Things that piss me off
Read an article in the LA Times today-- seems there's a Belgian Museum honoring the US military personnel who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Seems there was a mistake in one of their exhibits regarding a particular instance of heroism-- 3 enlisted men and an officer stayed at a 90 mm anti-aircraft gun and used it to hold off some german attacks, and apparently the museum previously had the officer's name wrong. Well, now they've corrected that, and gave then LT Leon Kent his proper due. What did Mr Kent do, to earn a silver star, and acknowledgement in this exhibit and article for his bravery? Apparently, he stayed by the gun with his three troopers while they did all the shooting, instead of order them to stay and man the gun while he found somewhere else to hide. According to the article, LT Kent earned the award for his "leadership". Okay, I can see that-- it did take some guts to stay up there in the line of fire with the three men who were on the spot with the gun. The above info isn't the part that pissed me off.
The part that really bothers me: in all this, the only soldier's name that gets mentioned is LT Kent. The others, whose heroism was surely as great or greater than Lt Kent's, are simply "three enlisted men"-- no names, no faces, no personal acknowledgement of their accomplishments in this article, and apparently no names in the Belgian Museum's exhibit either. The article does note that the three enlisted men also received silver star medals for their bravery, so at least their courage was acknowledged once upon a time-- and yet they are still not credited as individuals now. But of course, we acknowledge the high-and-mighty officer as an actual human being-- the enlisted men are merely interchangeable cogs in the military machine...
Once again, the enlisted men, the ones who actually did the dirty work, are forgotten except as a general mass of people who must follow the heroic, noble officers who get most of the credit for work their men actually did. Surely the Belgian museum could have taken the time to acknowledge these other men, as human beings with names, faces, personal histories, etc. Surely the LA Times could have taken the time to learn who they were, to at least get their names for the article. But as happens far too often, they didn't.
So yes, I'm upset-- one more example where the lone officer is the only one truly deemed worthy of notice. While Lt Kent does deserve to be recognized for his courage and accomplishments, excuse me if I'm NOT AT ALL ENTHUSIASTIC about one goddamn officer, when no-one takes the time to remember the names of his men.
Link to the article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0924-bulge-20110924,0,3133957.story
The part that really bothers me: in all this, the only soldier's name that gets mentioned is LT Kent. The others, whose heroism was surely as great or greater than Lt Kent's, are simply "three enlisted men"-- no names, no faces, no personal acknowledgement of their accomplishments in this article, and apparently no names in the Belgian Museum's exhibit either. The article does note that the three enlisted men also received silver star medals for their bravery, so at least their courage was acknowledged once upon a time-- and yet they are still not credited as individuals now. But of course, we acknowledge the high-and-mighty officer as an actual human being-- the enlisted men are merely interchangeable cogs in the military machine...
Once again, the enlisted men, the ones who actually did the dirty work, are forgotten except as a general mass of people who must follow the heroic, noble officers who get most of the credit for work their men actually did. Surely the Belgian museum could have taken the time to acknowledge these other men, as human beings with names, faces, personal histories, etc. Surely the LA Times could have taken the time to learn who they were, to at least get their names for the article. But as happens far too often, they didn't.
So yes, I'm upset-- one more example where the lone officer is the only one truly deemed worthy of notice. While Lt Kent does deserve to be recognized for his courage and accomplishments, excuse me if I'm NOT AT ALL ENTHUSIASTIC about one goddamn officer, when no-one takes the time to remember the names of his men.
Link to the article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0924-bulge-20110924,0,3133957.story