lives for this great country.  These gallant souls, in their heroism and their humility, epitomize the nobility of service to country and of service above self,” Bush writes, concluding, “Americans for all times will treasure the gifts that these brave warriors have given to all of us so selflessly.”

John and wife Alice Finn in 1933.

John Finn was still living when this edition was published.  He is featured in photos in his beloved American West and as a young man with his sweetheart on a motorcycle.  The narrative in “Medal of Honor” recounts his courageous response on the morning of the attack on Oahu of Dec. 7, 1941.

“Finn found a mobile instruction stand on which guns were sometimes mounted to teach gunnery.  Although enemy planes continued to strafe the position, he moved the stand into a parking area where he would have clear visibility. Then he set a .50-caliber machine gun on it and began to shoot ... Finn had been hit by shrapnel in twenty-one places; several were serious wounds.  His left arm was numb, and a bullet had passed through one foot.  Following medical treatment, he returned to the squadron area and supervised the rearming of the remaining American planes.” 

Gen. (ret.) Richard B. Myers, then CJCS, and Lt. (ret.) John Finn look at
“Medal of Honor” book. (Photo by Mamie Mae Burke, Jan. 19, 2005.)

This book includes essays by Tom Brokaw and Senator John McCain, a POW during Vietnam who writes compellingly about owing his life to Medal of Honor recipient Air Force Maj. George “Bud” Day and Maj. Norris Overly.   Day is profiled in Del Cazo’s and Collier’s book.

McCain writes about fellow prisoners Rear Adm. Jim Stockdale and Captain Lance Sijan, both of whom showed how to live the principles of the Code of Conduct.

“As you read in these pages about Bud, Jim, and Lance, and Leo Thorsness and Jon Cavaiani, who were in prison with us, and about my friends Bob Kerrey and Dan Inouye, and all the other heroes whose extraordinary service to America is memorialized in this book you will be awed, as I am, not only by their courage and character, but by the country that produced such men and that was ennobled by the example they set for the rest of us.”

Included in the 2003 version of “Medal of Honor” are Eugene B. Fluckey, Hiroshi H. Miyamura, Donald E. Ballard, Robert E. Bush, Rodolfo P. Hernandez, George T. Sakato, William R. Charette and Ernest Childers, along with dozens of others.

A newer edition of this book includes an introduction from Brian Williams and letters from all living presidents, including President Barack Obama, who will be attending a memorial tomorrow, as announced Thursday by Press Secretary Jay Carney, “to mourn the loss of these innocent victims and share in the nation’s pain in the aftermath of another senseless mass shooting.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, right, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, second from right, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, chief of naval operations, and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus stand during the playing of taps at a wreath-laying at the Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., Sept. 17, 2013. The defense leaders held the small ceremony to remember the 12 victims of the Sept. 16 shooting at the Washington Navy Yard. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

Back to Basics: Salty, Fresh History

Reviews by Bill Doughty

This week and next the U.S. Navy is making and living history.  At Pearl Harbor-Hickam, the People’s Republic of China Army Navy is making a port visit (see a photo of the "Aloha Arrival" ceremony at the bottom of this blog post). The Chinese navy is readying for a search and rescue exercise with host ship USS Lake Erie (CG-70) in waters off Diamond Head, Hawaii.

USS Lake Erie (CG 70) is homeported in Hawaii.

USS Lake Erie is a guided-missile cruiser named for the Battle of Lake Erie from the War of 1812; next week, Sailors will commemorate the bicentennial of that battle.

A lot has happened in those 200 years: from wooden ships to littoral combat ships; the birth of naval air forces, airpower and UAV; nuclear-powered fleet ballistic submarines; computers and cyber-security.  The world is changing too, as captured in the Maritime Strategy, from world war confrontation to global cooperation. Think about the evolution of the fleet and the world in which it operates today.

Thomas J. Cutler thinks and writes about changes and challenges over the past 200-plus years in “A Sailor’s History of the U.S. Navy.” His Naval Institute Press book is a mainstay and now a top pick on the “Be Ready” list of the CNO’s Professional Reading Program suggested reads.

Cutler writes about the “magic” of the lore, language and legacy of the United States Navy, and invites Sailors to reflect on the “club” to which they belong.  His book recounts and makes relevant history through the stories of Sailors in the past and present.

“The more you know about the Sailors who served before you, the more prepared you will be to do your job, and do it well.  It is your turn to follow in the wakes of those who went before you, to lead the way for others who will follow you, and to make your contributions to the Navy’s ongoing legacy of honor, courage, and commitment.”

In a Chapter 6, “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” Cutler sets the stage with a brief description of Master Commandant (Commander) Oliver Hazard Perry, his famous pennant and the sailors who fought in the face of adversity at the Battle of Lake Erie.  Cutler then gives more recent history, including the story of the five Sullivans brothers lost aboard USS Juneau in Guadalcanal Campaign, 70 years ago this year.  He ties in the brothers’ namesake ships, including the current USS Sullivans (DDG 68), showing how the ship was targeted in a failed attack by al Qaeda in Aden, Yemen in January 2000.  That same year, on the day before the Navy’s 224th birthday, terrorists launched another attack on an Navy ship, this time against USS Cole (DDG 67).

Cutler recounts the heroism of the Sailors who all focused on three tasks, “caring for the injured, providing security against further attack, and saving the ship.”  Don’t give up the ship...

The author packs a lot of history in this easy-to-read overview that contains stories and photos about JFK’s PT-109, Rear Adm. “Amazing” Grace Hopper, 1776‘s gondola Philadelphia, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, battleship USS Maine, Master Chief Boatswain’s Mate Carl Brashear, and naval aviator and astronaut Alan Shepard Jr., among others.

In the appendix he offers synopses of key engagements through battle streamers, showing the operational history of the U.S. Navy.  

The streamers demonstrate a commitment to always “Be Ready.”

Speaking of “back to the basics,” also recommended is a new book by Rear Adm. Robert O. Wray Jr., “Saltwater Leadership: A Primer on Leadership for the Junior Sea-Service Officer.”

The book, with a forward by Sen. John McCain, is endorsed by retired Adm. Gary Roughead, former chief of naval operations, and former President George H. W. Bush, who served as a naval aviator and “junior officer at sea.”

Wray offers self-described bite-sized “sea stories” and practical, pragmatic “salty advice” along with plenty of lists, including traits and tributes, rules and advice, and a list of 35 books on leadership!

Interestingly, the book opens with advice from ancient philosopher from China Lao Tzu:

A leader is best 

When people barely know that he exists,

Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,

Worst when they despise him.

“Fail to honor people,

They fail to honor you”;

But of a good leader, who talks little,

When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,

They will all say, “We did this ourselves.”

-- Lao Tzu’s “Tao Teh Ching,” verse 17, 6th century BC

Wray’s book was just published by the Naval Institute Press and is in the same “Blue and Gold Professional Library” series as “The Bluejackets Manual,” “Command at Sea,” and “A Sailor’s History of the U.S. Navy” (above), among others.  

Wray writes, “One hundred percent of the royalties from this book will be donated to charities that support Sailors and mariners, including the Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society, the Coast Guard Foundation, and the United Seaman’s Service.”

130906-N-ZK021-008 – PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM (Sept. 6, 2013) – U.S. and Chinese leaders watch as Keiki Hula dancers perform during an arrival ceremony for three People’s Liberation Army-Navy ships, Luhu-class destroyer Qingdao (DDG 113), Jiangkai-class frigate Linyi (FFG 547) and a Fuqing-class fleet oiler as they arrive in Hawaii for a scheduled port visit. Over the weekend, Chinese and U.S. leaders will conduct dialogues to build confidence and mutual understanding between the two nations. The port visit is part of the U.S. Navy’s ongoing effort to maximize opportunities for developing relationships with foreign navies to build trust, encourage multilateral cooperation, enhance transparency, and avoid miscalculation in the Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nardel Gervacio/Released)

Picturing the War of 1812, ‘Rise of U.S. Navy’

Review by Bill Doughty

National Geographic’s gorgeous “The War of 1812 and the Rise of the U.S. Navy” is a coffee-table book that is literally a work of art.

The pages pop with high-resolution photographs of paintings, drawings and artifacts reminiscent of the great Dorling Kindersley DK Eyewitness Books (works of nonfiction from England for all ages, with sharp visual-bites of illustrations, information and insights) on topics of science, history and exploration.

Like some of the DK books, “The War of 1812 and the Rise of the U.S. Navy,” produced under the auspices of the Naval History and Heritage Command, is both nonlinear and linear; readers can open for a rewarding browse or follow events from 200 years ago in chronological order.  

For example, if you want to see what was happening 200 years ago this month, turn to page 140.  In August 1813, as Lt. Thomas MacDonough rebuilt a small force led by the sloops President, Commodore Preble and Montgomery, on Lake Champlain a British squadron attacked American facilities.

Meanwhile, British Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo, aboard his flagship HMS Wolfe, played a cat-and-mouse game with Captain Isaac Chauncey while confronting storms on Lake Ontario, in which two armed schooners, Hamilton and Scourge were lost, along with more than 70 sailors.

“Neither commander, it seemed, had anything to spare for Lake Erie,” the authors write.

The book focuses on the events, equipment and personalities -- and drama -- of the war.  Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry is shown as an honorable leader facing the British at Lake Erie in August 2013 leading up to the inevitable confrontation.

“By August, a bad situation was made much worse when Perry's little flotilla effectively blockaded Barclay (in charge of the gunboat division on the St. Lawrence River before assuming command of the Provincial Marine squadron with HMS Detroit on Lake Erie under appointment by Commodore Yeo) in Amhertsburg.  The specter of starvation then reared its ugly head; it was critical that the water highway to the east be reopened.  The young Royal Navy lieutenant could no longer resist the pressure to give battle.  Off Malden, the Americans staked out his operation, finding him and his men hard at the task of making preparations for engagement.  Detroit was almost, but not quite, ready.  Some of Perry’s officers recommended striking them unawares, but Perry wouldn’t have it. ‘No,’ he said.  ‘I will take no dishonorable advantage of them, but wait until they get in readiness, and meet them fairly and openly on the lake.”

Perry moved on to Put-in-Bay the following month, leading to the Battle of Lake Erie in which Perry wrote, “We have met the enemy and they are ours...”

William Powell's painting of Oliver Hazard Perry and sailors: "Battle of Lake Erie"

Authors Mark Collins Jenkins and David A. Taylor present the history of the war from Boston Harbor to the Great Lakes, from Baltimore and D.C. to New Orleans, with a brief visit to the other side of the Atlantic.

The book features a personal and heartfelt foreward by Douglas Brinkley.  The preface by Hon. Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy, discusses the tradition of the Navy related to the War of 1812 and  puts in context not only in the lessons in leadership, commitment and sea-power but also lessons for the future:

“Much has changed in the past two hundred years,” writes Mabus.  “Britain, once our staunch foe, has become our strong friend.  Where we once depended upon the wooden walls of our sailing ships, we now sail ships of steel.  The smoothbore cannons of 1812 have become the modern naval guns, missiles, and torpedoes of today.  Wind power has given way consecutively to coal-fired steam power, then oil and nuclear power and now the fleet is on the cusp of another change to biofuel and renewable energy.  Situational awareness was once limited to the horizon, based on the eyesight of a keen lookout from a ship’s tops.  This has given way to instantaneous communications to any point on the globe, to submarines sailing the depths, to aircraft soaring the skies and rocketing into outer space, and to sailors on the cyber sea."

The book brings to mind CNO Adm. Greenert's tenets "warfighting first, operate forward and be ready." 

CNO Adm. Jon Greenert and SECNAV Mabus (second from right) kick off the War of 1812 Bicentennial.

Interestingly, the first introductory quote in this book is from Alfred Thayer Mahan from his “Sea Power in Its Relations to the War of 1812”: 

“Both parties to the War of 1812 being conspicuously maritime in disposition and occupation, while separated by three thousand miles of ocean, the sea and its navigable approaches became necessarily the most extensive scene of operations.”

Lessons from Korea: ‘This Kind of War’

Review by Bill Doughty

The Marines remember Korea.  Lessons learned in frozen battlefields and bloody ridges of Korea influenced a generation of U.S. Marine Corps and other military leaders.

T. R. Fehrenbach’s “This Kind of War” turns 50 years old this year.  Subtitled, “The Classic Korean War History” (and originally subtitled “A Study in Unpreparedness”), the book is a key pick on the Commandant’s reading list.

The book opens with a passage from Sun Tzu, translated from Chinese, from “The Art of War.”

“Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even into death.  If, however, you are indulgent, but unable to make your authority felt, kind-hearted but unable to enforce your commands; and incapable, moreover, of quelling disorder, then your soldiers must be likened to spoiled children; they are useless for any practical purpose.” -- Sun Tzu

Itself a lesson of warfighting, Sun Tzu’s admonition and description comes to mind throughout Fehrenbach’s book as he describes toughness, will, pride, training and a commitment to fight “on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men into the mud.”

That’s especially true for the United States Marines, then and now.

“Except in holy wars, or in defense of their native soil, men fight well only because of pride and training -- pride in themselves and their service, enough training to absorb the rough blows of war and to know what to do.  Few men, of any breed, really prefer to kill or be killed.  These Marines had pride in their service, which had been carefully instilled in them, and they had pride in themselves ... and they had discipline.”

1st Marine Division Marines board a ship in San Diego, heading to Far East.

The author sees the Korean War as an ongoing conflict between two blocs -- Communism and the freedom-loving West, rooted in the past, with Korea, or Chosun, doomed for inevitable continued conflicts.

Because it was written just ten years after the armistice in the midst of the Cold War and just as the Vietnam War was getting started, some of the author’s insights are best appreciated as fresh observations of their time, of the past, but Fehrenbach makes his points with an eye to the future, too, almost predicting drone warfare and radical islamic terrorism:

“Nothing had happened to pushbutton warfare; its emergence was at hand.  Horrible weapons that could destroy every city on earth were at hand -- at too many hands.  But pushbutton warfare meant Armageddon, and Armageddon , hopefully will never be an end of national policy ... There is another kind of conflict -- crusade, jihad, holy war, call it what you choose.  It has been loosed before, with attendant horror but indecisive results.”

U.S. Marine infantrymen in Chosin, Dec. 5, 1950. (USMC photo)

Along with fiery descriptions of Heartbreak Ridge and Pork Chop Hill, among other battles, much of the book focuses on the political and social influences that affected they way the war was prosecuted, especially by the Army.  The author also touches on the Air Force’s role and says this about the Navy:

“It was hard for all the services.  The Navy, forced to blockade and patrol, had lonely cheerless duty in the China seas, unrelieved by much action.  Its carrier pilots flew dangerous patrols, and sometimes its landing parties went ashore on North Korea -- but the rest of the time the Navy sowed mines, or harvested them, and merely stood on station in the gray waters off Korea.  Without its utter control of those seas, there would have been no U.N. stand in Korea ... the Navy was fulfilling its primary mission -- keeping control of the seas, and holding the sea lanes open.”

Fehrenbach sees the Korean War as a bulwark against communism overtaking Asia.  Again, his conclusions have to be appreciated in the time they were made -- when the Soviet Union still existed and before Communist China embraced capitalism.

“The Korean War ended inconclusively on 27 July 1953,” the author writes in his concluding chapter.  “The lesson of Korea is that it happened.”  

He warns against forgetting the lessons of history:  “Aristotle wrote, ‘Almost all things have been found out, but some have been forgotten.’”

Sun Tzu’s “Art of War,” by the way, is listed on the Commandant’s Professional Reading list as “book of the month.”

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James F. Amos says "Reading is a critical continuing action ... a critical aspect of our commitment to the profession of arms."

Remembering the Legacy

Today, July 27, 2013, Commander-in-Chief President Barack Obama remembered the veterans who served and preserved freedom for the Republic of Korea 60 years ago.  He put the so-called “forgotten war” in context of its legacy, focusing on some of the reasons it should be remembered.  Here is part of his speech to Korean War veterans and their families at the National Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

“Freedom is not free.  And in Korea, no one paid a heavier price than those who gave all -- 36,574 American patriots, and, among our allies, more than one million of our South Korean friends -- soldiers and civilians.  That July day, when the fighting finally ended, not far from where it began, some suggested this sacrifice had been for naught, and they summed it up with a phrase -- 'die for a tie.' 

“It took many decades for this memorial to gain its rightful place on this great Mall where we tell our American story.  It has, perhaps, taken even longer to see clearly, and understand fully, the true legacy of your service.  But here, today, we can say with confidence that war was no tie.  Korea was a victory.  When 50 million South Koreans live in freedom -- a vibrant democracy, one of the world’s most dynamic economies, in stark contrast to the repression and poverty of the North -- that’s a victory; that’s your legacy.

“When our soldiers stand firm along the DMZ; when our South Korean friends can go about their lives, knowing that the commitment of the United States to the security of the Republic of Korea will never waver -- that is a victory, and that is your legacy.

“When our allies across the Asia Pacific know -- as we have proven in Korea for 60 straight years -- that the United States will remain a force for peace and security and prosperity --that’s a victory; that’s your legacy.

“And for generations to come, when history recalls how free nations banded together in a long Cold War, and how we won that war, let it be said that Korea was the first battle -- where freedom held its ground and free peoples refused to yield, that, too, is your victory, your legacy.” -- President Barack Obama

‘Did You Have a Friend on the Good Reuben James?’

by Bill Doughty

Woody Guthrie wrote “Sinking of the Reuben James” in 1942, a poetic ode to a mighty destroyer, the first American ship sunk in World War II.  

Guthrie’s song concludes with this verse, showcasing the resolve of the Navy and nation during the war:

Now tonight there are lights in our country so bright
In the farms and in the cities they're telling of the fight.
And now our mighty battleships will steam the bounding main
And remember the name of that good Reuben James.

The refrain: “What were their names, tell me, what were their names?  Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?”

Guthrie’s song, about the sinking of the original USS Reuben James (DD 245) by a German submarine (just weeks before Imperial Japan’s attack of Oahu, Hawaii) was also performed by the Kingston Trio, the Highwaymen and Johnny Horton (of “Battle of New Orleans” and “Sink the Bismark” fame), among other performers.  

With the sinking of the destroyer Reuben James, the Navy lost 115 Sailors, with only 44 survivors.

That original USS Reuben James had been first commissioned in 1919 and served with the Atlantic Fleet.  The ship was decommissioned in 1931 but was recommissioned 13 months later to serve in the Atlantic, Pacific and Caribbean, before being assigned to fateful duty escorting war materials to Britain in WWII.

In song, film and books, USS Reuben James has captured the imagination of artists and the public.

It started with the ship’s namesake.  

James saves Decatur in an engraving by Alonzo Chappel, 1858.

Boatswain's Mate Reuben James was a hero aboard the American frigate Philadelphia in the Barbary Wars against piracy, putting his body in harm’s way to protect Lt. Stephen Decatur.  He served in the War of 1812 and aboard early frigates including USS Constitution and USS Constellation.  Taken prisoner, James was released after the war and went on to serve again with Captain Decatur, aboard the Guerriere.

When Woody Guthrie, who hated fascism in all forms, sang about mighty “battleships” steaming the bounding main, we can imagine not only the surface forces and actual battleships (BBs) but also the American submarines, air power and ground forces and other warfighters that came back with a vengeance to win peace and freedom 70-plus years ago.

“Back with a Vengeance” is the motto of the “world-famous” recently decommissioned guided-missile frigate USS Reuben James (FFG 57).  The latest of three ships to bear the proud name of the boatswain of two centuries ago, the frigate Reuben James made its own mark in the history books. 

Its first mission was Operation Earnest Will, in which the Navy provided protection to Kuwaiti oil tankers threatened by attack during the Iran-Iraq War.  The “Fightin’ 57” had a key role at the end of the Cold War, provided maritime security in the 80s and 90s, and deployed to provide extended support in Operations Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Iraqi Freedom in the 21st century.  

From its homeport of Pearl Harbor, Reuben James operated forward to build partnerships, trained with international navies including in RIMPAC, provided humanitarian assistance, interdicted drug smugglers, and protected fishing areas alongside the U.S. Coast Guard.

USS Reuben James has been featured in novels (and movies) including Tom Clancy’s “Red Storm Rising” and “Hunt for Red October.”

Nonfiction and fiction writers have included references to the original Reuben James destroyer and now decommissioned frigate in their works.  These include, “Blood on the Sea” by Robert Sinclair Parkin, “Chosin File” by Dale Dye, “The Malacca Conspiracy” by Don Brown, “Battle for the North Atlantic” by John R. Bruning, “The USS Reuben James,” by Harold Charles, “Shepherds of the Sea” by Robert F. Cross, “Ghosts of the USS Yorktown,” by Bruce Orr, “Turning the Tide” by Ed Offley, and “Linebakers of the Sea” by Ray Lubeski.

The older frigates are leaving the Navy as littoral combat ships (LCS) such as USS Freedom (LCS 1) with near shore capabilities, are now operating forward.  

Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class William Shammas, one of the crew members at the decommissioning ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam this past week, said he’s sorry to see the frigates retire from service.

USS Reuben James (FFG 57) CO Cmdr. Dan Valascho speaks at the July 18, 2013 decommissioning.

“The U.S. Navy’s real first ships were frigates,” Shammas said.  “The first one, and the oldest ship in the United States Navy is a frigate -- the USS Constitution,” he observed.

The Reuben James was the first guided-missile frigate homeported in Hawaii, and the last to be retired there, leaving 17 frigates operating in the Navy.  The crew is transferring to other ships on the waterfront; their ship will transfer to the inactive ships list, gone for now.

Perhaps someday another USS Reuben James will be called to sail the world’s oceans and “steam the bounding main” -- "back with a vengeance" to confront new threats from piracy, terrorism or fascism.http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/FFG57/Pages/ourship.aspx#Namesake

Boston Bombing Roots

by Bill Doughty

In thinking about the “why” behind the terrorist attacks by radical Islamic fundamentalists, can at least part of the answer be explained in books?  While the world was focused on the Middle East, the atrocity at the Boston Maraton last April 15 -- Patriots Day -- shifted some of the attention a bit north of Syria, Iraq and Iran to almost forgotten Chechnya and the fringes of the former Soviet Union.

To understand “why Chechnya?” several books provide helpful insight.  All of these were written before Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechens with ties to radical Islam, conducted their vicious attack against innocent Americans.

“Chechen Jihad: Al Qaeda’s Training Ground and the Next Wave of Terror” by Yossef Bodansky introduces readers immediately to terrorists like Shamil Basayev, AKA Amir Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris, once tied to bin-Laden and al-Zawahiri.

Like author and historian Bernard Lewis, Bodansky attempts to explain the violent reactions of some fundamentalists against western modernization and what their jihad hopes to accomplish.

“The story of the Islamist-Jihadists’ quest to seize the strategic ground of Chechnya and the Caucasus is a unique and critical case study for anyone seeking to understand the means and goals of the worldwide Islamist jihad.  And its failure -- if failure it can be -- contains lessons that may be infrastructure as the secular world confronts continued Islamist-Jihadist surges in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.”

War in Chechnya in 1994 is thought to have claimed 100,000 lives.

Bodansky shows how sharia law, which called for public violence against its citizens, restricted women’s rights, transformed society, destroyed the socioeconomic infrastructure and fomented violence.  He calls it Chechenization.

In the chapter “Why Should We Care?” he writes:

“Chechenization refers to the profound transformation of a predominantly Muslim society from its traditional, largely pre-Islamic structure to one dominated by Islamist-Jihadist elements that historically have been alien to that society.  Chechenization involving not only the Arabization of that society’s value system, social structure, and way of life, but a near-complete abandonment of a society’s own cultural heritage in favor of subservience to pan-Islamic Jihadist causes, even if those causes are detrimental to the self-interest of that society.”

Under sharia law there is no separation of church and state.  In a radical Islamic state there is no tolerance for "disbelievers," nonbelievers or so-called apostates (former Muslims).

Lawrence Scott Sheets describes in “8 Pieces of Empire” how clerics in Chechnya ordered public televised lashings and public executions.  A highlight of his personal reporter’s narrative is the chapter “Three Libertine Women” in which we meet three freedom fighters, “Sabotage Women,” who fought the Russians nearly twenty years ago.

Harassed by morality police and threatened because of their secular attitudes and behavior, the women -- strong and fierce and free -- “fled Chechnya for Europe, where they are today.”

Andrew Meier, in “Chechnya: To the Heart of a Conflict,” describes a land of suicide bombings, assassinations and ongoing act of terrorism, where assassinations in the years since the first Russian onslaught in 1994, the kidnapping industry replaced petroleum crude as the primary contribution to Chechnya’s gross domestic product.”

Meier says he wrote the book as a report to “trace the convulsions” in the region.

A highlight of Meier’s small book is a timeline from the 17th through 19th centuries when “Chechens adopt Sunni Islam, but retain many ancestral customs,” through the impact of Russia, ending with the Sept. 1, 2004 terrorist attack and hostage taking in Beslan, North Ossetia and killing and wounding of hundreds of children.

In Moshe Gammer’s “The Lone Wolf and the Bear: Three Centuries of Chechen Defiance of Russian Rule,” we learn of the history of the turmoil in the Caucasus going back to Catherine the Great in 1771, in the same decade as the birth of the United States, 1776.

The embers of violence continued to glow, flaring around the time of the American Civil War.

“In 1866 ... economic, religious, political and other tensions had gradually been building up, making Chechnya (and Daghestan) a powder keg waiting to explode.  The Russo-Ottoman War of 1877-8 was the match that ignited it.”

Gammer describes another milestone around the time of World War I.

“The Islamic leaders were interested in securing the monopoly of the sharia over life in the mountains.  In the Chechen congress in Groznyi they had already raised the questions of enforcing the sharia and establishing a Terek Muftiate.”

Gammer calls it an “alliance” between religion and nationalism.

In the ashes of the Ottoman experience and in the face of the Stalinist persecution by the Soviet Union, fundamentalist Islam attracted a greater following among the people.

A purge or “deportation” in WWII caused deep-seated resentment that took root for generations despite a “rehabilitation” during the Cold War.

Terrorism and war continued as the people adopted “Wahhabism,” the religious philosophy adopted by al-Zawahiri.

According to Gammer, “The war of 1994-6 strengthened the Islamic dimension of Chechen identity and brought to the fore memories of the Islamic resistance to Russia in the eighteenth and nineteeth centuries ... Furthermore, Islam poured he strongest rallying call inside Chechnya and more effective than secular ideologies in calling for unity and mobilising support among other North Caucasian nationalities...”

So, the history books help us understand the unholy war that has existed in the region.  Other books can also help explain the brainwashing, “divine purpose” and self-righteous attitude that causes such explosive violence.

Still, the more we understand, the more questions we encounter.  Especially as we consider the “why” behind the Tsarnaev attacks in Boston on Patriots Day, a Massachusetts holiday celebrating freedom and independence.  What caused the two jihadists to lash out and cause so much destruction?  Why would they reject the freedom and democracy they had adopted.  Perhaps their uncle Ruslan Tsarni has the reason that goes beyond the history books: “being losers.”

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being arraigned this week after the formal indictment was issued last month.