This is my place for posting musings, opinions, insights, baloney, poetry, and anything else I feel like putting here.  The theme of the moment is 'Military Service', more specifically, about Command, decisions, and effect. 

"We checked with the Army and the Air Force about the possible injurious effects on humans of Agent Orange . . . we were told there were none.  You trust those things.

       Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr., former Chief of Naval Operations, on defoliant he ordered used during Vietnam War,  from My Father, My Son, with Lt. Elmo Zumwalt 3rd, McMillan 86

I ordered the spraying of Agent Orange

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Knowing what I know now, I still would have ordered the defoliation to achieve the objectives it did, to reduce casualties.

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That does not ease the sorrow I feel for Elmo, or the anguish his illness, and Russell's disability, give me.  It is the first thing I think of when I wake in the morning, and the last thing I remember when I go to sleep at night.

On his son, suffering from cancer, and his grandson, born with a severe learning disability, conditions thought to have been caused by his son's exposure to Agent Orange,

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I realize that what I am saying may imply that my father is responsible for my illness, and Russell's disability . . . I do not doubt for a minute that saving American lives was his first priority.  Certainly thousands. perhaps even myself, are alive today because of his decision to use Agent Orange.

Elmo Zumwalt 3rd, My Father, My Son,

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Admiral Zumwalt was CNO when I joined the Navy in 1974, during a period of great upheaval in the services, at the end of the war.  Although he was finishing his tenure as CNO then, I remember hearing a great deal about him.  He had instituted the greatest 'liberalization' of policies that the Navy had ever seen, including allowing sailors to keep civilian clothing aboard ship (they had rented locker space ashore, and left the ship in uniform, and changed after leaving the base).  Beards were allowed, and he began a communication program known as 'Z-grams', which were intended to keep the average sailor informed on new policies.  Most of the senior officers and Chiefs thought of him as a veritable devil, destroying the 'traditional' lines of authority, and making too much change, too fast.  I think Zumwalt recognized the change was needed, to bring it into the new age . . one without a draft.  During the war, and the period of the draft (the draft sent people mostly to the Army, and the Marines, and the Navy and Air Force didn't get many people from it), many people tried to join the Air Force and Navy, if they were a likely draft pick, to avoid being sent into the Army or Marines.   Most of those people were better educated, and easier to train, and without a draft to 'encourage' enlistment, the standards of recruitment fell, and there were more discipline problems.  At the same time, there were many efforts being made to deal with racism, and to encourage women to join the service.  There were Navy-wide mandatory education programs, 'enlightenment' seminars, in a way, and Equal Opportunity, and Affirmative Action programs were the order of the day.  It was a very tough order for many of the officers and senior enlisted personnel to swallow, having to sit down with the very junior personnel, and be told that they were supporting a racist and sexist organization, and that the change had to come from the top down, to be effective.  My impression of Zumwalt was that he had a tough job to do, which was basically to shock the entire order of things that the Navy had always looked on as 'tradition'.  I had a feeling that Zumwalt was a very 'human' leader, and truly concerned with the welfare and well-being of the men and women in the service. 

The book that he wrote with his son some years after the war confirm my feeling, I think. I don't know how to really convey the anger that was directed at him for the changes he brought to the Navy, or how much effort was spent trying to deconstruct those changes after he retired. Even after all of the efforts to educate service members about racism and sexual harassment, there could still be a 'Tailhook Scandal' almost 20 years later.  Although the programs didn't make complete change, they did make significant change, and the service is far better now than it was.

All that considered, I would have to believe that Zumwalt truly had no idea of the consequences of the use of Agent Orange, and I feel certain that had he known, he would have searched for an alternative. Though the evidence that the defoliant is responsible for the illness reported, it is still a subject of controversy.  I have a family friend who was an Air Force crew chief in aircraft that sprayed AO, and his stories of how they handled, and mixed the substance, are frightening in their disregard for safety.  However, Dave is apparently unaffected by his exposure, but who knows why he has been spared, and others have not.  I would encourage everyone to read Admiral Zumwalt's book, it's a fascinating view of a very difficult subject, and a revealing portrait of two men.

7/31/98

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