Steven Rogers posted on November 01, 2009 00:03
November 2009 Navy
by LCDR Steven L. Rogers, USN (Ret)
Unfortunately, we are once again beginning to read about colleges banning ROTC programs from their campuses and learning that in a growing number of high schools across the nation, United States military history is being ignored or, in some cases, distorted.
Last year, a friend told me that his son, who is an eighth grade student, came home from school and said to him, “Dad, the U.S. military are killers.” When my friend asked his son how he came to such a conclusion, he answered, “My teacher told me that the American military killed a million people with a big bomb in Japan in World War II.”
When he asked his son if he knew what the Japanese military did to Americans at Pearl Harbor, his son looked puzzled and asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”
From reading news reports and by conversing with people from all walks of life about our military, I am finding that in far too many places across our land, our heritage is being stripped away and that U.S. military history is being ignored or rewritten.
It is an absolute fact that most of our fellow countrymen are detached from today’s military. The only exposure most Americans have to the military is by way of major news organizations via the television tube. If a reporter is reporting on the military from a negative perspective, this is how the audience will view the military.
And worst yet, millions of parents are unaware of what is being taught to their children in some schools across our nation with regard to the United States military.
Those of us who are veterans, reservists, and active members of the United States military have access to our local school boards of education and college campuses. And there are some of us who have access to the media. With this access, we can make a difference in the way our fellow countrymen view the military.
For example, I am proud to say that numerous members of the AUSN have made a difference in the way our military is viewed by the public by organizing special events at local schools on Veterans and Memorial Days and by offering to give a twenty-to-thirty minute lecture to a class of students about the great things our military has accomplished throughout the world.
Other members of the AUSN have offered to provide workshops about the Navy and other branches of the military at local libraries and civic centers. And, many of our members are not too shy to write letters to editors or appear on local cable television stations to set some historical records straight with regard to specific stories written or aired about the military. You can make a difference.
Want some ideas and suggestions? E-mail me at RogersAUSN@aol.com. You can make a difference
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”~ Edmund Burke