Posted on 08/04/2019 2:20:07 PM PDT by fugazi
My Father didn’t want to go. He had four children. He was drafted as were most men in his battalion but they performed brilliantly.
I have read their WWII history which is available on the web. Absolutely amazing what they did.
People for some reason like to denigrate Douglas MacArthur
I was going to say Sergeant York, but after reading your reply, I’ll go with George Washington.
I don’t know if you can pick one “greatest” but I’ve always been an admirer of George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Pretty conventional, I know, but that’s what I’ve come up with after a lifetime of reading history.
Matthew Ridgeway.
The greatest American battlefield commander, one who did the most with the least is Georges Rogers Clark!
Look what he did with 170-188 men!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_campaign
While my first choice remains George Washington, I think that MG Smedley Butler deserves an honorable mention. A two time medal of honor winner and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in history. Plus I like his quote that war is a racket where the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
My dad volunteered when he was 18 because his dad wouldn’t sign for him to leave Tennessee to play pro minor league baseball...
He went to Europe with Patton’s Third Army as an infantryman...
G.I. Joe.
Not the action figure, the guy Eisenhower mentioned by name, the citizen soldier.
I knew him, actually.
George Washington without the slightest doubt. He created the Army, held it together in the most difficult times it has ever faced to this and led it to victory over the greatest power in the world. He never attempted to tell the civilian government what to do, never attempted to take over the government, and when he was elected President, he made sure to rule as a civilian and not as a General or a King. We have been blessed in critical times with other great military leaders but none carrying the load Washington successfully carried.
That’s impressive and probably had more effect on history than the individual soldiers/officers of modern war, given that it took place when it did.
Otherwise, the notion of who’s greatest individual escapes me. There are too many candidates.
I think that there are simply a lot of historians who aren't capable of comprehending some of MacArthur's plans, and they blame their lack on him.
Clark was great but I think John Singleton Mosby was even better as was Nathan Bedford Forrest.
So if Sherman was a war criminal, so were all the American bomber pilots of WW2 who unloaded on civilian areas of Europe and Japan. I have lived in Georgia all my life except my career in the Army. Sherman was hated here but he introduced the concept of total war and showed future generations how to end wars sooner, thereby saving lives and treasure. He was a great General.
He does not even salute properly. The hand should be straight, not weak and curved as his is in the photo.
Any man or woman who voluntarily (or was drafted) wore the uniform of Our Nation.
There are exceptions, but anyone who has served in the military is #1 in my book.
Thank you all for your unselfish service and sacrifice.
What I owe you cannot be repaid.
Plus he looks stoned out of his mind.
MacArthur graduated number 1 in his class at West Point.
He just might have been pretty smart.
MSgt Dan Daly, USMC.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.