Where Have You Gone, Lt. Fish?

All Americans, whether from red or blue states, conservative or liberal, look on in horror as eight American servicemen are charged in the murder of Iraqis. These charges add to the four who were charged in a different killing in June and the infamous Abu Ghraib fiasco. The wheels appear to be coming off the moral high ground of George W. Bush’s Christian driven neo-conservatism. Yet, with careful consideration one can see there is a more immediate structural problem at play in these incidents – which are fodder for those who “hate our freedom.”
Now, before you make me out to be just another longhaired pinko, I will tell you that I have military experience. I spent the winter of 1993/4 in Basic Training at Ft. Jackson. Afterward, I toured the bases of the Southern United States for specialized training before have all of this wasted at my ill-equipped reserve unit that lacked the millions of dollars of communications equipment I could run. I also freely admit that Columbia, SC was not the war zone that Iraq is. (Although, in retrospect this is unfortunate. One well-placed M16 round at Darius Rucker could have preempted the release of Cracked Rear View.) But I think I have still developed a workable knowledge of the United States Military.
One night during Basic Private Murphy and myself were assigned to battalion guard duty. (Battalion guard duty is like being a night watchman at an office building – just without any of the fun. You and another guy sit at the front desk and try to keep each other awake from 2am until 3am until two other saps from your platoon arrive to relieve you.) This night, a gentleman I never saw before and never saw again walked through the office. He was Lt. Fish. Noticing that he was an officer I stood at attention tapping Murphy on my way up – he had nodded a bit. Our salutes were quickly returned by this mysterious Lt. Fish. He stopped his movement toward parts unknown into the Battalion offices.
“PFC Morrow,” he says to me after ascertaining my name and rank from my uniform. “Why are you and Private Murphy in different uniforms.”
To a civilian we were not in different uniforms. But Lt. Fish pointed out that I was in the hot weather Battle Dress Uniform (BDU) and Murphy was in the temperate BDU. As Murphy was from North Carolina and I from Massachusetts, we merely had two radically different definitions of “cold.” Up until that point, I had never heard them even referred to as “different uniforms” for they were merely different fabrics.
Lt. Fish went on further. He pointed out that I was the ranking member of the guard. (I probably had six more college credits than Murphy, which afforded me Private First Class rather than mere lowly private.) Since I was ranking member it was my duty not alone to awaken him when it was time to salute and officer – he caught that, too – but also to make sure that we wore the same uniform. And, since he was the officer it was his duty to make sure that I was doing mine. As he walked away, he said something about next time I was on battalion guard duty.
According to Keith Bonn in the “Army Officer’s Guide,” “The Army officer corps is ultimately responsible for victory or defeat in war, readiness and unpreparedness in peace . . .”[1] However silly the twenty year old PFC Jesse Morrow may have found the discussion on the different uniforms, what Lt. Fish was trying to do was instill the readiness for directions and orders that would insure victory in the instance of war. It is well known that the officers’ actions drive men as they see the Lieutenants, Captains, et al. as the leaders of action. Napoleon’s men were driven by seeing their general and Emperor of France leading the charges. Bonn further exemplifies this point in his manual. He says, “Soldiers’ willingness to fight the battle is based on the confidence in their leaders, confidence in the effectiveness of their training, and in knowing that the effort of each soldier in the unit is working together toward the same end.”[2]
If this is true than the United States is losing the war in Iraq. The highest-ranking person charged in the Abu Ghraib incident was Staff Sergeant Ivan (Chip) Frederick II. In the May Al-Muthanna chemical plant killings in Salaheddin Province, the highest-ranking soldier is also a Staff Sergeant, Raymond L. Girouard. The latest arrests of eight servicemen also have no officers on the docket. The highest-ranking marine is a mere Sergeant – Lawrence G. Hutchins III. A look at the headlines and it seems as if there are no officers at all in Iraq, which I know is patently untrue.
Where are the officers? In the famous My Lai Massacre during the Viet Nam War, the military charged not one, but two officers with murder. Lt. William Calley instigated the killing and probably would have destroyed the entire village had not helicopter pilot Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson not come and threatened to turn his guns on American troops. Both Calley and his superior – Captain Ernest Medina – were charged with war crimes by the United States Government. Medina was acquitted and Calley served a reduced sentence of 3 ½ years. Yet, the government was not afraid to place blame on those who were in charge.
Now, those in charge appear to be able to do what ever they want. If an officer’s unit slips up – the officer has nothing to fear. This leads me to believe that there is one of two problems. Either the officers are not doing their duty, or the military brass is covering up their involvement. My experience with officers leads me to believe that the former is not the case. An officer would have been on duty at the Abu Ghraib prison. That officer would have heard the noises produced by the hubbub. Yet, they do not appear to have done anything to stop the abuse.
This is why officers make the big bucks. A captain in the Army with over four years experience makes almost $4,300 a month. While this is nothing compared to what a person of equal talent, training and responsibility makes in the private sector, it is still $51,000 a year – something I’d be more than happy to make if I was not going to be held responsible for anything.
Do not think I am bad-mouthing all the officers in Iraq. 99.999 percent of the officers are not in anyway connected to these incidents. Yet, the 0.001 percent of them is making the others look bad. The military, which is not holding them to their responsibilities, is doing even worse. I am sure wherever Lt., or probably Major or Colonel by now, Fish is he cringes as these men obviously have either no or poor direction from their officers in the field.
Officers exist for the purposes of training and leadership. These are values the service men and women value. As they look to their leaders, they know that how the field officers go so will go so will the war. Until those select officers whose troops are allowed to run rampant with torture, rape and murder are held accountable, the rank and file soldiers will never succeed in the mission of winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi population.
Like the Simon & Garfunkel song goes, “Where have you gone Lt. Fi-i-ish? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you"

[1] Keith E. Bond, Lt. Col. (2002) Army Officer’s Guide 49th Edition. (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books). 67.
[2] Ibid. 68.