Historically Speaking American Thermopylae
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Historically Speaking American Thermopylae By GEN Fred Franks, U.S. Army retired, and BG John S. Brown, U.S. Army retired his Memorial Day, many of us will itary rule. British soldiers marched out Tvisit cemeteries, monuments, mu- to destroy colonial supplies and found seums or other places that honor the themselves confronted on Lexington courage and sacrifice of our soldiers, Common by hastily assembled militia- sailors, airmen and marines. This tradi- men who had risen in the dark of night tion is ancient. No act of courage and to defend their families and their com- sacrifice is more iconic to the shared munity. Regardless of who actually civilization of the West than the gallant fired it that morning, “the shot heard defense of Thermopylae, Greece, by ’round the world” at Lexington Com- King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans in mon precipitated the military phase of 480 BC. Subsequent generations travel- the American Revolution—and show- ing past their burial mound have read cased the citizen-soldiers who would the inscription: “Oh, passerby, tell the fight on the American side. Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obey- Trophy Point. Military institutions ing their orders,” and knew they were require a continuity of presence and on sacred ground. One could justifi- purpose to take root and flourish. If the ably argue that all ground on which U.S. Army has a single place that em- Americans have died for their country bodies this principle, it is the U.S. Mili- is sacred, but certain places are so tary Academy at West Point, N.Y., and, broadly revered, so representative of most particularly, Trophy Point. Tro- our national values, so heavily visited phy Point watches over and is over- and so iconic that they have become watched by fortifications that made American Thermopylae. We have iden- West Point our most pivotal Revolu- tified some of these places. Daderot tionary War bastion. In 1784, West Lexington Common. Our most hal- The Lexington Minuteman, represent- Point and Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh, lowed military tradition is that of the ing CPT John Parker and sculpted Pa.) were the only remaining garrisons citizen-soldier. Americans rise to the by Henry Hudson Kitson, memorial- authorized by Congress. Trophy Point defense of their country when called. izes the militiamen who defended the became the premier collecting point for Massachusetts town in 1775. Such a call went out in Massachusetts military macro-artifacts, monuments on the night of April 18, 1775. The and memorabilia for well more than a British government of King George III had summarily dis- century. More significantly, West Point became home to the missed the idea of negotiating grievances with the estranged academy wherein professional soldiering—vital to an ex- colonists and had subjected Boston to the heavy hand of mil- panding nation of continental proportions—became recon- ciled with the democratic principles of the soldier-as-citizen. Eschewing aris- tocracy, the young republic selected cadet officers by legislative appoint- ment from every state and from all walks of life. Graduates were public servants committed to duty, honor and country, and they swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. This commitment to constitutional precepts expanded to ony Kendall our entire defense establishment and has protected our liberties well. Trophy Point, at West Point, N.Y., a pivotal U.S. Army/SPC T U.S. stronghold in the Revolutionary War. May 2010 I ARMY 81 such as those from West Point, would be generations in the making. To secure our independence, we had to demon- strate that citizen-soldiers governed by a democracy could measure up to those disciplined by autocratic regimes. We did so at Yorktown, Va. The York- eide town campaign was masterful in many ways: sweeping strategic maneuver; meticulous cooperation between allies; methodical state-of-the-art siege craft; technically sophisticated use of ar- tillery; thoughtful integration of multi- U.S. Army/SPC Van Der W Army/SPC Van U.S. ple arms and services; and ample dis- Above, Old Guard plays of raw courage. Until then, the soldiers as skir- British had relied upon qualitative su- mishers commemo- periority to offset our potentially rate the American greater numbers. From that moment, victory at Yorktown, they could no longer do so. Their war Va., during the Rev- was lost, and our expectation that citi- olutionary War. Right, defenders of zen-soldiers could provide both techni- the Alamo in San cal sophistication and mass was born. Antonio, Texas, The Alamo. For several generations bought time to as- after the American Revolution, most of semble the forces our military history was made as the eau/Richard Nowitz eau/Richard necessary to se- United States expanded across the cure the indepen- North American continent. The battle- dence of Texas from isitors Bur Mexico in 1836. fields of this transcontinental expansion were generally too vast and sweeping to offer emblematic sites. An exception was the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. Here, a group of settlers, frontiersmen and adventurers defended the emerg- ing Mexican-American civilization of Texas against the dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna, who had swept aside the Mexican constitution to con- centrate power in his own hands. The Photo Courtesy of the San Antonio Convention & V Photo Courtesy of the San defenders of the Alamo represented Yorktown, Va. Militiamen such as those who fought on both the noble and the profane in our westward growth. Lexington Common, although brave, could not stand up to Their courageous defense was the single episode most similar British regulars in a pitched battle. Professional soldiers, to Thermopylae in American military history, and it bought time to assemble the forces that secured the independence of GEN Fred Franks, USA Ret., served on the American Battle Texas at the battle of San Jacinto in 1836. Monuments Commission from 2001–09, and as chairman from Fort Sumter. The United States could not move forward 2005–09. He served with 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam and as a cohesive nation until divisive issues with respect to commanded VII Corps in Operation Desert Storm. He held the slavery and states’ prerogatives were resolved. By the mid- 1966 chair at West Point in the Simon Center for the Profes- dle of the 19th century, public opinion had hardened into sional Military Ethic. His current service includes advocacy for two highly polarized camps, and no solution short of force Wounded Warriors. BG John S. Brown, USA Ret., was chief of could reconcile the divisions between them. The dramatic military history at the U.S. Army Center of Military History attack on and defense of Fort Sumter in the harbor of from December 1998 to October 2005. He commanded the 2nd Charleston, S.C., augured the beginning of America’s Battalion, 66th Armor, in Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War bloodiest war, the Civil War. Sumter stands today as a and returned to Kuwait as commander of the 2nd Brigade, 1st monument to the courage, sacrifice, costs and conse- Cavalry Division, in 1995. He has a doctorate in history from quences of that terrible carnage—and as a reminder of the Indiana University. His book, Kevlar Legions: Army Trans- terrible prices paid by those no longer willing or able to formation 1989–2005, is forthcoming. achieve satisfaction through constitutional processes. 82 ARMY I May 2010 Little Round Top. The Civil War ground on for four long years. The turning point came with the twin Union victories at Gettysburg, Pa., and Vicksburg, Miss., in the summer of 1863. The Little Round Top at Gettysburg particularly evokes the dramatic “high tide of the Confederacy” and the desperate courage with immons which soldiers from both sides contested what became hallowed ground. Gettysburg was the Civil War’s bloodiest battle, and its most memorable. One of the most stirring episodes in American military history is the gallant defense of the Little Round Top by COL Joshua Chamberlain and his 20th Maine Volunteer In- fantry Regiment. They threw back one determined as- sault after another in fierce firefights and, when their U.S. National Park Service/Carlin T ammunition ran out, charged with fixed bayonets. The ruins of Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, S.C., evoke the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. Leaving the dramatic attack that marked the beginning of the Civil War. carnage of the Civil War behind them, American ser- vicemen secured the remainder of the continental United States, and by cen- tury’s end had served overseas as well. The United States became the world’s largest economic power and an indispensable international player, ultimately finding it impossible not to assist its embattled sister democracies during World War I. The price paid was daunting and is perhaps best cap- tured by the “crosses row on row” in the Meuse-Argonne American Ceme- tery at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France. Here we established a selfless tradition: The only recompense we would ask for when defending free peoples elsewhere would be sufficient U.S. National Park Service/Bill Dowling ground in which to bury our dead. Little Round Top and its larger namesake overlook a battlefield guarded by a Confederate cannon in Gettysburg, Pa., a turning point in the Civil War. USS Arizona Memorial. World War I was advertised as the “war to end all wars,” but it did not. Within a genera- tion, economic disaster and the inat- tention of the democracies plunged the world into yet another global struggle with ruthless totalitarian states. Ameri- cans vainly hoped to avoid involve- ment but were shaken from such com- placency by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1942.