My Father, the "Seditionist"

By Mary Louise Beardsley, a director of DFL SD59

My father served in the U.S. Army in World War II.  He voluntarily enlisted in the infantry after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  He became a member of the 5307^th Composite Unit (provisional) (nicknamed “Merrill’s Marauders”) in Burma.  Dad was not one of the original Marauders but was one of the reinforcements flown in to hold the Myitkyina Airfield from recapture by the Japanese and to take the town of Myitkyina from the Japanese.  While in Burma, Dad contracted dysentery, malaria, and bronchitis. 

My father never spoke about his service in WWII.  When I was in my early 30s, I asked him what he did in the war.  He was very self-deprecating about his service and told me very little.  I have subsequently done a little reading about Merrill’s Marauders.  Here is a quote from the Wikipedia article:

The men of Merrill's Marauders enjoyed the rare distinction of having each soldier awarded the Bronze Star.  In June 1944, the 5307th Composite Unit (provisional) was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation:  ‘The unit must display such gallantry, determination, and esprit de corps in accomplishing its mission under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions as to set it apart and above other units participating in the same campaign.’

Following WWII, my father remained in the Army Reserve for more than 20 years eventually reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  We never took a family vacation while Dad was in the reserves.  He got two weeks’ annual vacation, and those two weeks were always dedicated to his “army duty.”

My father was a Republican, as were his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before him.  He and I argued about the United States’ participation in the Vietnam War.  He trusted that the U.S. government and the U.S. Army would “do the right thing.”   I only saw my father display anger in regard to the Army on two occasions.¹  The first was when we were watching a story on the nightly news about the My Lai Massacre.  Lieutenant William Calley faced a court-martial for the pre-meditated murder of 22 Vietnamese civilians including women and children.  Calley’s defense was that he was following the orders of his superior officer, Captain Ernest Medina.  My father erupted when he heard Calley’s defense argument.  He talked back to our TV and said, “That was an illegal order.”  My father cited the section number from the Uniform Code of Military Justice and said, “You don’t obey an illegal order.”²

So, by Donald Trump’s standards, my father was a seditionist.  And I am so very proud of my father.

Footnotes

¹ The second occasion was when the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four students at Kent State University who were protesting the Vietnam War.  Per my father, “You don’t give live ammunition to guardsmen on a college campus!”

² Lieutenant Calley was found guilty by the court-martial.  This is the legal standard under which he was found guilty:

Unless you find beyond reasonable doubt that the accused acted with actual knowledge that the order was unlawful, you must proceed to determine whether, under the circumstances, a man of ordinary sense and understanding would have known the order was unlawful. Your deliberations on this question do not focus on Lieutenant Calley and the manner in which he perceived the legality of the order found to have been given him. The standard is that of a man of ordinary sense and understanding under the circumstances.

The opinions expressed in the SD59 Blog are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent a consensus of thought or position of the DFL.