The current kerfuffle about the lackadaisical handling of battle plans, war plans, whatever the agreed-upon description has become, has sent me back to letters my dad, Jack Miller, sent home from Europe during WWII. While in England awaiting the invasion, Dad had some experience transmitting battle plans — the old-fashioned way. His letter home to his wife — who was pregnant with me at the time — provides perspective on guarding the secrecy of war plans.
Opinion
“Nothing much new I can tell you,” he wrote to my mother from France in early July 1944, “so I’ll give you that little story of May 16 — or whatever it was — that I promised you.”
“That was during the period we were preparing to come to France, and I was running around all over England getting our stuff together. On this particular occasion, I was traveling in an airplane — one of those little Cub observation jobs that our artillery uses — and stopped at a headquarters up north to deliver a message for the Colonel. While there, I was presented with a big bundle to deliver to him, and it was explained to me that the bundle contained the complete order for the invasion of the continent. It was further explained to me that I would guard the same with my life, and destroy it if in my judgment anything would happen to prevent my delivering it in person.
“Well, when I told my pilot what we had he was not very happy about it, but away we went. Of course, that would be the day we would run into a big wind and a fine black thunderstorm, and Rizzo went considerably out of his way to miss the storm, not having any navigating instruments. We had an awful time, and it seemed to me that we were headed in anything but the right direction. Finally, he announced that he was lost and would have to land some place. I told him we could fly south by compass until we hit the Bristol Channel and locate ourselves there, but he figured he didn’t have enough gas for that, so I had to let him go down.
“After considerable maneuvering, he got the thing down in a pasture, and we were immediately surrounded by a crowd of curious people. They were coming from all directions, young people and old, crowding around the plane, pointing and jabbering, and in general having the time of their lives. I found out where we were but that was pretty hard on account of the Welsh language not being too comprehensible. To get away from the crowd I took my bundle and went into a farm house and begged a cup of tea. Everyone was beginning to get the idea, however, that I was carrying something important, and I didn’t like that a bit. After some rapid calculation, I started for the town about a mile away followed by a swarm of kids, and went to the local police station, where I managed after great difficulty, to get a phone call through to our people to send me a jeep and an escort. Then I sat in the jail for seven hours drinking tea until they arrived. My message was to send an officer under arms and in a jeep to the jail in Seven Sisters, so of course at headquarters, they got the definite impression that I was locked up and had some plans for raiding the place.
“I was never so glad to get a job over with in my life. The man at the jail was the most important person in the world to me for a while. I think everyone in the town knew in an hour that there was an American officer there with a lot of important papers and I sat right by the fireplace waiting to throw the papers in when Nazi agents struck. Very exciting.”
Dad’s regiment, the 359th Infantry, was part of Gen. George Patton’s Third Army. After seeing the movie about the general, I asked Dad if Patton was really that awful. “You tend to forgive some flaws in the guys on your side,” he replied. Dad was essentially optimistic about the future of the republic. Late in life, though, he would semi-seriously grumble in regard to one change or another: “It’s the decline of the West.”
It’s that voice I hear in my head now. He did not forgive Joe McCarthy; he did not forgive Richard Nixon about Watergate. He would surely not forgive Pete Hegseth, Mike Waltz, JD Vance and company. Because he would not consider them, or the president, to be on our side. Nor would he be content to play the role of mere spectator as the West declined. Dad was a fighter. Obviously.
Read the following Medal of Honor citation:
“For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commander of a submarine coordinated attack group with flag in the U.S.S. Sculpin, during the 9th war patrol of that vessel in enemy-controlled waters off Truk Island, 19 November 1943. Undertaking this patrol prior to the launching of our first large-scale offensive in the Pacific, Capt. Cromwell, alone of the entire Task Group, possessed secret intelligence information of our submarine strategy and tactics, scheduled Fleet movements, and specific attack plans. Constantly vigilant and precise in carrying out his secret orders, he moved his undersea flotilla inexorably forward despite savage opposition and established a line of submarines to southeastward of the main Japanese stronghold at Truk. Cool and undaunted as the submarine, rocked and battered by Japanese depth charges, sustained terrific battle damage and sank to an excessive depth, he authorized the Sculpin to surface and engage the enemy in a gunfight, thereby providing an opportunity for the crew to abandon ship. Determined to sacrifice himself rather than risk capture and subsequent danger of revealing plans under Japanese torture or use of drugs, he stoically remained aboard the mortally wounded vessel as she plunged to her death. Preserving the security of his mission, at the cost of his own life, he had served his country as he had served the Navy, with deep integrity and an uncompromising devotion to duty. His great moral courage in the face of certain death adds new luster to the traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.”
Those were top secret battle plans. I don’t believe that the Signal text messages were battle plans and they were on an authorized secure App that was somehow violated by the addition of a journalist.
I don’t see this as entirely Hegseth’s fault, or even that it was a big failure like having Secretary of State emails on an open server, or unsecure phones with Secretary of State Clinton. I wholly agree that the addition of a journalist was a BIG concern. Perhaps the documents behind the corvette are not a concern with some on this thread and the politics appear to dominate the conversation. And probably some of the defamation should stop.
There have been real security breaches in every administration since Roosevelt. Some have life sentences like the Walker spy ring. Or death for the Rosenbergs.
Privacy and security in the Digital age will always have an increasing number of problems.
CAPTAIN JOHN P. CROMWELL
USS Sculpin (SS-191)
Born: September 11, 1901, Henry, Marshall County, IL, United States Exactly 100 years before 9/11)
Died: November 19, 1943, off Truk Island, South Pacific
Accredited to: Illinois
Presentation Date & Details: April 24, 1946,
San Francisco, California, presented to his Widow and Son
Buried: remains not recovered; National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl)(Wall of the Missing), Honolulu, HI, United States
The Signal chat FUBAR was bad; but nowhere near the level of SNAFU of Hillary Clinton having her own private unsecured server at home where she conducted high level government business. Yet, the Left says, “Nothing to see here” when it comes to her numerous indiscretions in conducting United States affairs.
Kilroy was here.
In 1862, a Union soldier found cigars wrapped in a piece of paper in a field of clover. The paper was a copy of Confederate General Lee’s invasion orders. The Southern sloppiness helped the Union stop Lee at Antietam. It’s unknown who lost the orders in the field, or if he was related to Pete Hegseth.
Mr. Miller, thank you so much for sharing this important and moving story about your father. My Dad was in the army and told me as a young person how men were court martialed and kicked out of the army for falling asleep on watch duty. As an older person I understand the seriousness of actions that endanger the lives of our military, and it CANNOT be tolerated.
Great perspective and very interesting and exciting story. Having a daughter who works for a defense contractor who can’t have her cell phone or any blue tooth devise in her work area (old fashioned plug in ear buds and a dumb watch were some of our first gifts for her), her response to things like the documents at Mar-a-Lago or the latest messaging fiasco is always “I’d be in prison if I did that”. And yet Trump & Co. always cries that he is a victim and treated differently – yes, he is treated differently, he is held to a much lower standard than most Americans.
We are managed by a confederacy of dunces, who are sloppy with OPSEC because they live their lives with the bravery of being out of range. There’s a running joke that Hegseth was a DUI hire, and the Signal debacle was akin to WhiskeyLeaks. Although alcoholism is no laughing matter, nominating and confirming a serial adulterer with a drinking problem, whose resume highlights are essentially “drunk in strip club,” is something the world laughs at, particularly our adversaries. Alexander the Great quipped he did not fear an army of lions lead by a sheep, but did fear an army of sheep lead by a lion. How would he feel about a nuclear armed superpower lead by a stumbling drunk moron?
Team orange craves a world where they are feared and respected. What they got was mockery and contempt. “Your worst sin is that you’ve destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing”