No. of Recommendations: 12
Marshall purged the top ranks of old, ineffective generals just prior to World War II
A quibble, dope.
Marshall’s purge of Kimmel and Short occurred AFTER Ww2 began, and it was performance based. Whether it was for “failure to perform” or simply a matter of “someone had to take the rap”, Kimmel was the admiral whose navy left the Pacific fleet’s battleships parked stem to stern on Battleship Row, Pearl Harbor, and Short was the general whose army left its air assets parked in rows at Hickham on the morning of December 7th.
For missing the signs that pointed to an imminent attack by the Empire of Japan, signs that everyone seemed to have missed, Kimmel and Short were forced to walk the plank, because they were the ones in charge when disaster struck.
An old, hardbitten Marine colonel was a parishioner of mine during the nineties. He landed at Guadalcanal and the war ended for him with a Japanese grenade on Tarawa.
He had a favorite saying: “Don’t give me excuses. Give me results”.
And that’s the spirit that led Marshall to sack Kimmel and Short.
It’s not the spirit of Hegseth. In fact, it’s the opposite of the spirit of Hegseth.
Heads should have rolled after that Signal communication screw up, including Hegseth’s own. Instead, all we got were excuses, lies, and cover-up.
And they’re still using Signal.
