JAMES P. writes:

In this month’s Air Force Magazine, a letter responding to an editorial about sexual assault in the military observes that this problem is the natural consequence of the destruction of the previous culture. Here is the letter (emphasis added):

I did something with the latest issue of Air Force Magazine I don’t often do: I read the editorial by Adam J. Hebert.

You bet there is something wrong with the culture of USAF, and as Hebert points out, “Sexual assault is a national issue, and the Air Force draws its airmen from the general population.”

Oh. Really? I am old enough to remember World War II. I was a small child, but I clearly recall some of the major events back then. I grew up in a culture different from the one that exists today; that culture is nearly dead as people like me come to the end of life. The culture had changed somewhat during my 25 years in USAF, but it was still recognizable.

All of that has been replaced by the politically correct culture that now pervades American society. And everybody wonders what went wrong. Well, a few things went wrong. Adopting the notion that everybody could “have it all” is one problem. The notion that there is no functional differences between the sexes is another. Even the USMC has lost on that issue. Standards are relaxed all over the place; the unfortunate series of events involving nuclear weapons is but one example. Creating a culture of managers rather than leaders is yet another.

The problems the current generation face were created by the deliberate destruction of a culture that worked better (but not perfectly) than what exists now. It will take more time to develop a viable culture than it took to get where we are today.

Gerald P. Hanner
Papillion, Neb.

—- Comments —

Alan writes:

Thank you to James P. for calling attention to the letter in Air Force Magazine.  The letter is excellent.  The writer is absolutely right in noting the radical difference between the two cultures.  Here is another example of that:

Many of your readers may know the 1949  motion picture Twelve O’ Clock High, starring Gregory Peck and Dean Jagger.  An article in the January 2011 issue of Air Force Magazine stated that that motion picture “was used for many years in USAF leadership courses…”  But it “is no longer used by the Air Force as a leadership training film….  Present-day airmen do not have the special feeling for it that earlier generations did….”

                                                                 [John T. Correll, “The Real Twelve O’ Clock High”, here: 

And what “special feeling” might that be?  Patriotism and pride in American military history and achievement?  And why might present-day airmen not have that feeling?  Might it be because that motion picture presented a heroic portrayal of patriotic, strong, masculine, unapologetic American men – not feminized men, boy-men, girly-men, or “affirmative action” hires?   And might it be that present-day airmen do not have that special feeling for such motion pictures because they have been carefully brainwashed  by decades of Leftist propaganda for feminism, queerdom, and affirmative action?  (None of which those earlier generations of American men could have imagined would one day be enacted into public policies.)

When the editors of World War II magazine selected what they considered to be the “Ten best World War II films of all time,” they pointedly ignored Twelve O’ Clock High.  [ World War II, May 2002, p. 84 ]   But their readers did not agree and had not forgotten Twelve O’ Clock High.  In their letters to the magazine, they named Twelve O’ Clock High as the top World War II movie.  [ World War II, Jan. 2003, p. 8 ]

This is easy to understand: It stands to reason that many and perhaps most people who read World War II magazine are older than its editors and publishers.  They are likely to be among the last men and women of the World War II generation, or from the first generation after theirs who are old enough to remember the spirit of patriotism, confidence, and national pride that was still palpable in American culture in the 1940s-‘50s.  And it is likely that such people would understand and appreciate a motion picture like Twelve O’ Clock High far better than younger editors and publishers who are more concerned about selling a magazine than about giving proper credit to a motion picture that depicts a moral code that they have been taught to reject – i.e., that is not sympathetic to agitators for feminism, queerdom, affirmative action, or other exotic interests.   It is likely that those older readers would have the “special feeling”  for motion pictures like Twelve O’ Clock High that all Americans had in the 1940s-‘50s but that younger generations do not have because they have been carefully taught not to have any such feeling.

Just imagine what Douglas MacArthur or George Patton might say about the Leftist-approved culture that now infests the USAF.

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