A writer named Monica Showalter had a strange piece on the American Thinker website this morning. She wrote it last week, but the appearance this morning was sort of startling. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth is concerned about recruiting numbers and is taking action to rectify the situation. She is drafting- or rather, having some bright people on her staff draft a proposal “within weeks” that Congress may have to get involved.

Her plan for this is a bit startling. She said:

“The Army is strategically deploying recruiters to communities across the country based on demographics, ethnicity, race, and gender.”

The goal is supposed to be an Army ethnically matched to the composition of the U.S. population. We naturally support the myriad of proposals flying around, or at least the ones projected by officials immune from criticism under Article 88 provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. This one seeks to exclude potential recruits “based on their parents’ military records.”

Since that includes many of us, some with grandchildren who might consider volunteering, we had to read it a couple times to ensure clarity. We are Boomers, of course, which means our parents were the young people mobilized for the enormous struggle of WW II. All of them were molded by the experience, and according to Secretary Wormuth, we shouldn’t have served.

That caused a flurry of searches in the digital files, since some of the new policy is intended to discourage multi-generational families in the American military. We went back to check our standing to see where we stood.

Or “rest,” as the case may be. That search leads to lot 94 in the St. Patrick section of the Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Steubenville, Ohio. They share the property with several Shanahans, a family with whom they were joined by marital relations.

In our line? Grandfather Mike worked as a foreman for the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad. He also served in France in World War I, since President Wilson had decided to get involved and settle things Over There. He enlisted June 1, 1918 at Bellaire, Ohio and was honorably discharged in June of the next year, 1919.

The following notation is taken from the book “Ohio Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines, World War 1917-1918, Page 5413:

Socotra, Michael J., 3357119, White, 3373 Union Street, Bellaire, Ohio, NA Columbus Arsenal, 01 June 1918. Born Bellaire, 0. 21 yrs. 53 Engrs to June 16/18; Co C 54 Engrs to June 28/18; 153 Dep Brig to July 3/18; Co C 68 TC to December 17/18; 56 to Disch. Pvt. AEF Sept1/18 to June 9/19. Hon disch. June 17/19.

At the time of his enlistment, he lived at 3373 Union Street in Bellaire, a village on the Big River just south of Wheeling on modern State Route 7. Peak population for the little brick town was right at 15,000 just after Grandfather’s return from France. It hosted a successful glass manufacturing plant, but sadly the place has been in dramatic decline since the factory closed in the sweep of the Great Depression.

The 2020 census tallied a modern population a little over four thousand citizens, plus those who lie up on the hill above the boarded-up shops on Union Street.

Mike’s service was characterized as “honorable” but not complete. It included another brief tour in Washington, DC, on the flats of the Anacostia plain on the east side of the Potomac River. He rallied with other Doughboys to demand relief for WW I veterans in what was known as “The Bonus Army.”

The Veteran encampments were rousted by General Douglas MacArthur as the direction of President Roosevelt, and that act is what prompted a meeting with Rear Admiral Mac Showers, who pointedly reminded us of General Order #1 from Fleet Admiral Nimitz in WW II: “Don’t screw with the General. It is not worth the trouble.”

We suspect Secretary Wormuth would be having some interesting meetings in the Pentagon if the General was still around! Progress is being made!

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com