Military Officer - March 2009 - (Page 14) yourviews MILIT ARY OFFICER 33Issues J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9 $ 4 .7 5 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF MOAA | ONE POWERFUL VOICE® W W W. M O A A . O R G MOAA is working How will MOAA’s legislative goals fare with a new Congress and new administration? 31 2009 for you in “ I felt reassured that in these difficult times, America is still powerful [and] highly America in Decline? respected.” I found the MOAA Professional Se—Col. Jim Lincoln, USA-Ret. that he was getting a real kick [out of ] having a Marine Corps major working as his aide, as his time in service had been as an Army enlisted postal clerk during World War II. —Lt. Col. C.T. “Tony” Anthony, USMC-Ret. San Diego Jan cover_GO.indd 1 icy weather forced the second aircraft to land short of Washington, D.C. (at Fort U.S. IN DECLINE? HAIL TO THE CHIEF RACE AGAINST TIME Economic woes Go behind the scenes Technology provides Campbell, I think). We prompt questions 72 of an inauguration 56 aging assistance 62 formed up into one squadron unit and marched Military Retired Pay through ankle-deep snow and slush I am glad to see in the January 2009 for the new president that day. issue of Military Officer that one of Thank you for a well-described the 2009 goals of MOAA is to supand colorful article describing Army port legislation authorizing payment Col. Tom Groppel’s exhausting efforts of a full month of retired pay for the to [pull] off a memorable occasion for month of the servicemember’s death. the incoming commander in chief. Bravo Zulu! This should have been —Maj. Bradley Van Sant, USAF-Ret. authorized in 1996, at the same time via e-mail that the VA was granted that authority! Keep up your good work. The article “Hail to the Chief” —Lt. Cmdr. Richard G. Chappell, brought back a lot of pleasant memoUSN-Ret. ries. In 1989, I had the pleasure and via e-mail honor, as a major, to serve as military assistant to the honorable Edward J. Hail to the Chief Derwinski, [then-secretary] for VeterReading Tom Philpott’s article [“Hail ans Affairs. I got to be involved with to the Chief”] in the January Military just about every important event that Officer brought back fond memotook place prior to the inauguration, to ries of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural include attending the private church parade. I and several other U.S. Air service for President George H.W. Force Academy cadets marched for Bush. The day of the inauguration was then-President-elect Kennedy Jan. 20, tremendously exciting, as we attended 1961. Two planeloads of personnel had the swearing-in ceremony, parade, and departed from Colorado, but only one several inaugural balls that evening. I made it to Andrews AFB, Md. Snowy, still remember [Derwinski] remarking 12/8/08 9:26:12 PM ries entry by Alan W. Dowd [January 2009] to be a mix of some factual assertions and a head-in-the-sand flight from evolving realities. The author engages in a self-inflating (on the national scale) inventory of accomplishments by the U.S., which, while generally correct, nonetheless constitute a gaze backward. We are too prone to rest on our laurels as a nation and assume that, because we have been the dominant force on the planet for a century, it always will be so. However, adherents to this philosophy are ignorant of human history. Every powerful nation has declined over a period of centuries, but, in today’s environment of pervasive high-speed technology, that pattern is compressed to conceivably decades. This nation will decline in certain realms of influence, but that need not lead to our becoming irrelevant in the world if we exhibit the wisdom and the flexibility to evaluate the geopolitical changes evolving on the world stage and position ourselves to occupy the correct niche. All readers of [this] piece need to balance that tome by reading Fareed Zakaria’s book The Post-American World (W.W. Norton & Co., 2008). I urge all military schools to make this mandatory reading, because it is an excellent description of the evolving new world players and an excellent prescription for future American direction. 14 MILITARY OFFICER MARCH 2009
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