Warfighter Poetry

Wavell

Review by Bill Doughty

Marine Corps General James Mattis, who resigned as Secretary of Defense at the end of last year, enjoys reading poetry. He says one of his favorite collections is an anthology compiled by British Field Marshall Viscount A.P. Wavell, "Other Men's Flowers" (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1945), touted by the publisher as "perhaps the best collection of verse for men that has ever appeared."

Wavell served as Viceroy of India. His yearning for the days of the Empire and even romantic references to the Crusades and imperial conquest can be cringeworthy, yet he also highlights songs of love, calls to courage, paeans to virtue and deep appreciation of nature and beauty.

Two chapters in this collection, Good Fighting and The Call of the Wild, feature a number of poems for warfighters and mariners.

Sea Fever
by John Masefield

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

Masefield

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

From The Song of Honor
by Ralph Hodgson

The song of sailors every one
When monstrous tide and tempest run
At ships like bulls at red,
When stately ships are twirled and spun
Like whipping tops and help there's none
And might ships ten thousand ton
Go down like lumps of lead –

Next ... This anonymous song-poem is a bit hard to read in its original dialect, but the meanings are clear in describing the dangers of sailing wooden ships. There have been slightly different versions published, including some put to music; this is Wavell's version.



Sir Patrick Spens
by Anonymous

I. The Sailing

The king sits in Dunfermline town
drinking the blude-red wine,
"O whare can I get skeely skipper
To sail this new ship o' mine?"

O up and spak an eldern knight,
Sat at the kings right knee;
"Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
That ever sail'd the sea."

Our king has written a braid letter,
And seal'd it with his hand,
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spens,
Was walking on the strand.

"To Noroway! to Noroway!
to Noroway o'er the faem!
The king's daughter to Noroway
'Tis thou must bring her hame."

The first line that Sir Patrick read
A loud, loud laugh'd he;
The neist line that Sir Patrick read
The tear blinded his e'e.

"O wha is this has don this deed
And tauld the king o' me,
To send us out, at this time o' year,
To sail upon the sea?

‘Be it wind, be it weet, be it hail, be it sleet,
Our ship must sail the faem;
The king’s daughter o' Noroway,
'Tis we must fetch her hame.’

They hoysed their sails on Monenday morn
Wi' a' the speed they may;
They hae landed in Noroway
Upon a Wodensday.

II.  The Return

"Mak ready, mak ready, my merry men a'l
Our gude ship sails the morn."
"Now ever alack, my master dear,
I feir a deadly storm.

"I saw the new moon late yestreen
Wi' the auld moon in her arm;
And if we gang tae sea, master,
I fear we’ll come to harm."

They hadna sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely three,
When the lift grew dark, and the wind blew loud,
And gurly grew the sea.

The ankers brak, an the topmast lap,
It was sic a deadly storm;
An the waves cam owre the broken ship
Till a' her sides were torn.

"Go fetch a web o' the silken claith,
Another o' the twine,
And wap them into our ship's side,
An let nae the sea come in."

They fetcht a web o' the silken claith,
Another o' the twine,
And they wapp'd them round that gude ship's side,
But still the sea came in.

O laith, laith were our gude Scots lords
To wet their cork-heel'd shoon;
But lang or a' the play was play'd
They wat their hats aboon.

And mony wis the feather bed
That flatter'd on the faem;
And mony was the gude lord’s son
That never mair cam hame.

O lang, lang may the ladies sit,
Wi' their fans into their hand,
Before they see Sir Patrick Spens
Come sailing to the strand!

And lang, lang may the maidens sit
Wi' their gowd kames in their hair,
A-waiting for their ain dear loves!
For them they’ll see nae mair.

Half-owre, half-owre to Aberdour,
'Tis fifty fathoms deep;
An there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens,
Wi' the Scots lords at his feet!

W. E. Henley presents this paean to honor, courage and commitment:

Invictus
by W. E. Henley

Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbow'd.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.

Wavel's collection is awash in melancholy, including pain of love, loss and death. He includes one of my favorite poems, Poe's Annabel Lee.

Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
   In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
   By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
   Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
   I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
   Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
   In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
   My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
   And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
   In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
   Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
   In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
   Of those who were older than we—
   Of many far wiser than we—
And neither the angels in Heaven above
   Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
   Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
   In her sepulchre there by the sea—
   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

As a young officer Wavell faced combat on front lines in both South Africa and India. During World War I he fought in the Second Battle of Ypres, losing an eye. In WWII, as a senior officer, he commanded from headquarters and helped lead the fight "against the powers of darkness," Italian Fascists and German Nazis, in the Middle East and North Africa.

For "Flowers" he selected this excerpt from Henry IV to show the tension between the front-line warfighter and staff officer. "The feeling between the regimental officer and the staff officer is as old as the history of fighting," Wavell writes.

The Staff Officer
from Henry IV, Pt. I, Scene 3
by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare

My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress'd,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd
Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home;
He was perfumed like a milliner;
And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He gave his nose and took't away again;
Who therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff; and still he smiled and talk'd,
And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corpse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
With many holiday and lady terms
He question'd me; amongst the rest, demanded
My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.
I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold,
To be so pester'd with a popinjay,
Out of my grief and my impatience,
Answer'd neglectingly I know not what,
He should or he should not; for he made me mad
To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman
Of guns and drums and wounds,--God save the mark!--
And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth
Was parmaceti for an inward bruise;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
This villanous salt-petre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.

Many of the poems in this collection are from Robert Browning and Rudyard Kipling. In my opinion, Kipling's poetry is often clunky and over-the-top, but his poem If the exception. Direct and relatable, it's timeless and timely, especially for our leaders today.

If
By Rudyard Kipling

Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

In a seeming concession to his wife, in light of the male-centric, traditional choices of poems and poets, Wavell includes this poem by John Masefield – published in 1902 in "Salt Water Ballads." Wavell notes, "This is a favourite of my wife's, learnt and included at her request."



Vagabond
by John Masefield

Dunno a heap about the what an' why,
   Can't say's I ever knowed.
Heaven to me's a fair blue stretch of sky,
   Earth's jest a dusty road.

Dunno the names o' things, nor what they are,
   Can't say's I ever will.
Dunno about God—he's jest the noddin' star
   Atop the windy hill.

Dunno about Life—it's jest a tramp alone
   From wakin'-time to doss.
Dunno about Death—it's jest a quiet stone
   All over-grey wi' moss.

An' why I live, an' why the old world spins,
   Are things I never knowed;
My mark's the gypsy fires, the lonely inns,
   An' jest the dusty road.

The final chapters – Ragbag and Last Post – offer some powerful verses, including John McCrae's In Flanders Fields, as well as these gems:

Gordon

Man's Testament
by Adam Lindsay Gordon

“Question not, but live and labour
   Till yon goal be won,
Helping every feeble neighbour,
   Seeking help from none;
Life is mostly froth and bubble,
   Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
   Courage in your own.”

Housman

Here Dead Lie We
by A.E. Housman

Here dead lie we because we did not choose
   To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
   But young men think it is, and we were young.

Wavell ends his book with a humble inclusion of his own verse. "At the end of my garden of other men's flowers, outside the gate, I have put this little wayside dandelion of my own."

Wavell's muse, Giampietrino's Madonna of the Cherries

Sonnet for the Madonna of the Cherries
by A.P. Wavell

Dear Lady of the cherries, cool, serene,
Untroubled by the follies, strife and fears,
Clad in soft reds and blues and mantle green
Your memory has been with me all these years.

Long years of battle, bitterness and waste,
Dry years of sun and dust and eastern skies,
Hard years of ceaseless struggle, endless haste,
Fighting ‘gainst greed for power hate and lies.

Your red-gold hair, your slowly smiling face
For pride in your dear son, your king of kings,
Fruits of the kindly earth, and truth and grace,
Colour and light, and all warm lovely things –

   For all that loveliness, that warmth, that light,
   Blessed Madonna, I go back to fight.



Wavell concludes, "A blessing to you, my Lady, and to all beautiful things that help us to forget the dreariness of war."



Thank you to Gen. Mattis for his suggestion of this thought-provoking collection of warfighter poetry. A reminder that wisdom comes not only from knowledge and information, but also from reflection and inspiration. Happy Birthday, United States Marine Corps!

Civil War 2020 in 'Hateland'?

Fort Hood first responders use a table to move a shooting victim, Nov. 5, 2009. (1SG Jon Soucy)

Review by Bill Doughty

Ten years ago, Nov. 5, 2009, U.S. Army psychologist Nidal Hasan murdered 13 people at Fort Hood in the name of hate and his faith. Daryl Johnson mentions Hasan, along with dozens of other deranged hate-filled killers, in "Hateland: A Long, Hard Look at America's Extremist Heart" (Prometheus Books, 2019).

Hasan's hatred was apparently fueled by a feeling of persecution and victimization against his beliefs. He called himself a "Soldier of Allah."

Author Johnson profiles Islamic extremists, black nationalists, white supremacists, Christian Identitarians, Posse Comitatus militia, anti-government right-wing conspiracy believers, and other groups often created in anger, resentment and hate.

Shortly after the Fort Hood attack, Huffington Post published an article by Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. Levin wrote that Hasan's case combines issues of ideology, terrorism and mental distress. Levin explored and compared the role of religion to the beliefs of Scott Roeder, a Christian who murdered abortion-provider Dr. George Tiller. Hate-filled killers such as Roeder and Hasan "often self-radicalize from a volatile mix of personal distress, psychological issues, and an ideology that can be sculpted to justify and explain their anti-social leanings."

In "Hateland" Johnson shows how individuals gravitate to and are radicalized by such ideologies. He explains how hate and violence beget more hate and violence. And he investigates whether extreme hate and partisanship could lead to another civil war in the United States.

A memorial stands outside of the Armed Forces Recruiting Center Chattanooga in 2015 to honor  the four Marines and one Sailor who were killed in a shooting at the Navy Operational Support Center Chattanooga July 16, 2015. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Justin Wolpert/Released)

The book opens and closes with an exploration of three examples of hate from three different perspectives: African-American Micah Johnson, who assassinated Dallas police officers; Islamic-inspired terrorist Muhammad Abdulazeez, who killed four Marines and a Navy recruiter in Chattanooga; and white supremacist Dylann Roof, who murdered nine African-American Christian parishioners in Charleston.

Author Daryl Johnson presents the psychological factors, including a "wall of frustration" that can bring a person's hate to a boiling level. He also shows how radical extremist groups recruit from and within the military.

"A government survey of 17,080 soldiers that found 3.5 percent of soldiers have, in fact, been contacted for recruitment by an extremist organization. There are over two million Americans serving in the military and National Guard, which means extremist organizations have approached more than seventy thousand active duty military. More than twice that number, 7.1 percent, said they knew another soldier who was actually part of an extremist organization."

Micah Johnson, like bombers Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolf (also spotlighted in this book), was an Army veteran.

Maj. Hasan's rampage at Fort Hood illustrates how the internet has been an accelerant to the growth of hate crimes in recent years. That growth was further spurred with the rise of social media.


Six months before Hasan's attack, Ashton Kutcher appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show to demonstrate the power of a new social media app, Twitter. Designed to create online communities, bring people together, and achieve positive change, social media –including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter – have also helped mainstream extremism and false information among a diverse group of haters.

"But not only were all these extremist actors in play at once, these groups were also re-emerging into a country where politics, media, and even intrapersonal relationships were now processed through a web-enabled, hyper-partisan, outrage-fueled, troll-driven, click-hungry, conspiracy-laced, all-immersive media culture. This time, any actions – even peaceful ones – ricocheted rapidly around the media ecosystem, creating a uniquely American conflagration."

This is a phenomenon affecting not only the United States but also the world. "Like the white supremacists before, (ISIS) effectively hijacked the web to spread violent anti-western rhetoric," Johnson writes. Analytics reinforce the message to each individual.

"More than anything else, perhaps, social media and other online content strive to make every online activity, including radicalization, more convenient, fun and addictive."

Now – with anonymity and no accountability – trolls, hackers, doxers, click-baiters and lulz-chasers create a diet of eye candy that leads to intellectual diabetes. The antidote, of course, is reading, critical thinking and, as trite as it may sound, an appeal to "love and understanding."

If acts of hate and violence lead continually to backlashes – and Johnson shows they do – could that then lead to another civil war in America, particularly if condoned and encouraged among vigilantes by some elected leaders? How does the easy availability of military-grade assault weapons contribute to the threat?

Talk of a possible civil war has increased over the past three years, but Johnson is ambivalent about the possibility of outright war, especially as compared with our Civil War just over 150 years ago.

"Despite all the divisiveness and partisanship, there is no single irreconcilable issue like slavery. Abolitionists saw it as an unforgivable evil. Southerners believed that its destruction would mean tearing apart the entire economic and quasi-feudal cultural and social fabric of Southern life. The nation is much more integrated now, economically and socially. For most people, immigration, abortion, gun control, and other wedge issues have nowhere near the same overall impact as slavery did, particularly in the South."

Perhaps we'll continue to have a sort of Cold Civil War. Most certainly, we now have respected voices of reason from federal civilians and the military, including retired admirals and generals, calling for calm, reason, the rule of law, and a return to character and core values.


CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (July 28, 2015) Pallbearers carry the casket of Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Randall Smith at Chattanooga National Cemetery. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Justin Wolpert/Released)

In Post-Imperial World 'Navy Is Like Oxygen'

Review by Bill Doughty

War, anarchy and authoritarianism are children of crumbling empires. That's the gist of Robert D. Kaplan's retrospective collection, "The Return of Marco Polo's World: War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-First Century" (Random House, 2018). Kaplan sees the importance of a strong navy in a changing world.

Mahan

Noting that the U.S. Navy nearly half the size it was in mid-1980s, Kaplan warns, "A great navy is like oxygen: You notice it only when it is gone."

Decreases and delays in American warship production, coupled with increases in near-peer competitor shipbuilding, threaten U.S. Navy maritime influence.

As the Navy loses supremacy on the seas, according to Kaplan, similarly to what happened to the British Empire a century ago, other nations – including China and India –  are gaining influence and building more ships and ship-fighting technologies.

Kaplan reminds us of the influence of Navy Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan in 1890. Mahan, of course, called for the nation to become a great sea power, recognizing the oceans as the global "commons." Protecting sea lanes meant ensuring peace and prosperity. The Chinese are the Mahanians now," Kaplan contends. As Communist China expands its influence, Kaplan warns of the possibilities of conflict over freedom of maritime trade in Asia.

Such risk of conflict is a daily threat already in the Middle East, where the messy remnants of the Ottoman Empire and Arab Caliphate continue to flare in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, with the Kurds in the middle. Kaplan explains Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "compulsive authoritarianism" and attempts to create "a mono-ethnic state" and a return to Ottoman-like imperialist tendencies. Again, the shadow of empire.

U.S. and Turkish military forces conduct a joint patrol in northeast Syria, Oct. 4, 2019.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Andrew Goedl)

"The map of former Syria and Iraq will continue to resemble a child's messy finger-panting with Sunni and Shi'ite war bands expanding and contracting  their areas of control – the result being flimsy and radical micro-states," Kaplan observes.

Neither continued conflict nor abandonment of partners in the region will win a war on terror: "Remember that right now there are millions of Arab refugees from these wars stuck in the region whose children are not being educated, making the next generation even more prone to radical Islamist propaganda."

Kaplan's map of history is vast and three-dimensional. As always, he shows the importance of geography and culture. And he gives examples from empires as far back as the Mesopotamia, Chinese dynasties, Persian Empire, Arab Caliphate, Greece and Rome.

Kaplan

As for recent events and the post-imperial world, Kaplan contends the vacuum is being filled vitally by a "raft of supranational and multinational groupings such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, European Union, International Monetary Fund, International Court of Justice, World Economic Forum," and United Nations.

Kaplan writes about the need for balanced leadership that carefully manages realism with idealism in the new world order. He says the Navy is part of a national leadership in protecting allies and projecting power.

"History moves on. World War II and the Cold War recede. But the United States is the most well-endowed and advantageously located major state on Earth. That good fortune comes with responsibilities that extend beyond our borders. Just look at the size of our three-hundred-warship Navy and the location of our aircraft carriers on any given week. Realism is about utilizing such power to protect allies without precipitating conflict. It is not about abandoning them and precipitating conflict as a consequence."

After World War II, the United States led by example and has silently undergirded a peaceful world, Kaplan contends: "protecting the sea-lanes, the maritime choke points, and access to hydrocarbons, and in general providing some measure of security to the world."
"This is not traditional imperialism, which is no longer an option," he writes about such international cooperation undergirding peace and prosperity, "but it is the best available replacement for it." Indeed, if a great Navy is like oxygen, then the world's economy depends on the U.S. Navy to breathe.

The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) transits the Philippine Sea during Exercise Pacific Griffin 2019, Oct. 1. Pacific Griffin is a biennial exercise conducted in the waters near Guam aimed at enhancing combined proficiency at sea while strengthening relationships between the U.S. and Republic of Singapore navies. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Josiah J. Kunkle)

This week, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday presented the keynote address at the 12th Regional Seapower Symposium in Venice, Italy, noting in echoes of Mahan, "... our global economy floats on seawater.”

“I’m committed to advancing our relationship and our shared values of democracy, free and fair trade, the rule of law,” CNO Gilday said. “Combined with a robust constellation of allies and partners who desire to build and strengthen the international economic order, we are operating towards the same end – continued security and stability that results in a free and open maritime commons.”

CNO Adm. Mike Gilday speaks at the Regional Seapower Symposium in Venice, Italy, Oct. 17, 2019. The symposium goals are to foster open and constructive exchange of views and ideas, enhance a comprehensive approach to many sea-related matters, and boost mutual knowledge and trust among naval partners. (U.S. Navy photo by Cmdr. Nathan Christensen)

The essays in Kaplan's collection, some written more than a decade ago, are still relevant and provocative, particularly 2006's "When North Korea Falls."

This is an engrossing and often prescient book, well worth a Navy read. Among the dozens of people Kaplan acknowledges and thanks are Navy Adm. (Ret.) James Stravidis, Marine Corps Lt. Col. David Mueller, Army Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, and Air Force Col. (Ret.) James H. Baker.

Army Gen. David Petraeus calls "Return" a work that "will be regarded as a classic. "These essays constitute a truly path-breaking, brilliant synthesis and analysis of geographic, political, technological, and economic trends with far-reaching consequences."

The Sailor Who Brought Victory in WWII

Naval Cadet William D. Leahy, 1898 off Santiago.

Review by Bill Doughty

A Sailor was center-stage both in winning World War II and in setting up a successful strategy for the Cold War.

Some historians see Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy as a figure in the background, but he was in fact a key strategic thinker, planner and leader as Chief of Naval Operations, chief of staff to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, chairman of the joints chiefs of staff, national security advisor, ambassador, and, with President Truman, creator of central intelligence for the United States.

Using hundreds of source documents and other resources, Phillips Payson O'Brien shows Leahy's phenomenal influence before, during and after the Second World War in "The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt's Chief of Staff" (Dutton, Penguin House, 2019).

Midshipman William Leahy graduated from the Naval Academy in 1897. He learned to sail aboard the USS Constellation.

President Taft visits U.S. Pacific Fleet on Navy's birthday, Oct. 15, 1911 with aide, Lt. Cmdr. Leahy. 

He would become the highest ranking American military officer to have served aboard the Constellation when the United States dropped the first atomic bombs in 1945.

Early in his career Leahy served in China, in the Spanish-American War, in the Philippines Insurrection, and during what was called the Banana War in Nicaragua. As a lieutenant commander, he became aide to President William Howard Taft.

Serving aboard warships in World War I and in overseas diplomatic assignments, big and small, Leahy gained an international perspective. He and Roosevelt bonded when the future president was assistant secretary of the Navy and later during FDR's 12-year presidency.

"Sharing a similar outlook on the world, Leahy and Roosevelt melded from the start. Both were convinced of the need for a large and efficient U.S. Navy. Roosevelt had manifested a love of the sea since boyhood and was fascinated with the importance of sea power. He was a believer in the historical theories of Alfred Thayer Mahan, the American naval officer who argued in the late nineteenth century that sea power was the greatest determinant in world politics. Mahan's ideas became fashionable and spread across the globe, influencing thanking not just in America but in Europe and Asia as well. In a series of books on various periods of history, he posited that control of the seas was practically an immutable law of international relations; that nations such as Great Britain, which could exercise dominance on the world's oceans, would inevitably triumph over other countries that could not. For Americans like Roosevelt and Leahy, Mahan helped codify an instinctive belief that the United States needed a much stronger fleet. When Roosevelt became assistant secretary [of the Navy], he engaged in a correspondence with Mahan about sea power, and, with war looming in Europe, the need to popularize its value. Yet Roosevelt, like Leahy, did not believe in sea power as part of some imperialist drive to conquer. He saw sea power as something vital to the United States' security, regardless of whether an American empire existed or not."

"By the late summer of 1937, Leahy was entrenched as the most powerful CNO in naval history," O'Brien writes. During the war, he became "the most powerful chairman of the joint chiefs of staff in American history, with or without congressional authorization." After the war he set out a plan to work with partners and Allies for a lasting peace.

Leahy's legacy:

• Embraced new technologies – In the 1930s, as tensions rose in Europe and Asia, Leahy led development of anti-aircraft defenses, a prescient and lifesaving move.
• Developed key alliances within government – Leahy built ties with FDR, Sumner Welles in the State Department, and congressional leaders like Carl Vinson, who had a "political tenacity on behalf of the fleet."
• Arranged allocation of resources – Thanks to Leahy's influence, new ships were built, including 60,000 tons of new cruisers, 30,000 tons of new destroyers (crucial after the attack on Pearl Harbor), large mobile dry docks, and tankers to refuel forward-deployed aircraft carriers.
• Made the shift from battleships to aircraft carriers – Leahy ensured the Navy had resources, including the building of 15 CVs during World War II.
• Saw the strategic importance of Marianas, Philippines, Hawaii and Puerto Rico – Leahy was an early proponent of air- and sea-power and forward basing.
• Instilled decentralized merit-based leadership – Throughout his career, Leahy pushed for a flattened organization. He pushed up young talented officers and pushed out older, less competent ones.
• Insisted on a purposeful blockade of Japan – When Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan conspired to invade Indochina (Vietnam) to take oil and other resources, Leahy, Welles and FDR planned for the embargo.
• Chose naval leaders – Immediately after Pearl Harbor and Oahu were attacked, Leahy wrote to FDR with his suggestions of Ernest King, Chester Nimitz and Thomas Hart for key positions in "important naval commands."
• Corralled the strong personalities of military leaders – Leahy had the unenviable job of soothing inter-service rivalries, type-A personalities and conflicting rivalries of General George C. Marshall, General Henry "Hap" Arnold, Adm. Ernest King, General Douglas MacArthur and other military leaders, including especially those of Allied nations.
• Balanced the needs of the military with labor market – Leahy opposed conscripting and nationalizing civilian companies and workers, and he defended civil liberties in the face of authoritarian tendencies of the government during the war.
• Developed a strategy of air- and sea-power to defeat Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan – His strategy worked to near perfection within a few years. O'Brien documents Leahy's direct influence.
• Opposed large-scale invasion of Japan – Leahy opposed both a direct assault on mainland Japan and the proposed use of a biological weapon designed to destroy rice. And he was against the atom bomb targeting noncombatants. "War is not to be waged to wipe out women and children," Leahy wrote.
• Foresaw problems with U.S. involvement in the Middle East – Leahy viewed emigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine as a mistake, and he argued against getting involved in other countries' civil wars, particularly among Islamic states.
• Warned of the dangers of Communist China – Leahy lamented the U.S. failure to back up the Chinese nationalists fighting the Communist takeover, which he considered, "the greatest American foreign policy tragedy of his career." The takeover led directly to the Korean War and creation of North Korea.
• Warned of the dangers of an untruthful, untrusting and untrustworthy Russia – From Appendix 3 (Leahy's notes on relations with USSR): "In secretive atmosphere pervading Soviet Govt., possibilities for distorting truth are infinite. The Russians do not believe in the existence of objective truth and hence believe all statements to be cloak for some ulterior motive."
• Fought the "unification" of the armed forces – Immediately after WWII, the Army proposed absorbing the Marine Corps and having the Army Air Force take over naval aviation. Leahy helped the Navy successfully fend off the power grab, which he could have adversely affected a balanced civilian control of the military. "To Leahy, civilian control of the military was, as always, sacrosanct," O'Brien writes.
• Opposed an interventionist CIA – After losing influence late in his career, "Leahy watched helplessly while the CIA transformed into a force committed to widespread covert operations."
• Drafted a blueprint for postwar peace – See the Navy Reads post on how Leahy worked with President Truman for a Navy Day speech outlining Cold War strategies for cooperation and the importance of global alliances to prevent war.

Leahy stands behind FDR, seated between Churchill and Stalin at Yalta in 1945.

As FDR's key war planner, Leahy achieved the "grandest level of strategy," O'Brien writes:

"Historians relish rehashing the great strategic decisions that supposedly determined the outcome of World War II: Britain's resolve to fight on after the fall of France, Hitler's decision to invade the Ukraine instead of aiming for Moscow, Japan's doomed attack on Midway Island. Such choices add an air of suspense to the war, but they also miss the point about how modern war is won or lost. Decisions on when, where and even if can only be made after the careful determination of an even more important series of strategic choices, which represent the highest level of grand strategy, are about what kind of armed forces should be constructed. Every power in World War II had to assess what weaponry they needed to build their armies and navies, and, moreover, how to balance the need for military manpower with the necessity for industrial workers to assemble war machinery. Never do these decisions receive the intense focus reserved for the use of military force, but they are determinative."

O'Brien's biography is a priceless new look at a quiet giant in American history in the Twentieth Century. Leahy was a diplomat statesman who preferred the shadows to the limelight. In the best traditions of government service, Fleet Admiral Leahy led with humility, honor, honesty and strength.

(NOTE: Leahy was a staunch (and successful) defender of the U.S. Navy's war efforts in the Pacific, ensuring 90 percent of the Navy's assets were directed toward the war against Japan. Great Britain, on the other hand, believed the Allies should have a Germany-first policy. This led to a serious disagreement in meetings between the key Allies. "For Leahy, China was not to be abandoned, and his temper was put to the test when the British wheeled out Field Marshal Archibald Wavell. A repeated failure consistently promoted throughout his career as a way of moving him on. Wavell had been beaten soundly by Rommel in the Desert War of 1941 and deposited into India ..." British Field Marshall Wavell is mentioned in O'Brien's biography of Fleet Admiral Leahy, whose collection of poetry is a coming Navy Reads review. O'Brien and Leahy offer an unflattering picture of the British WWI military leader.)

Senior Officers of the U.S. Armed Forces make a radio broadcast in Washington, D.C., following the official announcement of Victory in Europe on 8 May 1945: General of the Army George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army; Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Senior Member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations. (National Archives)

Navy Day & Peacetime Strategies

by Bill Doughty

Fleet Adm. William D. Leahy

In "The Second Most Powerful Man in the World: The Life of Admiral William D. Leahy, Roosevelt's Chief of Staff" (Dutton, Penguin House, 2019) author Phillips Payson O'Brien shows how Leahy helped shape strategies to win World War II and the Cold War.

That may sound like a bold statement, yet unimpeachable evidence rests in the text, notes and appendices of O'Brien's excellent biography of an under-recognized American hero of the last century.

In the early days and months of his presidency, Truman wisely trusted and listened to Leahy, who had been FDR's right hand throughout the Second World War. Leahy's old friend William Bullitt, a former ambassador to France, like Leahy, suggested Truman give a postwar speech similar to Woodrow Wilson's post-WWI Fourteen Points speech.

Leahy was inspired to present foreign policy and wrote "the most important speech that Harry Truman would give in the first two years of his presidency."

O'Brien provides Leahy's personal copy of the fundamental points underlying U.S. foreign policy as Appendix B. These points were announced by President Truman in his Navy Day speech, October 1945, and they ring loudly today in territorial issues related to Palestine/Israel, Hong Kong/China, South and North Korea, Kurdistan/Turkey/Syria, and Ukraine/Russia.

Point number 4 seems to speak to what happened in the Russian attack on the 2016 U.S. election and what is happening currently in the constitutional crisis unfolding in the United States. Point number 7 shows the ongoing commitment to protecting freedom of the seas as part of a global commons.

"1.  No territorial expansion or selfish advantage. No plans for aggression against any other state, large or small. No objective which need clash with the peaceful aims of any other nation.

2.  The eventual return of sovereign rights and self-government to all peoples who have been deprived of them by force.

3.  No territorial changes in any friendly part of the world unless they accord with the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned.

4.  All peoples who are prepared for self-government should be permitted to choose their own form of government by their freely expressed choice, without interference from any foreign source.

5.  By the combined and cooperative action of our war allies, help the defeated enemy states establish peaceful democratic governments of their own free choice. And try to attain a world in which nazism, fascism, and military aggression cannot exist.

6.  Refuse to recognize any government imposed upon any nation by the force of any foreign power.

7.  All nations should have the freedom of the seas and equal rights to the navigation of boundary rivers and waterways and of rivers and waterways which pass through more than one country.

8.  All states which are accepted in the society of nations should have access on equal terms to the trade and the raw materials of the world.

9.  The sovereign states of the Western Hemisphere, without interference from outside the Western Hemisphere, must work together as good neighbors in the solution of their common problems.

10. Full economic collaboration between all nations, great and small, is essential to the improvement of living conditions all over the world, and to the establishment of freedom from fear and freedom from want.

11. Continue to strive to promote freedom of expression and freedom of religion throughout the peace-loving areas of the world.

12. The preservation of peace between nations requires a United Nations Organization composed of all the peace-loving nations of the world who are willing to jointly use force, if necessary, to insure peace."

Navy ships, planes & lighter-than-air vessels, Hudson River, Navy Day 1945.

According to O'Brien, "The final text of the speech is the best summary of Leahy's outlook as it had evolved to that time and was both a statement about the coming Cold War and an attempt to keep alive the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt."

Here's an excerpt from Truman's actual Navy Day Speech focusing on a commitment to global cooperation, outlawing of nuclear weapons and a peaceful future for the world's citizens. As Truman delivered the speech, Leahy sat by his side.

   "The world cannot afford any letdown in the united determination of the allies in this war to accomplish a lasting peace. The world cannot afford to let the cooperative spirit of the allies in this war disintegrate. The world simply cannot allow this to happen. The people in the United States, in Russia, and Britain, in France and China, in collaboration with all the other peace-loving people, must take the course of current history into their own hands and mold it in a new direction – the direction of continued cooperation. It was a common danger which united us before victory. Let it be a common hope which continues to draw us together in the years to come.   The atomic bombs which fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki must be made a signal, not for the old process of falling apart but for a new era—an era of ever-closer unity and ever-closer friendship among peaceful nations.   Building a peace requires as much moral stamina as waging a war. Perhaps it requires even more, because it is so laborious and painstaking and undramatic. It requires undying patience and continuous application. But it can give us, if we stay with it, the greatest reward that there is in the whole field of human effort ...   The immediate, the greatest threat to us is the threat of disillusionment, the danger of insidious skepticism—a loss of faith in the effectiveness of international cooperation. Such a loss of faith would be dangerous at any time. In an atomic age it would be nothing short of disastrous ...   What the distant future of the atomic research will bring to the fleet which we honor today, no one can foretell. But the fundamental mission of the Navy has not changed. Control of our sea approaches and of the skies above them is still the key to our freedom and to our ability to help enforce the peace of the world.   No enemy will ever strike us directly except across the sea. We cannot reach out to help stop and defeat an aggressor without crossing the sea. Therefore, the Navy, armed with whatever weapons science brings forth, is still dedicated to its historic task: control of the ocean approaches to our country and of the skies above them.   The atomic bomb does not alter the basic foreign policy of the United States. It makes the development and application of our policy more urgent than we could have dreamed six months ago. It means that we must be prepared to approach international problems with greater speed, with greater determination, with greater ingenuity, in order to meet a situation for which there is no precedent.   We must find the answer to the problems created by the release of atomic energy—we must find the answers to the many other problems of peace—in partnership with all the peoples of the United Nations ...   In our possession of this weapon, as in our possession of other new weapons, there is no threat to any nation. The world, which has seen the United States in two great recent wars, knows that full well. The possession in our hands of this new power of destruction we regard as a sacred trust. Because of our love of peace, the thoughtful people of the world know that that trust will not be violated, that it will be faithfully executed.   Indeed, the highest hope of the American people is that world cooperation for peace will soon reach such a state of perfection that atomic methods of destruction can be definitely and effectively outlawed forever."

The speech was delivered at a Navy Day celebration in New York City October 27, 1945.

President Harry S. Truman is piped aboard USS Missouri (BB-63), during the Navy Day fleet review in the Hudson River, New York City, 27 October 1945. Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy is just behind the President. (National Archives and Naval History and Heritage Command)

(A clip from the Navy Day 1945 speech.)

To Tell the Truth, Mr. President – II

by Bill Doughty

A young U.S. Naval Academy submarine officer sat in front of then-Capt. Hyman Rickover, head of the Navy's highly secret nuclear program. Near the end of the interview the young man faced a question that could hurt this chance of promotion to a key position. Rickover asked, "Did you always do your best?"

Jimmy Carter writes in his memoir "A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety" (Simon & Schuster, 2015) that he responded honestly: "No sir, I didn't always do my best." He knew he could have studied more, participated in more class activities and tried harder for advancement. Carter was sure he had failed the interview, but his truthful response earned him a position developing the first nuclear reactors for the Navy's submarines.

Later, as Governor of Georgia and while campaigning for president, Carter would remember the Rickover interview.

"One of the earliest and most persistent questions when I began campaigning was 'If elected, will you tell us the truth?' Having served as a legislator and governor, I knew how difficult it was to keep this promise, especially when facing influential constituents who held opposing opinions on subjects important to them. Nevertheless, I decided to make the commitment, and would tell my small audiences that I would make the same declarations to them and to all my other listeners. Often I would close by saying, 'If I ever lie or even make a misleading statement, don't vote for me.'"

Carter and Rickover. (NHHC)

Carter remembers how he and Rickover "established a close friendship from the beginning of my presidency." He remembers a visit aboard what was then the Navy's newest nuclear submarine:

"In May 1977 Rosalynn and I flew down to Cape Canaveral and spent the day with Rickover on the nuclear submarine USS Los Angeles. He and the captain put the new ship through extreme maneuvers, and he pointed out that the U.S. atomic-powered ships would stretch for more than ten miles if lined up stem to stern and that there had never been a nuclear incident that caused any damage or injured a person. I was surprised when I asked him how he would react to a total elimination of nuclear weapons – and nuclear power production – from the earth. He said it would be one of the greatest things that could happen."

First Lady Roaalynn Carter and President Jimmy Carter, along with Admiral Hyman G. Rickover (far right), visit USS Los Angeles in 1977. (Public Domain)

Rickover helped Carter plan and institute safety measures at American nuclear power plants in the wake of the Two Mile Island accident in March 1979. The measures were "patterned after those he maintained in navy ships." With Congress, Carter also successfully navigated the nation away from implementing breeder reactor nuclear power plants.

Yet, Carter says, "I remain convinced of the efficacy of nuclear power generation, especially as an alternative to the extremely threatening prospect of global warming caused by excessive consumption of coal, oil, and other fossil fuels." He adds, "There will have to be an emphasis on simplicity and safety of design and highly trained personnel to operate the reactors."

President G.H.W. Bush with former presidents Reagan, Carter, Ford and Nixon. (Navy)

Like other presidents, Carter eschewed nuclear weapons and worked toward nonproliferation. "I wanted to maintain peace and to reduce the world's nuclear weaponry as near to zero as possible."

Carter writes clearly and honestly about this relations with former presidents, including a deep friendship with Gerald Ford and strained relationship with Ronald Reagan. He says that, as the first president to install solar panels atop the White House, he was disappointed Reagan removed them after coming into office. In a conservationist initiative, Carter also championed protection of Alaska lands from commercial development.

"A Full Life" includes Carter's views on controversial issues like national intelligence, racial discrimination, abortion, drugs, poverty, peace in the Middle East and relations with Iran, China, Soviet Union and North Korea.

"Progress on the Korean Peninsula (toward reunification) was frustrated by reluctance among both the Koreans and some of my own military leaders," Carter notes. "As a submariner during the Korean War, I had felt frustrated when it ended with an arbitrary line drawn between North and South Korea plus merely a cease-fire and not a permanent peace treaty."

Lieutenant James Earl (Jimmy Carter) in the main control room of USS K-1. (NHHC)

He offers a fascinating and in some cases harrowing description of life aboard the submarines USS Pomfret and USS K-1 during the Cold War – and earlier aboard the battleships USS Wyoming and USS Mississippi. He considers the experience satisfying, rewarding and character-building.

"In "A Full Life" Carter also includes personal reflections on religion, charity work, painting, woodworking and writing post-presidency. 

He is the author of more than thirty books, including "Why Not the Best" (1975), "Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President" (1982), "Always a Reckoning, and Other Poems" (1995), and "Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power" (2014).

Remembering his interview as a young naval officer with taciturn Rickover, Carter reveals that some of the surprising questions during the interview involved his taste in music (jazz, country and classical) as well as books. Carter and Rickover discussed novels by William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, plays by Shakespeare and especially the naval novel "The Caine Mutiny" by Herman Wouk.

While president, Carter would read founding documents and continue to strive to always tell the truth.

"I tried to honor my campaign pledges, to make our government 'as good and honest and competent as the American people,' and to understand this challenge I paused on occasion to read the U.S. Constitution, and also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a simpler but more complete description of the goals to which we were committed."

This memoir ends with a hopeful note in "restoring the trust, admiration and friendship formerly enjoyed among other peoples."

"Our government should be known to be opposed to war, dedicated to the resolution of disputes by peaceful means, and, whenever possible, eager to accomplish this goal. We should be seen as the unswerving champion of human rights, both among our citizens and within the global community. America should be the focal point around which other nations can rally against threats to the quality of our common environment. We should be willing to lead by example in sharing our great wealth with those in need. Our own society should provide equal opportunity for all citizens and assure that they are provided the basic necessities of life."

He says the United States still has the capability of being a "sterling example" for others.

(Note: The first "To Tell the Truth, Mr. President" essay on Navy Reads is a review of Jon Meacham's "The Soul of America" and focuses on President Truman's contention that autocratic dictators lie in order to stay in power.)

BANGOR, Wash. (May 29, 2015) Former President Jimmy Carter is piped aboard during his arrival at the change of command ceremony for USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) at Naval Base Kitsap - Bangor. (U.S. Navy photo by MC1 Kenneth G. Takada/Released)

Air Force Drones On

Review by Bill Doughty

Air Force Lt. Col. T. Mark McCurley does his best to downplay the Navy's support, development and use of unmanned aircraft – remotely piloted aircraft – in his personal wartime memoir "Hunter Killer: Inside America's Unmanned Air War" (Dutton, 2015). 



Still, it's worth a read, especially as McCurley, writing with Kevin Maurer, recounts the hunting and killing of terrorists, especially the targeting of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American of Yemeni descent who inspired three high-profile terrorist acts: Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's shooting and killing of 13 people, Umar Farouk Abdulmautallab's failed "underwear bombing" attack aboard an airliner heading for Detroit, and the Boston Marathon bombers.

McCurley describes tracking terrorist leader Abu Musad al Zaaqawi for 480 hours only to fail the mission when an operator accidentally hit a space bar. McCurley shows how UAVs were used in Operation Steel Curtain and the Second Battle of Fallujah, assisting Marines. And, he describes – without ever mentioning the name of the mission – his involvement in the Navy SEALs' Operation Red Wings.

He takes credit for the Air Force zeroing in on the location of the SEAL team who had been ambushed in mountains of Kunar Province, Afghanistan, believing he heard a transmission from Marcus Luttrell (author of "Lone Survivor").

"We took pride in knowing we were the only aircraft able to make it to the area that day. The Predator's unique qualities were an asset in such a dangerous location. The Air Force would never put a human pilot in harm's way in those weather conditions given the threat from the Taliban, and even hough we lost two predators, my aircraft provided the first pictures of the crash site and possibly confirmed Luttrell's position through his radio transmission. Without that information, it would have taken a lot longer to launch the rescue operation."

McCurley does not mention the hero of Operation Red Wings by name: U.S. Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy. He does reveal the personal frustration and remorse of not being able to provide more support.

Several times in "Hunter Killer" McCurley spotlights differences between Air Force RPA and Navy Top Gun, even denigrating volleyball-playing stereotypes. The remote pilots' community comes across as disunited, disconnected but not disaffected by the lethality of some of their missions.

MQ-1 Predator (Senior Master Sgt. Stanley Thompson)

Those pilots see the "proximity of death" when their drones are used to bring lethality in high-definition. "No other pilots got to see the target like we did," he writes.

"Fighter pilots also rarely saw the whole engagement. They just got the call and put bombs on target. The closest they got to the fight was strafing runs and the occasional flash from the bomb or missile as it passed their windscreen. Their proximity to death and violence stirred their blood, but the images in their targeting pods were tiny and fuzzy compared to our high-def pods, keeping them remote to the effects on the ground. Our targeting pods not only showed us everything, but also lingered over the carnage, searing the images into our brains. Our experience was far different from that of the fighters."

The sights, sounds, smells and scorching heat of the Navy-operated Camp Lemmonier in Djibouti make it a desolate hell-hole, where McCurley says he got little support, especially from operations officer "Worm," "a lieutenant commander who acted like an admiral."

Yet he gives grudging credit to another naval officer, "Cruiser," as well as to then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen. Both were instrumental in getting parts and weapons for UAs that made it possible for the Air Force to carry out its mission.

An MQ-9 Reaper flies a training mission Oct. 18, 2017, at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. MQ-9 and MQ-1 Predator aircrews helped liberate Raqqah, Syria, from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s control in early October. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Christian Clausen)

This book is worth a read for anyone interested in an Air Force first-hand perspective on the development and history of remotely piloted aircraft such as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper – unmanned air systems and aircraft (thou-shalt-not-call-them-"drones," but that's what they're called). Discipline, professionalism and following established rules of engagement are critical to the ethical use of remote warfare, especially as artificial intelligence is developed and implemented.

This book does not have an index, notes or glossary. It does have a good dedication: "to honor the small cadre of aviators, the operators, who fought and continue to fight a war deep in the shadows."

An MQ-9 Reaper sits on the flight line at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Oct. 13, 2015.  (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Emily A. Kenney)

McCurley points out – both at the beginning and end of his book – how Gen. Hap Arnold predicted the rise of drones.

On V-J Day, 1945, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, U.S. Army Air Forces commander, said, “We have just won a war with a lot of heroes flying around in planes. The next war may be fought by airplanes with no men in them at all ... It will be different from anything the world has ever seen.”

Of course Winston Churchill made the same prediction in 1925 after WWI, and Leonardo da Vinci actually designed a drone in 1485. The history of UA, while benefitting from the Air Force's perspective including in "Hunter Killer," deserves a wider and deeper presentation.