In this Third Edition cover, the destroyer USS Edison DD-439 is shown passing under the Brooklyn Bridge in 1942

Fourth Edition

Secondary Table of Contents for Joining The War At Sea

U.S. Postal Service first stamp and canellation issue for a newly commissioned U.S. Navy ship, the USS Edison DD-439 built at Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock in New Jersey. Stamp and cancellation 19

The destroyer USS Edison has just been launched from her building ways at Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock in New Jersey. The U.S. Postal Service has taken note of her first day of postal service. That occurred early in 1941 but the date is obscured. This canceled envelope was personally delivered to Capt. Franklyn E. Dailey Jr. USNR (Ret) by Captain Herbert Rommel USN who had been skipper of the USS Wilkes, DD-441, which went to sea in World War II in DesRon 13, with the Edison and seven other destroyers. The actual "handing over' of this envelope occurred at Fall River, Massachusetts, where Edison shipmates were enjoying a reunion aboard USS Massachusetts, the battleship that both Edison and Wilkes served with at the Battle for Casablanca in November 1942.

A little background on the book and the volunteer vs. draft military.

In the 1990s, Thomas E. Ricks wrote about matters related to the U.S. armed forces. In the Wall Street Journal of May 30, 1997, under the headline, "Latest Battle for the Military Is How Best to Deal with Consensual Sex," Mr. Ricks included the following paragraph in an article on this complex subject:

"A key fact about today's U.S. military is that military experts generally agree it is the world's best, arguably for the first time in history. So today's generals aren't just being politically correct when they express support for the gender-integrated military. They would also rather command a force of competent volunteers of both sexes than the main alternative - a force of less-trained and sometimes surly male draftees." '

In the first edition (October 1998) of my book, "Joining the War at Sea 1939-1945." in a Prologue, I took issue with the word 'surly' in the phrase, 'surly male draftees.' The context was the new all-volunteer Army. The ensuing pages of that book, tell of men who volunteered, and men who were drafted, to fight a war whose expanse in geography and humanity still challenges any writer of history. (The pages in subsequent editions have not changed except to correct spellings of foreign names and ultimately to add an extensive index, accomplished with the help of Dutch scholar, Pieter Graf, in a Fourth Edition, January 2009.)

I noted that I had never met a surly draftee and I fought alongside many of them in my 27 months of war front service in World War II. Tom Ricks was kind enough to contact me later by e-mail to observe that he was reporting Pentagon talk in the phrase 'surly male draftees' and that he had in no way subscribed to such Pentagon talk.

Some later comment on the draft subject appears in a page on my website, also entitled Prologue. The number of visits and the millions of Google phrases that respond to words like 'draft,' and "volunteer,' tell me that the subject of the military draft, which had its modern introduction in President Wilson's draft of 1917, will never lose interest. And, it should never lose interest.

Ricks' words beginning, "A key fact...." was right on. We do have the "world's best military..." Our all-volunteer military has been carefully recruited. Its pay and benefits are superior to draft days. Since it is recruited by appeal and not by coercion, right from induction, the process is orderly. The military knows what it is getting to a far greater degree than with the messy draft, and it knows when enlistees will arrive, where they will arrive, and what early training and later training steps will be needed. It also has weapons for them. And the Army today has equipage that meets the test of the word, 'armor.'

The whole process of the 'draft' was chaotic, right from contentious extension of draft laws in our Congress, to signature by our President. It took agonizing time. Requisition of arms and armor never matched the addition of manpower. Training, and training aids were a challenge. All in all, order has replaced chaos. As Tom Ricks noted, it is the 'world's best,' and 'gender integrated' to boot.

The thought occurs that we had now become ready to go places with this new U.S. military. Its very readiness allowed us to force important changes in Europe, and continue to stare down a dictator in North Korea. We were able to answer a call to stop an invading Saddam Hussein, to respond to an Al Queda attack by hitting Afghanistan with ground forces and Navy air power, then to remove Saddam Hussein and 'free' Iraq, and then to go back into Afghanistan in force. The men and women have acquitted themselves in superb measure and, gender-integrated, have taken death and injury tolls that sadden the nation.

Our Presidents have their ready, well-trained, Generals. Our Generals have their ready, well-trained, military.

Too ready?

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