Military Officer - June 2008 - (Page 26)

rapidfire Spouses: MOAA Wants You! In Review A Gallant Little Army: The Mexico City Campaign By Timothy D. Johnson. University Press of Kansas, 2007. $39.95. ISBN 978-0-7006-1541-4. sophisticated strategy of moderation to end the war.” Lessons Not Learned: The U.S. Navy’s Status Quo Culture By Roger Thompson. Naval Institute Press, 2007. $34.95. ISBN 978-1-59114-865-4. A re you a military spouse who currently lives in or is planning on moving to the Washington, D.C., metro area? If so, MOAA needs your help. MOAA’s ﬁrst President’s Currently Serving Spouse Advisory Council class is graduating this month, so MOAA is looking for nominations for the council’s second class. This is a great opportunity for military spouses to get involved and make a difference. Last year’s council members participated in a variety of events, including a “Today’s Generation of Military Spouses” panel at MOAA’s annual meeting. If you are interested in serving or know of someone who might be interested, please e-mail moaaspouse @moaa.org for more information. Applicants for the President’s Currently Serving Spouse Advisory Council must be married to a currently serving military ofﬁcer. M Segs4Vets obility can be a huge challenge for servicemembers wounded in combat. To help those wounded warriors, Disability Rights Advocates for Technology (DRAFT) established the Segs4Vets program, which donates Segways to those most in need. “Even though many people use a wheelchair, it can really deﬁne you as having a disability,” DRAFT president Jerry Kerr explains. “But when we’re on a Segway, often our disabilities disappear.” To be considered for a Segway, an individual must have been permanently disabled while serving in operations Enduring Freedom or Iraqi Freedom, and his or her disability must result in difﬁculty walking. The individual also must be able to use the device safely. To learn more, visit www.segs4vets.org. — Don Vaughan MILITARY OFFICER JUNE 2008 This is a fabulous history of Army Gen. Winﬁeld Scott’s six-month campaign to capture Mexico City during the Mexican War in 1847. Scott marched a 10,000-man army 250 miles through hostile territory, ﬁghting and winning ﬁve major battles while being outnumbered and cut off from his supply base in Vera Cruz. It also was a training ground for more than 135 Civil War generals, schooling them in tactics, logistics, martial law, and paciﬁcation of an occupied foreign country. Timothy Johnson’s portrayal of “Old Fuss and Feathers” reveals Scott to be thorough, bold, and wise in his uses of intelligence, engineering, and the indirect approach both in battle and in diplomacy, despite bickering among his generals and political interference from the White House. This is a superb case study of leadership, ingenuity, audacity, and “a Along with its high price and stuffy, academic prose, Roger Thompson’s book offers stinging criticism of the U.S. Navy’s dogmatic lethargy and its arrogant assumption of superiority. Thompson’s assertions surely will stir controversy and cries of foul. Thompson claims the Navy stubbornly sticks with its overrated technology and its “obsession with big-ticket supercarriers and huge nuclear submarines,” while ignoring critical deﬁciencies in numbers of escort vessels, mine warfare and missile defense, and anti-submarine warfare against a new generation of super-quiet diesel submarines. Thompson offers many examples of how smaller navies have bested the Navy in exercises and actual operational encounters. Fortunately, he also offers 12 recommendations for correction. — William D. Bushnell 26 PHOTOS: LEFT, COURTESY SEGS4VETS; ABOVE, STEVE BARRETT http://www.segs4vets.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - June 2008

Military Officer - June 2008 Contents MOAA Online From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire MOAA Member Services Washington Scene Chapters in Action Financial Forum Ask the Doctor MOAA Scholarship Donors Cover Story: Mission to Modernize World War Web Playing to Win Fitness in Numbers Fighting Infection Pages of History Faces of MOAA Information Exchange Member Books Advertising Index MOAA Calendar Sounding Taps Encore

Military Officer - June 2008

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