UW Students Honor Pappy Boyington After All...

After last month's debacle, with anti-war-indoctrinated college kids
refusing to honor Medal of Honor winner (and UW alumnus) Pappy
Boyington, it's nice to see that reason has prevailed in Washington
State:

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Student Senate Approves Memorial for Medal of Honor Alumni
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The UW Student Senate passed a resolution April 4 that endorses a
campus memorial to UW alumni/attendees who have received the Medal of
Honor while in the military. The resolution passed on a vote of 61 to
14 with 13 abstentions. The action came after a Feb. 7 vote that tabled

a motion favoring a memorial to UW alumnus Gregory "Pappy" Boyington,
'34, a Marine fighter pilot who received the Medal of Honor during
World War II. That vote led to a wave of protests across the nation,
including more than 300 e-mails to the UW.
Full Story:
http://www.UWalum.com/uwnewslinks/20...cle_medal.html
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Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ps.com...
After last month's debacle, with anti-war-indoctrinated college kids
refusing to honor Medal of Honor winner (and UW alumnus) Pappy
Boyington, it's nice to see that reason has prevailed in Washington
State:

Well, yes and no.

In some respects, this memorial is more inclusive than the proposed one,
since it honors ALL Medal of Honor recipients. So I think that's a good
thing. On the other hand, it doesn't address the (presumably valid) reason
that Boyington had been singled out for the memorial in the first place.

Of course, the whole thing is just silly. I heard ridiculous comments like
"we shouldn't be praising people who kill other people". Or the complaint
that as part of the recognition, Boyington was noted as having shot down 30
(I think that was the number...might be wrong) enemy planes. Give me a
break...what do those people think we pay our armed services to do?

I hate war. I abhor killing. But we have to be prepared to do just that,
and for those people whose job it is to actually DO the killing, recognizing
them for a job well done necessarily means that they will be recognized for
the numbers of people that they kill. And they certainly SHOULD be
recognized for a job well done.

Of course, I do remember what it was like to be a college student, and
things seemed a lot more black & white back then. So I do understand where
these kids are coming from. But I'm concerned that at no point during this
debate did they really have their eyes opened to the reality of the
situation, and to the underlying inconsistency of their stance.

Oh well...at least we have the memorial now.

Pete

On Sat, 8 Apr 2006 23:12:05 -0700, "Peter Duniho"
wrote:

In some respects, this memorial is more inclusive than the proposed one,
since it honors ALL Medal of Honor recipients. So I think that's a good
thing.

Well, it honors all MOH recipients from the University, men and women,
young and old, dead and alive.... So how many MOH recipients d'you
suppose there are among University of Washington alumni?

Sounds to me like a way of dodging the incoming fire, still without
singling out for honor a man who (horrors!) *shot down enemy
aircraft*.

Possibly the students believe deep down in their hearts that it's
possible to win the MOH for digging wells in Africa.



-- all the best, Dan Ford

email: usenet AT danford DOT net

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com

Sounds to me like a way of dodging the incoming fire, still without
singling out for honor a man who (horrors!) *shot down enemy
aircraft*.

Agreed. They slithered around the issue in a way that satisfies
everyone...and no one.

Possibly the students believe deep down in their hearts that it's
possible to win the MOH for digging wells in Africa.

If only that were true. Alas, our world isn't the way the Peace Corps
recruiters promise.

BTW: I saw you were quoted in the current Flight Journal article about
America's plan to preemptively attack Japan in WWII. I'm curious: What
did you think of that article?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Cub Driver" usenet AT danford DOT net wrote in message
...
Well, it honors all MOH recipients from the University, men and women,
young and old, dead and alive.... So how many MOH recipients d'you
suppose there are among University of Washington alumni?

I don't know. I should, because I believe the number was mentioned in the
press. I think it's on the order of a dozen or two, but I could be
misremembering.

And yes, when I wrote "ALL" I simply meant all of those from UW.

Sounds to me like a way of dodging the incoming fire, still without
singling out for honor a man who (horrors!) *shot down enemy
aircraft*.

Yes, it's a cop-out IMHO. Presumably, there was a reason to single out
Boyington in the first place. One of the other silly objections was "aren't
there enough memorials honoring old, dead white guys already?" By making
the memorial more inclusive, they dodged that one too ("look, we're honoring
the medal, not the race").

Possibly the students believe deep down in their hearts that it's
possible to win the MOH for digging wells in Africa.

Hard to say what they believe. They obviously have the usual idealistic
view of the world that people that age usually have. Personally, I don't
worry about it too much...that idealistic view comes in handy in a variety
of other ways. If it means that occasionally there's a silly dust-up like
this, c'est la vie.

Pete