The Crisis of Islam

Review by Bill Doughty

Osama bin Laden is violently against the separation of church and state, which he sees as America’s greatest sin.

Author Bernard Lewis

That’s one revelation from Bernard Lewis in his eye-opening The Crisis of Islam - Holy War and Unholy Terror.  Lewis gets to the core of understanding fundamentalist extremism.

For bin Laden and his followers, Islam is not just a private religious belief but also a cultural identity.  

Not just another way of life, fundamentalist Islam is the only allowable way of life, say the extremists.

“The literal divinity and inerrancy of the Qur’an (Koran) is a basic dogma of Islam, and although some may doubt it, none challenge it,” writes Lewis, Princeton University Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus.

Explaining fundamentalism in the Muslim world, Lewis says, “Most Muslims are not fundamentalists, and most fundamentalists are not terrorists, but most present-day terrorists are Muslims and proudly identify themselves as such.”

He recommends, “In devising means to fight the terrorists, it would surely be useful to understand the forces that drive them.”

At the Heart of Intolerance

Lewis’s book, on the Navy’s Professional Reading Program list, is a springboard to learn more about the history of the Middle East and what caused the intense feelings of persecution, anger, hate and violence.

What was the impact of Western sea-based discovery and commerce five centuries ago?  How did the loss of the Ottoman empire affect the psyche of believers?  Why did most followers of Muhammad turn their backs on the enlightenment and all it represents in freedom, tolerance, scientific logic, and human rights for both men and women?

The terror-inflaming strain of Islam behind bin Laden, Wahhabism, encourages secular book burning, says Lewis.  “The burning of books was often accompanied by the summary execution of those who wrote, copied or taught them.”

Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali

One author whom Islamist fundamentalists abhor is Somali expatriate Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  Ali’s Infidel, her personal story of confrontation with fundamentalism and journey to freedom, is a good companion piece to Crisis of Islam.  For Ali, the crisis of Islam is tyranny over freedom.

She writes, “By declaring our prophet infallible and not permitting ourselves to question him, we Muslims had set up a static tyranny.  The Prophet Muhammad attempted to legislate every aspect of life.  By adhering to his rules of what is permitted and what is forbidden, we Muslims suppressed the freedom to think for ourselves and to act as we chose.  We froze the moral outlook of billions of people into the mindset of the Arab desert in the seventh century.  We were not just servants of Allah, we were slaves.”

In the desert in 632 CE, Muhammad supposedly told followers in his farewell address, “I was ordered to fight all men until they say, ‘There is no god by Allah.’”  It’s a quote restated by bin Laden to justify his vision and actions in attacks against embassies, the USS Cole, and the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9/11.

‘On Vacation from History’

Lewis shows that it’s no coincidence that the most tolerant, least fundamentalist cultures are those with the highest education levels.

As Lewis points out, Muslim countries rank low in national performance indicators, including GDP, industrial output, life expectancy, number of phones and computers per 100 people, and -- especially -- the number of books sold.  Lewis says of the top 27 countries in the human development index, from the U.S. (#1) to Vietnam (#27) not a single nation is a Muslim country.

Can Islam as a religion be embraced by followers as a matter of faith and practice rather than an identity and loyalty transcending all others?  That, according to Lewis, is the “crisis of Islam.”  

Last Sunday on Meet the Press, another expert on the Middle East, author Thomas Friedman said he hopes for a peaceful transition in Egypt, but noted, “Egypt, and really most of the Arab world has been on a vacation from history for the last 50 years.”

Friedman, Ali and Lewis frame the issue in similar ways:  Can Islamic groups move beyond medieval authoritarianism and cultural stagnation and embrace freedom and democracy?

According to Lewis, “If the fundamentalists are correct in their calculation and succeed in their war, then a darker future awaits the world, especially the part of it that embraces Islam.”

On the other hand, it’s clear that a new generation of young people is emerging in a globalized world connected by social media, peacefully demanding freedom and democracy in previously autocratic societies.  Can they see past the past and find common human values as inalienable rights?

President Barack Obama spoke to the young people in the Middle East on June 4, 2009 at Cairo University in Egypt:

“I know there are many -- Muslim and non-Muslim -- who question whether we can forge this new beginning.  Some are eager to stoke the flames of division, and to stand in the way of progress.  Some suggest that it isn't worth the effort -- that we are fated to disagree, and civilizations are doomed to clash. Many more are simply skeptical that real change can occur.  There's so much fear, so much mistrust that has built up over the years.  But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward.  And I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country -- you, more than anyone, have the ability to reimagine the world, to remake this world.

“All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort -- a sustained effort -- to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.

“It's easier to start wars than to end them.  It's easier to blame others than to look inward.  It's easier to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share.  But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path.  There's one rule that lies at the heart of every religion -- that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.  This truth transcends nations and peoples -- a belief that isn't new; that isn't black or white or brown; that isn't Christian or Muslim or Jew.  It's a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization, and that still beats in the hearts of billions around the world.  It's a faith in other people, and it's what brought me here today.”

What about bin Laden’s faith in people and respect for law and government?  

With contempt for the human, secular values of independence and free-thinking, bin Laden said in his Letter to America from 2002 that the worst of all of our sins is the separation of church and state:  “You are the nation who, rather than ruling with the Shariah of Allah in its constitution and laws, choose(s) to invest your own laws as you will and devise your separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms absolute authority to the Lord and your Creator.”

Lewis argues that the solution to defeating Islamic terrorism starts with understanding its historical roots and the narrow view of its purveyors.  The next step is for good people with moderate, tolerant views -- people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- to step into the spotlight and condemn extremism. 

As always, education is key to achieving progress and helping people discover they have freedom of choice.

A Common Thread

On the centennial of President Ronald Reagan’s birth tomorrow and in light of the continuing turmoil in the Middle East, it’s timely to remember Reagan’s tribute to late President of Egypt Anwar Sadat, assassinated by Islamist fundamentalists on Oct. 6, 1981.  (Nobel Peace Prize recipient Sadat tried to make peace with Israel, brought together by President Jimmy Carter at Camp David in 1976.)

Presidents Sadat and Reagan in 1981

“President Sadat was a courageous man whose vision and wisdom brought nations and people together. In a world filled with hatred, he was a man of hope. In a world trapped in the animosities of the past, he was a man of foresight, a man who sought to improve a world tormented by malice and pettiness,” Reagan said in his tribute address.

Sadat was murdered by Islamic Jihad, a group associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Gamaa al-Islamiyya, who accused Sadat of apostasy and condemned him for the peace treaty he’d signed with Israel. 

That group was tied to al-Qaeda in the 1990s.

Among the Al Gamaa al-Islamiyya’s leaders: Ayman al-Zawahiri, founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, proponent of Wahhabism, and, as al-Qaeda’s Number 2, deputy to bin Laden. 

Roots/Routes to Choose: ‘The Other Wes Moore’

Review by Bill Doughty

Considered by many as one of the best U.S. nonfiction books of the past year, The Other Wes Moore is a story of choice.  Two men share the same name and neighborhood, same options.  One chooses education, service and freedom; the other falls into drugs, violence and life in prison.

What gave author Wes Moore an awareness of his freedom of choice?

At least one answer: books.

Author Moore’s enjoyment of reading and study was ignited in high school by a book about sports, a book that led to other inspiring works.

Posted here, with the permission of the publisher:

My mother, sensing my apathy toward reading, had bought me the Mitch Albom book Fab Five.  The book is about the Michigan basketball team led by Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, and Juwan Howard, a team with five freshman starters who made it all the way to the national championship game.  The Fab Five sported baggy shorts, bald heads, and a swagger I recognized from the streets of the Bronx, all reflective of the way the hip-hop generation was changing the face of sports, and college basketball in particular.  I was riveted by that book.  The characters jumped off the page, and I felt myself as engulfed in their destiny as I was in my own.  I finished Fab Five in two days.  The book itself wasn’t what was important -- in retrospect, I see that it was a great read but hardly a work of great literature -- but my mother used it as a hook into a deeper lesson: that the written word isn’t necessarily a chore but can be a window into new worlds.

From there I leaped into every new book with fervor.  My fresh love of reading brought me to the transformational writers who have worked their magic on generations of readers.  I explored Spain with Paulo Coelho.  I listened to jazz on the North Shore of Long Island with F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I was reminded by Walt Whitman to think of the past, and I awaited “The Fire Next Time” with James Baldwin.  But there was a more recent author and public figure whose work spoke to the core of a new set of issues I was struggling with: the Bronx’s own Colin Powell.  His book, My American Journey, helped me harmonize my understanding of America’s history and my aspiration to serve in her uniform.  In his autobiography he talked about going to the Woolworth’s in Columbus, Georgia, and being able to shop but not eat there.  He talked about how black GIs during World War II had more freedoms when stationed in Germany than back in the country they fought for.  But he embraced the progress this nation made and the military’s role in helping that change to come about.  Colin Powell could have been justifiably angry, but he wasn’t.  He was thankful.  I read and reread one section in particular:  “The Army was living the democratic ideal ahead of the rest of America.  Beginning in the late fifties, less discrimination, a truer merit system, and leveler playing fields existed inside the gates of our military posts more than in any Southern city hall or Northern corporation.  The Army, therefore, made it easier for me to love my country, with all its flaws, and to serve her with all my heart.”

The canon of black autobiography sensibly includes scores of books about resistance to the American system.  For instance, reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X -- a book that begins and ends in the madness and pathology of America’s racial obsessions -- is a rite of passage for young black men.  Malcolm never stopped pursuing truth and the right course, based on the best information he had at any given moment.  His response to the world he confronted in the middle of the twentieth century was profound and deeply felt, but he didn’t speak to my experience as well as Colin Powell did.  Powell, in his pragmatic way, wanted what I wanted:  A fair shot.  A place to develop himself.  A code that would instill discipline, restrain passion, and order his steps.  A way to change the world without first unleashing the whirlwind.  In the chaos of the world I grew up in, those were as appealing to me as Malcolm’s cry for revolution was to his generation.  I don’t claim that Powell had it all figured out:  American history bedevils the most earnest attempts to make sense of it.  And, of course, the problems of race that Malcolm confronted have not disappeared by any means.  But Powell gave me another way to think about the American dilemma and, more than that, another way to think about my own life.

Excerpted from The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore Copyright C 2010 by Wes Moore. Excerpted by permission of Random House Group, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Wes Moore chose service in the U.S. military, became an Army paratrooper and served in combat in Afghanistan. He became a Rhodes Scholar like former President Bill Clinton and worked as a special assistant to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice as a White House Fellow. The other Wes Moore portrayed in this book chose a different path toward hate, murder of a police officer in Philadelphia and a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

Tavis Smiley endorses Moore’s book with a “call to action” following the epilogue:  “My call to action, our call to action, is this: read these words but, more important, absorb their meanings and create your own plan to act and leave a legacy.”

Smiley spotlights the central message of The Other Wes Moore: “The choices we make about the lives we live determine the kinds of legacies we leave.” 

This weekend Americans contemplate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his commitment toward nonviolence, civility and justice for all. Here’s what King said in his Letter from Birmingham Jail in 1963:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.  Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.  -- MLK

As the world becomes even more connected and humanity more threatened with senseless acts of violence (as in Tucson last weekend), King’s observation provides inspiration and hope.  

So does The Other Wes Moore.

CONA and 'Revolt of the Admirals'

Review by Bill Doughty

The Centennial of Naval Aviation (CONA) celebration throughout 2011 might not have been possible without a series of events chronicled in Revolt of the Admirals -- the Fight for Naval Aviation, 1945-1950 by historian Jeffrey G. Barlow.

Barlow gives a well-documented, you-are-there look at the struggle to define “air power” at the end of WWII, showcasing fundamental questions in a turbulent period in history:

• Should our nation rely only on strategic bombing and atomic weapons; or should we have an agile, balanced and arguably more moral approach to defense?

• Should there be a “unification” of the services and loss of naval specialties; or should we protect executive civilian control of the military and a commitment to air-sea power?

Barlow shows the raw courage of leaders, now legends, like then-Capt. Arleigh Burke; Admirals Arthur Radford, Raymond Spruance and Thomas Kinkaid; former Marine Commandant Gen. Alexander Vandegrift; Fleet Admirals William Halsey, Ernest King and Chester Nimitz; and others.

Fleet Adm. Nimitz shared his view in his valedictory on “The Future Employment of Naval Forces,” delivered on Dec. 15, 1947 when he retired as Chief of Naval Operations:

“If we are to project our power against vital areas of an enemy across the ocean before beachheads on enemy territory are captured, it must be air-sea power.” -- Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz, CNO, 1947

Nimitz knew from his experience in the Pacific that the Navy’s strength was its capability to fight not just on the ocean but under and over, as well.

At the start of WWII, aircraft carriers had moved from being the “eyes” to becoming known as the “fists of the fleet,” says Barlow, who shows how the Navy proved the capability of naval aviation in the 1940s.

“During the final years of the war, the carriers of the Fast Carrier Task Force piled up an enviable record of successes against Japanese land-based air power as its aircraft hammered away at enemy shore targets, including those in the Japanese home islands. From 1 September 1944 to 15 August 1945 alone U.S. Navy F6F and F4U fighters destroyed 2,948 Japanese fighters (1,882 of them first-line Zeke [Zero] or other advanced model aircraft) in combat at a cost of only 191 American planes.”

Naval aviation, though, was still a relatively fledgling force six decades ago, threatened by competing interests, agendas and budgets.

While some politicians and others favored only strategic bombing of civilian populations, top Navy leaders championed a more nuanced approach to warfare.

Speaking against a strategy of indiscriminate destruction targeting civilian populations, Commander in Chief, Pacific (CINCPAC) Adm. Arthur Radford testified in 1949 at the House Armed Services Committee’s Unification and Strategy Hearings under Chairman Carl Vinson (D-GA):

“The types of war we plan to fight must fit the kind of peace we want. We cannot look to the military victory alone, with no thought to the solution of the staggering problem that would be generated by the death and destruction of an atom blitz.” -- Adm. Arthur Radford, CINCPAC, 1949 [pictured at left with Pres. Truman in 1950]

Today, the Navy-Marine Corps team offers a wide array of air capabilities, contributing to various aspects of the nation’s Maritime Strategy: Forward Presence, Deterrence, Sea Control, Power Projection, Maritime Security, and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response.

Some other insights in Revolt of the Admirals:

• President Truman’s role in saving the career of Arleigh Burke (with the help of his aide Rear Adm. Robert L. Dennison).
• The need for strong, honest public relations.
• The advantage of courage and honor over timidity and expediency.

A moral of this book: True loyalty and integrity means commitment to doing what’s right, no matter what.

Revolt of the Admirals is on the Navy’s Professional Reading Program’s supplemental list of recommended books under “management and strategic planning.” It’s a must-read for anyone interested in exploring the history of air-sea power during this Centennial of Naval Aviation.

Aviation Machinist's Mate Airman Kevin Vincent organizes a bookshelf inside the library aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) on Jan. 4, 2011. Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 are on a deployment in the Pacific to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Travis K. Mendoza/Released)

Honor, Courage and Culturnomics?

By Bill Doughty

Imagine you could analyze all the words in all the books ever published. Google and a team of scientists and mathematicians are on their way. The team analyzed nearly 5.2 million books -- 4 percent of all books ever printed. They published their study in Science this month.

The concept is called Culturnomics, and the tool to access the database is available to readers everywhere in the form of the Google Ngram Viewer. Plug in a word or words or phrase and start the word genome fun.

What insights are revealed by evaluating 500 billion words?

• You discover 500,000 English words previously missed by all dictionaries.
• You can analyze the rise (and fall) of famous people, ideologies and cultural memes.
• You can study trends in technology, history and grammar.

I entered the words of the Navy Core Values, “Honor, Courage, Commitment” and found some interesting trends in the English language from 1800-2008. The word “courage” peaked in usage in the early 1850s. Both words have been on a fairly steady decline ever since, but began to rise again in popularity within the past 30 years.

“Commitment” was much less used till WWII, when it began a steady climb. All three words intersected in 1970. Since then, “commitment” has been more popular in published works than “honor” and “courage,” but all three seem to be on course to intersect again.

There are in-depth reports on the concept, looking at Culturnomics from all sides, on Discover blog posts by Ed Yong and Razib Khan.

A great discussion about Culturnomics and the N-gram tool was held recently on Tom Ashbrook’s show on WBUR Boston. Tom and his guests provide context, like the Discover thinkers, reveal insights and show potential risks, including over-generalization of data revealed.

Have fun typing in “Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean.” Which do you think is almost always dominant over two centuries? Look at the commotion around 1812. Punch in “submarine, destroyer, carrier.” Peaks in all three occur in 1920 (starting in 1910) and 1941-1945. Try “admiral, sailor” or “Chief of Naval Operations” or “Maritime Strategy” or “naval aviation.” All interesting results.

I'll be back in 2011 with some more Navy Professional Reading Program and related reviews. Happy New Year!

USS Arizona’s Last Band, Thanksgiving Day Reflection, & A Promise Fulfilled

Review by Bill Doughty

Seventy years ago today -- Nov. 21, 1940 -- Molly Williams and her family sat down to Thanksgiving dinner in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Her brother, Clyde “Proke” Williams, would leave soon after, to duty as a member of the U.S. Navy Band Number 22. Within months, his band would be serving aboard the battleship USS Arizona.

Molly (Williams) Kent pays tribute to Clyde and all the other members of the band -- young men killed in Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

USS Arizona’s Last Band chronicles the history of the band through hundreds of interviews, letters, citations, news clippings and other sources. Kent’s comprehensive research and commitment to the 21 members of Band 22 document their short journey to immortality.

“As far as the United States Navy can ascertain, it was the only U.S. Navy band which was formed together, trained together, transferred together, reported aboard a ship together, fought together, and died together,” she writes.

Kent shows how relatively simple life was before WWII, before television, before air conditioning. Music and dancing were important pastimes, as was listening to radio programs like Jack Benny, The Shadow, Amos ‘n Andy and Fibber McGee and Molly, where Ms. Kent got her nickname.

“We lived in the middle of the Bible Belt,” she writes. “Our churches taught very strict morals. They also taught us bigotry and prejudice, and it would be many years before we overcame their teachings.”

The Class of 1940 had limited options: Dark clouds of war formed in Europe because of Hitler’s imperialism; “warfare” in Washington between Congress and President Roosevelt pointed toward a mandatory military draft; and a lack of jobs throughout the country was a legacy of the Depression.

In USS Arizona’s Last Band the author tries to answer the question on behalf of all the families who asked, “How long did they live, how did they die, and did they suffer?”

Ms. Kent acknowledges, “Caution must be used in writing about the Pearl Harbor attack, since so many books offer so many opposing opinions.”

Nearly half of the 2,403 people recorded killed on the island of Oahu, Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941 were from the Arizona. Arizona lost 1,177 of her reported 1,511 men. (Of the 334 Arizona Sailors who survived, fewer than 20 remain alive today.)

USS Arizona Dance Band at Bloch Arena, Nov. 22, 1941. (Official Navy photo by Tai Sing Loo)

Introductions of each band member near the beginning of the book, listing hometowns, nicknames, instruments, and other personal insights, contrast starkly with obituaries at the end of the book.

In between, Kent takes us to the Navy’s music school in Washington, to the ammunition ship USS Lassen (AE-3), which carried the band to Panama and then to Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii.

Kent describes the band’s role playing ceremonies, concerts, marches, dances and daily performances at colors. And, she tells us what life was like back on the homefront.

“Thanksgiving Day 1941 was difficult for the families of Arizona’s bandmembers. For most of us, it was our first Thanksgiving without our boys,” she writes.

This is part of the Thanksgiving Day Presidential Proclamation of 1941:

I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate and set aside Thursday, the twentieth day of November, 1941, as a day to be observed in giving thanks to the Heavenly Source of our earthly blessings.

Our beloved country is free and strong. Our moral and physical defenses against the forces of threatened aggression are mounting daily in magnitude and effectiveness.

In the interest of our own future, we are sending succor at increasing pace to those peoples abroad who are bravely defending their homes and their precious liberties against annihilation.

We have not lost our faith in the spiritual dignity of man, our proud belief in the right of all people to live out their lives in freedom and with equal treatment. The love of democracy still burns brightly in our hearts.

Through Clyde’s and the other musicians’ letters home, Ms. Kent shows a surprising view of Hawaii. She takes us into the weeks-long “Battle of Music” and describes how the USS Arizona Band competed. They would not be able to compete in the Dec. 20 finals.

Read Molly Kent’s loving but sometimes bitter tribute to the USS Arizona Band to learn the depth of confusion, grief, resentment and anger that she and others experienced nearly seven decades ago.

Some of the strongest resentment is toward the treachery of Imperial Japan in 1941. But, anger is also directed toward those who don’t try to sort truth from myth. There is no evidence, for example, despite some reports in recent decades that the band was asleep on the morning of the attack; rather, Ms. Kent shows how they were most likely at their battle stations.

One “gossipmonger” was the minister of the church in Okmulgee, who reportedly “arose in his pulpit on Sunday, December 14, just a week after the attack, and thundered that all our servicemen were taken by surprise by the Japanese because they were all lying around on the beach drunk, after carousing all night in Honolulu. Just how that minister could possibly know that, living as he did in Oklahoma and having never been to Hawaii, is one of the mysteries we often encountered.”

This is just one of the fascinating insights in Ms. Kent’s heartfelt accounting, written “in loving memory” for “the best band in the Pacific” and dedicated to her family and the families of Arizona’s musicians.

The depth of the loss, she shows, must be matched with a commitment to remembering the sacrifice and loss of so many brave young Americans, our reflection for this Thanksgiving Day and the weeks ahead.

On Dec. 5, 2010 at 4:30 p.m., the U.S. Pacific Fleet Band will perform U.S. Navy Band Number 22’s set, with 1941 period music. On Dec. 7, 2010 Pearl Harbor Day will be honored at the WWII Valor in the Pacific Monument’s Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. The theme is, “A Promise Fulfilled.”

------------------------------

I asked Ms. Kent what she and her brother Clyde read prior to 1941. She shared the following with Navy Reads:

I do not remember many specific books that we read - In our young years, we had several Mother Goose books, Black Beauty, Little Women, Little Men, etc. As we grew up, I always had my nose in a book, but Clyde was more active. We had long walks to and from school, practice on three musical instruments each, homework and dates.

Although we lived in a small town of about 17,000 people, we had excellent teachers who did not allow us to speak bad English or to misspell anything. They also gave us a love of great literature which has lasted all these years.

I remember our Speech teacher making me stand up and repeat In Flanders Fields over and over to show the other students how to phrase that poem. I have always thought that turned out to be very ironic.

Since I met all of the Arizona musicians in Washington as they were shipping out and danced with many of them, they have remained "my boys."

So, speaking for "my boys," I thank you very much for your interest in their book.

Sincerely,

Molly Kent

From the first chapter of In Flanders Fields and Other Poems (a 1919 collection of poems by John McCrae):

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

A rainbow over the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) falls onto the USS Arizona Memorial at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on July 2, 2010 at the beginning of Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercises. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class N. Brett Morton/Released)

Salute to Veterans - Atlantic and Pacific

This Veterans Day morning I’m enjoying a live broadcast/webcast on KHVH AM featuring a U.S. Pacific Fleet Band quintet, veterans and active duty servicemembers. The band just performed a set that included patriotic music, Amazing Grace, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, Glenn Miller’s Tuxedo Junction and a surprise version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody! (I’m almost finished reading a book recommended by bandmaster Lt. Cmdr. Dave “Duna” Hodge, Molly Kent’s USS Arizona’s Last Band. Review coming soon.

Meantime, I want to share a recent podcast I heard by one of the best interviewers in the business, Tom Ashbrook.

Tom’s guests on his On Point show on WBUR Boston were Simon Winchester, author of Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories, and Adm. Robert F. Willard, Commander, U.S. Pacific Command, the nation’s largest combatant command, encompassing half the world.

The discussion first focused on the early origins and history of the Atlantic and ended with current politics and peacekeeping in the Pacific. The discussion reminded the listener of how people can work together -- whether laying cable across the Atlantic to link North America with Europe in 1858 (permanently in 1866) or meeting and collaborating diplomatically and militarily as partners and friends in the Pacific to keep sea lines of communication open in the 21st century.

Here’s how On Point cued up the dialog:

“Four hundred thousand flights a year now zoom over the Atlantic. But the sea beneath was for eons the great barrier and bridge to humankind: Phoenicians, explorers, pirates, slave traders and sea captains... Simon Winchester brings the great Atlantic story back to light.”

“Admiral Robert Willard, head of U.S. Pacific Command, joined On Point Monday in the studio for a wide-ranging discussion of the Asia-Pacific region and American military policy. With President Obama in South Asia ... he also touched on issues relating to India.”

Today, free nations work together to protect commerce, communication and the “commons.” The waters of the Atlantic and Pacific and other oceans and seas lap at the shores of most nations.

On this Veteran’s Day we reflect on the quiet heroes, past and present, who served or serve to keep us safe.

Former Command Master Chief Jim Taylor, participating in the KHVH program this morning, reminds us to also think of the veterans’ families -- Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children and grandparents who share the sacrifices of their Sailor, Soldier, Airman, or Marine.

KHVH host Rick Hamada asks us to think of our veterans, not just today but every day. Another guest challenged listeners to teach their children history and heritage so they never take their freedom for granted.

A good place to start might just be a book.