A few years ago, when just a snot-nosed kid percolating with too many questions, I remember lining up to get my sugar cube polio vaccine (Sabin) and then getting in another line for the polio vaccine shot (Salk), though I don’t recall a lot of the specifics, well partly because there was simply no questioning what it would mean to contract polio, both personally and to your family.
This, is a coffee percolator like we had growing up. It is the 8th Wonder of the Ancient World that I like coffee at all.
Yes, I remember that Jewish girl and my Mexican friends from elementary school, and thanks to my dark brown hair, eyes, and tanned skin, and I could casually walk across the Rio Grande bridge to Matamoros and blend right in. I loved the people, and they seemed to like me, and welcome me. Then we moved to Mississippi, where new experiences awaited me. For some reason I knew at that young age that my mother was a Daughter of the American Revolution, as well as a United Daughter of the Confederacy. My father’s family had immigrated much too late to pick an obvious side. As many questions as I had, I never questioned that these things happened.
When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it. -Mark Twain
In high school there in Mississippi, I was one of 6 white kids on our bus, which took us to a high school that was 60% white, with no Mexicans anywhere. There I learned Civics, Mississippi History and American History and forgot the Spanish I had learned.
We learned about Emmet Till, who was murdered just two counties away. We learned about the Army veteran civil rights pioneer Medgar Evers who was murdered 20 miles away from where our school. We learned about the Air Force veteran civil rights pioneer James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi under the watch of 127 U.S. Marshalls, 316 U.S. Border Patrol and 97 Federal Bureau of Prisons officers to maintain order against the racist actions led by Governor Ross Barnett. I could hike around the Vicksburg Military Park and hunt for minié balls in the dirt with my hands. And the signs everywhere that once said “Colored” and “White” were only poorly painted over, for a reason. And maybe that and more stuck because it was completely tangible. As many questions as I had, I never questioned that other people would, could ever again think differently about all this, anywhere.
The nearby Ross Barnett Reservoir was the huge recreation area for central Mississippi – everyone knew the name, but I later realized it meant very different things to very different generations, and attrition was winning. As many questions as I had, I never questioned learning Civics and American History. Didn’t everyone?
Undergraduate years were amazing. At what was previously called an A&M university and should now be called a STEM university, I met *other* people from all over the U.S. and the world, and I wanted to know where they came from and of course try their food. I wanted to know how to say their names, which I found as fascinating as their accents, and as many questions as I had, I never questioned why they all knew English but that’s the only language I knew.
And that all started to gnaw.
Then still in Mississippi but in medical school, I met even more people from all over the world. Not my 97% white classmates, but my professors. They had much more to teach me than medicine. Some showed me how to do things. Some showed me how not to do things. As many questions as I had, I never questioned the motives of those who it was obvious truly cared.
Yes, it was engrained for me to be a physician, but I wanted to be a physician for anyone, not by class and race or anything else.
That gnawing was really becoming uncomfortable.
Joining the ranks of the disproportionate number of military recruits coming from the South, which just happens to include 9 of the 10 poorest states (MS, LA, WV, KY, AR, AL, SC, TN, GA) seemed reasonable. Why? To get outta there.1
38 years ago today - March 3, 1987
I was commissioned an officer in the United States Navy Reserve in Jackson, MS. Though I did say the Oath of Office, I don’t recall it specifically, because as many questions as I always had, I never questioned what that oath meant. Why? Every American understood its purpose, right? That was a given.
The Oath of Office: "... having been appointed an officer in the Navy of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of Ensign do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter”
As imperfect as it was, I was aware from American History class that the military had played a huge role in racial integration, and way ahead of civilian society. And yes, that’s integration, which is very different from desegregation. Ideally, integration was yesterday’s DEI, and all the same people had problems with that.
In 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the U.S. military. The order stated that all people in the armed forces should be treated equally, regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin. The Army had integrated across the entire service by 1954.
Brown v Board of Education – 1954
Montgomery Bus Boycott – 1955-56
Sit-ins in Greensboro, Nashville – 1960
Birmingham campaign – 1963
March from Selma to Montgomery – 1965
Lynching of Emmett Till – 1955
March on Washington – 1963
Civil Rights Act of – 1964
Voting Rights Act of – 1965
Fair Housing Act of – 1968
Loving v Virginia – 1967
So, there I am, in my Navy residency in San Diego, and that combination of the integration of the military and integration of medicine was something I wished the world could see, and be.
Then long story short, my well-organized world exploded with Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT). What I had wanted to show the world I now wanted to keep the world from becoming, but that ship had sailed, so to speak. And that’s a different story for a different time.
Like integration, medicine and the military have so much to teach how we can be stronger working together. Some systems show us how to do things. Some systems show us how not to do things. As many questions as I had, I stopped questioning if the world was just.
While medicine has grown more integrated (e.g. since 2019 women have been the majority of medical students), the military as a whole continues to take a different path, and under our current fascism, will only degrade further.
In 2023, the Rand Corporation published a report, “What Americans Think About Veterans and Military Service.” You can read the entire report here for free. Turns out 2022 was one of the worst recruiting years, ever.2
Demographically, some of the more telling findings of that Rand report include that though they still respected the military, a majority of Americans would recommend against others joining the military, and this was especially notable among Democrats and younger adults.
From “What Americans Think About Veterans and Military Service”, Rand Corporation, 2023
In my job I am exposed to all, even in Northern California, I mean the 51st state of Jefferson — younger, older, and those with negative and positive stereotypes about the military, and of course those that aren’t sure and those who don’t seem to care about anything. Many are surprised to know I was in the Navy. Many are surprised to meet someone who was a DADT casualty, if that comes up.
My anecdotal observations are that when hearing others talk about today’s veterans, many people tend to assume they hold bigoted views and vote those views, and from what I can tell and read, that’s largely true. Is this undermining the image of the U.S. military in general? I suspect so. Does it make the military differently attractive to some groups? I suspect so. The various paramilitary groups involved in the January 6 insurrection should give us some warning.
While so many of us left the South to get away from the bigotry, many just wanted to get away from the poverty, and brought their bigotry with them. I do think some of them changed when they finally met *other* people.3
Medicine continues to become more integrated, for which I am thankful, and which benefits us all. As many questions as I continue to have, I will never question that.
Sadly though, as America appears likely to become embroiled in more military action, it is indeed concerning that our military seems to be less and less of a melting pot, with ramifications abroad - and at home.
Randomly, every recruit that showed up to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) in my time there with white power tattoos got assigned to a black drill instructor. Totally random. You think there was no woke back then? Oh yes, many folks were absolutely woke even back then.
Johnny's "world exploded with Don't Ask Don't Tell," he says.
In his next sentence he could have explained this, but instead says "that ship had sailed" -- a cliché.
So when Johnny follows that up with, "And that’s a different story for a different time," he only reminds us what clichés, dead metaphors, and other evasive language always do. They kill. They kill decent discussion Johnny started here, but then stifled.